Why I Build Companies (and Why I’m Building This One Publicly

By Martel Storm — Founder, Templar Payments

My Background with TN Scientific

I founded TN Scientific, a harm-reduction drug testing company that got thrown straight into the chaos of high-risk payments. Stripe shut us down. PayPal held thousands of dollars of our money. It was frustrating, stressful, and honestly infuriating. I remember scrambling to get a new payment system in place just to keep my business alive.

When we finally secured a high-risk processor, I realized something embarrassing but also very common: even though everything was “working,” I had no idea what any of it actually meant. What was the gateway? What was the processor? Who was making the money? What were the penalties? Who controlled what? Why were the fees structured this way? I didn’t understand any of it — only that TN Scientific worked, and we were being charged more because we were considered high-risk.

That confusion stuck with me. TN Scientific was built to serve people like me when I needed clarity in harm reduction. Templar Payments is built with the same mindset — to create something I wish existed back when I was scrambling for a payment solution.

The High-Risk Payments Problem

If there’s any industry that’s confusing, slow, outdated, and full of problems, it’s payments — especially high-risk payments. Running TN Scientific, selling online, navigating chargebacks, dealing with freezes… I’ve felt every pain point firsthand. The more I dealt with processors, the more obvious it became: high-risk merchants deserve a processor that actually supports them, not punishes them.

I don’t come from the payments industry (other than being a customer), but everyone starts somewhere. And instead of pretending to be an expert on day one, I’d rather take people with me through the actual learning process. The real questions. The mistakes. The wins. Everything I uncover — from how rates work, to underwriting, to reducing complexity, to building a secure and modern gateway — I’ll share.

Building in Public

I’m not interested in building in the dark until launch day. Payments require trust — real trust. And trust is earned by being transparent. That’s why I’m documenting this entire process publicly. No polished mystery launch. Just the real build, step-by-step, so merchants can see exactly who I am, how I think, and how Templar Payments is being constructed.

The Mission

Templar Payments exists to bring clarity, modern design, and real support to high-risk payment processing. Merchants deserve better dashboards, better communication, predictable rules, and tools that actually help them win — instead of random shutdowns and canned responses.

Why This Blog Exists

This blog is where I’ll document the entire journey: the branding, the dashboard, the tech decisions, what I’m learning, what I’m fixing, and how the platform is coming to life. This isn’t a highlight reel. It’s the real story of building a fintech startup from scratch.

Closing

If you’re here early, welcome. You’re seeing the first steps of something I hope becomes a new standard in high-risk payments. This is the start of Templar Payments — and I’m building it in the open.