Key Takeaways
- Elliott Forman founded and leads Bonita Payments
- A New Orleans native, U.S. veteran, and former professional boxer
- Author of "Business Is War" and "The Pivot Process"
- Host of the "Business Is War" podcast
- Leading Bonita's transformation into a 2027 fintech infrastructure company
Elliott Forman is the Founder & CEO of Bonita Payments. He's run the company from New Orleans for twelve years, and he's the operator behind its transformation from a merchant services business into a fintech infrastructure company by 2027.
Background
Elliott is a New Orleans native, a U.S. military veteran, and a former professional boxer. The discipline that comes out of those three things — service, training, and competition under pressure — shows up in how he runs Bonita. The company's pillars (Disciplined, Rooted, Forward) are the leadership style, not just the marketing.
Author and podcast host
Elliott is the author of two books — Business Is War and The Pivot Process — and the host of the Business Is War podcast. The throughline across all three: competitive strategy, disciplined execution, and the operator's playbook for building businesses that survive past the first pivot.
"Strategy gets the headlines. Discipline writes the checks." The operating ethos behind Bonita's 12-year run and its 2027 plan.
The Bonita transformation
Under Elliott's leadership, Bonita is scaling from a merchant services company into a full payment infrastructure platform — built on Fiserv Direct processing access, the QuarterSuite software ecosystem (QuarterMaster, QuarterCapital, QuarterDeck, QuarterSupply, QuarterPointe, Quarter Key), and a partner-first operating model. The goal: 100x Bonita into a fintech infrastructure company by 2027.
Speaking and media
Elliott speaks on competitive strategy, disciplined execution, fintech and payments infrastructure, the pivot framework, and building from New Orleans. To book Elliott for a speaking engagement, contact the Bonita team directly.
Elliott runs Bonita Payments from New Orleans. He writes General Quarters to share the playbook most ISOs would rather their agents and merchants never see — pricing math, residual structure, and what actually separates a partner from a vendor.