Celebrating the 5th anniversary of Dharma Merchant Services

Do you know what March 1st is? It’s not Groundhog Day, not April Fools’ day, not St. Patrick’s day. It is the 5th anniversary of Dharma Merchant Services! That’s right, it’s been 5 years since we hung out our shingle as a business. The idea for the company originated from a desire to give back to the community; save merchants from egregious contracts and usury rates; and create a container for our path to awakening. The company name was inspired by the most common definition of the word dharma: one’s path. Literally, the Fourth Noble Truth says that the way out of suffering can be achieved by following the Eightfold Path of right view, intention (thought), speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and concentration. We see this path as the highest standard that we as individuals and as a company can hold to insure the integrity of service for our merchants, partners, community, and for ourselves. From maintaining the smallest footprint on our planet to holding our merchants’ and partners’ best interests in mind, we seek to do the right thing, even above our own gain. This is as it should be.

To celebrate our 5th birthday, Dharma held a rocking party at the Hub in San Francisco. The evening featured organic wine from Frey Vineyards, delicious beer from Schmaltz Brewing, amazing smoothies from Purple Plant Smoothies, delectable edibles from Baladi Gourmet Cafe and Dolce & Salato, and a home-made, gluten-free, mind-blowing cake in the shape of a lotus baked by our beloved Marie Bencivenga. Michelle Bouvier and Becca Fresco from AcroYoga provided a beautiful performance and soothing bodywork, and we were honored by Vince Siciliano of New Resource Bank and Corie McMillan of Cafe Gratitude who shared kind words on what Dharma meant to them. A highlight of the evening was presenting our beautiful and much-improved new website from Earthsite, who accomplished an amazing amount of work in an amazingly short period of time so we could unveil a soft launch at the party. We were so grateful to enjoy this lovely evening with our community and are looking forward to great things in the next 5 years!