New Tech Company Comes To Berlin

BERLIN–Ryan Pappas was on his way to brunch at Barn 34 when a flashy car in the parking lot caught his eye. He voiced his admiration to the vehicle’s owner and asked what he’d done to end up with such a nice car.

Six months later, the 21-year-old Pappas is renovating a 15,000-square-foot facility and hiring as many as 80 employees for Electronic Transaction Systems (ETS). The internationally-known mobile technology company run by Ed Vaughan is taking over the former South Moon Under office in Berlin.

“If it was not for Ed and his philosophy and his roots at the beach, seeing the vast market of people we can help, and the vision he has to create good jobs for people, none of this would be happening,” he said. “He’s the visionary behind it all and we just happen to share the same vision.”

It was Vaughan, the CEO of ETS, who Pappas met in the parking lot of Barn 34. Pappas says his interest in Vaughan’s car turned into a two-hour discussion on mobile technology. Pappas, who’d already created his own company with that target in mind, discovered that Vaughan’s ETS was a global leader in mobile payment technology.

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