She Founded And Sold A $1-Billion Payments Company And Is Now Building A Credit Assessment Platform For Small Businesses

When you hear the term self-made, you might think of grit, long nights, and entrepreneurial tenacity. But in Suneera Madhani’s case, it’s a generational story—one forged in gas station aisles, sharpened in corporate boardrooms, and carried forward in billion-dollar exits.

Suneera didn’t just build a business—she built a legacy. Twice.

Listen to the full podcast episode and review the transcript here.

From Shelves to Shark Tank Sparks: A Childhood in Motion

Born in Chicago and raised in a whirlwind of relocations including Dallas, Suneera is the daughter of immigrant parents who came to the U.S. as teenagers with no formal education, just the ambition to chase the American dream.

They didn’t just pursue it—they built it, brick by entrepreneurial brick. Her father, a born hustler with “entrepreneurial ADHD,” started with one gas station in Texas and grew it into multiple businesses, including franchises.

Suneera and her brother, Sal, were along for the ride—literally. After-school hours were spent stocking shelves, managing inventory, and tagging along on supply runs to Restaurant Depot.

“We always say that was our MBA,” she says. “Watching our parents work hard and learning those values from the ground up—that’s the foundation of everything.”

But it wasn’t all smooth sailing. The family moved so often that by the time Suneera graduated college, she’d attended 10 different schools and even lived in Karachi for three years after what was supposed to be a vacation. He father started a few companies during his stay there.

That constant disruption taught Suneera to adapt to new environments fast, make friends quickly, and hold tight to the one constant in her life—her family. At 16, she moved to Florida with her family.

From Corporate Comfort to Entrepreneurial Fire

Suneera was the first in her family to graduate college, earning a full ride to the University of Florida where she studied finance and marketing. Like many children of immigrants, she initially followed the corporate path—safe, secure, and everything her parents had worked for.

Suneera’s parents wanted her and her brother to get the best education possible and graduate at the top of their classes. A good education was high on their list of priorities which meant that the siblings had the opportunity to attend the best schools.

Suneera was the first in the family to graduate from college. And, the fire was more than lit. Her brother, Sal, followed behind with a degree in finance and leadership. Both went on to follow a career path in the corporate world.

The Inspiration Behind Stax

While working at a payments company in early 2010, Suneera saw firsthand how stagnant and commoditized the industry had become.

There was no innovation, no transparency, and no real passion to service the end customers she deeply cared about—small businesses, like the ones her parents had run. At that time, credit card processing was very expensive, which was a huge line item for their business.

Suneera recalled how there was no transparency in what they were paying for or how percentages worked. Customers were expected to just pay it without getting any real value–a necessary evil.

Then came the turning point: a Texas snowstorm and a binge-watch of Shark Tank. Trapped in her grandmother’s house for days, Suneera not only got inspired—she got clarity. There was so much she wanted to change about the industry.

Suneera wanted to step out of her comfort zone and create something innovative. “I saw subscription businesses booming in software and consumer products,” she says. “And I thought—why hasn’t anyone built a subscription-based payment processor?”

Suneera Googled it. Nothing. That was the spark.

Pitching to Her Company’s Executives

Armed with a business plan, Suneera pitched the idea to her company’s executive team at the headquarters in Houston. Their response? “Little girl, we love your big ideas. Go back to your box.”

The executives were of the opinion: This will never work. Why do you think that we should invest in technology? Why would we want to give a flat subscription, give away 40% of our margin to go get more market share?

That stung. But it didn’t stop her. As Suneera recalls, she was working as a territory sales manager and, like her, other women were working in sales or with customers like in service positions. No one had a leadership position.

Suneera was confident she had given the best presentation and her idea was excellent. Having to go back to the status quo and continue working seemed hard.

Back home at Sunday dinner, her father looked at her and said, “Sonny, why don’t you just start the company?” That was all she needed.

Building Stax: Bootstrapped Grit to Billion-Dollar Exit

In 2012, at just 25, Suneera quit her job and founded what would become Stax Payments.

Within a year, her brother Sal joined her, and together they built a payments platform that would eventually process $40B, serve 40,000 small businesses, and employ 400 people—without raising venture capital for the first leg of the journey.

It wasn’t easy. “There’s so much to unpack in those ten years,” Suneera says. “We got rejected more times than I can count. But we believed in the mission: to make payments transparent, fair, and service-driven.”

Over time, the brother-sister duo raised strategic capital, scaled recurring revenue to over $100M, and exited in 2021 at a valuation north of $1B. As Suneera recalls, they wanted to be disruptive and serve their customers. They believed in people and invested in technology and the right things.

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The win wasn’t just personal—it was community-driven. Stax created over 30 millionaires on its team and delivered major returns for investors. “It wasn’t about the money,” Suneera reflects. “It was about impact. That’s what made it all worth it.”

Enter Worth AI: Revolutionizing Business Credit for the Underserved

After Stax, most would rest. But Suneera is a builder. A visionary. And she saw another massive gap waiting to be filled. Through onboarding thousands of small businesses, she realized the real challenge wasn’t payments—it was onboarding and underwriting.

While consumers can get approved for credit in minutes, small businesses face endless paperwork, scrutiny, and friction. So Suneera asked: Why can’t a company be onboarded as quickly as an individual? Why is the standardization and innovation missing?

Enter Worth AI, a platform to redefine how financial institutions assess business credit to onboard a small company. Using just three fields—name, tax ID, and address—Worth AI provides a comprehensive Worth Score to assess a business’s creditworthiness in real time.

No manual review. No bias. Just data-driven trust. “We’re building the FICO of small business,” Suneera says. “It’s time to standardize business credit and make it equitable.” They have set out to build an onboarding platform with the most incredible technology.

As Suneera explains, Worth AI has been in the stealth mode with a huge team of data scientists working to build the platform for large enterprise financial services. Their objective is to create a better experience for all small businesses.

Just a year into the market, Worth AI raised a $25M seed round, with backers who believed in her long before the billion-dollar exit. This time, she chose the investors—not the other way around.

Doing It Her Way: Identity, Inclusion, and Intentional Leadership

Suneera has never forgotten where she came from—or who she is. A minority woman founder in a space where less than 2% of VC dollars go to women, and even fewer to minorities, she’s rewriting the rules by showing up fully as herself.

“Business is personal,” Suneera says. “I used to try to fit into their world. Now I know—I can build my own.” That’s why her new company isn’t just about tech. It’s about representation, access, and equity.

In a world where loan officers still judge small business owners based on their names, Worth AI is building a future where the business stands on its own. As Suneera sees it, the platform is going to be transformative and she’s excited about its much border mission.

Suneera’s message is clear: “I want my parents’ generation, and the new generation of entrepreneurs, to have the tools they need to succeed without gatekeepers in their way.” She wants to be surrounded by people who are champions, smart, strategic, and incredible humans.

Talking about her vision for the future, Suneera sees a world where a business is not evaluated on the basis of human perspective or conscious and unconscious bias. A business should be able to stand on itself and its credibility.

Worth AI will build a more equitable and efficient financial landscape for small businesses.

If She Could Go Back: A Word to Her Younger Self

“Believe in yourself,” Suneera says without hesitation. “I always had it—but I didn’t always know it. If I could go back, I’d tell her to drown out the noise, ignore the naysayers, and trust her worth.”

Even now, Suneera admits, she still has to remind herself. Success doesn’t eliminate self-doubt. But it gives you the receipts to silence it. And as she builds Worth AI into another billion-dollar disruptor, one thing’s for sure.

Suneera Madhani isn’t just chasing the American dream. She’s redefining it.

Listen to the full podcast episode to know more, including:

• Your upbringing can be your greatest business education—Suneera turned lessons from her immigrant parents into entrepreneurial fuel.
• Challenging the status quo sparked the idea for Stax, born from frustration with outdated payment systems.
• Rejection from her corporate employer led her to build a billion-dollar business on her own terms.
• Stacks scaled to $40B in payments and a billion-dollar exit without early venture capital—proof that scrappy execution wins.
• Her new venture, Worth AI, is transforming how small businesses are underwritten by building the FICO score for SMBs.
• This time around, Suneera chose investors based on values, proving business is deeply personal.
• Even after a billion-dollar success, she still reminds herself—and others—to trust their worth and lead authentically.

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