Payments

Ex-police officer makes $12M with ATM side business

Photo: Adobe Stock

January 5, 2024

Paul Alex, a former police officer in San Francisco, made $12 million dollars after starting an ATM side job in 2018. He first entered this space after experiencing significant paycheck volatility in his career as an officer in the special victims' unit, according to a report by Business Insider.

Alex selected ATMs due to their low cost, and their ease of movement. In March 2021, he left the police force and pursued ATMs as a career through his company Merchant Task Force. He was able to initially deploy ATMs at six locations, including three liquor stores, two barber shops and one nail salon.

Alex said that ideally ATMs should have a $200 return on investment monthly. The liquor store ATMs had a net profit of $250 to $500 from withdrawal fees.

By 2020, he was able to purchase and deploy 30 ATMs in the San Francisco Bay area.

"Invest in yourself. Self-education is everything," Alex told the news outlet, referring to his journey in this business. "All this started from a friend of mine, giving me an idea, and then me taking that idea and doing my due diligence and just researching it, buying books, watching videos, reading, reading, reading to the point where I was comfortable enough to execute it on my own."