| | September 20138CIOReviewThe Dramatic Acceleration of All Things MobileYaron Samid, Founder & CEO, BillGuardNew York based Billguard uses crowdsourced big-data analytics to harness the collective knowledge of millions of consumers reporting billing complaints online and to their merchants and banks. Founded in 2010 the company has received funding of $13 million from Bessemer Venture Partners, Founder Collective, SV Angel, IA Ventures, Social Leverage, Yaron Galai, Innovation Endeavors, Saul Klein, Joe Lonsdale, Amir Orad, Founders Fund and Khosla Ventures.Everything from banking to personal finance management, to payments and commence, has gone mobile in a big way. It is the present and the very bright future of the way we interact, and even think about money. One of the weakest links of this exciting trend is security. A few years ago it would take practically a cavity search to get a merchant account enabling you to charge credit cards. Today, anyone with a smartphone can get, activate, use and shut down a merchant account, without a trace, within minutes. While that opens up the floodgates for entrepreneurship and innovation, along with it comes a pandora's box of new risk facing consumers in this bold new mobile world. Apple would probably enter the payments arena in the next few years with the acquisition of Square. When they do, it will fundamentally shift the power dynamics from the incumbent card networks and processors, to the mobile device and software manufacturers, lead by Apple and Google. Those who control our phones, will control our wallets, our new digital wallets. They will transform commence into a realtime, geo-sensitive, data-empowered, interactive experience that will put savvy consumers finally at an advantage over crafty salesmanship. Merchants will be forced to win by thrilling customers with personal service and tailored rewards for their patronage. They will need to produce real, sustainable value to profit. They will need to create authentic, proactive, beyond-the-checkout-counter relationships with their customers to survive. Those who are currently getting away with over-charging, over-promising, under-disclosing and under-communicating are going to perish. Challenge of Emotional Capital It is hard to build something out of nothing, fueled by little beyond your own persistent will to succeed, especially when every person and every statistic tells you that you are crazy for wasting your most precious resource -- time -- on your crazy idea. There are countless opportunities to build value for the world and plenty of play money (VC) these days to power your ambitions if you play your cards right. Turning great ideas and adrenaline into a real business though is a whole other multiple-overtime ball game onto itself. It requires a hard discipline of process and consistent execution, traits most entrepreneurs, this one included, deeply lack. With the digital world moving at a head-spinning pace and information fire-hosing its way into our handhelds, it is increasingly difficult to find the quiet calm and focus to lock in and finish anything you start up. But it is in facing these challenges head on, seeing things through and hopefully leaving just a tiny dent in the world that we get our greatest satisfaction.Yaron SamidCEO Spotlight
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