Bling Bling Nation

Ok - sorry I have been gone for 2 weeks, I went across the hemisphere and settled for a week in Singapore, what a magnificent experience.
I have travelled a lot but my Asian experience is not good enough yet - must change in the new year.

Now to the real story, Bling Nation, Verifone..... whats happening?

I am one of the believers that Bling Nation has done a truly amazing job in getting 2 things achieved above all else, incl. their great fundraising efforts, they managed to close PayPal on a deal which allows PayPal customers to utilize their PayPal funds via a contactless sticker on the proprietary Bling Nation POS, seen around Palo Alto - especially my favorite place University Cafe, but now also part of the PayPal mobile wallet. As if that feat was not enough they also managed to convince Verifone that their Bling Nation framework should be incorporated into the Verifone POS systems - the largest in the world.... what happened? I am still stunned over the fact that they managed to convince PayPal that they should bet on a company called Bling Nation from Latin America. My real question is "will Visa and MasterCard accept sharing POS real estate with a small timer from the Valley or will they take them out when/if they get traction?" I dont know if they care, but I think that with the speed that Bling Nation managed to close distribution deals with 2 mastodons they should watch out.

This is the beautiful thing about mobile as a channel - the bag has been reshuffled and the old guard is no longer invincible, but rather under threat. A good friend of mine said the other day "the big companies have outsourced innovation" and that statement holds so very true - so guys and gals this is the time to make a change.