9 March 2010

Press Release

Previous Post “Obopay and Firethorn”

Great news for QCOM this week. Firethorn gets a new executive with payments experience… AND has tremendous start up experience. QCOM is one of the best run, most innovative companies on the planet.. they are everywhere in mobile.

Rocco has a clean slate given that Firethorn’s current customer list is rather sparse (?US Bank?). My recommendations for Rocco:

• Dual track org: Short term quick hit and a strategic initiative
• Short term: find some low hanging fruit and attack and forget about the banks in short term (they take too long)
• Long term: better to “enable” 1M+ of businesses than to “own” a single product…. that is the model of QCOM. Example: Authentication. http://finventures.wordpress.com/2010/03/11/5b-mno-opportunity-kyc/
• Leverage existing assets and relationships, listen for key opportunities
• HR: Look at the team you have in place and shake it up… substantially. Start cross pollenating with the rocket scientists at the parent company.
• Financial: I’m sure Rocco worked this out w/ Dr. Paul already.. but there are few path’s to revenue in 2010 unless there are some reallocation of assets.  Example, QCOM is investing in integrating NFC into chipsets. Should this be owned by firethorn? or should just the software that runs on the chipset?
• Go global. The only alarm bell on Rocco is that he is lacks much international experience. Most of the innovation in mobile (payment) is taking place outside of the US. He needs a solid global team that can ensure that Atlanta prioritizes the global need.

– All the best Rocco