The iBill Performance Trials - May 2001
With a final agreement with iBill in place and upper management onboard, the final step was an in-person performance trial at their offices near Ft. Lauderdale, FL.
In order to make sure that the Pocketpass system worked as promised and that it wasn't just some sort of demo that was tricked up to look like a real system, we needed to install Pocketpass on a server of iBill's choice at the iBill facility.
Despite iBill's passive-aggressive, Microsoft-uber-alles, not-invented here IT department, Eric Harold easily installed Pocketpass on one iBill's slowest and least-Internet-ready servers.
Despite the obstacles that iBill's IT department threw at us, everything worked as promised on May 9 when we gathered at iBill's Conference room for the performance trials in which executives who had never used the system before were able to easily open their account, fund it with a credit card and with the pre-paid, stored value Pocketpass cards, then quickly buy online content.
With the Pocketpass system fully proved, the decision was to move ahead with deployment. Because iBill was an all-Microsoft with no ability to administer a Linux/Oracle environment, we agreed to modify the terms of the original licensing deal with them. Originally, we had agreed to install and configure the Ppass code on their server and let them take it from there.
However, we agreed to form a joint venture -- Interactive Payments LLC -- 50-percent owned by Pocketpass and 50% by iBill to operate the Pocketpass platform as a stand-alone system and interface with the main iBill system.
iBill's Chairman & CEO Albert Angel was so solidly behind this that by the end of the day, he had arranged for a local Linux hosting company to construct a secure cage within their facility for the ppass servers, and to administer the servers for them.
Because iBill requested some extensions to the Pocketpass code that would allow it to interface more easily with their system and to make the user interface easier to use, it meant that Eric Harold would have income to allow him to continue working for Pocketpass even though there was still no funding for anything else.With a final agreement with iBill in place and upper management onboard, the final step was an in-person performance trial at their offices near Ft. Lauderdale, FL.
In order to make sure that the Pocketpass system worked as promised and that it wasn't just some sort of demo that was tricked up to look like a real system, we needed to install Pocketpass on a server of iBill's choice at the iBill facility.
Despite iBill's passive-aggressive, Microsoft-uber-alles, not-invented here IT department, Eric Harold easily installed Pocketpass on one iBill's slowest and least-Internet-ready servers.
Despite the obstacles that iBill's IT department threw at us, everything worked as promised on May 9 when we gathered at iBill's Conference room for the performance trials in which executives who had never used the system before were able to easily open their account, fund it with a credit card and with the pre-paid, stored value Pocketpass cards, then quickly buy online content.
With the Pocketpass system fully proved, the decision was to move ahead with deployment. Because iBill was an all-Microsoft with no ability to administer a Linux/Oracle environment, we agreed to modify the terms of the original licensing deal with them. Originally, we had agreed to install and configure the Ppass code on their server and let them take it from there.
However, we agreed to form a joint venture -- Interactive Payments LLC -- 50-percent owned by Pocketpass and 50% by iBill to operate the Pocketpass platform as a stand-alone system and interface with the main iBill system.
iBill's Chairman & CEO Albert Angel was so solidly behind this that by the end of the day, he had arranged for a local Linux hosting company to construct a secure cage within their facility for the ppass servers, and to administer the servers for them.
Because iBill requested some extensions to the Pocketpass code that would allow it to interface more easily with their system and to make the user interface easier to use, it meant that Eric Harold would have income to allow him to continue working for Pocketpass even though there was still no funding for anything else.
The new joint venture site was called Readipass. One of the most significant items in the joint venture agreement was for iBill to provide for a high-volume Internet merchant account for Readipass and for Pocketpass as well.
Fraud is a huge issue for the Internet, but most people don't realize that merchants are far more defrauded than customers and users. Because of that, it is very hard for small companies, especially those like Pocketpass which had one foot in the grave back then, to get a merchant account that could handle the anticipated volume that iBill -- as one of the largest Internet payment processors -- would send us.
In addition, "fraud scrubbing" -- the detection of scammers, hackers and other slime -- was very tough for a small company to do. Fortunately iBill had one of the most effective fraud scrubbing systems in the world.
The iBill/Readipass deal also provided us other advantages.
First of all, the licensing agreement was a “cross licensing” deal which gave Pocketpass the right to use all the new code Eric was writing for Readipass.
Second of all, iBill had a killer sales department at that time and the promise (which was later kept) was that as soon as we made the tweaks and extensions iBill wanted, we would be put in front of iBill’s large customers and prospects. Indeed, Olive Software (which I mentioned in my July 24, 2004 blog post) was one such customer. It is hard to express the incredible feelings of embarrassment and betrayal – on iBill’s part and mine – when the Transfund investors decided to strangle Pocketpass just as a successful beta test ended and we were ready to proceed with the revenue-producing stage of the agreement.
But I had no clue that this sort of betrayal was in the future. So everyone was pretty happy that the Readipass joint venture extended the life of Pocketpass, paying for Eric Harold's services while I worked for free and my wife and I continued to front all the company's expenses. I’d have been happier to have had an income and some money to pay expenses, but I was grateful for the opportunity and happy that my investors would not have to lose their money. Then.
The new joint venture site was called Readipass. One of the most significant items in the joint venture agreement was for iBill to provide for a high-volume Internet merchant account for Readipass and for Pocketpass as well.
Thus it was that the Readipass joint venture extended the life of Pocketpass, paying for Eric Harold's services while I worked for free and my wife and I continued to front all the company's expenses.
In order to make sure that the Pocketpass system worked as promised and that it wasn't just some sort of demo that was tricked up to look like a real system, we needed to install Pocketpass on a server of iBill's choice at the iBill facility.
Despite iBill's passive-aggressive, Microsoft-uber-alles, not-invented here IT department, Eric Harold easily installed Pocketpass on one iBill's slowest and least-Internet-ready servers.
Despite the obstacles that iBill's IT department threw at us, everything worked as promised on May 9 when we gathered at iBill's Conference room for the performance trials in which executives who had never used the system before were able to easily open their account, fund it with a credit card and with the pre-paid, stored value Pocketpass cards, then quickly buy online content.
With the Pocketpass system fully proved, the decision was to move ahead with deployment. Because iBill was an all-Microsoft with no ability to administer a Linux/Oracle environment, we agreed to modify the terms of the original licensing deal with them. Originally, we had agreed to install and configure the Ppass code on their server and let them take it from there.
However, we agreed to form a joint venture -- Interactive Payments LLC -- 50-percent owned by Pocketpass and 50% by iBill to operate the Pocketpass platform as a stand-alone system and interface with the main iBill system.
iBill's Chairman & CEO Albert Angel was so solidly behind this that by the end of the day, he had arranged for a local Linux hosting company to construct a secure cage within their facility for the ppass servers, and to administer the servers for them.
Because iBill requested some extensions to the Pocketpass code that would allow it to interface more easily with their system and to make the user interface easier to use, it meant that Eric Harold would have income to allow him to continue working for Pocketpass even though there was still no funding for anything else.With a final agreement with iBill in place and upper management onboard, the final step was an in-person performance trial at their offices near Ft. Lauderdale, FL.
In order to make sure that the Pocketpass system worked as promised and that it wasn't just some sort of demo that was tricked up to look like a real system, we needed to install Pocketpass on a server of iBill's choice at the iBill facility.
Despite iBill's passive-aggressive, Microsoft-uber-alles, not-invented here IT department, Eric Harold easily installed Pocketpass on one iBill's slowest and least-Internet-ready servers.
Despite the obstacles that iBill's IT department threw at us, everything worked as promised on May 9 when we gathered at iBill's Conference room for the performance trials in which executives who had never used the system before were able to easily open their account, fund it with a credit card and with the pre-paid, stored value Pocketpass cards, then quickly buy online content.
With the Pocketpass system fully proved, the decision was to move ahead with deployment. Because iBill was an all-Microsoft with no ability to administer a Linux/Oracle environment, we agreed to modify the terms of the original licensing deal with them. Originally, we had agreed to install and configure the Ppass code on their server and let them take it from there.
However, we agreed to form a joint venture -- Interactive Payments LLC -- 50-percent owned by Pocketpass and 50% by iBill to operate the Pocketpass platform as a stand-alone system and interface with the main iBill system.
iBill's Chairman & CEO Albert Angel was so solidly behind this that by the end of the day, he had arranged for a local Linux hosting company to construct a secure cage within their facility for the ppass servers, and to administer the servers for them.
Because iBill requested some extensions to the Pocketpass code that would allow it to interface more easily with their system and to make the user interface easier to use, it meant that Eric Harold would have income to allow him to continue working for Pocketpass even though there was still no funding for anything else.
The new joint venture site was called Readipass. One of the most significant items in the joint venture agreement was for iBill to provide for a high-volume Internet merchant account for Readipass and for Pocketpass as well.
Fraud is a huge issue for the Internet, but most people don't realize that merchants are far more defrauded than customers and users. Because of that, it is very hard for small companies, especially those like Pocketpass which had one foot in the grave back then, to get a merchant account that could handle the anticipated volume that iBill -- as one of the largest Internet payment processors -- would send us.
In addition, "fraud scrubbing" -- the detection of scammers, hackers and other slime -- was very tough for a small company to do. Fortunately iBill had one of the most effective fraud scrubbing systems in the world.
The iBill/Readipass deal also provided us other advantages.
First of all, the licensing agreement was a “cross licensing” deal which gave Pocketpass the right to use all the new code Eric was writing for Readipass.
Second of all, iBill had a killer sales department at that time and the promise (which was later kept) was that as soon as we made the tweaks and extensions iBill wanted, we would be put in front of iBill’s large customers and prospects. Indeed, Olive Software (which I mentioned in my July 24, 2004 blog post) was one such customer. It is hard to express the incredible feelings of embarrassment and betrayal – on iBill’s part and mine – when the Transfund investors decided to strangle Pocketpass just as a successful beta test ended and we were ready to proceed with the revenue-producing stage of the agreement.
But I had no clue that this sort of betrayal was in the future. So everyone was pretty happy that the Readipass joint venture extended the life of Pocketpass, paying for Eric Harold's services while I worked for free and my wife and I continued to front all the company's expenses. I’d have been happier to have had an income and some money to pay expenses, but I was grateful for the opportunity and happy that my investors would not have to lose their money. Then.
The new joint venture site was called Readipass. One of the most significant items in the joint venture agreement was for iBill to provide for a high-volume Internet merchant account for Readipass and for Pocketpass as well.
Thus it was that the Readipass joint venture extended the life of Pocketpass, paying for Eric Harold's services while I worked for free and my wife and I continued to front all the company's expenses.
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