Today we’d like to introduce you to Ronald Herman.
Ronald, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
We spun Sionic Mobile in 2010 out of a decade-old location services company to focus on mobile loyalty solutions for small and enterprise businesses. We’ve evolved that simple business model into a massive connected-commerce platform reaching our partners’ 200 million apps on consumers home or second screens and in-vehicle touch screens for millions of General Motors vehicles. We also operate the largest Mobile Rewards Marketplace where loyalty app users earn and/or redeem miles, points and other currencies in real time at the point of sale. All mobile payments are processed through Chase.
Has it been a smooth road?
One bump in the road early on: we launched our first loyalty-only app in the top 42 US airports using a manual pairing method between consumers apps and cashiers/clerks behind the counter. With high turnover rates at airport concessions and requirement for another app download, we retreated from the travel sector and began building both merchant and partner solutions for broader usage outside of the travel sector.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Sionic Mobile Corporation story. Tell us more about the business.
We are a connected commerce company, offering retail brands large and small the opportunity to reach hundreds of millions of consumers in their vehicle and on their mobile device. We specialize in managing two mobile transactions concurrently at the point of sale: mobile payments from consumer to the merchant using Chase as the payment processor; and, associated reward to consumers in the loyalty currency of their choice. What separates Sionic Mobile from all others is our ability to leverage the estimated $100 billion pent-up loyalty points consumers already have and enable the points to be spent as cash at hundreds of thousands of merchants’ locations nationwide.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
We see market consolidation occurring and the merging of mobile payments and loyalty to single, cloud-based systems. We also believe younger consumers’ expectations on loyalty differ greatly – what used to be considered loyalty perks — upgrades to another class; luxury linens, etc. — are now expected. Very much the “what have you done for me lately” mentality.
Contact Info:
- Address: 909 West Peachtree Street NW, Atlanta, GA 30309
- Website: www.SionicMobile.com
- Phone: 4042281475
- Email: info@sionicmobile.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SionicMobile/
- Twitter: @sionicmobile – https://twitter.com/SionicMobile
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/2906106/
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