VentureBeat - Latest Comments in Pay By Touch in trouble, founder filing for bankruptcy

Re: Pay By Touch in trouble, founder filing for bankruptcy

Daniel — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:58:22 -0000

What is the current status of this company?

Re: Pay By Touch in trouble, founder filing for bankruptcy

Too early — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 14:26:29 -0000

Even if it were a well managed company with an expert senior management team it would still likely have floundered or even failed. The reason is that it was too early for mainstream consumers. Consumers need to be comfortable with a whole new paradigm for payment. In short they need to more comfortable with biometrics before they tie their finances to it. How does this happen? Convenience applications like door locks, thermostats, access to buildings, computer access, etc. Any application where the downside to the consumer is minimal. When presenting a fingerprint is nearly as comfortable as pulling a credit card or building access badge from your wallet then consumer adoption is ready. Biometric payments will be back but it will be several (probably many) years away when future generations are just as comfortable with a biometric as our generation is with a credit card.

Re: Pay By Touch in trouble, founder filing for bankruptcy

former employee — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 23:45:56 -0000

i use to work at the PBT in tucson, and every year it seemed that in meetings all they would talk about is how much revenue was coming in. We would bust our butts working alot of paperwork to get nice raises and all the time it was a slap in the face. i worked there for 3 yrs and i only saw a 50 dollar bonus-ooohhh big wow and two raises a 50ct raise and a 25ct the next year. thats when i knew it was time to bounce. All their good employees would leave and we'd have to hire idiots from the street just because the company was too cheap to give good pay to their loyal hardworking employees. it was the best move i ever did. i get triple in my new job and have had over 5000 dollars in just two bonuses in only 2 yrs. Now thats how to keep employees and for that i am loyal to the company.

Re: Pay By Touch in trouble, founder filing for bankruptcy

David — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 20:56:41 -0000

I like your stuff, even though i came here by accident!

Re: Pay By Touch in trouble, founder filing for bankruptcy

Karl — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 23:21:02 -0000

PBT should consider Mark Basile, CEO from bioMETRX to take over PBT. He is a former Ch. 11 attorney, is running a public biometric company in New York, and is at the forefront of biometrics. He has a small but very knowleagable management team that can turn this around for investors. I know, because I have seen him present and have seen what he can do.

Re: Pay By Touch in trouble, founder filing for bankruptcy

PAUL — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 15:19:41 -0000

FIRST OF ALL ANYONE THAT KNOWS GARY HAWKINS WILL NOT BE SURPRISED TO HEAR OF THIS NEWS BECAUSE I AM ONE OF SOME 7 LONGTIME EMPLOYEES OF HIS STORE IN SYRACUSE THAT HAVE LEFT IN THE LAST 2 YEARS. SPEAKING OF MISMANAGEMENT, HIS BIGGEST PROBLEM IS HIS HUGE EGO, THINKING HE IS THE NEXT DANNY WEGMAN, WHICH HE WILL NEVER BE.

Re: Pay By Touch in trouble, founder filing for bankruptcy

Colditz — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 16:15:40 -0000

By the way, what is little-reported (but has appeared in a few areas) is that the employees that filed the bankruptcy lawsuit are very close to J.R. (including one being his brother-in-law apparently). There is clear suspicion that J.R. engineered this action to buy him more time...

Re: Pay By Touch in trouble, founder filing for bankruptcy

Colditz — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 15:25:51 -0000

From the court documents I've seen J.R. managed to get back into the house that he'd been kicked out of and then decided to perform $36k of "remodeling". Rather similar to what he did at Pay By Touch (except the destruction was on a larger scale).

Re: Pay By Touch in trouble, founder filing for bankruptcy

Lemming51 — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 08:56:10 -0000

Re: Rogers conviction for damage to property in excess of $500.
People seem to be reading this as if the total damage was only $500. Not so. Read the court document. Restitution he had to pay was $35,525.77 and it also indicates a sentence of 90 days and 1 year probation. The basis for this court action is not indicated, but it looks awfully similar to what one might get for drunk driving.

Re: Pay By Touch in trouble, founder filing for bankruptcy

longdigit — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 20:18:23 -0000

PBT is a great place to work with 08 looking to be their breakout year. This hurdle will soon fade away along with Rogers

Re: Pay By Touch in trouble, founder filing for bankruptcy

Ooooooof.. — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 01:44:12 -0000

OK, a few errors here and there but at least a number of selling entrepreneurs got their money out!

Re: Pay By Touch in trouble, founder filing for bankruptcy

Mike — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 23:50:38 -0000

PBT Employees,

Who in their right mind would still be working there? Are you getting paid? Do you really think this company has a chance? I've seen the ROI analysis and the adoption rates for PBT. They don't compute.

Head on over to Valleywag, they've done a great job of digging up sorts of interesting dirt on Rogers--the cocaine use, sexual harassment, restraining orders against him by ex-girlfriends, the violence. PBT is a scam. Too bad, I think there were a lot of good people there (excluding management).

Re: Pay By Touch in trouble, founder filing for bankruptcy

Another PBT Employee — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 17:35:14 -0000

PBT Employee is right...people DO show up and work their butts off. SOME may not be doing anything (and quite frankly THEY should just go home), but there are a great many in Finance, HR, Legal, and ITOps who work their tails off. There are also the people in PBT's subs who continue to provide services to PBT customers.

BTW Smoky...no "smoking gun" in that at all. A lot of questions, that's for sure. Last I read, neither Rogers is related. http://findarticles.com/p/a...

I should note that not all Sr. Execs had limited or no experience...there are but a handful who had quite a bit....

Re: Pay By Touch in trouble, founder filing for bankruptcy

Mike — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 14:05:03 -0000

Hey PBT employee, is that you Shannon ;)

No-one I talk to that's still there is doing anything. Can't blame them since they aren't being paid. Not sure how cutting off the head of a dead snake is going to help it survive.

BTW--I dug up some court records, Hines (the leasing company for their 101 second street offices) had to sue to sue PBT last month to get their rent. PBT was within 3 days of getting evicted for non-payment of rent.

Sounds like things are hunky dorey over there.
haha.

Re: Pay By Touch in trouble, founder filing for bankruptcy

smoky — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 12:39:08 -0000

smoking gun? loan for $1M from company to win-win gaming. win-win gaming ceo, Rogers.

http://sec.edgar-online.com...

Re: Pay By Touch in trouble, founder filing for bankruptcy

PBT employee — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 12:38:41 -0000

Mike, some employees are still showing up and being (as much as possible) productive. PBT still has customers that are happy and need to be supported, and more that are waiting for this to resolve. Some of us give a sh*t.

The senior execs and (at least) most of the board are/were hacks with limited skills and even less experience.

The head needs to be removed from this snake!

Re: Pay By Touch in trouble, founder filing for bankruptcy

Mike — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 18:50:12 -0000

Shannon Riordan is a hack. I used to work there and people have not been paid for the last 2 payrolls and have stopped even showing up for work. All development work has stopped since they can't pay their vendors.

Pay By Touch adoption rates are abysmal. The numbers they quote are for periods when they are running promotions (like giving away a free turkey or something). Otherwise no-one uses it.

They. Have. No. Money.

Re: Pay By Touch in trouble, founder filing for bankruptcy

Bob — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:03:19 -0000

Over 275mm invested and all they have to show is 10 gas stations and Dorothy Lane markets what a waste of money. Was the board asleep?

Re: Pay By Touch in trouble, founder filing for bankruptcy

Zemode — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 23:38:16 -0000

It's interesting that they've taken down the 'Management' and 'Board Members' sections from their website. I know it used to exist a few months ago. Did they take it all down after this new broke out? That's super shady if they did.

Also, per their website, they've raised $275 MM (as opposed to the $190MM you mention here). All this is absolutely insane. I feel sorry for the poor employees.

Re: Pay By Touch in trouble, founder filing for bankruptcy

Portas — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 21:58:37 -0000

So anybody still think VCs provide "smart money"?

Re: Pay By Touch in trouble, founder filing for bankruptcy

Need to remain anonymous — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 18:24:34 -0000

Yuri, if I smashed my gilfriend's iPhone after an argument it is highly unlikely that it would end up as a felony conviction. There had to be a lot more going on then that.

Also, no matter what the felony is, it is fraud to sell securities in California (and probably most other states) without reveling a felony conviction... even one for "damage to property first degree in excess of $500"

If this conviction wasn't a big deal why did Rogers hide it and why did the company deny it?

Re: Pay By Touch in trouble, founder filing for bankruptcy

Yuri Ammosov — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 17:17:47 -0000

Valleywag says Rogers' felony is "damage to property first degree (must be proxy for deliberate?) in excess of $500". So if one, for the sake of example, smashes his girlfriend's iPhone after an argument with her over her excess phone bill, this is a FELONY ?

My God.