California hospitality platform Zingle raises $11 million, acquires Philly AI startup

Tom Paine




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California-based hospitality platform Zingle announced $11 million in venture capital funding last week , from PeakSpan Capital.

At the same time, the company said it had acquired a Philadelphia AI startup, Presto (sometimes referred to as Presto AI), apparently late last year.

From Presto's LinkedIn page, this description:


Acquired in 2018, Presto developed predictive NLP models that perform the world's best classification, similarity analysis, and entity recognition in the hospitality domain. We set out to improve the quality and efficiency of text based guest interactions in hotels. Presto's mission is to create experiences better than humanly possible.

Presto was started by a team at the University of Pennsylvania passionate about hospitality, computational linguistics, and data science.

According to Zingle's press release:

With the acquisition of Philadelphia-based Presto AI, a hospitality-focused, computational linguistics, and data science team, the Zingle platform has evolved significantly. By analyzing and learning from millions of monthly messages exchanged between guests and hotels, the solution is able to categorize over 150 different intents, making responses smarter and more personalized. Message data is also stored in Zingle’s analytics and can be used to inform data-driven decisions, i.e., using message volume trends to make smarter staffing decisions.

"Through the acquisition of the Presto AI team, the Zingle platform has taken a significant step forward,” continued Blakely. “Zingle is now uniquely positioned to provide hotels an AI-equipped solution that meets growing consumer demand for both digital engagement and automated onsite convenience while improving guest engagement intelligence from booking to check-out."

There was a similarly targeted startup in Philly a few years ago (can't remember name) that didn't quite take off.


at 8:08 PM 0 comments

Today in Philly Tech History 2/10/1998: CDNow completes IPO

Tom Paine



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On February 10, 1998, CDNow, started in 1994 by twin brothers Jason and Matthew Olim out of their parent's basement in Ambler, completed its initial public offering. The online music retailer, which sparked a revolution in music distribution, closed the day up 37.5% at $22, from its opening price of $16. CDNow raised $65.6 million, and had a market capitalization of $342 million at day's end. Based in Jenkintown at the time it went public, it later moved to Fort Washington.

When it went public, its prior year revenue was $17.4 million, with a net loss of $10.7 million. Shortly afterwards, CDNow acquired its largest competitor, another Philadelphia area company named N2K. Revenue grew rapidly to a $150 million run rate, and CDNow was an early innovator in ecommerce and web marketing techniques.

However, as the crisis in the Internet economy materialized in 2000, investors lacked confidence in CDNow's financial performance and future outlook. The company slashed its workforce and soon sold itself (after a prospective merger with Columbia House fell through) to German media giant Bertelsmann in the summer of 2000 for $117 million. The brand later ended up with Amazon, and gradually faded away.

Mike Krupit, currently COO at startup Real Food Works, was serving in a CIO/CTO role for CDNow at the time of the IPO. He soon afterwards became COO and later CEO after Bertelsmann took over. He had already seen a couple of companies he had been with go public, including Infonautics. I asked him by email what things were like for CDNow at the time of its IPO. His response:

"CDNow was one of the first dotcom and ecommerce companies to go public. Obviously, we were thrilled to be able to put the money in the bank and have [it] to invest in our growth. But we also knew it didn't guarantee our success. It was tremendously exciting for the team, [though] as you'd imagine, the honeymoon doesn't last too long."

"Culturally, it's a double-edged sword. The expectations of the IPO isn't always met by the reality. The dream of the value of our equity is now something easily calculated. When the stock is up - great; when not, demotivating. We also had to stop sharing lots of information with the team. A lot of healthy chatter had to stop by being a publicly-traded company, which was a big change to CDNOW's startup culture."

Krupit told Technically Philly last summer that what ultimately killed the company was the planned merger with Columbia House; CDNow focused much of its resources on that and when it fell through there wasn't much of a backup plan.




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From 2011: More on USA Technologies CEO George Jensen's suspension: Message Board Wars

Ed note:
Reposting just to point out USA Technologies' past indiscretion, when founder and CEO George P.Jenkins resigned in 2011 over his  repeatedly pumping USAT shares on the Yahoo Finance message board for USAT.,  under a screen name that didn't reveal his name or position. Not sure what the correlation is between 2011 and today's problems, if any. One constant is current CEO Stephen Herbert, who was President/COO in 2011 before succeeding Jensen, also serving as chairman. A new outside chairman, Albin Moschner, took that position in January 2019 after being on the board since 2012, replacing Herbert, who remains CEO.

"Pressure to achieve sales targets gave rise to the premature and/or inappropriate recognition of revenues and reporting of connections [to USAT’s payment network] associated with certain of the examined transactions, typically occurring at or near the end of financial reporting periods,” the company said in a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

I have used the product, and it works well. One thought is that the vending business is controlled by shady operators in some areas of the country.

See USA Technologies gets dumped by auditor, loses half its value today"> #USAT">


Tom Paine


The announcement by Malvern-based USA Technologies on Wednesday that its chairman & CEO George Jensen has been suspended and is expected to resign from the company "in the near future" for posts he made to an internet message board naturally raises the questions: what did he post, and to which message board did he post it?

No further definitive information has come out about this that I've been able to find, although some posters at the Yahoo Finance message board for USA Technologies (USAT) have speculated about whether Jensen was one of the posters there. Yahoo Finance message boards are well known, particularly in the case of thinly traded stocks, for having some participants who might "pump the stock", perhaps having a personal interest in it or representing someone else's interest, or others who might try to depress a stock (although there is nothing at this time to suggest that was the case here, nor am I implying it). They are not good places to go for investment advice in general, although there may be some nuggets of truth. These boards can also evolve into platforms for bitter, sometimes personal attacks on company management, as was the case with Mr. Jensen.

Last year USA Technologies became so upset with some critical posters on the Yahoo board that it filed suit in Pennsylvania against two of them, claiming defamation and securities fraud, and alleging they had financial interests in denigrating the company. The company speculated that the posters may have had ties to a dissident shareholder group that was trying to initiate a proxy fight around that time. One of them, who posted under the name "Stokklerk", went to Federal Court in California to quash a subpoena requiring Yahoo to reveal his (or her) true identity. Stokklerk had called Jensen on the board a"known liar" who believes "humanity exists to be fleeced", among other things. A District Judge in San Francisco rejected the company's request, saying that a target of anonymous online attacks must have evidence that the postings violated its rights and caused serious harm before enforcing a subpoena. Stokklerk still posts on the Yahoo board.

Although USA Technologies has made some financial progress in recent years, it has a long history of losses and doubts remain about how it will fare against competing technologies. In its fiscal year ending June 30, USA Technologies lost about $6.5 million on revenue of just under $23 million.



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Today in Philly Tech History 1/29: Thomas Paine Day

Tom Paine



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Wonder what Paine would have thought of  skateboarding?


Today is Thomas Paine Day, also known as Freethinkers Day. It also might be his birthday, though there's some question about that.

Thomas Paine (1737-1809) arrived in America in 1774 at Benjamin Franklin's urging. He was not a politician but a polemicist whose writings lit a fire under the revolution. He later went to France during its revolution, and according to accounts was once marked for the guillotine. (He had a hard time staying out of trouble.)

He was forward thinking in so many regards. Paine was a passionate advocate against slavery, and promoted the concept of trade guilds in Philadelphia, a forerunner to unions.

He had trouble obtaining and keeping money, and if I remember correctly he invested in a bad venture deal; too bad First Round Capital wasn't around then. He lived his later years in New Rochelle, and died in Greenwich Village. When his body was returned to New Rochelle for burial, the Quakers (the faith of his family) wouldn't bury him because of his anti-religious writings (he was, gasp!, a deist), so he was buried on his farm.

There are questions to this daya as to where various parts of his body are located.

When you look at the historical record, Paine didn't really live in Philly for that long.

But his 'free thinking' set an example for what Philadelphia has become today.

Actually, I think his remarkable and crazy life would provide better gist for a musical then, say, Hamilton's.







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USA Technologies gets dumped by auditor, loses half its value today #USAT

Tom Paine




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USA Technologies (NASDAQ: USAT) lost half its value today when its external audit firm, RSM US LLP, informed its board's audit committee that it was resigning from the account:

"RSM indicated in its letter to the audit committee that, based on the totality of the information, it had concluded in its professional judgment that it can no longer rely on management representations in connection with the audit of the Company’s 2017 internal control over financial reporting and consolidated financial statements," USAT said in an SEC filing .

"The Company anticipates that it will file the restated financial statements for the affected fiscal periods as soon as practicable. The Company is also working diligently to complete and file the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2018 and the Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended September 30, 2018 as soon as practicable."

USAT shares, which had already been knocked down by news of the accounting issues, fell another 50% today, leaving the company with a market cap of $204 million.

The board claims that RSM had not previously notified the audit committee of its concerns:

"During the last two fiscal years of the Company, and the subsequent period through February 1, 2019, and except as stated in the letter from RSM to the Audit Committee, there were no disagreements with RSM on any matter of accounting principles or practices, financial statement disclosure, or auditing scope or procedure, which disagreements, if not resolved to the satisfaction of RSM, would have caused RSM to make reference to the subject matter of the disagreements in their reports."


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Leading area tech firm EPAM joins up with Ben Franklin on new regional investment fund


Tom Paine




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This morning, Ben Franklin Technology Partners (BFTP) of Southeastern Pennsylvania announced it has formed a regional venture fund that allows private investors to invest in a broad variety of early-stage technology-focused enterprises located in the Greater Philadelphia region.

The Global Opportunity Philadelphia Fund's (GO Philly Fund) first investor is Newtown-based EPAM Systems (NYSE: EPAM), a global supplier of IT services to enterprises. EPAM has raised $15 million in its first close and seeks to provide up to $50 million of capital alongside Ben Franklin’s investments. The GO Philly Fund will primarily operate as a co-investment fund with Ben Franklin. It will invest alongside Ben Franklin in early-stage investments that complete and satisfy Ben Franklin’s due diligence process. The fund will seek to make initial investments of between $50,000 and $500,000, and follow-on investments up to $3 million, well beyond BFTP's usual range.

Other accredited investors have already committed to participation in the fund including Provco Group, Fulton Bank, and SRI Capital. KPMG, Bridge Bank and Securitize will support the fund’s operations, while Pepper Hamilton and White and Williams will provide legal support.

Following its initial close, the GO Philly Fund will seek to leverage blockchain technology as part of its fund raising and capital management strategy, with a goal being to facilitate investment from others spread around the globe.

EPAM has been a remarkable success story. Co-founded by one-time SAP employee Arkadiy Dobkin in Princeton (his apartment) and Minsk, EPAM has grown to have revenue of more than $1.8 billion, a market cap of almost $8 billion, and over 25,000 employees. Traditionally, the bulk of its developers are based in eastern Europe. While most of the Asian systems integrators have hit a growth wall, EPAM has moved ahead with consistent growth by generally developing higher value-added enterprise relationships.

“For over 25 years, EPAM has helped established, technology-driven enterprises and startups build software products and platforms, including many which have become globally recognized leaders in their respective markets. With our participation in the GO Philly Fund, we hope to reach regional startups in their earliest stages, working together with Ben Franklin to help them become the next wave of innovators and disruptors,” explained Arkadiy Dobkin, CEO at EPAM, in a release.


This is a great move by EPAM and BFTP for the region.


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Commvault Gets New Leadership: Hammer And Bunte Out, Former Puppet Ceo Mirchandani In


Esther Surden
Publisher & Editor, NJTechWeekly.com




Tinton Falls-based Commvault, a public tech giant that employs more than 2,800 people, announced the appointment of Sanjay Mirchandani as president, CEO and member of the board, effective immediately.

Mirchandani, previously the CEO of Puppet, an Oregon-based IT automation company, replaces Bob Hammer, the retiring president and CEO. Hammer has led the company for more than two decades, growing it to a $3.1 billion market cap.

Al Bunte, who has served alongside Hammer for more than two decades, is stepping down from his role as COO while maintaining his position as a member of the board. Both Hammer and Bunte will remain with the company through the transitional period, with Hammer stepping away on March 31.

Also announced was the appointment of Nick Adamo as chairman of the board, replacing Hammer, who will remain on the board as chairman emeritus; both changes will become effective on April 18.

Adamo became a board member in August last year, following the involvement of activist investor Elliott Management (New York) with Commvault, according to an article by Chris Mellor at BlocksandFiles.com. It was Elliott’s influence that caused Commvault to initiate a restructuring project and agree to Hammer’s resignation last May.

Commvault had planned for this transition for many months, conducting an exhaustive global search for the right person to lead the company. In fact, the search had taken so long, it led some observers to wonder why.

Mirchandani has held senior leadership positions at VMware (Palo Alto, Calif.), Dell EMC (Hopkinton, Mass.) and Microsoft (in Singapore), and has significant expertise in the transformation of IT. At Puppet, he grew the user base of that company’s open-source and commercial solutions to more than 40,000, including 75 percent of the Fortune 100.

In the BlocksandFiles article, Mellor asked Mirchandani why he was interested in Commvault. The answer revealed that the new CEO has ties to New Jersey. “It was time for a change at Puppet, and he wanted to move back to the East coast of the USA; he has family in the New Jersey area, where Commvault is head-quartered,” the article stated.

“Commvault is attractive to Mirchandani because it is a bigger company and in good shape. We asked if it could become a billion dollar company: ‘The space is growing really rapidly. I’m not going to put a number on it just yet. I’m very excited about this space. Infrastructure and applications are coming together’ and ‘data is paramount. We’re in a great position to define that to our customers.’”

In the Asbury Park Press, Michael Diamond noted that Mirchandani isn’t new to the Garden State. He graduated in 1986 from Drew University, in Madison, with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics. He was named to the school’s board of trustees in 2017.

The impact of the change on Commvault’s plans to help transform Fort Monmouth, where it is housed, is unknown. Two years ago, at the company’s 20th anniversary celebration, which we reported on here, Hammer discussed the company’s growth.

Asked if the company had enough space at its headquarters to accommodate the planned growth, Hammer noted that there wasn’t enough space in the building, but that there was enough space on the 55-acre campus.

“We’re not moving. When we built this campus, we built it to triple the size [of our company] on this property.”

Also see: Fort Monmouth tech giant Commvault names new CEO to replace long-time leader Bob Hammer

Commvault announces Mirchandani, a leading IT executive, will replace retiring CEO Hammer



Esther Surden is Publisher and Editor of NJTechWeekly, and a contributor to Philly Tech News. This article originally appeared in NJTechWeekly , and is republished here with her permission.






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Philly EnterpriseTech Highlights (in tweets) 2/6: Some cloudy numbers; Philly's Super Bowl Ad; Veeva has quintupled value in three years





















































































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Philly Digital Health Notes 2/5: Tiny startups & Giants

Tom Paine




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Haystack Informatics, a digital health startup spun off from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, was acquired last week by Massachusetts-based Iatric Systems, itself recently acquired by Harris Healthcare.

Haystack's behavioral analytics use data taken directly from activity log data from hospitals' electronic health records, to identify activity patterns and areas where EHRs can be improved. These patterns can then be used to improve population health data.

Haystack completed a financing round in 2017 led by Rittenhouse Ventures, with participation from DreamIt Ventures and CHOP.




Productivity within hospitals is often bogged down by an endless routine of waiting for the right people and equipment to be together at the right place at the right time.

The premise of new venture TrekIT is to improve upon that by making internal communications simpler.

Penn Medicine decided to partner with the care coordination technology vendor, which was initially developed in 2016 at Penn as a product called Carelign to reduce clinicians' reliance on paper in clinical workflows and communication. It has been successfully adopted by almost all the inpatient services at Penn Medicine's hospitals.

TrekIT Health's co-founders are CEO Brendan McCorkle (ex-CEO of CloudMine) and CMO Dr. Subha Airan-Javia, who was with Penn Medicine.




HIMSS 2019 , the HealthCare IT industry's major annual conference, will run from February 11th to 15th in Orlando, and there will be a large Philly presence as usual.





A week ago, BioTelemetry (Malvern) announced it was acquiring remote monitoring startup Geneva Healthcare for $45 million upfront with a minimum earnout of $20 million. Geneva brings a cloud-based system for monitoring all telematic devices a patient or group of patients are using.

Of course, many people are watching BioTelemetry (NASDAQ: BEAT) because of its role in Apple's recent Apple Heart Study, which used Apple Watch to monitor wearers for signs of possible cardiac arrhythmias. BEAT provided the remote monitoring technology. Although there's been no indication of what BioTelemetry's long-term role might be if that rolls out, the company is in good shape regardless.

BEAT is currently valued at $2.4 billion, and is considered a takeover possibility.





Analysts have been anticipating Amazon plunging into nationwide online pharmacy services, through its acquisition of Pillpack last year.

Pillpack’s Phoenix, Arizona facility has been granted nine additional state pharmacy licenses in the past two months, allowing that site to sell into other states, according to a research note from financial services firm Jefferies.

It will likely take more scale to serve the entire nation, but this is a significant step in that direction.

The Pillpack acquisition's cost was $753 million, according to SEC filings .





The healthcare venture of Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JP Morgan has hired former Zocdoc CTO Serkan Kutan to head up its technology efforts.


Kutan said, "I am thrilled to now announce that I am serving as CTO of this new venture, which represents, in my opinion, the most promising attempt to improve health care in the U.S."





Google has applied for a patent for a deep learning system that aggregates EHR data into a “timeline” in order to predict potential adverse events.

“The raw health records are patient de-identified and are transmitted over computer networks and stored in a relational database (RDB) and converted by a computer system functioning as a converter into a standardized format [FHIR] and stored in the memory,” the patent states.





Slack, which is preparing for a gigantic public listing, updated its website to show a HIPAA compliance certification that indicates healthcare providers could use Slack’s app to securely share protected health information, according to a CNBC report.

Slack would compete against others like Box, DropBox, and healthcare-oriented service Stitch in healthcare.





Med City News recently interviewed Dr. David Nash , the founding dean of the Jefferson College of Population Health, Jefferson University, on the growth and status of population health. Jefferson was the nation's first school of population health.

JCPH is also serving as the academic partner of the 19th annual Population Health Colloquium, which takes place on March 18-20 in Philadelphia.




Veeva Systems (NYSE: VEEV) continues its push to new levels, with its market cap reaching a new high of $16.8 billion. Its on track in 2019 to become the fifth cloud software company to reach $1 billion in revenue.

The Pleasanton, CA-based Life Sciences Cloud company, which has its east coast hub in Radnor, moved its computer ops to Amazon Web Services beginning in 2017 (though CEO Peter Gsssner is an ex-Oracle guy). It also appears to be developing some AI capabilities .

One thing that amuses me is the robo-analysis sites on the Web that spit out Veeva - to - Cerner comparisons. Except in an abstract financial  way, they are in very different businesses and not comparable. The thing that stands out about Veeva at this point is its uniqueness.







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IoT Software Business Chordant, spun off by InterDigital, Launched as Standalone Company


IoT Software Business Chordant Launched as Standalone Company

Smart City Software Leader, Backed by Investments from InterDigital and a Sony Corporation of America affiliate, Becomes Independent Company with Operator and Smart City Focus

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January 31, 2019 16:15 ET | Source: InterDigital, Inc.
LONDON and BUFFALO, N.Y., Jan. 31, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- InterDigital, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDCC), a mobile technology research and development company, today announced the launch of the company’s Chordant™ business as a standalone company. The spinout of the unit, which now includes an affiliate of Sony Corporation of America as an investor along with InterDigital, gives the company added independence and flexibility in driving into its core operator and smart city markets.

Chordant provides a best-in-class oneM2M standards-compliant horizontal IoT platform, as well as a world-leading real-time data marketplace launched under the oneTRANSPORT™ brand in the UK in October 2017. The company builds on more than a decade of IoT and M2M-focused research and development at InterDigital. Since 2014, Chordant and its solutions have won 13 awards from major trade shows and publications, including Best Solution for Transportation and Logistics at the 2016 IoT Solutions World Congress in Barcelona and Smart City Deployment of the Year at the 2018 IoT Breakthrough Awards for its oneTRANSPORT data marketplace in the UK.

“Launching Chordant as a standalone company gives us the flexibility and independence to drive towards success in our markets and be as responsive to customers and partners as possible,” said Mika Rasinkangas, President of Chordant. “Our heritage with InterDigital has given us a tremendous research and solution development platform, and we enter this new phase with what we feel is the best, most comprehensive and future-proof data sharing and monetization solution with underlying technology platform in the market. Our new structure and founding investors put us in a tremendous position for success.”

InterDigital has had previous success with standalone commercial initiatives. XCellAir, the company’s Wi-Fi and small cell management initiative, was spun out in 2015, and was successfully acquired by Spanish Wi-Fi service provider Fon in April 2018.

About InterDigital®

InterDigital develops mobile technologies that are at the core of devices, networks, and services worldwide. We solve many of the industry's most critical and complex technical challenges, inventing solutions for more efficient broadband networks and a richer multimedia experience years ahead of market deployment. InterDigital has licenses and strategic relationships with many of the world's leading wireless companies. Founded in 1972, InterDigital is listed on NASDAQ and is included in the S&P MidCap 400® index.

InterDigital is a registered trademark of InterDigital, Inc.

For more information, visit: www.interdigital.com.


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Recent Philly Ads: Comcast, David's Bridal, SAP Qualtrics, Dietz & Watson

Tom Paine




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  • Someone (identified as TiVo) keeps running these ads on Twitter:







  • Amy Poehler kicks off role as Comcast spokesperson








  • David's Bridal runs first ad featuring lesbian couple, mother getting married






  • Dietz & Watson ad scored some points during Super Bowl. Philly brand done by Philly agency Red Tettemer.










  • SAP Qualtrics Wall Street Journal ad fooled some people:


An open letter to anyone who will listen:

First of all, my name is Nick Vitale. I’m 36 years old and live in Milltown, N.J. I don’t know if that matters, but I thought it would be appropriate for the letter not to be completely anonymous, because it may come off as a list of grievances. I hope it doesn’t though, because that’s not really the spirit in which it’s intended.

It seems like every time I go anywhere or buy something, I’m always told, “We want to hear your feedback.” Even on the highway, I see signs on the backs of trucks asking for my thoughts on the question “How’s our driving?” And while I appreciate the offer, I’d prefer not to dial an 800 number while simultaneously tailgating a semi truck.

But every time I do respond to these invitations, be it with a tweet or a voicemail to a customer hotline, I get the sense that nobody’s listening. Not that you aren’t listening to all of us in the general “metadata” kinda sense. But I feel like you’re not listening to me, specifically. So, in the spirit of collaboration, here’s some constructive feedback.

This is in no particular order, but air travel seems like a good place to start. You guys ail seem to know that I prefer a window seat toward the front, which is great. But I think we can do better. First off, if you need ten bucks more, just charge me ten bucks more, and give me the meal for free like you used to do. Same thing with the baggage fee. Now everybody’s trying to drag their suitcase on the plane to avoid the fee, and I have nowhere to put my backpack except under the seat—which I really shouldn’t have to do, since some people are obviously shoving everything they own into the overhead.

In a related matter, all you ride-sharing services (you know who you are) are really great. But can you just fold my usual 18% tip into my fare? The one-touch convenience isn’t so “one-touch” if I have to select and enter a gratuity.

Cell phone manufacturers, I already want your latest model. You don’t need to throttle my current phone to make me want it more. Also, kudos to whoever invented that handle doohickey you stick on the back of the phone. I really dig that thing.

Cable companies: please see feecback for airlines. If I’m paying $79.99 a month, I want to pay $79.99 a month. Not $108.37. What is a “convenience fee” anyway? I don’t find it very convenient.

Gas stations, I really appreciate that some of you have started putting hand sanitizer dispensers by the pump. What’s taking the rest of you so long?

On the subject of cheeseburgers, I am generally pleased with the product and service I have received. However, it would be great if you guys could slice both the lettuce and tomato much thinner, so they don’t slide out of the bun when I bite into it. It’s a little thing, but one that I think would dramatically improve the overall experience.

Subscription services for music: Yes.

Subscription services dress socks: No.

Automakers. I absolutely love all the technology you’re putting into my dashboard. But please don’t start acting like the phone companies and build my car to stop working in three years. Because if you do, I give you my word, I’ll leave you forever. The Bluetooth audio is sweet though.

Finally, to every reasonably hotel chain I’ve stayed in for the last two years: those free breakfasts with the waffle-making stations have made me happier than you could possibly imagine. Maybe it’s just me (and it probably is), but every consumer product in America should come with free breakfast and ability for one to make one’s own waffles, if one is so inclined.

Thanks for listening. I hope it helps. And if any of you wish to discuss these matters further, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Sincerely,

Nick Vitale
Milltown. NJ


An open letter to Nick Vitale of Milltown, NJ:

Nick,

We hear you. Thank you for your letter. We couldn’t agree more. Everybody has their likes, dislikes, preferences and things that drive them crazy. And that’s even more true when you’re a paying customer. It’s not enough for a business to listen to their customers. They need to respond and react to what customers are telling them. And relate to every customer as a distinct individual, not as just another face in the crowd.

It’s called “Experience Management.” Because in today’s experience economy, people expect better and more personal service, all the time. As well they should.

That’s why we’ve made Qualtrics a part of SAP. So that we can connect businesses to their customers and connect customers back to those businesses. In a way that turns customers into fanatics, products into obsessions, employees into ambassadors, and brands into religions.

So thanks for your feedback, Nick. Not only did we hear you, but we’re doing something to address it. We’ll be in touch soon.

Best,

Bill McDermott
CEO, SAP

Ryan Smith
Co-founder/CEO, Qualtrics





  • SAP HANA ad







  • I like these stylish but not overloaded CardConnect online ads















  • Washington Post Super Bowl Ad, 'Democracy Dies in Darkness' is about standing behind journalists. Funny how they could afford this spot on a limited budget.






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