Sramana Mitra: You have come this far and you are in 8,000 stores, and you have done it with commission reps.

Brian Cox: Yes, and by finding smaller companies that have plateaued. We were able to acquire them and rebrand them. It doesn’t matter what kind of services you’re giving that clerk behind the counter if he doesn’t realize that this is more convenient.

Sramana Mitra: Aside from wireless prepaid and you talking about broadband wireless, do you have other products that you sell?

Brian Cox: We look for products that would enhance people’s lives. If you have a credit card living in the digital era, what are the products that all of us take for granted? How do we bridge that gap? We’re dealing with telecoms, so we’re looking at things funneled through smartphones. Those of us with credit cards and Apple accounts take for granted that our apps work.

Your smartphone is a communications device and a glorified camera unless you’re able to load value onto your apps. We work with Amazon where customers can now come in, put cash on the countertop, and add that value directly to their account. The customer gets a link that pops the values in the Amazon app.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s probe this one a little bit. What is the interface between your app and Amazon?

Brian Cox: I wouldn’t say there is a difference. It’s more of interconnectivity. If you put $50 on the counter, you’re going to have $50 on your Amazon app within minutes. Tonight, we’ll ACH that store owner for the money he took, and then we’ll forward to Amazon what’s due to them. Amazon is very well aware that this is the last frontier in the US for them. They came in the middle segment. Then they acquired Whole Foods for the top third.

Every time we go to Whole Foods and scan our app, they’re coordinating that with us in what products to market because they know what you just bought. Now they’re starting to look at ways to get into our world which is one of the reasons why we’re hustling. This is not a show on an exit strategy.

We’re hustling because the big guys do recognize that this is the last market that doesn’t have a digital thumbprint. It’s the last market that they really haven’t dialed in the data. We pull the door, go into grassroots, set up the relationships, understand the consumers, provide products directly, and then provide products by way of the store. That’s our ultimate value three to four years from now.

Sramana Mitra: Amazon gives you a FinTech API to make that kind of a deposit?

Brian Cox: Yes, it’s Amazon Cash. We’re one of the beta-tested companies. They noticed that our transaction level was higher than some of the other companies they’re beta-testing with. Those companies were not in the neighborhoods. They’re trying to entice consumers in different ways. It proved the theory of our model. There are ways to reach people, but I think being in that neighborhood is our competitive advantage in product delivery. We had a much higher transaction rate by being in the neighborhood. What else can we throw on the train while we’re delivering these products especially recurring revenue products?