Gene Hoffman and Vindicia Interview

Posted by Tom Blue on July 17, 2009 under Companies, Profiles | Be the First to Comment

Gene2 We have recently did an eInterview with Vindicia’s CEO, Gene Hoffman.  Prior to Vindicia, Mr. Hoffman co-founded eMusic.  While at eMusic he was featured on the cover of Forbes Magazine as a member of the July 1999 E-Gang, and named one of the 100 most influential entrepreneurs in technology in Upside Magazine’s November 2000 Elite 100.  Vindicia just landed $7.5M in funding this week.  Please see the interview below…

What does Vindicia do?

Vindicia provides an on-demand billing and fraud management solution, specifically designed for online merchants.  Our solution, Vindicia CashBox, helps merchants in the software, SaaS, online gaming, dating, and online content markets to increase customer acquisition and retention, which ultimately drives online profitability..

Who are your competitors?

Aria Systems, Zuora, Digital River

What makes you different than them?

We have focused our capabilities on maximizing customer retention and acquisition because we realize that, in the online world, maximing average customer lifetime value (ACLV) or average revenue per user (ARPU) is the key to long term profitability.  Some of these features include our ability to minimize payment failures, provide automated retry logic and support Account Updater functionality for different payment processors.   In addition we have incorporated fraud management capabilities into our core offering to help merchants recover lost revenue from friendly fraud and also prevent true fraud losses.  We also  support multiple languages, payment methods, currencies, tax regimes and compliance requirements (PCI and SAS 70) which in turn enables merchants to build and support global communities.  Finally, the fact that we can support a wide variety of business models – pure subscriptions, freemium, microtransactions, hybrid models – creates a great deal of flexibility for merchants who may need to change models to reflect their current business reality.

What are your biggest challenges as CEO?

A.) Build the right internal processes to support our merchants; B) expand more deeply into our core markets with increased product functionality; and C) increase sales and marketing capacity to service our markets.

Which marketing tactic/strategy has produced the most leads/revenue for your company?

One of our most successful marketing strategies has been to launch a series of “Best Practice” webinars that help online merchants understand the various nuances of building a successful online business.  Topics have included best practices around customer communications, chargeback management, customer retention and international payments – these have proven to be very useful even in archival form.

How long have you been in business?

We were formally incorporated in 2003 and actively began development in 2004.

How many employees do you have?

We have about 55 employees.

What are your revenue estimates for 2009? Is that an increase from 2008?

We estimate we’ll do between $6-8 million in revenue for 2009, which represents about double what we did in 2008.

What do you do?
Vindicia provides an on-demand billing and fraud management solution, specifically designed for online merchants.  Our solution, Vindicia CashBox, helps merchants in the software, SaaS, online gaming, dating, and online content markets to increase customer acquisition and retention, which ultimately drives online profitability..
Who are your competitors?
Aria Systems, Zuora, Digital River
What makes you different than them?
We have focused our capabilities on maximizing customer retention and acquisition because we realize that, in the online world, maximing average customer lifetime value (ACLV) or average revenue per user (ARPU) is the key to long term profitability.  Some of these features include our ability to minimize payment failures, provide automated retry logic and support Account Updater functionality for different payment processors.   In addition we have incorporated fraud management capabilities into our core offering to help merchants recover lost revenue from friendly fraud and also prevent true fraud losses.  We also  support multiple languages, payment methods, currencies, tax regimes and compliance requirements (PCI and SAS 70) which in turn enables merchants to build and support global communities.  Finally, the fact that we can support a wide variety of business models – pure subscriptions, freemium, microtransactions, hybrid models – creates a great deal of flexibility for merchants who may need to change models to reflect their current business reality.
What are your biggest challenges?
A.) Build the right internal processes to support our merchants; B) expand more deeply into our core markets with increased product functionality; and C) increase sales and marketing capacity to service our markets.
Which marketing tactic/strategy has produced the most leads/revenue for your company?
One of our most successful marketing strategies has been to launch a series of “Best Practice” webinars that help online merchants understand the various nuances of building a successful online business.  Topics have included best practices around customer communications, chargeback management, customer retention and international payments – these have proven to be very useful even in archival form.  http://www.vindicia.com/resources/webinars/archives.html
How long have you been in business?
We were formally incorporated in 2003 and actively began development in 2004.
7. How many employees do you have?
We have about 55 employees.
8. What are your revenue estimates for 2009? Is that an increase from 2008?
We estimate we’ll do between $6-8 million in revenue for 2009, which represents about double what we did in 2008.

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