Square Gets Bolder With Two Google Execs On the Team
Executive shakeups in Silicon Valley is nothing new. It was just hours ago we reported that Pinterest CEO Paul Sciarra is leaving the company to work for Andreessen Horowitz as an entrepreneur-in-residence, to be replaced by co-founder Ben Silbermann.
And now reports surface that two Google execs abandoned the search giant for Square, the startup that provides credit-card dongles that attach to smartphones and tablets to accept payments anywhere.
From YouTube to Square
Ricardo Reyes, who served as Tesla Motors’ Vice President of Communications and Google’s YouTube’s Director of Communications and Public Affairs, is now the vice president of communications and brand marketing at Square.
“Ricardo has tremendous experience launching beautiful, design-driven products for world-class brands like Tesla and YouTube,” Square spokesman Aaron Zamost said in an e-mail to Bloomberg. “We look forward to the expertise he’ll bring to Square.”
From Google Wallet to Square
Google Wallet co-founder Rob von Behren left the search giant’s yard to serve as “HyperSpatial Payments Pioneer”, a position which von Behren did not discuss in detail, at Square.
“When I left the Google Wallet project in January, I fully expected to stop working in payments but to remain at Google,” he told NFC Times. “After meeting the team at Square, however, I decided to do the opposite. Square is doing some great things in the payment space. They have a strong leadership team and a culture that fosters innovation.”
Based on von Behren’s new position, “HyperSpatial Payments Pioneer”, U.S.-based mobile-commerce analyst and consultant Cherian Abraham strongly believes that Square may soon support NFC.
“The fact that there will soon be plenty of phones touting NFC is not lost on Square,” Abraham told NFC Times. “They obviously see the benefit of use cases using NFC that can simplify merchant-customer interaction.”
A bolder Square
Last week Square rebranded their Card Case mobile payment app into Pay with Square redesigned to improve local business discovery for prospective buyers. They also improved their Android app as it now sports geo-fencing which enables hands-free shopping.
Then a couple of weeks back, after PayPal launched their dongle, Square retaliated by hiring PayPal’s vice president of products for North America Alyssa Cutright to serve as their vice president of international. It seems Square is an attractive employer for mobile payment execs.
As for Google, don’t feel bad for the internet search giant. Thought they lost two execs to Square, they’re getting an addition to their already humongous family. Google announced that they acquired payments technology company TxVia, which will complement Google Wallet’s payments capabilities and accelerate innovation to fulfill their vision.
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