Next One's On Me Expands Team with CTO and CMO

January 24, 2013 (PRLEAP.COM) Technology News
Next One's On Me (NOOM) today announced the growth of their organization with the hiring of 2 key roles that will solidify their foundation in Austin, Texas and expand Austin's footprint as an emerging leader in consumer mobile technology. Joining co-founders Sara Rodell and Jeffrey Schwartz, are Ben Calder as Chief Technology Officer, and Paul O'Brien as Chief Marketing Officer.

NOOM's mobile apps make it easy to treat friends, family, and colleagues to a drink, treat, or bite to eat.  A NOOM is a gift in one of three categories which can be redeemed for a product of the recipient's choice at a variety of member merchants. The gift can currently be redeemed at over 60 places in Austin and Houston - a number that continues to grow as the network expands.

Unlike traditional gift certificates, an individual giving a NOOM does not have to choose a destination. You treat a beer or bite to a friend and the recipient chooses where to redeem it.

"Launching NOOM in Austin was important to us, Jeffrey and I moved here from NYC and LA because we felt so strongly about the entrepreneurial community here," said Sara Rodell, Co-founder and CEO of NOOM. "Ben Calder's experience with payment technologies and scalable mobile platforms will serve us as we rapidly expand in other markets. Paul O'Brien's extensive work with consumer technology startups will help us establish the right foundation and scale within the ideal channels allowing NOOM to change the way we treat friends and coworkers."

Ben Calder joins NOOM after heading the product team at Austin based Rev Worldwide which launched technology that enables small businesses to accept credit card payments with their smartphone.  His work as founder of Shiftt, the platform that connects automotive consumers with retailers and manufacturers, and Axee, which designs, develops, deploys, and manages iOS applications for some of the world's largest mobile payments brands, brings critical and extensive technology leadership to the NOOM platform; already transacting thousands of NOOMs.

Silicon Valley transplant Paul O'Brien joins the team to lead NOOM's market development and growth.  Until recently, O'Brien spent 12 years in Northern California working with Yahoo!, HP, and helping launch startups such as Zvents and Outright.com.  In Austin, he founded Cospace, a search technology matching skilled professionals with the right work space.  With O'Brien, NOOM will focus on their expansion throughout the United States and evolving corporate gifting; making it easy for Sales and HR professionals to treat clients and coworkers remotely, as seamlessly as we do in person every day.

"Since launching the native iOS app in late summer, 2012, we have been overwhelmed by the ways people want to use NOOM," added Jeffrey Schwartz, NOOM co-founder. "We make it easy for people to treat a friend or colleague but even easier for merchants to participate as there is no cost, discount, or technology involved in accepting NOOMs.  With the NOOM platform developed, we're excited to have Ben and Paul on board and look forward to expanding to new markets soon."

To learn more about NOOM, visit http://noom.me and contact the team.  

About NOOM
Given in one of three categories, NOOMs are unlike old-school gift certificates; you don't have to choose a destination, and your recipient gets to choose how they redeem the Treat, Beer, or Bar and Bite that you send them. With the NOOM iPhone app it's easy to treat friends, family and colleagues to their next beer, coffee, lunch or cocktail.