News from the Wire

PayPal wins innovation award

Monday, March 25, 2013 — 15:56:58 (EDT)

San Jose, Calif., March 25, 2013 -- Last week, PayPal collaborated and engaged with 500+ of the most influential and innovative people in the payments business at the Innovation Project at Harvard University. Speakers and attendees included Warren Buffet, former Vice President Al Gore, Economist Larry Summers and many others.

My colleague Don Kingsborough co-moderated a panel with Steve Levitt, author of the Freakonomics, where they debated and discussed “The Hidden Side of Why Consumers Buy and How They Pay”. During Don’s panel we all learned that 75% of people use their mobile phone on the toilet [and the other 25% are lying!], consumers are driving the digital/mobile payments revolution and we need to offer value and a great experience to change consumer behavior.

I had the opportunity to co-moderate a panel with Eric Ries, author of the Lean Start-up, where I went back to my Bill Me Later roots and discussed “How Six Innovators Went From Lean To Mean In Payments”. The key lessons we learned during the discussion is that you have to believe in the problem you are trying to solve, but also invest in designing a good process to bring innovative ideas to life.

To wrap up a great two days of discussions, I had the honor of accepting the PYMNTS.com Innovator Award for Most Innovative Company on behalf of my 13,000 PayPal colleagues. I’m proud to see that our hard work is not just being recognized within the eBay Inc. family, but the payments industry as a whole has taken notice of our innovative thinking and unique approach. Oh, and I also met BJ Novak who was Master of Ceremonies for the event. It was a fun night!

Finally, we would like to congratulate the Home Depot (Bronze for Best Merchant Innovation) and Discover (Silver for Most Disruptive). Thanks for being great partners, for innovating the seemingly impossible and for joining us on betting big on the future of commerce.

- Mark Lavelle, Senior Vice President, Strategy and Business Development at eBay Inc and PayPal

The Green Sheet Inc. is now a proud affiliate of Bankcard Life, a premier community that provides industry-leading training and resources for payment professionals. Click here for more information: bankcardlife.com?orid=33533&opid=1 .

Source: Company press release.