Vumber President & CEO, Cliff Wener and Jodd Readick

OPW INTERVIEW -- Nov 17, 2006 -- Do singles really want to spend their evenings tapping on a keyboard in front of their computers or would they rather be talking on the phone or in front of each other, to see if they have chemistry?  Match just launched matchTalk which is powered by Jangl.  I’m advising a new service, Vumber, which is designed specifically for dating sites to help their customers connect by phone (any phone, any where), without divulging their real phone number.  Here’s my interview with the President and CEO of Vumber, which is due for launch shortly - Mark Brooks

What are your backgrounds?
Jodd: I founded several telecom companies, common carriers for Hispanic and niche marketplaces, and have been a consultant on very large telecom projects for companies like Wells Fargo, CompuServe, and AT & T. I live both in the technical world and the marketing world.

Cliff: I founded and headed up the Computer Telephony Integration Lab for Williams Communications.  We developed software applications that are used by many of the industry’s largest call centers.

What is a Vumber?
Cliff: A Vumber is an anonymous, disposable phone number that can be associated with any phone that you have. It could be your cell phone, your land line or even your fax! It’s completely anonymous and disposable. You can manage it via the internet or through the phone.

Who uses a Vumber?
Cliff: A Vumber can be used by any person needing to protect their identity. What makes our service unique is that not only can you receive calls on your new number but that you can call them from that same number. So, say if someone calls you on your Vumber;. You’ll actually receive the call at your number. But, you’ll also be able to dial out and show the on the caller-id display of whoever you’re calling. Vumber is a true, two way anonymous calling service. This is the only solution that works in both directions on any phone.

How does it work for internet dating companies?
Jodd: Email is somewhat anonymous but being able to talk to someone, in an anonymous fashion, is very important to people at the beginning of a dating relationship. A lot of people would like to be able to use their regular phone to talk with people they’re interested in dating. Especially women. Women, particularly, prefer to connect by phone to hear someone’s voice, before going on a date. 

We expect to be able to use this as a driver for new revenues for internet dating services. The Vumber service offerings will be designed specifically for internet daters. We will partner with internet dating sites by offering them CPA based distribution or, if they prefer, their own white label offering. So, they’ll be able to brand the Vumber service as fully their own, and create member packages that will give their users their own unique Vumbers, under their own preferred brand.

So Vumber is essentially a throw-away number for singles?
Jodd: It can be a throw away number or you can keep it for a long period. It doesn’t have to be used just for dating. It can be used any time or any place when you would want a secondary number. It can be disposed of at will and you can have multiple numbers. You can also change those numbers if you wish. You may change how each call is treated in real time, so if you want all calls to go to voice mail or given a busy tone, you can do that too.

The major use is protecting identity and being secure. In the beginning of a relationship, singles shouldn’t give out personally identifying information like their home number or cell number. Once they’ve given out their number to someone it can lead to a lot of discomfort and insecurity if a person they’re interested in turns out later to be someone they’re actually not interested in at all. This can turn people off their whole internet dating experience. 

Who’s your competition?
Cliff: We have not seen any company offer a similar product in which you can get an anonymous, two way, disposable number that works on any phone. Some companies offer complex anonymous scenarios that require either a special cell phone or the use of sign-in codes  No-one offers a two way anonymous phone number like Vumber.

Tell me more about your patent..
Jodd: We filed a complex technology patent which covers the basis of the Vumber operation. We’ve been told after a significant amount of work that this is may be a landmark patent in the telephony arena and we feel quite comfortable that other people, while they may have various pieces of what we’re doing, won’t be able to offer a total solution for inbound and outbound calling and telephone number management.

What are your plans for 2006 and 2007?
Jodd: We’ll complete the Vumber system for Q4 and show it to selective potential partners. We’re currently talking to users and beginning beta trials. All the feedback so far has been very positive. We want to start to show it to selected companies and then partner with them to make it work for their specific needs and niches.

Comments

[Tim]

Mark,

Note from Jangl here.

While I admire your transparency in declaring your counselor/client relationship with Vumber, I'm hoping you can advise them to either a) be more forthcoming about their market position or b) read more widely.

To be clear, Jangl has already announced its two-way anonymous phone number solution -- we began offering it in private beta since April 2006, and just rolled it out nationally a few days ago, on the heels of our Match.com news.

To Mr. Wener's claim that, "We have not seen any company offer a similar product in which you can get an anonymous, two way, disposable number that works on any phone," my only response is that he clearly doesn't read enough.

Nonetheless, Jangl welcomes the buzz around this space, and looks forward to a growing market. We would simply hope that all involved parties pursue their goals while demonstrating both candor and accuracy.

Your disclosure gets points in the candor column, Mr. Brooks. Thanks for that.

tim

[Saïd Amin]

Assume for a second (or two) that I know nothing about such telephony services and that I am as green as grass.

Cliff Notes: in what ways does Vumber differentiate itself from Jangl? Unless I am mistaken Jangl offers a disposable mutual number (yes, no, maybe?).

Life is good.

-Saïd

[Nic Hughes]

When we did our market research we came to some very similar conclusions, a considerable number of online daters would like to pick up the phone if
1. Its as simple as any other phone call
2. They retain the privacy and control they expect from online dating.
3. They do not have to think about pre-payment accounts or paying some new bill.

Where I would have to disagree with Cliff and Jodd is that nobody is offering this service. The Entrust System was completed and installed in September and our first dating client will be offering it to their customers later this month.

Mark, its a shame we did not get to talk at iDate in Amsterdam, even so I did send you a white paper a while back when you asked what we do. That should have made it clear that we deliver exactly what Cliff describes Vumber as developing, two-way anonymous calling without any special calling codes and which works on any phone at all whether mobile or landline.

[Cliff Wener]

Dear Tim,

The market is ready for a product in which you can get an anonymous, two-way, disposable number that works on any phone. Our product is simple to configure and use without any widgets, codes or authentication challenges. We believe that users will choose to use a product that does not require complex programming or special phones.

Cliff Wener
President
Vumber

[tim]

Cliff: The market is ready for a product in which you can get an anonymous, two-way, disposable number that works on any phone.

Jangl agrees completely -- our customers, numbers, and current partner all point to the same conclusion.

Cliff: Our product is simple to configure and use without any widgets, codes or authentication challenges.

According to your website, you don't have a product yet. But disregarding that, I'll be curious to see it when it arrives without some of the capabilities and safety assurances that widgets and authentication procedures provide for both end-users and potential partners.

Cliff: We believe that users will choose to use a product that does not require complex programming or special phones.

Again, since Jangl requires neither complex programming nor special phones, we would have to agree.

@ Said -- Yes, Jangl offers its customers an unlimited number of relationship-based numbers that are anonymous for both parties. They can be used from any phone, with anyone service provider or telco, with nothing to download or install. You can use them for one call, or keep them forever -- your choice. We also offer this service online, via widget and our interface, which means people can connect their web persona -- email, IM, blog, profile, etc. -- to their phone, with maximum privacy and control. In a nutshell, that's it.

tim

[Cliff Wener]

Cliff: The market is ready for a product in which you can get an anonymous,
two-way, disposable number that works on any phone.

Jangl: Jangl agrees completely -- our customers, numbers, and current partner all
point to the same conclusion.

Cliff: Our product is simple to configure and use without any widgets, codes
or authentication challenges.

Jangl: According to your website, you don't have a product yet. But disregarding
that, I'll be curious to see it when it arrives without some of the
capabilities and safety assurances that widgets and authentication
procedures provide for both end-users and potential partners.

Cliff: We prefer to keep our beta trials private. I remain confident that users will choose to use a product that does not require detailed programming, widgets or special phones. Our system is extremely secure and still does not require widgets nor codes written on paper napkins.

Jangl: Again, since Jangl requires neither complex programming nor special phones,
we would have to agree.

@ Said -- Yes, Jangl offers its customers an unlimited number of
relationship-based numbers that are anonymous for both parties. They can be
used from any phone, with anyone service provider or telco, with nothing to
download or install. You can use them for one call, or keep them forever --
your choice. We also offer this service online, via widget and our
interface, which means people can connect their web persona -- email, IM,
blog, profile, etc. -- to their phone, with maximum privacy and control. In
a nutshell, that's it.

Cliff - I believe that we have complementary products. Our approach is certainly different to yours. There will be a fit for both in the market! We wish you the best of luck!

Cliff Wener
President
Vumber

[free online dating]

of course there are some absolute benefits to this service, but are there any safe guards in place to stop the system from being wide open to abuse, by that i mean, crank, callers, harrassment etc all from an anoynomous number

[Ellen Smith]

What a good life indeed..
Thanks for this, I totally vouch for your trasparency,
great!