“Using my mobile device to manage my rewards, coupons and payments without taking out a plastic credit card, a plastic rewards card or a paper coupon is your customer in 2012.”

As a founding partner of 3Seventy and Blinx, Carrie has been a serial entrepreneur in many sales, marketing and technology ventures. Carrie brings the pragmatic experience of working for the Big 5 Consulting Firms and the vision of a forward thinking, “out of the box” entrepreneur. She is known by her peers as a mobile and social thought leader to many enterprise clients, partners and advertising agencies.

3Seventy is a leading provider of mobile customer relationship management (mCRM) Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions. 3Seventy’s award-winning solutions allow clients to interact with their consumers by mobile channel of choice all within one easy-to-use platform. With an advanced platform, mobile campaigns can be quickly designed, customized and changed, while effectiveness can be instantly measured with detailed real-time reporting.

MO: During a depressed economy and in an increasingly competitive market, how has 3Seventy managed to attract and secure investment of over 2.5 million?

Carrie: Mobile is where our world spends majority of their time. We are in a fun exciting space and our technology is very advanced in the mobile industry. We developed a technology that was very forward thinking 3 ½ years ago when we developed it. Our investors not only saw our vision, saw our determination to be a leader in the industry and the opportunity in the industry globally.

MO: I noticed that you have offices in Austin and Lithuania. It’s not a typical combination, why these two places?

Carrie: Austin is not only a great entrepreneur hub but also an amazing place with talented technology resources. Europe is far advanced that the US in the mobile industry and we were able to really hire some skilled developers to get us ahead of our competitors in the mobile industry.

MO: Can you tell our readers why they should be ditching their business cards?

Carrie: I don’t need to tell them to ditch their cards, the people that you give your cards to are ditching them for you. 80% of business cards get thrown away within 24 hours. We started using Blinxme.com ourselves to make sure our prospects were keeping our information and we stood out over other businesses. We knew when we met people at tradeshows we were one of the only cards that made it home with that person. I don’t load anyone’s contact information into my Outlook until someone emails me first, I guess it’s the age of the social A-D-D consumer as I like to call it. The paper business card will never go away 100% but a virtual cards is a great compliment if you forget your card, want to stand out, want to go green or for the group of folks that don’t use paper cards (moms, college kids etc).

MO: As an innovator and thought leader how do you stay inspired and motivated? Do you have any mentors?

Carrie: I’m motivated and inspired every day to make better products and services for our clients. I strive on making our clients happy, making them look good and increase their revenues. If I can make our clients say WOW and do the unthinkable then we’ve succeeded. I have several mentors whether they know it or not. I learn from my peers, my father and my employees each day.

MO: How is 3Seventy’s platform different than what’s already out there?

Carrie: We have a very different view on mobile than others. We not only believe it’s a great marketing tool but it’s a better operational cost saver. We have incorporated all the mobile channels SMS, QR, mobile web and applications into one platform. Customers expect brands to allow them to interact by channel of choice and our platform allows companies to give the consumers that option. Our technology allows a company to have an interaction with a consumer vs. a one way conversation. We allow you to send unique coupon codes, administer a rewards program, conduct market research, conduct sweepstakes from start to finish and much more in one platform. Typically, you’d have to work with 3-4 companies to get what our one robust platform does. In addition, I can reduce a $5-7 call center call down to less than .25 a transaction and for the first time increase customer satisfaction and reduce costs.

MO: What technology trends should we be paying attention to in 2012?

Carrie: There is a lot we will see in 2012 that will change the way consumers interact. We are doing a lot of really cool stuff with Augmented Reality in 2012. The ability for consumers to have interactive experiences with items and brands using the camera in their phone will enhance experiences. If I want to see how the sweater in a department store looks on me without going into a dressing room and seeing it in 5 colors I will be able to do from my phone. The other big thing we will see is mobile wallets and payments with or without NFC. Using my mobile device to manage my rewards, coupons and payments without taking out a plastic credit card, a plastic rewards card or a paper coupon is your customer in 2012.