Next One’s On Me Hires Two Executives and Raises Money

Next One’s On Me has hired two new executives and closed on $570,000 of a $1 million founding round.
NOOM hired Ben Calder as Chief Technology Officer and Paul O’Brien as Chief Marketing Officer. They’ll join co-founders Sara Rodell and Jeffrey Schwartz.
With NOOM’s mobile app, a person can send a coupon for a drink, treat or meal, which can be redeemed at one of NOOM’s more than 60 partner merchants in Austin and Houston.
“Launching NOOM in Austin was important to us, Jeffrey and I moved here from New York City and LA because we felt so strongly about the entrepreneurial community here,” Rodell, CEO of NOOM, said in a news release. “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.”
Calder previously worked at Rev Worldwide in Austin. He helped launch technology that enables small businesses to accept credit card payments with their smartphone. He also founded Shiftt and Axee, both mobile payment companies.
O’Brien relocated to Austin from California where he worked with Yahoo!, HP, and he helped launch Zvents and Outright.com. In Austin, he founded Cospace, a search engine for coworking spaces. His focus at NOOM will be to expand its service nationwide and to create an offering for corporate gifting.
“Since launching the native iOS app in late summer, 2012, we have been overwhelmed by the ways people want to use NOOM,” Schwartz, NOOM co-founder, said in a news release.