Why does GoPago CEO Leo Rocco believe his company can help physical retail stores compete with their online counterparts? Because in many ways, he sees the mPayments revolution as similar to the credit card shift consumers experienced a half-century ago. PYMNTS.com spoke with Rocco about his comparison between the two revolutions, as well as what GoPago has to offer brick-and-mortar merchants looking to modernize.

In order for physical retailers to compete in the current payments atmosphere, they need access to the same type of discoverability and payments acceptance that their online counterparts possess.

GoPago is one such company trying to provide brick and mortar retailers with those tools, helping these merchants navigate through the mPayments revolution. PYMNTS.com spoke with Leo Rocco, CEO of GoPago, to discuss his company’s strategy, several of their new partnerships and why the mPayments shift is reminiscent of the move to credit cards a half-century ago.

“At GoPago, what we’re looking to do is we’re looking to put all brick and mortar businesses in the cloud and make them more discoverable,” Rocco said. “In doing that, we help modernize brick and mortar businesses at the point of sale.”

“What happens is this line of differentiation between the physical and virtual world becomes blended. Where merchants are now discoverable, they’re able to take advantage of a lot of what the online businesses such as Amazon and eBay have been able to do for several years,” Rocco explained. “And that’s really what we’re all about, is helping businesses modernize, get on the web and streamline commerce.”

In an interesting comparison, Rocco likened the current mobile payments “revolution” to the consumer shift towards credit cards in the 1950s and 1960s. Rocco says that not only is the initial adoption scheme through the two movements similar, but that the essential motivation behind the revolutions – making transactions easier and your resources more readily available – is largely the same as well.

“If you think back to the 50s and 60s, when the initial program around credit cards started … the whole idea of ‘let’s go ahead, let’s sign up a bunch of merchants first, let’s get them all on board, and let’s get people this card so they’re able to transact’ … we kind of have that happening today, right?” Rocco asked. “People initially were a little skeptical about, you know, is this card going to work? Is it safe? Cash was king, and that’s was the main mechanism of conducting transactions.

Today, it’s really evolved into having accounts in the cloud. So the card itself is just a mechanism to process transactions, versus, accessing my credit, which is in the cloud, via a mobile device, or via my laptop, or via my tablet. It really doesn’t matter, because it’s credit in the cloud and it’s available.”

To hear more Rocco on GoPago’s mission, his comparison of the credit card and mobile payments revolutions and some of GoPago’s new partnerships, listen to the full podcast below.

*If you have trouble with the audio player above, click here.

To read a transcript of the audio conversation, click here.

Leo Rocco

Chief Executive Officer

Leo Rocco is the Founder and CEO of GoPago. He is responsible for defining company strategy, partnerships and alliances. Prior to GoPago, he was responsible for the global software sales relationship with IBM’s marquee technology customers; some of which include: Intel, Cisco, HP, Oracle and eBay. In this role, he led a globally distributed sales team, which consistently exceeded sales expectations, while expanding IBM’s position as the leading provider of Rational software solutions that power the development of software applications. Prior to IBM, Leo held various leadership positions during his tenure at PTC (a leading provider in Product Lifecycle Mgmt Solutions), which spanned across development, marketing, sales and services organizations. His responsibilities were focused on helping companies optimize their product development process, through the introduction of process optimization and technology. He holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering and MIS at Kettering University in Michigan.