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Ambush Interview #116 Rand
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Ambush Interview is an information biography interview service giving webmasters profiles on the characters behind the scenes in Online Adult from a variety of backgrounds. Please visit our archive for other interviews on GFY with major Adult Industry Players. This ambush was written by Rochard. Thank you Roc! 116 Rand Rand is as oldskool as it gets from probally one of the largest, most professional respected companies in this game. Respect. 1. Rumor has it Epoch has a big giant dial that regulates scrubbing, where do you guys hide it? 2. How in the world did you come to be running one of the largest credit card processing companies for adult websites? Explain the journey. 3. What .org domain did you have and why did you try to get rid of it? 4. You were naked at theburningman? Are there pictures of this? Did you sign 2257 concent forms? 5. How many days did it take you to teach Weg Cory to spell saguaro? Did he ever figure it out? 6. What do you do when a Jack Nicholson impersonator keeps fondling the women at your party? 7. You guys have recently dropped the Epoch name and now wish to be called Epoch. Why did you guys drop the Epoch name? 8. What is the Saguaro Soiree video tape and where is it? 9. Why can't Weg Cory enter the Epoch offices without going through security? 10. Do you have pictures of the new offices? 11. Credit card processing for adult websites is a bit more complicated than most people in our industry understand. What is the most difficult problems you see facing credit card processing? 12. How many concerts do you attend a year? 13. One of the most important aspects of our business is hosting ? if someone's servers go down they aren't making any money. This is even more important with Epoch because so many of us in the industry depend on Epoch for processing. Who does Epoch host with and why? 14. Do you do charity work? 15. Is Visa going to pull out of adult? (yawn) ;) Is amex ever comming back? 16. You live in California. What kind of car do you drive? 17. Do you have a favorite porn star? Know anyone famous? Fucked anyone famous? 18. At one point Paypal made a bold entrance into the adult industry and started processing for adult sites (but then quickly pulled out). Was Epoch threatened by this? 19. Can Epoch host MPA3 for programs? 20. Do you think your Don Johnson or something? Did you really live on a sailboat the first few years working at Epoch? 21. Since you started your career at Epoch how many co-workers have left the company? Rumor has it you're the longest lasting employee there. 22. Do you tell your neighbors that you work for a credit card processing company that does mostly adult processing? 23. Is it true that you used to be a paparazzi? 24. Was Cross-Sell your first love? 25. You once attended a concert called the " KROQ Inland Invasion". Explain to us your brilliant idea about using four wheel drive to beat the traffic?? 26. Seriously, where do you guys hide the scrub dial? 27. What is the next big thing in processing for adult? 28. You've been with Epoch for a very long time. Who is the best manager you have ever worked for since your time there? 29. If processing for adult sites was declared illegal in the morning, what would you be doing for a living? 30. What kind of porn turns you on Rand? Can epoch legally process it? 31. What can the adult industry look forward to from Epoch in the near future? Any big plans or surprises for us? 32. Who do you look up to in the online adult industry? Down on? http://www.ambushinterview.com/jfk.jpgPics of Rand can be Found on FUBAR http://www.ambushinterview.com/jfk.jpg |
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"Respect" is right. :pimp
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This will be a lot of fun - Known Rand since the day he started in this industry and have much love and respect for the little guy :-))))
PS. Some of the questions are completely WRONG lol! Sleazy, better do some more research before posting these things! |
Rand is good peeps :) looking forward to this one...
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Great questions hehehehe Looking forward to read responses :)
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great questions :thumbsup
can't wait for the answers ;-) |
great questions :thumbsup
can't wait for the answers ;-) |
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WOW... This is gonna be a big one!
Good stuff fellas. |
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I love Rand.
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Bookmarked!
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I love these threads!
Can't wait to read this one. |
Should be a good one, get crackin' Rand!
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Rand is one of the good guy in the biz.....He Helped me out alot:thumbsup
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Rand has done a amazing job for us for many, many years and is one truely great guy!
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soooo much love!
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LOL - I was just chatting with Rand just now and he didn't know the interview was on.
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Thanks Oy! Yeah, been a busy day!
Thanks for all the good words y'all. Yikes that's a lot of questions. OK - Will be back in a few.... |
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The Scrub-O-Meter has been changed a lot over the years. It started out pretty small, got bigger and bigger, then we had to house it in a warehouse near the airport for a while and it took about a dozen people to operate it. Then we figured out how to run it with a scalpel and that's where we are today. :1orglaugh Seriously though, it's always cracked me up when people would say that we've turned up the scrub, or that we are running loose another day. It just doesn't work like that. It's been so many years since any "across-the-board" change was made that I really can't remember when we did. The nice thing about having over ten years of data to analyze is that changes to our scrubbing actually improve sales, not the other way around. Yes, we have to abide by some very strict association rules, but we have made both an art and science out of complying with those rules in a way that helps us approve as many sales as possible, which, is how we all make money (since we don't charge for denying transactions). ;-) And really, if the world was a perfect place and everyone was honest you wouldn't need us. So in fact, what you pay us for is to deny orders. Bet you hadn't thought of it that way. |
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First of all, I'm not running Epoch. I'm fortunate enough to be a part of a pretty amazing group of people who work like a well oiled machine. But to speak for Epoch as a whole and our progression, well, I guess you could just say it was the right people at the right time with the right ideas. To explain somewhat about how we got here, the two guys who started Epoch are still owners of the company. Back in those days we didn't have titles on our business cards, but what would be the equivalent of a CTO was Joel Hall. And if you don't think that processing is akin to rocket science, let me just say that Joel came from NASA. Joel hand coded our systems one line at a time from the ground up. And what he and his partner were able to do is the reason we exist today. A lot of people don't realize that Epoch was the first billing company to offer real time password management, provide real time stats, and launch an affiliate tracking and payment system. In fact, the success of our affiliate system (reseller program) nearly killed us. We had no way to anticipate the amount of volume we received very quickly. We were adding servers every week it seemed. Upgrading equipment daily. And taking a crash course in what fraud really meant. That was both exciting and scary but a test of fire. We came through it better off. Luckily, Joel is still alive to talk about it. I think being the pioneer in these areas, with proprietary systems, was what sent us to the top with the growing legends of the early days. The ride to where we are has been very interesting. We've learned and grown a lot as a company. And we've been fortunate to work with most of the pioneers and geniuses of this industry. There were some real shysters too, but that's a whole other bag of worms. |
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Sorry - Either my memory fails me or you know something I don't. |
Rand is for sure one of the best people in our biz! :pimp
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I dont post in these things..
But you got one of the good guys. :thumbsup Rand thanks for many many years of just everything.. |
Great questions... looking forward to the rest of the answers...
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KNown Rand for almost 7 yrs now.. and he's always been able to help out when needed... great asset to Paycom :)
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KNown Rand for almost 7 yrs now.. and he's always been able to help out when needed... great asset to Paycom :)
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love and a lot of respect Rand ;) and please hurry up so i can read this before going to bed!!!
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Sorry, the BMAN story was a dream. It didn't really happen. But I didn't think you'd believe me when I said the only time I was naked at Burning Man was in the shower. :winkwink: Sorry, I really am a little too modest. |
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Got to bed Rex and come back tomorrow. I can tell I won't be able to finish all this today. I know it's midnight where you are. Thanks for the props man. The feeling is mutual. |
Truly one of my favorite people in the industry. The interview is well deserved and long overdue. Not only do I respect Rand, I can sincerely call him a friend.
He is one person who goes out of his way to always maintain a rapport with myself and the silvercash team. I wish him the best at all times and his continued success with epoch is evident. Keep up the good work and looking forward to the rest of this interview :) |
sig spottey!
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33. Did you ever fear for your life in the Houdini Seance room in the Magic Castle?
:1orglaugh :1orglaugh |
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Man, I really don't understand why people are always picking on Cory. He's a good guy! Don't hold that midget army thing against him. That shit was FUNNY! And look, he can't spell because he's dyslexic. And, he's legally blind in the middle part of his left eye, which is why it always looks like he's looking around you. So really, I think he does a pretty good job. Add to that, Cory was on (prescription) medication and drinking mojito's during our soirée so anything he said should be taken with a grain of salt. Haha... but seriously, Cory and I (WEG and EPOCH) threw a great party in Phoenix called the Saguaro Soirée, and that was probably one of the best parties I've ever been a part of. It was tons of fun and working with Cory and WEG couldn't have been any better. People still talk about that night. |
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Man, how could I get into the whole fear aspect of it when you were busting up like that? Seriously, I know it was dark and we were all holding hands but you trying to hold back from laughing out of your chair was killing me! Haha! That night was fun, if not completely off the wall. It was an interesting mix of people. And seeing you in a tie? Priceless. |
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Great interview so far, looking forward to reading it all! :thumbsup |
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Umm.... I think I know what you thought you meant. :winkwink: Epoch, est 1996, went through a period of branding that we (at one time thought) might use in mainstream. During that time we marketed a brand called Paycom, which ended up being a part of our adult processing anyway. The idea of working in main stream has changed and we are totally focused on our core competency which is processing transactions for the adult entertainment industry. Because we had two names, our branding efforts were getting confusing so we discontinued use of the Paycom brand in favor of our original (and always) Epoch brand. Once we gained control of the domain Epoch.com this was an easy transition. |
Go Rand!! :thumbsup
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Great answers! I am lucky to be working on the team with Rand!
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