Going Ukrainian!

My 1st visit to USA was in 1998 to San Antonio, Texas. As small entrepreneur based on founding non-profit organization Uzhgorod Computer Club and attempt to provide free Dial-Up access to club members I got approved for internship program sponsored by US AID - United States Agency for International Development. Program coordinator LaVelle Franklin from College of the Alamo organized for me 3 companies: ISP TexasNet, Pitney Bowes, and San Antonio Express News.

Our 1st lesson at SA College was about cultural differences between Ukraine and United States, and we can experience culture shock. 15 years ago i had Roman attitude as like in Julius Caesar's saying "Veni, Vidi, Vici" (in English equivalent:  i came, i saw, i conquered). So statements about disorientation, language barrier, technology gap, etc. was not taken seriously. As usually one who ignores teaching got to learn in painful way.

After week or so I was invited to Birthday Party to friends of my host family - Wayne and Rhonda Levy from Devine, Texas. Book with scenery pictures of Ukraine was my gift. We went to Texas Steakhouse and, with consideration that my gift is decent, i made more than decent order - steak, few shots of tequila, then margarita with beer for dessert.

Comments from Americans about rich Ukrainian didn't ring the warning bell. When at the end of Birthday Party i was ready to leave one of guests said that we have to wait for few moments to pay the bill. On my genuine question "What bill?" i heard for 1st time phrase that still occasionally can give me goosebumps - "We are Going Dutch". Term means that everybody pays for himself. In Ukraine when you go to Birthday Party guests are responsible only for gifts, but birthday person is responsible for food and drinks. So i naturally assumed that it is global rule and was ordering without expectations to pay. Experienced real culture shock when i had to pay for my meal more than was my monthly income back in Ukraine. Even worst thing was to learn that Cultural Differences lecture at San Antonio College covered restaurant traditions in USA and expectations for each guest to pay for himself.

After my American colleagues and host family learned about my culture shock from what immigrants from Netherlands brought to USA, rest of my stay in San Antonio, Texas i didn't pay a dime for dining out and new term was born "We Going Ukrainian!" - which implied whoever invites to restaurant pays the bill.

Today my project manager for implementation of Oracle e-Business Suite - Alexey Ivasyuk - celebrated birthday. Facebook greetings brought nostalgia to how we used to celebrate birthdays as Oracle Consultants

Oracle team at Sarmat, Donetsk, Ukraine

  And in one of comment i mentioned that would be nice to have mobile app that allows birthday person to buy bottle of vodka and let his friends all over the world go to local bar, make birthday wishes and have a free shot from "same" bottle. Sergey Galagan liked the idea and suggested to make app social network friendly. In few more rounds of brainstorming the concept of mobile app "Going Ukrainian!" is:

• initiator of celebration (Birthday, Graduation Anniversary, Family Reunion, or any other occasion where participants are geographically spread) opens a tab at mobile app
• invites are sent via emails, text,or social and participation is recorded
• confirmed tab is pre-paid in bundle of alcohol, appetizers, or food 
• every participant goes to local pre-approved by mobile app restaurant
• makes check-in to mobile app, post a toast (or best wishes, comments, etc.) and then can claim free drink with optional food
• posting picture is optional, but highly appreciated.

That is mobile version of "Going Ukrainian!"

Comments, improvements of original idea are welcome, or critique is welcome.

Happy Birthday, Alexey!

 p.s. You did good job by hiring me as Accounts Receivables consultant back in March 2003.

 p.p.s. btw, Alexey managed development of amazing cloud based product RoC (Retail-on-Cloud) at De Novo. Let him know if you are small or medium business with need to run whole store software in the cloud. You going to love it, or your drink is on me.

copyright and disclaimer: all rights reserved and all free drinks promised above are subject of "Going Ukrainian!" mobile app development and successful funding.

Roman Havrylyak
12/28/2013

Just-In-Time Marketing: LinkedIn versus Salesforce

Recently I had very long negotiations with Paul Palathingal - Java Architect from India about consulting engagement for next 2014 year. It's been a while since I had such strong opponent in negotiations. Historically for me reaching agreement in US were easy, but accountability to deliver negotiated results almost none. It almost became a rule, that if negotiations were easy then other party will forfeit deliverable. This time i have hunch that if we reach agreement then i do not have to worry about results.

Sidetrack of negotiations was discussion about Salesforce and their recent conference in San Francisco - Dreamforce. I made point that Mark Benioff is merging 2 very strong corporate success stories of Apple and Amazon. Apple because AppExchange will do to corporate software what AppStore did to personal apps. And Amazon because opening technology stack (Heroku, Force.com, etc.), that was used to build Sales Automation, to build any corporate software in Marketing, Collaboration, Support, and, eventually, Financials and Logistics will revolutionize ERP, CRM, HCM, and VCP markets. (ERP - Enteprise Resource Planning; CRM - Customer Relationship Management; HCM - Human Capital Management; VCP - Value Chain Planning).

Today, as I was listening to webinar from VoltDB about choosing right NoSQL database, I added presenters into LinkedIn Contacts - new functionality released early this year to keep personal records on people, who not necessary ready to confirm reciprocal relationship. This feature became fundamental to stay in touch with well established connections as well as maintaining notes on "weak" or unilateral contacts.And it made me think about LinkedIn features and possibilities.

If you consider built-in integration with CardMunch - LinkedIn mobile app to capture contacts from old-fashioned business cards, and then ContactsIn - mobile app to remind you about anniversaries, job changes, or relocation of your connections - then you can understand why LinkedIn is "winner, winner, chicken dinner" in personal CRM domain.

Which naturally brought me to thinking what if LinkedIn is considered for corporate CRM as well, because adding Contacts to LinkedIn introduces very lucrative platform to leverage LinkedIn for Marketing and Sales automation purpose.

In the middle of October in Atlanta at Cobb Galleria Centre I attended Salesforce event with introduction of Marketing Cloud - re-branded acquisition of ExactTarget. One of most memorable story was about Trunk Club that used LinkedIn job changes as opportunity to congratulate and offer discount for renewal of formal wardrobe - "dress for the Job you want, not the one you have" kind of marketing pitch. Growth of sales was astonishing and this precedent made me think of era of Just-In-Time (JIT) Marketing. Just-in-Time concept originated from Toyota Lean Manufacturing where the storage of unused inventory is considered a waste of resources. In similar way, creating marketing message with broadcast to masses can also be considered waste of resources, especially considering damage to brand when email is perceived by recipient as spam. In contrast, 1:1 marketing message, like one introduced by Trunk Club, hardly be perceived as spam even if recipient will not convert to customer.

And natural question that comes to mind is why not use LinkedIn natively for such Just-In-Time marketing, by displaying relevant message at the moment when profile is updated right there at LinkedIn.

Next features that needed to upgrade LinkedIn Contacts into CRM platform are:

• ability to send email to LinkedIn gateway that convert automatically into Note associated to contact; optionally adding contact on the fly if new
•  add support for custom forms that would allow entry of custom attributes, including even order entry
• which effectively bring e-commerce support and need for payment processing using credit card on file for premium LinkedIn accounts
• and last, but as personal favorite and not business driven, - support to operate with LinkedIn data via old-fashioned SQL

And maybe even LinkedIn can introduce paid sales pitch with profit sharing, where if somebody wants to make sales presentation to contact he would pay $X for pitch and Y% of that will be allocated/accrued to recipient. Accrued amount to be usud for only paid LinkedIn services or for Charity Vouchers - making it lucrative for VIP to signup for LinkedIn and make, even small, but still effective difference in making world a better place.

With above possibilities and native access to Social Graph it maybe that Linked, and not SalesForce, can be winning battle for Just-In-Time Marketing - the next big thing in driving B2C and B2B sales.

best regards,

Roman Havrylyak

12/11/2013

Paid Password Reset and 3rd Party Authenticator

 In modern age average person has to keep in memory dozens of passwords. And i noticed that some of rarely used websites i even don't bother to remember password and go straight to password reset. Which brought me to thought that others probably are experiencing same nuisances with passwords on rarely used web sites.

So one way to solve the problem is to install Password Manager on your computer and let it intercept all your password entry and store them securely. But downside of this approach is privacy concern - web  plug-in, installed by software vendor, can easily violate privacy and gather TMI (too much information) about consumer.

So idea came up to outsource password management to 3rd party if you cannot remember your password when accessing website. There 2 options:

1. one is that 3rd party can reset password for fee, that is shared with website owner. This way website owner can make small cash as reward to introduce 3rd party password reset.
2. second option is that 3rd party takes responsibility of authentication and then pass authorization token to website to grant access

 Obviously there were plenty of attempts to build outsourced authentication and authorization- oldest, i believe, was Microsoft Passport introduced in 1999. But downside of those attempts is that website may loos control over customer data. Mixed mode, where web site ultimately controls consumer identity, but outsource password reset to 3rd party with option to upgrade to 3rd party authentication and authorization, provides best of both worlds.

If 3rd party password management can add functionality similar to Google Authenticator to add 2nd factor authentication, then value of service is increased even more by offering NFC-authentication. For example, with presence of cell phone with installed Authenticator all i need to access web site is enter unlock sequence for mobile app. As oppose to Google Authenticator that is showing numeric sequence that i need to manually enter on website.

There must be option to combine convenience of entering login and password directly to website; as well as option to simplify password reset or even need for password without privacy concern with password managers.

best regards,

Roman Havrylyak

12/9/2013

Next Gold Rush = JOBS Act driven by Army Veterans with GenerationY Geeks

After EuroMaidan, ongoing protest against President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych, failed to convince majority of Verkhovna Rada to dismiss current government of Mykola Azarov the major question became what next. By dismissing violent confrontation the only choice seemed to dismiss protesters, following the fate of Occupy Wall Street rally in 2011. Well, there is still hope that Yanukovych resigns (like Yeltsin did in 1999) and Ukraine would have chance for new Verkhovna Rada and President.

But over weekend i read articles that Afghanistan War Veterans joined EuroMaidan and are effectively acting like shield between police and protesters. Also Iraq War veteran, as part of multi-national force in Iraq, built effective strategy "Warm Ocean" to peacefully confront current corrupt regime in Ukraine.

Ukrainian Army Veterans at EuroMaidan brought to memory personal story with US Army Veterans.

At summer 2008 i was at risk to loose health insurance with 8 month pregnant wife, former employer requested to leave US or face deportation, family friend turned his back, plus i got served for court dispute over contract terms violation. In midst of all these problems i got call from Ukraine. It was my Mom who with joy in her voice said that she found solution. Somewhere in local newspaper she read that USA grants greencard (permanent residency) to those who join US Army. I was skeptical, but did look around for US Army Veteran for consultation. The only person that we knew was US Army Veteran and agreed to help was Ramona Carpenter. My problems slowly got resolved after i got new consulting engagement, so we didn't even tried to join US Army. But I did get out of it new family friends.

Years later i got opportunity to return favor to US Army Veteran. Colleague voiced to me complaint on coworker, who happened to be US Veteran. Matter of complaint was not a big deal, just emotionally triggered incorrect words. So i asked colleague to let it go. It just didn't feel right to escalate. But what i learned from complaint was that US Veteran was in somewhat similar position that i was in 2005 when first arrived to USA with H1B visa. So in addition to letting go of complaint i decided to help US Veteran with job "upgrade". Long story short - goosefraba (see "Anger Management" movie for word definition).

Last month on Veteran's Day i read interesting article in Washington Post called "To Honor Veterans, Hire Them!", where there was estimate that close to 800 Veterans will be transitioning from military to civilian life style and quote "valuable skills and experience, such as leadership, teamwork, self-discipline, problem solving, quick thinking and experience working in a mission-focused environment". 

Interestingly enough recently after joining Rotary Club of Knoxville i was assigned to Mainstream Committee, where one of possible Service Project can be to help US Veterans after active duty to adopt to civilian lifestyle, find job, etc.

But this time I want to try different approach. This year, in late January, as part of Tech2020 i had privilege to listen presentation from Lisa Skinner from Ackerman PR about their trip to learn StartUp climate in Tel Aviv, Israel. 

Biggest takeaways from that presentation were:

• Bomb shelter - as “special” room to work out disagreements before anybody leaves shelter.
• Next was lack of established authority or entitlement. The fact that all have to prove over and over their expertise means significantly reduced lifespan of technical skills.
• Next was staff redundancy forced by 20-30% of staff being on temporary military service. It must force knowledge transfer to level almost impossible to achieve today at US companies.
• And last one - not surprising at all - that innovation in military warfare drives innovation in public sector.

So if Mainstream Committee service project will happen to be with US Veterans than i would most definitely will try to spin something similar what Israeli are doing - merge US Veterans and young geeks into StartUp brainstorming domain. Because if my experience of direct help to US veteran thought me a lesson, that would be - empower Army Veterans to solve their own problems. And that empowerment could be just what is needed for JOBS Act, signed in Congress in 2012 with effective date January 1st, 2013. Nature of Equity based Crowd-Funding is so powerful and disruptive to old-fashion Wall Street, that SEC (Stock Exchange Commission) cannot release rules to public. Well US Veterans could be just right compromise - to let only US Veterans to be allowed for general solicitation without limitations; and keep current solicitation limitation to only accredited investors.

If employers care about Army Veterans they should hire them, but if Politicians care about Army Veterans they should empower them with permission to solicit or hustle, as it is defined in StartUp world - ability to persuade for investment or sale. StartUp team in software world has been sometimes defined as Hacker, Hustler, and Designer.

And once SEC, under pressure of politician, removes general solicitation ban for US Veterans completely and therefore allow full functionality of JOBS Act then alloy of US Veterans & Young Geeks may start what can be known in future as next Gold Rush - Equity based Crowd-Funding of StartUps!

best regards,
Roman Havrylyak

12/8/2013

Ukrainian to be or not to be dilemma: Tsar or Yeltsin?

Last week, after police used force against peaceful rally in favor of Eurointegration, Ukraine woke up and started multimillion people protest - EuroMaidan - against President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych.

East of Ukraine believed it is all orchestrated by NATO, West of Ukraine believed it is all sanctioned from Russia. Only Yanukovych was relatively quiet, show no reaction that anything wrong is going on in country. Took a business trip to China, then, according to rumors, to Sochi, Russia to sign Customs Union and received financial support from President of Russia Vladimir Putin.

Actions of Victor Yanukovych are either genius master plan or total ignorance of Ukrainian people.

In 1st case we can expect resignation speech at New Year eve, like President of Russia Boris Yeltsin did in 1999. Silence, failed attempt to resign government of Azarov, signing union agreement with Russia, and, hopefully, making resignation would make Victor Yanukovych a national hero. Think about it:

• Ukraine got better deal out of Russia (I'm pretty sure that with EuroMaidan protests Vladimir Putin had to sweeten the deal)
• after Yanukovych resignation Mykola Azarov, as temporary executive power, has no chance to win in coming presidential elections (so makes sense why voting his resignation failed)
• Ukraine would vote for pro-European Verkhovna Rada (parliament) and President
• Lifted spirit of Ukrainian people with lowered economic pressure from Russia would boost productivity and significantly improve life today - which means Victor Yanukovych slogan he came to power with is effectively executed
• Donbass Keeps Promises (Донецк порожняк не гонит - could not find accurate English translation) is not just marketing slogan, but mission backed by deliverable
• And in future Ukrainian history singing deal with Vladimir Putin would be known same as Zaporozhian Cossacks write a letter to the Sultan of Turkey

 In 2nd case, where all actions about giving order to beat students, ignoring EuroMaidan, and signing deal with Russia reflect true and deep ignorance of people of Ukraine and establish lifetime ruling of Yanukovych family - effectively making him Tsar of Ukraine.

But in both cases, it is best at this time, to start active negotiations with ruling party. Statements a-la "my way or no way" that frequently coming from EuroMaidan, are just not productive anyway. One of most hard-to-accept lesson during my employment in USA was one manager's quote - "You make what you negotiate, not what you deserve!"

Another valuable American quote is "Dress for the job you want, not the one you have!", which in context of EuroMaidan means that people need to make plans like Ukraine is already member of European Union:

• start making pledges (personal commitments) to change their lives to better European standards like reduce alcohol consumption, quit smoking, start learning foreign languages, etc.
• empower politicians from opposition to negotiate rules of transparent re-election
• ideal would be to offer economic and tax amnesty to ensure that new people in power would not start "witch hunting"
• etc.

And maybe even, Ukraine has to start negotiating with European Union rules of entry to EU for the whole Russian Customs Union.

I sincerely look forward for 1st case!

best regards,
Roman Havrylyak

12/6/2013

Eurointegration and Moscow Olympic Games

Recently university classmate Vlad Sergeyev made reference to quote often referred to as Chinese Curse - May You Live in Interesting Times.

With what is going on in Ukraine now around Eurointegration i tend to agree - interesting times indeed. But as i perceive history, the process of EuroIntegration was started by Moscow long time ago.

In 1978 Western Europe and USSR started discussion about building natural gas pipeline from Siberia to Uzhgorod known as Urengoy - Pomary -Uzhgorod. Project brought political controversy to such level that event is referred to as Transatlantic Crisis during Cold War. Nowadays, especially after its cost to modern Ukraine and impact on my life, I call that project "damned pipeline" - compliments to famous quote of Ronald Reagan "Well, they can have their damned pipeline. But not with American equipment and not with American technology". It is probably destiny that i live now in neighborhood off the road named after one of best modern age US Presidents - Ronald Reagan.

But back to "damned pipeline". Because of shortage in equipment my hometown Uzhgorod got brand new factory TurboGaz - one of leading manufacturer of equipment for gas and oil pipelines. I'm not the person to tell about TurboGaz much, but it impacted me personally: 1st, it gave me my first blue collar paycheck as locksmith of 3rd grade (слесарь 3-го разряда) in 1988, and 2nd, it brought to Uzhgorod in early 90s first private venture - cooperative "Spoiler" (manufacturer of garages for personal cars) - enterprise that gave Uzhgorod garage-like kiosks and was, supposedly, ran by Valeriy Birman. His son, Felix, recruited me in 1994 to support 2(!) computers for political campaign of Uzhgorod most controversial mayor - Serhiy Ratushniak. Later at Felix wedding with room filled with people dancing to Jewish tune Hava Nagila if somebody would have told me what people are telling about ex-mayor now, i would call them insane and dial ambulance. Really sad...

But going back to 70s. Year later, in 1979, Soviet Union started war in Afghanistan, and later, because of it, countries led by USA declared boycott of 1980 Moscow Olympic Games. I sometimes think that "damned pipeline" was real reason for boycott, not war in Afghanistan. But regardless of reason, the Soviet leaders did not take boycott well and started massive propaganda of coming Olympic Games. Bear with Olympic rings on his belt , official mascot of games, was seen everywhere. Some overly enthusiastic communist decided to put mascot even at Chess Olympiad.

My parents were first generation of college graduates working as math teacher (Mom) and mainframe software engineer (Dad). Pursue of Education was more important for my parents than pursue of Happiness. So when it was time to choose school the choice went immediately to #1 rated school in Uzhgorod. But I was only 6 years old and in School #1 parents were told to wait another year. They didn't want to loose the whole year and mom found way to enroll me in School #5. Later, to make sure I'm busy, dad signed me to study chess at Palace of Pioneers. Chess coach was World War II veteran (i believe  his name was Tokarev) and all i remember now that he was amazing teller of stories about WWII...

Couple years later official Chess Club of Uzhgorod hosted Chess Olympiad for high school students. I came just to watch, but to one of city team was missing player for desk #2 and I was asked if i can play. I agreed. Big mistake. Team of 4 players were ranked by their skills and had to play at appropriate table: best player at 1st table, next best at 2nd, and so on. My table was #4 as least skilled. But then one of player suggested to put me at table #2 where missing supposed to play. Reasoning was clear: with shifting up chess tables our #3 and #4 would had to play stronger opponents with ranking #2 and #3. By violation of rules we were better if i went to table #2 to play 2nd best opponent and leaving weaker opponents and chances to win to my teammates. Agreed again and even bigger mistake. 

 

My opponent seeing me as opponent got condescending and rushed to beat me in chess match. Made mistake and lost one pawn. Got serious, then worried, then pulled it together. Game was going extremely slow as i kept capitalizing pawn advantage. Rook ending with pawn advantage is one of most complicated to calculate in chess. And I was "drowning" in calculation, had to start over and spent too much time. Chess clock started to lift my red flag

Now it was my time to start worrying, opponent smiled watching my peaks at the clock. After couple of minutes the only option left was to offer truce. Our team already lost at 3 other tables, so outcome didn't really mattered. Opponent accepted truce. I received congratulations for well played game, but it didn't matter. I cried because i didn't win. 

 

Few weeks later i got diploma with printed Moscow Olympic Bear and recognition in junior sport achievement. Whoever came up with idea to reward chess players sport titles did not understand what is definition of sport in Transcarpathia, Ukraine. Football was and is as big as gladiator fights were in Ancient Rome. Now if you add to this that my school class had nephew of famous player from Dynamo Kiev then you can picture how well i was accepted  by classmates. I decided to drop chess and switch to hockey.

 

Few weeks later older by couple years neighbor from same apartment block - Aleksandr Mateyko - approached me with unusual request for help. It was start to what i now call adventures of Ukrainian "Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn". We became friends for years, but in 1989 we had fight, caused by my family legacy that i was not allowed to know until almost the end of USSR. We barely spoke again. I thought he owes me an apology, but it didn't happened. After his tragic death in mid-90s i didn't even say final goodbye as I couldn't hold tears and was embarrassed to enter night club. I left flowers at his grave only after funeral ceremony was over...

 

Olympic Games since 80s are so dear to my heart, that I actually dreamed to host Eastern European Olympic Games in Uzhgorod (together with 4 other neighboring countries) when President of Ukraine Kuchma announced course for Eurointegration dozen years ago.

 

It is meant to be for Ukraine to join European Union. That direction was set 30+ years ago by that "damned pipeline".

 

 

Roman Havrylyak

12/5/2013

Mentoring Capstone Project

After Occupy Wall Street protest movement and their explicit statement about lack of jobs for fresh graduates i was curious to understand why USA so heavily depend on foreign graduate workers - H1B visa holders. Casual conversations led slowly to some understanding of Education Reform in USA, and most interesting specific field - STEM - stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.

Locally at Knoxville, TN i got minimal exposure to 2 programs: STEMspark and STEM/NOVA Award at Boy Scouts of America. Both programs focused on middle and high school students.

So naturally interesting was participation as mentor at TNAchives to learn about how things are with school graduates willing to earn college degree. Learned interesting statistics that in USA college graduate versus non-college graduate makes $1 million dollar more in employment lifetime.
  
Next opportunity to understand the education to employment gap presented this year when co-worker, graduate of Pellissippi State Community College, asked if our company has idea and will to mentor Capstone Project for under-graduate students. We agreed with idea to build intrapreneurship web portal - Idea Management System. Capstone experience was so good that company later invited one team member for summer internship. By end of internship our intern had series of interviews lined up... 

But most eye revealing was presentation of Capstone projects last spring, there were only half-dozens companies willing to devote time to mentor Capstone project.


Finally i found the bottleneck in supply chain of skilled workers in STEM field - shortage of volunteers willing to share their practical knowledge with under-graduates and mentoring them through the Capstone process.

If this shortage is common, and considering that i live in Volunteer State i do believe it is, then introducing tax benefit for companies willing to participate in Capstone - Internship - Employment pathway for new graduates from US colleges may be just that incentive that improves employment rate in USA. And also contributes to chain effect of building Culture of Giving Back - one of key component of economic sustainability of any country.

best regards,
Roman Havrylyak

12/4/2013

Crowdfunding Good Cause plus Rating of Politicians

Recent events in Ukraine caused a lot of brainstorming in social networks about how Ukraine should move forward. With 9 years old quote "Money beat Evil" in mind the always sensitive topic is how to fund good cause idea, not to mention political takeover.

Crowd-funding of political campaign, as it works in Tier1 countries (a.k.a. G7) - USA, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, and Japan - will not work as efficient in 3rd world countries. For simple reason of mistrust that funds will be used appropriately.

So thinking brought me back to idea of Volunteer Branded Money, but with new pivot in terms of how money go to charity.

Original idea was that volunteer helping with crowd-selling would have direct decision to where 10% of charitable amount goes. But with shift to fund political movements the new idea is to offset decision to politician - bringing effectively another layer into chain of "consumer - volunteer - politician - charity".

Once consumer records passive demand in certain goods or services then volunteers would suggest best option. Once sales is completed then volunteer would nominate trustee - political leader of personal choice - to act upon allocating sales commission to good cause.

This way society can quickly identify ratings of most trusted political figures and empower them with cash flow to make difference - one little good cause per each facilitated sale.

best regards,
Roman Havrylyak

12/1/2013

Snail e-Commerce Checkout - inspired by Google Internship

In movie "The Internship", rented last weekend, I liked idea of mobile app that prevents phone owner from sending messages under influence by asking complex equations to validate sane and sober mind.

Similar approach can be used in preventing impulse purchases by delaying checkout - Snail Checkout - for validation of "ROI" (return on investment). In this context phone would intercept entry of credit card and request for validation of purchase. To make good cause spin on this app if the owner decides to cancel checkout then 10% of amount would be accrued for charity of owner's choice.

On the other hand if during checkout alternative product is found, offered, and purchased then merchant would owe 10% to charity of choice by app owner.

The idea of preventing or intercepting impulse purchases with "strings attached" to charity may be one of game changers (or shaping) in e-commerce world by reducing buyer remorse. This way damage to brand by bitter customers can be significantly reduced if merchant adopts integration with snail checkout. In this case 10% from not happened transaction will go to charity of merchant choice.

Without experience in mobile development would be curious to hear how complicated (or feasible) development of such app could be.

Is business model to offer snail checkout viable?

best regards,
Roman Havrylyak

12/1/2013