Venmo Could Make Moves

Peer to peer payments can be thought of as a great first step for Venmo, but staying there will not bring it hockey stick growth. How often to you pay money to your friends? On the other hand, how often do you pay money at a bar? Or a restaurant?

One place to start might be at the bar where the NY Tech MeetUp hosts its after party. The NY Tech MeetUp crowd would be a great crowd to get hold of.

Another stop on the way might be the 2,000 vendors on FourSquare that have been identified as merchants that might qualify for merchant accounts. I believe they now have the option to call up FourSquare, verify ownership of their spaces, and activate their merchant accounts. That would give them options to better track all those who do check into their establishments.

Venmo might want to partner up with FourSquare to give those 2,000 establishments a heads up on the Venmo way of accepting payments. People likely to check in using FourSquare are also more likely than most to be the early believers in the idea of paying for your drink with a text message. Pay Drink Bar $6 for beer. That might take less time and effort than pulling out the wallet to dole out cash, wait for change, perhaps wait to sign a credit card receipt.

In FourSquare I see a partnership opportunity for Venmo.