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Tech innovators and disruptors shine at Dawson James Securities’ Small-Cap Conference

Published: 14:15 07 Nov 2018 EST

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Dawson James brought together some of the most exciting names in tech at its small cap Conference in Jupiter, Florida

Last week, Dawson James Securities brought together some of the most exciting names in tech at its fourth annual Small-Cap Conference in Jupiter, Florida. Among the standouts attending were several companies that Proactive Investors identified as innovators and disruptors.

Payment Data Systems Inc (NASDAQ:PYDS) is an electronic-payment processor that Senior Vice President of Corporate and Prepaid Development Houston Frost says is “in it to win.”

The San Antonio, Texas-based company is building on the innovations of payment processors like Square Inc (NYSE:SQ) and Stripe to change the way merchants and consumers make electronic payments.  

On the business side, PDS streamlines the payment process between merchants and banks and lowers costs for the merchants. The company offers fully integrated payments, partnerships with Software as a Service (SaaS) companies, as well as card issuance.

The technological innovation that we’re pushing is to partner with SaaS companies and instead of online registration, all the data is coming to us from the back end,” explained Chief Revenue Officer Vaden Landers.

Because the company's processing platform is integrated with SaaS products, it is introduced to all the corresponding SaaS company's customers. "We partner and integrate with an SaaS company, who in turn offers our service to all of its customers through the integration," explained Frost. That gives PDS the ability to offer its solutions to professional groups, such as doctors and other health care professionals, as well as merchants, in large number rather than one by one.

On the consumer side, PDS has created the Akimbo card for individuals, a reloadable prepaid card to manage household finances. This, says Frost, is an exciting part of the company.

“Instead of being a just ‘me too’ payments type company this is what we’re really doing differently,” Frost added.

Growth has accelerated, as the company nearly doubled the number of employees in just the past year to more than 40.

Innovating on the big stage

LiveXLive Media Inc (NASDAQ:LIVX) is not unaccustomed to the spotlight. CEO Robert Ellin tells Proactive Investors that the Beverly Hills-based company has built the largest live streaming network in the world, over which it streams more than 20 of the biggest live music festivals.

“I took the playbill from ESPN and applied it to music to create the next generation in TV,” Ellin told Proactive. “There’s been no one in this lane for 25 years, so since MTV there’s been a missing link in pop culture.

READ: LiveXLive Media's Slacker Radio can now be streamed via Amazon's Alexa

LiveXLive streams 27 of largest music festivals in the world including EDC, the biggest dance festival, Rock in Rio, and the venerable Montreaux Jazz Festival.

“I can humbly say we’re the thought-leader in the world in live music,” Ellin said.

Last year the company acquired Slacker Radio for $33 million and recently partnered with powerhouse convert promoter Live Nation Entertainment Inc (NYSE:LYV).

A turnaround in the making

Besides innovators and disruptors, there's a turnaround story in WidePoint Corp (NYSE:WYY), which ended its third quarter revenue positive, reversing several years of losses as it adds to its cash position and returns to profitability since CEO Jin Kang took control in July 2017.

At the core of its future, Kang says, is the integration of its three main businesses: TM2 telecom management, identity authentication (IDM) and bill presentment and analytics.

WidePoint provides Trusted Mobile Management, or TM2, to companies and government agencies with more than a thousand mobile devices to track and manage.  So, every aspect of telecom management, from set-up to turning off access when devices are lost, is handled by WidePoint, as well as identity management tools that allow clients to track and secure all mobile phones issued to staff. 

“It’s not enough that you can manage these devices and secure them using identity certificates, you also need to have visibility and analytics,” Kang explained.

To that end, WidePoint can service and enforce policy for companies for as little as $40 per device, Kang said. And on the back end, WidePoint provides data and analytics to see how much data are being used by organizations and how, as well providing consumer-level data for telecom customers of providers like Verizon Inc (NYSE:VZ).

Customers include the Department of Homeland Security -- capturing $400 million of the agency's $600 million annual spend -- as well as companies such as Sunoco LP (NYSE:SUN) and America Airlines Group (NUSE:AAL).

Growth that makes sense

Among the disruptors is Focus Universal Inc (OTCMKTS:FCUV), whose founder Desheng Wang has flipped the design process for environmental sensors on its head. The Walnut, California, company makes customizable, modular sensors that connect to any smartphone.

Focus’s sensors replace cumbersome legacy units that only have a single purpose but represent a $2 billion market that serves the agricultural industry.

The company offers 500 modular sensors that measure anything from CO2 to radiation to humidity to light. The sensors can be daisy-chained in any combination to a smartphone and the resulting data saved via the cloud.

Focus International got a US patent earlier this year for a system that provides a universal solution for a sensor communicating with a gateway to a monitoring control from a smartphone.

The company has raised $10.6 million so far and applied to uplist its shares Nasdaq from the OTC Markets.

When asked by Proactive if the platform also lends itself to use with the cannabis-growing industry, Shane Vultee of Veyo Partners, which is acting as an advisor, was frank: “Obviously being in California, it’s a very easy transition to make.”

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