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Bob Cannon: Entrepreneur, ATM pioneer and visionary dies after battling cancer

The sudden death of ATM industry pioneer Bob Cannon has left a void. Widely recognized as a forefather in the ISO space, Cannon helped develop a market segment that has taken off throughout the world.

January 17, 2006

ATM pioneer Bob Cannon will be missed. Cannon died Jan. 8 in Houston after a four-month battle with cancer. Cannon would have been 52 Jan. 12.

Widely recognized as a true pioneer in the ATM industry, Cannon helped define what is now known as the independent sales organization market.

Bob Cannon

Coined "the accidental ISO" by one industry observer, Cannon's stumble into the ATM business turned out to be a profitable one. The Texas entrepreneur saw opportunity in off-premise deployments before most. And after signing on in 1994 as one of the first distributors of the Tidel AnyCard - Tidel Engineering's first off-premise ATM - the rest, as they say, was history.

"Bob was really one of the pioneers in off-premise ATM deployment that got the ISO market started," said Gary Walston, a former employee of Dallas-based Innovus Inc./Momentum Cash Systems LLC. "He wasn't the only one, but he was one of the first to get a large number of machines in the ground in '95 and '96."

That's what set him apart.

Being in the right place at the right time was part of Cannon's success. Off-premise placements were born in Texas, where an antitrust suit against the Pulse network in 1988 deflated the pre-1996 ban on surcharging. And during the early '90s, Texas entrepreneurs like Cannon took advantage.

"Texas had the ability to surcharge one or two years before everybody else, and that was a huge advantage," Walston said. "Texas as a whole is really an ISO hotbed, and that's one of the reasons why."

Getting in early

Cannon got in on the ground level, and when he founded Momentum Cash Systems in 1994, he was already a few steps ahead. Momentum Cash quickly grew to become one of the country's largest ISOs. By 2002, it had more than 3,000 ATMs in its portfolio and brought in about $20 million a year.

"As one of Tidel Engineering's first large distributors, Bob and the Momentum Cash team established a special and long-lasting relationship with our Tidel family," said Mike Hudson, Tidel Engineering's former executive vice president and chief operating officer. (Hudson is now general manager of NCR EasyPoint ATM LLC.) "He was an innovator in our industry, and one of the leaders that helped develop the growth of the off-premises segment."

Paving the way for ISOs will be one of Cannon's legacies, said Dr. Hansup Kwon, president and chief executive of Tranax Technologies Inc. "The example that he and others set is the same kind of platform we are running on today (in the ISO market). He was one the early distributors of our products, and we did substantial business with Momentum Cash. The company had a leadership role, and obviously the company maintained that leadership role because of its early entry in the industry."

Even after Innovus Inc. bought Momentum Cash in January 2003, Cannon stayed on to help with the company's transition. Mickey Brown, Innovus' president and CEO, worked closely with Cannon during the acquisition. He said Cannon's tireless and innovative spirit helped him build Momentum Cash and later led him to jumpstart other endeavors. When Cannon left Innovus in 2004, he then laid the groundwork for a foray into the prepaid space.

"He truly was a self-starter," Brown said. "He had tried starting a bank (online). … He also formed the Toll-Free Alliance (known as Toll-Free ATM), one of the first surcharge-free network alliances out there. He had a keen insight into the industry, and he embraced that insight to take the industry to a new level. Like many entrepreneurs, some things worked and some things didn't, but you have to give him credit."

Ann All, former editor of ATMmarketplace, said Cannon knew how to lean on the right business lessons. "It's such a cliché to call someone a pioneer, but it truly applies in Bob's case. He was a CPA before he got into ATMs, and his success was largely attributable to the fact that he knew when those lessons from business school would work in the ATM world -and when they wouldn't. Like some of the other early creators of the ISO model, I always got the sense that part of his love of the business was the idea that it let him stick it to 'the man' (in this case, banks who were slow to recognize the opportunity of ATMs) a little bit."

A fun guy

But beyond all his business sense, most people just liked Cannon. A perpetual jokester, Cannon was the guy everybody looked for at the conferences. "When Bob was around, you knew you were going to have a good time," said Gary Faulkner, chief marketing officer of software provider Morphis Inc. "We're really going to miss him. Bob was a terrific guy and a great friend, and I am just sick that he's gone."

Cannon is survived by his wife, Patti, son, Dillon, and daughter, Kelsey. His family has requested that memorial gifts be sent to M.D. Anderson, Department of Volunteer Services, 1515 Holcombe Blvd., Houston, TX, 77030.