Originally published in the LA Business Journal

With social distancing and masks likely to remain a reality for a while longer, Pasadena-based QLess Inc. is poised to help businesses reduce in-person queues.

“We’ve been practicing social distancing for over 10 years,” said Charlie Meyer, vice president of sales at QLess.

The company, founded in 2007, has developed cloud-based software that allows businesses, like retail stores and hospitals, to manage customers in a virtual line. Government agencies and educational institutions also use QLess software.

This article was originally published in Business Wire

QLess has been recognized with another top-shelf award in the struggle against lifelong line-waiting. I’m referring, of course, to our latest Gold Stevie Award for stellar consumer services at the 16th annual American Business Awards.

Congratulations to Houston’s McGovern-Stella Link Neighborhood Library for being recognized as a recipient of the 2017 National Awards for Passport Acceptance Facilities and Agents!

We recently announced a major milestone here at QLess: Our customer interaction management platform has saved more than 100 million customers over 5700 years’ time waiting in line. To put in perspective just how long that is, imagine what an individual could have done instead of queuing for 5763 years. If you’d started queuing 5700 years ago, you would have missed out on seeing the Great Pyramids of Giza built, worshipping at Stonehenge, and traveling along the original iteration of the Great Wall of China... with hundreds of years to spare in between. Someone who began queuing 5763 years ago would have been waiting since 3746 BC – Hammurabi didn’t even pen his famous law code until the 18th century BC. And I get frustrated just waiting in line at the grocery store!

Where are the best places to work in LA?

Today, the entire QLess team celebrated our recognition by the Los Angeles Business Journal as one of the best places to work! 

Since our founding, QLess Liberators strive to follow our mission to eliminate lines around the planet. In pursuit of that mission, we provide a modern solution to the outdated practice of waiting in line – effectively transforming the way the world waits. Our recognition by the LABJ as one of the best places to work demonstrates that we are delivering on that mission, as well as our core company values.

On behalf of everyone at QLess, we are so grateful for the honor of winning our fifth Gold Stevie® Award for "Best Computer Services Company" from the 2017 American Business Awards. This awesome distinction is a testament to the excellence of our entire team and our amazing partners.

And to thank our hard-working employees at QLess, we set-up an internal contest so that one of our employees could journey to New York City and accept our award. And our winner was the amazing and dedicated Pilar Ransome,  Support Manager!

At QLess we empower people to manage their own time and wait anywhere they want.

Help us eliminate lines around the world by sharing a photo of a long line – be it at a bowling alley, a theme park, your favorite restaurant, at a doctor's office, on a college campus, at the DMV...anywhere! 

Just snap a photo of a long line, tag your location, and #EndTheWait!

Check out the 3 amazing prizes!  We will announce the winners on August 31. 

We're delighted to announce the appointment of Darren Gasser as our new Vice President of Engineering!

Darren brings nearly 30 years experience in systems architecture and is a seasoned leader in developing SaaS solutions. Having worked for both international corporations (FedEx) and start-up companies, Darren’s deep experience ranges from defining, designing, building, and troubleshooting large-scale systems in a variety of business and technical environments.

On this Thanksgiving, we would like to express our gratitude for the honor of winning our second Gold Stevie® Award for "Best Computer Services Company of the Year" from the 2016 International Business Awards. This awesome distinction is a testament to the excellence of our entire team and our amazing partners.

And to thank our hard-working employees at QLess, we set-up an internal contest so that one of our employees could journey to Rome and accept our award. The catch? Nominees for the road to Rome were considered based on the "miracle"  they delievered to QLess. After a democratic vote across the entire company, we had not one, but two winners: 

What does a queue management platform have in common with Michael Phelps? The GOLD – six gold medals to be exact!

QLess earned the Gold Stevie® Award for "Company of the Year" from both the 2016 International Business Awards and the 2016 American Business Awards. The double distinction marks our 6th win for the top honor in the "Best Computer Services" category: two consectuive years from the IBA and four consecutive years from the ABA – a testament to the excellence of our entire team and our amazing partners.

And now we are hoping to win the People's Choice award – please vote to eliminate needless waiting in line!

What’s the worst part about visiting the doctor or going to the DMV? For most people, the answer is “waiting in line.”

We are thrilled to announce that the QLess app is now available on both iOS and Android devices! Effortlessly join a “virtual line” with our app. The real-time graphical queue manager and simple UI make it easy to track your place in line and arrive shortly before an appointment begins. With the app, you can also ask for more time, request status updates, or leave the line.

I am thrilled to share wonderful news: this month QLess earned the Gold Stevie Award for Company of the Year, the top honor in the "Best Computer Services" category from both the International Business Awards and the American Business Awards!

Right next to the Hilton Pasadena, on the top floor of the Pasadena Office Tower.

There is a great deli at bottom, The Pumpernickel, that's been open since 1972. Great chicken breast sandwiches.

Hello world! It's been a while since I posted on our blog. We've been pretty busy cranking out new features for you, and building a world-class support organization. But I wanted to share some thoughts about QLess Support with you today.

Fast Casual, the premiere outlet for innovative restaurants, recently highlighted QLess’ acquisition of assets of the mobile paging provider Textaurant Corporation and the momentous changes this will be creating for the restaurant industry.

QLess Speaks about Textaurant Corporation Acquisition with Boston.com

We had a real treat at the headquarters of QLess a couple of weeks ago: Dave Logan, best-selling author of Tribal Leadership, and his partner Carrie Kish, a successful serial entrepreneur and uber-likeable woman, led a session on the stages of tribal leadership. They shared with us how they think the revolution of eliminating standing in line is a stage 5 play --the way the Manhattan project or the race to the Moon were. Their ability to influence people's language subsequently was truly remarkable. Interestingly, Dave's TEDx talk at USC had focused on DMV lines as an example of a stage 2 tribe. We are privileged to count them among our good friends.

QLess, Inc., the world’s first mobile queuing solution, has now been honored with 10 Stevie Awards, including seven International Business Awards and three American Business Awards, over the past four years. The six latest 2013 awards will be added to QLess’ four existing Stevie Awards that recognize the company’s innovative technology in helping organizations everywhere replace physical lines with virtual and mobile queues.

QLess Inc, the mobile queuing solution that allows customers to wait in virtual and mobile lines, has been named by the International Business Awards the winner of six of their most prestigious awards. Founder and CEO, Alex Bäcker was named the Gold Stevie Winner of IT Executive of the Year, Silver Stevie Winner of Innovator of the Year, and Bronze Stevie Winner of Executive of the Year in Computer Software.

QLess, the mobile queuing solution serving over 10 million customers, has expanded its list of acquisitions with the London-based virtual queue management company, Supalocal.

Colleges are mostly about students. And it turns out the best way to get students to rave about their college is to use QLess to liberate them from waiting in line. QLess was mentioned in 22% of the Yelp reviews 3-stars and above about WLAC since QLess was deployed. Just read what Aiden Y. of Irvine, CA wrote in his 4-star review :

If you want to work and learn with one of the fastest-growing most exciting companies in the planet, send a cover letter, a resume and your favorite joke to interns@qless.com today.

"This is by far the best system I have ever used. Lets you anticipate your time. It also give you more freedom to make a call or use the bathroom, knowing where you are in line. Thank you." -QLess user with a Las Vegas phone number in an SMS to us when we asked about his/her experience

We keep telling you how QLess is revolutionizing the way people wait in line – or rather don’t wait in line. So it probably comes as no surprise that our unique usage of SMS to rid the world of its lines has been recognized as a first place winner in Clickatell’s recent awards. Thanks Clickatell! We’re excited to be part of a solution that is transforming how people to business and customers get their time back to be more productive.

Our hearts go out to the victims of the quake, tsunami and now nuclear disaster in Japan. There are now queues everywhere --people waiting for food rations, people standing in line for transportation, to leave the country, and more. The last thing the Japanese need right now, with so much rebuilding to be done, is to stand idly in line. So QLess is donating its mobile line management solution for any lines affecting the victims in Japan. If you know someone who knows someone in Japan who could benefit from this, please let them know!

We recently reached a great milestone and wanted to share. Last month, Jennifer Lin, a student at the University of Texas at Dallas, used QLess and her cell phone to hold her spot in the virtual Enrollment Management queue. 21 minutes later, she was able to show up and drop a class. In addition to the 21 minutes of her life that Jennifer got back by using QLess, we've now saved our total user base over 24 years of waiting in line!

“Absolutely love, love, love, love the system!! I had a 90 minute wait with 108 people ahead of me. So I left to do shopping, contacted my insurance company and had the insurance emailed to me home, dropped off the groceries, got updated wait times, came in with the insurance and was called to the window for service. Pam was fantastic, polite, efficient and courteous – a real delight! Whoever came up with the system is a genius! Everyone should be calling in to praise the system and the staff that are responsible for selecting and implementing it!! Awesome experience.”
— Erica, QLess user

QLess is available in any language and alphabet, and now has offices in Saudia Arabia, Malaysia, Argentina, Spain, Mexico, the UAE, Kenya, South Africa, Australia and several locations in the USA. To become a QLess distributor, contact QLess today. To contact QLess in your country, contact us and make sure to indicate where you are located.

Alex Backer was named one of "40 under 40" in a televised awards gala at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, the site of the original Oscars, for the inaugural 40 Under 40 M&A Advisor Recognition Awards. The Gala Event celebrated the leading forty M&A, Financing and Turnaround professionals who have made great accomplishments before their fortieth year. The 2010 40 Under 40 Award winners have been chosen from international nominees by an independent judging panel of distinguished business leaders for their accomplishments and expertise.

ab|inventio, the invention factory -- our parent company -- was named most Innovative Company of the Year in North America Distinguished Honoree by the International Business Awards, alongside Salesforce.com.

Yesterday, QLess was selected Finalist for Best Overall Company of the Year by the American Business Awards, because of the high average scores received during more than five weeks of preliminary judging. This is the second year in a row that QLess is recognized by the Stevie Awards --sometimes called the 'Oscars of Business'. We couldn't have done it without our customers (most QLess customers have already recommended us to their colleagues, and a few of them have won awards of their own for their QLess installations) and team, so our thanks go to all of them!

--Alex

QLess welcomes Independent Sales Offices (ISOs), affiliates, resellers, franchisees, distributors, representatives, and all kinds of partners. We pay you a generous ongoing revenue share. We have offices in five continents (including Los Angeles, New York & Sunnyvale (USA), Barcelona (Spain), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Muar (Malaysia) and Nairobi (Kenya)), and are already fully integrated with some of the world's leading POS vendors and merchant processing solutions, and are partners with some of the world's leading customer flow management providers. If you think you can sell QLess or refer us to someone who could benefit from it, drop us a line. We are also hiring salespeople, business developers, marketers and software developers.

Did you know that virtually all QLess functions are available via our secure API, so you can integrate wait management, customer flow management, mobile queueing, mobile CRM, analytics and/or mobile marketing into your own application? Integration is a breeze. The possibilities are endless. Contact us today for details.

QLess in the words of our customers:

"It's helped keep customers from walking away,"

One of the world's most beloved brands wants QLess for their event at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver this month, and is looking for an Olympic sponsor who would get prominent exposure in displays, kiosks, SMS, phone calls & more, + access to an audience of hundreds of thousands of rich Olympic attendees, asking them if they'd like to opt in to a special SMS offer from the sponsor, who'd be able to send interactive SMS coupons, promotional messages and/or surveys to every opt-in thereafter. Do you know anyone who'd be interested? A list of Olympic sponsors at http://www.vancouver2010.com/more-2010-information/about-vanoc/sponsors-and-partners/vancouver-2010-sponsors/ Amazing marketing/PR opportunity to sponsor the first ever QLess Olympics for less than you would think. Contact sponsorshipsqless.com for details.

The Vator.tv video about QLess got me thinking about the origins of standing in line. We now know it goes back at least as far as the Egyptians. Tim recently found two references to standing in line in Ancient Egypt:

I met Aaron Patzer at JuicePitcher last night. Aaron is founder and CEO of the #1 personal finance service in the world, Mint.com, recently sold to Intuit for $170,000,000. He approached me to say he loved what he had heard about QLess, and wanted to set a time to learn more. We took his words seriously coming from a smashingly successful entrepreneur who drove his own company from 0 to 170MM and created a market-dominating company in 3 years. Well, Aaron, we love Mint.com too –in fact I use it every month. If you have not tried it, go to Mint.com today –it's free, and it'll tell you exactly how much spare change you have to go QLess today. Then you can use it to track exactly how much money QLess adds to your net worth.

QLess was selected today to speak at Geeks Going Global at the Sun Microsystems campus in Silicon Valley next week.

CNET covers QLess presentation at the JuicePitcher award show last night.

QLess was named a winner of the JuicePitcher competition last night. JuicePitcher, sponsored by Microsoft, Mashable, GigaOM, Wilson Sonsini, Silicon Valley Bank and other sponsors, selected the 10 most promising new companies. QLess, the only company in its field to receive the prize, clocked in at #3 in the online vote and at #4 among in-person attendees. More than 130 companies were evaluated by thousands of voters including entrepreneurs, investors, journalists and others. Voters gave QLess a 5-star average rating –that's out of 5 maximum. Details at http://vator.tv/competition/show/vatortv-and-thefundedcoms-juice-pitcher .

QLess guarantees a 400% ROI in 4 months or you get 400% of the shortfall back.*

"I think overall it's a very good system. Customers really like it. The day we had a really long wait, everything was perfect.. On a 1 to 10 scale, I'd give it a 9. Educating people [about their wait] helps tremendously. It's perfect, it really is."--Patricia Rogers, Citizen Services Director, Office of the Mayor, City of Nashua, NH.

"It's helped keep customers from walking away,"
--Dada Ngo. Owner, The Boiling Crab.

"Any simpler and it would do it itself!... At our Divisional Staff meeting Sherry had some very complimentary things to say about Qless and it's staff as well. We would like you to consider us a strong reference for your firm should you wish to provide my contact info to any potential opportunity."
–John Barker, IT Director, Motor Vehicle Registration.

"QLess is a great friggen idea!"
--Mike Schroepfer, VP Engineering, Facebook

Register to receive brief QLess updates at http://vator.tv/pitch/show/qless

--Alex

We have a huge favor to ask that will only take a minute of your time and could mean a lot to us. But it needs to be done before midnight tonight (Wednesday). QLess, the company whose mission is to eliminate standing in line from theface of the Earth by letting people enter virtual lines and get paged on their cell phones, has just applied for a competition that could give us a lot of exposure to help fulfill our mission. We just entered hours ago, and there are less than 24 hours left, but we know we can beat all the other contestants who have more than two weeks headstart if (and only if) you all lend a hand; we're already the fastest growing contestant. We need you to vote for us in the next 20 hours. Here is what you need to do:

Someone very trustworthy, smart, organized, who is not picky about what they do or do not do but rather has a good attitude to getting things done, who has command of basic arithmetic and proper English spelling and grammar, who can do everything and anything that I can delegate. Yeah, attitude:Like, this is mine too. Your success is ours/mine. When I answer correspondence or the phone I make the person/customer/client/colleague feel like I am their personal assistant and that their agenda is important to me, their convenience is on my mind, my efficiency for them counts.And as to smart: very smart. And by smart, there are different smarts. Needs to be savvy about technology or conversant with it, but there is street smart-make sure they see things coming I may miss- they take the work to heart-it's more than a job and they have a history of acting and feeling that way. ideally someone who has been an EA to a successful executive before. Someone who can get to know key clients and leaders sometimes better than me. Someone who has worked in senior positions before a plus.Someone who anticipates what I do not. Who is proactive. And upbeat, stable and fun. Who can be light hearted and can be serious and know when.Promises future growth in one of the world's fastest growing companies in a fun, casual environment and a desire to change the world for the better. Getting honored for Best Business Innovation of 2009 and beating Google at their game in a 3rd party-evaluated blind test was just the beginning.For multi-talented applicants, job may include work in accounting, accounts receivable and payable, process design, documentation, customer support, IT, office management and appointment-setting.Send a resume to careers {at} abinventio.com for more details.** Special thanks to the always fabulous Robert Fisher for tips on this job description. rfisher.com

Adam Ostrow gives QLess a nice write-up that's on the front page of Mashable as I write this. Check out QLess Changes the Way You Wait in Line. 

Just go to the Qless facebook page for special photos, videos and other fans.

abInventio, Whozat and QLess signed on mPRm, the PR firm behind Overture, RealNetworks, Disney, Dolby, Fox, Viacom and the Oscars. We are proud to be working with a top-notch team including Rachel McCallister, Bret Ingraham and Natalie Yallouz.

Peter Johnston, formerly CIO for Ogilvy, the preeminent international advertising, marketing, and public relations agency and a subsidiary of WPP, the world's largest communications services group, has joined QLess. We are proud to have him among us.

Josh Kowitt, named Top 30 Entrepreneur Under 30 by Inc. magazine and former CEO of ResFridge, University Trucking and Collegeboxes Inc. joined QLess to open up our Boston offices. Welcome to the team!

This Christmas season, kids will not stand in line waiting to get their picture taken with Santa at Houston Premium Outlets. Instead, their parents will happily roam the mall with them while they wait, shopping and dining, and get a call on their cell phones from QLess when their turn to Ho Ho Ho arrives. After all, the most recognizable face in the world wants to see the children smiling for the photo.Santa will be the first to use the new QLess Teleprompter --he will never forget your kid's name again.

Keeping tabs on your business metrics has never been easier! You just have to see it.

I am most pleased to announce the appointment of Steve Glovsky as an Executive-in-Residence at ab|Inventio. In that capacity, Steve’s role is to help commercialize ab|Inventio’s technologies. Steve supports ab|Inventio’s technologists and engineers on the business side, providing corporate business development, sales, marketing and operations guidance and support.

Joe has a long history of entrepreneurship including The Desktop Factory at Idealab and deep industry expertise from his time at Lavi Industries, makers of the stanchions that keep physical lines organized at airports and other locations. Joe contacted us after seeing a demo of QLess, impressed by our potential. Welcome, Joe!

Read Jed's post here.

I'm happy to announce that qless.com has received its first big overhaul. The site encapsulates just over 1 year's worth of thoughts and efforts on trying to eliminate standing in line. Check it out at http://qless.com

Read what Stephen Dubner, the co-author of Freakonomics, had to say about us.

• Tim released QLess for Coffeeshops, Security Checkpoints, Hotels (check-in, buffet, check-out), Casinos (Poker tables, etc.), Stores and Doctor’s offices, adding to the pre-existing ones for Restaurants, Theme Parks and Nightclubs. As you can see, QLess can be rapidly customized to any vertical –anywhere where people stand in line, QLess seeks to eliminate the lines.

QLess reached a milestone this week with its first trade-show appearance at G2E, the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas. It was a great time, and a fully-decked-out booth, complete with a touch-screen kiosk, provided by our friends at SeePoint, a Funny Money Machine, provided by our friends at Unique Activities, and a beautiful spokesmodel.

Catching up on my blogging...QLess in the press again! Check it out at No More Security Checkpoint Lines? Yes, if QLess Has Its Way.

Just wait till QLess goes mainstream...

Mike is VP of Engineering of Mozilla (the maker of the browser in which this post was composed) and one of the youngest Distinguished Engineers ever at Sun Microsystems. He wrote to us:

• Tim completed the first alpha version of the QLess Merchant Web UI, to be unveiled soon.
• We are giving out an iPhone per sign-up plus a commission of 20% of the first year's revenues from that client to anyone who introduces us to a prospective QLess client (limited time offer). Target markets at www.waitinginlinesucks.com .