FinDEVr Early Bird Ticket Discount Ends Friday

FinDEVr Early Bird Ticket Discount Ends Friday

FinDEVrdemoshot

If you’ve been thinking of a trip to San Francisco to connect with the fintech-developer community, we have the event for you. Head to USCF’s Mission Bay campus, 6/7 October, for the second annual FinDEVr.

Not only do developers get a special, half-price ticket, everyone saves an extra $100 at the early bird ticket rate, available only through this Friday, 11 September.

The two-day, dual-track conference will be packed with more than 60 companies showcasing new tools, techniques and APIs. The final agenda is below, check here for the presenter lineup:

FinDEVrAgenda

This year’s conference is slightly different from last year’s. We’ll host presentations followed by Q&A sessions, and intersperse demoes with networking breaks.

We’ll be returning to the UCSF Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco and will see you there!

If you have any questions about the event, check out the FAQ section of the FinDEVr homepage, or contact [email protected].


FinDEVr is sponsored by Yodlee Interactive. Our event partners are the Bank Innovators Council, BankersHub, BayPay Forum, bobsguide, California Bankers Association, Celent, The CoinTelegraph, Mercator Advisory Group, and SF Fintech.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • “Last Call! FinovateFall Tickets Going … Going … “
  • “FinovateFall 2015: Mapping Fintech’s International Neighborhood”

Around the web

  • The Forrester Wave: Omnichannel Banking Solutions report recognizes Backbase as leader.
  • BizEquity signs contract with Security Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York.
  • North American retailer Newegg chooses Payoneer to simplify its cross-border payments.
  • Zopa and Nostrum Group earn spots on The Sunday Times Tech Track 100 roster.
  • Philippine bitcoin-remittance service Rebit teams up with mobile money-transfer specialist, ZipZap.
  • Let’s Talk Payments looks at Wealthfront and Betterment in a discussion on the effectiveness of robo-advisers.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Small-business Banking Strategies: Providing Peace of Mind (for a Fee)

Small-business Banking Strategies: Providing Peace of Mind (for a Fee)

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Business owners are optimists. It’s a job requirement. So whether or not a small business is currently seeking capital, most hope to grow down the road, so the POTENTIAL to tap more funding is a huge factor when selecting a bank. It’s why small businesses have long sought to establish quality relationships with community banks or larger FIs.

But in the aftermath of the 2008-to-2012 downturn and all the negative press about the “credit crunch” (both real and imagined), business owners are less confident that their bank will come through for them when they need it. That’s why banks should offer credit to ALL small- and micro-business customers. It doesn’t have to be a large amount, or free of fees, or at an APR that would make the CFPB happy (it’s commercial credit we are talking about). FIs just need to demonstrate they have their client’s back.

small_bus_bank_iconAlong the same lines, most banks could do better providing peace of mind. The most important factors are transaction/payment reliability, service quality and, probably most important these days, security. Again, it’s about the peace of mind knowing that your bank will run your account flawlessly while keeping thieves at bay. And failing that, reimburse the losses without a business disruption.

These things cost money. But the good news is that businesses understand that and will pay for it. Most growing businesses are price-insensitive when it comes to their transactional bank account. It’s just not a material expense, especially if you factor switching costs. In fact, I have long stated that I’d be happy to pay $500/mo for a business banking account with my ideal mix of banking, security and accounting services.

That said, it won’t be easy to get to three-figure monthly fees for SMB banking. Here’s a more normal example, a fictional starter business bank account priced at $50 to $60/month ($10/mo less if paperless):

  • Checking account/debit card
  • Small-biz-branded mobile-banking app
  • Security and transaction alerts
  • Outbound payments (billpay, P2P, mPay, ACH)
  • Inbound payments (ACH, P2P, cards, mPOS)
  • Bundled credit facility (line of credit and/or credit card) with overdraft protection
  • $10/mo discount to go paperless (no paper checks, no paper statements, no in-branch deposits)
  • Credit score with alerts (sourced through Credit Karma)
  • Account scanning for fraud and questionable charges (sourced through BillGuard)
  • Loan concierge to help the business find funding (via alt-lenders if needed)
  • Basic accounting/money-management tools (outsourced to Mint, FreshBooks, Expensify, etc.)
  • Commercial eBanker (email night and day with same person if possible)
  • Fraud-loss guarantee for first $5,000, then $x/mo per $10,000
  • Multifactor security using mobile phone/GPS
  • Basic business property insurance for first $5,000, then $y/mo per $10,000
——
Graphic from alt-lender Kabbage

 

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: Avoka

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: Avoka

Avoka_homepage_FF2015

The Sneak Peek series looks at the innovators demoing live on stage at FinovateFall 2015. Be sure to pick up your tickets to our annual autumn conference, and we’ll see you in New York!

Avoka_logo_FF2015A three-time Finovate Best of Show winner, Avoka will demo the world’s fastest, 3-product banking cross-sell with Transact Bundles.

Features:

With Transact Bundles, customers can apply and onboard into checking, card, and loan products with a single, digital customer-application. All in three minutes!

Why it’s great
With Avoka, onboard a customer, not just an account.

Avoka_D_Corcoran_FF2015Presenter

Derek Corcoran, Chief Experience Officer
Corcoran is a world-wide speaker, author, and adviser on digital account-opening in financial services.
LinkedIn

 

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FinovateFall Sneak Peek: Ormsby Street

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: Ormsby Street

OrmsbyStreet_homepage_FF2015

The Sneak Peek series looks at the innovators demoing live on stage at FinovateFall 2015. Be sure to pick up your tickets to our annual autumn conference, and we’ll see you in New York!

OrmsbyStreet_logo_FF2015Ormsby Street’s CreditHQ is a free tool that helps small businesses improve cash flow by better understanding the financial health of their trading partners.

Features of CreditHQ’s Insight Engine:

  • Simple “traffic-light” payment and credit indicators
  • Handy watchlist so users can monitor companies important to their business
  • Insight engine combines data and insights from over 50,000 users

Why it’s great
CreditHQ’s innovative Insight Engine is changing the face of credit management and cash-flow issues. Users of CreditHQ are over 30% less likely to fail than those who don’t use our product.

Presenter

OrmsbyStreet_M_Campbell_FF2015Martin Campbell, Managing Director
Campbell, a serial entrepreneur, has supported tech startups in London’s tech city as a mentor at the Wayra accelerator, and was Entrepreneur in Residence at the Emerge Venture Labs Accelerator at Google Campus.

 

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FinovateFall Sneak Peek: Yseop

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: Yseop

Yseop_homepage_FF2015

The Sneak Peek series looks at the innovators demoing live on stage at FinovateFall 2015. Be sure to pick up your tickets to our annual autumn conference, and we’ll see you in New York!

Yseop_logo_FF2015Yseop Smart BI’s Excel plug-in turns complex spreadsheets into written narrative and insight. With Yseop, understanding big data is as simple as clicking a button and reading.

Features of Yseop (easy-op):

  • First self-service software that writes like a human
  • Explains trends, outliers, and rationale behind recommendations
  • Writes in multiple languages, and at speeds of thousands of pages per second.

Why it’s great
Data-visualization tools can show you trends, but only Yseop Smart BI can explain what your data means, what actions to take, and why—all in real time!

Presenters

Yseop_A_Manning_FF2015Arden Manning, SVP Global Marketing
Manning has over a decade’s experience in public relations, marketing, and communications strategy. Manning has extensive experience in both the private and public sectors.
LinkedIn

 

Yseop_M_Rauscher_FF2015Matthieu Rauscher, Global Director of Pre-Sales Engineering
Rauscher has extensive experience working in the North American, Asian, and European markets. Rauscher’s technical and business administration background allow him to seamlessly interface with both technical and business worlds.
LinkedIn

 

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FinovateFall Sneak Peek: Fiserv

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: Fiserv

Fiserv_homepage_FF2015

The Sneak Peek series looks at the innovators demoing live on stage at FinovateFall 2015. Be sure to pick up your tickets to our annual autumn conference, and we’ll see you in New York!

Fiserv_logo_FF2015Fiserv delivers deep expertise and innovative solutions to help financial institutions, businesses, and consumers move and manage money faster and with greater ease than ever before.

Features of Fiserv:

  • Card-free cash withdrawal from ATM
  • Banking alerts on wearable device
  • Location services with iBeacons/BLE to identify when user is in vicinity of ATM

Why it’s great
By using proven mobile banking and payments technologies from Fiserv, financial institutions can deliver a rich and compelling banking experience across digital and physical channels.

Presenters

Fiserv_D_Carr_FF2015Andrew Barnett, Technical Sales Consultant, Principal
(not pictured)

David Carr, Innovation Manager
LinkedIn

 

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FinovateFall Sneak Peek: Eco-Mail

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: Eco-Mail

EcoMail_homepage_FF2015

The Sneak Peek series looks at the innovators demoing live on stage at FinovateFall 2015. Be sure to pick up your tickets to our annual autumn conference, and we’ll see you in New York!

Eco-Mail_logo_FF2015Eco-Mail helps businesses solve the digital mail dilemma for both inbound and outbound mail with our patented, exchange-based platform.

Features of Eco-Mail:

  • EMX Enterprise brings corporate mail-delivery distribution and workflow into the digital era
  • EMX Consumer for B2C mail enhances your digital footprint and consumer relationships.

Why it’s great
Eco-Mail brings a unique perspective to solving the digital mail dilemma. The EMX platform is the first-and-only enterprise-focused solution to digital mail.

EcoMail_J_Maller_FF2015Presenters

Jay Maller, CEO, Founder

Maller brings decades of financial services product development and process re-engineering expertise to Eco-Mail; previously, Maller was managing director at Morgan Stanley.
LinkedIn

EcoMail_R_Spinelli_FF2015Roy Spinelli, Chief Revenue Officer
Spinelli brings 15 years’ experience in ebpp, outsourced billing and payments. Prior to Eco-Mail, Spinelli served as vice president of business development and partnerships at Manilla and held senior positions at Billtrust and Online Resources.
LinkedIn

 

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FinovateFall Sneak Peek: Novabase

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: Novabase

Novabase_homepage_FF2015

The Sneak Peek series looks at the innovators demoing live on stage at FinovateFall 2015. Be sure to pick up your tickets to our annual autumn conference, and we’ll see you in New York!

Novabase_logo_FF2015Novabase is presenting Wizzio and MyWizzio powered by IBM Watson which empowers financial advisers to drive sales and productivity, while creating a more fluid and lasting conversation with clients.

Features:

  • Intelligent ecosystem of apps and widgets
  • IBM Watson to extend financial advisers’ abilities
  • Mix of client self-service and direct-to-adviser engagement

Why it’s great
It’s not about replacing the financial adviser, it’s about leveraging cognition and IBM Watson to radically empower her and her clients for more meaningful and efficient engagement.

PNovabase_P_Gaspar_FF2015resenters

Pedro Gaspar, Director of Innovation
Gaspar quote: “Only dead fish follow the stream”
LinkedIn

 

Novabase_J_Wong_FF2015

Jay Wong, Senior Business Developer
Wong quote: “Be like water”
LinkedIn

 

 

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FinovateFall Sneak Peek: Auvenir

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: Auvenir

Auvenir_homepage_FF2015

The Sneak Peek series looks at the innovators demoing live on stage at FinovateFall 2015. Be sure to pick up your tickets to our annual autumn conference, and we’ll see you in New York!

Auvenir_logo_FF2015Auvenir uses advanced technology to transform how financial audits are performed, empowering auditors, enhancing quality/efficiency, and raising the trust and confidence in our financial markets.

Features of Auvenir:

  • Intuitive design for audit clients to easily prepare for financial audits
  • Powerful technology automatically confirms audit documentation
  • Auditors are enabled to focus more on professional judgement and deeper insights

Why it’s great
Auvenir will empower the auditor by augmenting 90% of the mundane tasks in a financial audit, significantly improving both efficiency and quality.

Auvenir_P_Meyers_FF2015Presenters

Pete Myers, CEO
A seasoned entrepreneur with more than 18 years’ experience building and growing diverse, small- to medium-sized businesses across the globe, Myers brings strategic leadership to Bay Street Labs.
LinkedIn

Auvenir_J_Felske_FF2015Jon Felske, CTO
Felske has over a dozen years of experience in developing technology, and working in R&D. A lifetime entrepreneur, he started his first company at age 14 and has been on the founding team of 6+ startups.
LinkedIn

 

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Finovate Debuts: Hip Pocket Generates Qualified Mortgage Leads While Boosting Engagement

Finovate Debuts: Hip Pocket Generates Qualified Mortgage Leads While Boosting Engagement

Hip_Pocket_homepage_Aug2015

Hip Pocket is a web-based app that helps consumers compare their mortgage rate with that of their peers and the bank’s current rate. The white-label solution leverages the popularity of financial calculators and other interactive financial tools to give potential borrowers the best chance at securing a mortgage that is right for them.

For Mark Zmarzly, CEO and founder, the average person’s spirit of competition and sense of fairness are powerful tools to encourage people to look for better financial opportunities. And Zmarzly believes that banks and credit unions that provide these tools will build trust with new and existing customers alike over the long run.

Hip_Pocket_stage_FS2015

From left: Todd Cramer, Hip Pocket’s head of design, and Mark Zmarzly, CEO, founder, demonstrated their Mortgage Comparison Software at FinovateSpring 2015 in San Jose.

“Of the hundreds of banks we talked to,” Zmarzly said, “all said they want more online engagement, they want lead gen, and that their online calculators were one of their most powerful and most-visited tools on their website.” The problem? All of the calculators were self-service.

Hip Pocket eliminates that pain-point, he explained, automating the self-service calculators and providing the user with personalized, custom savings “without making them work for it.” And with version 1.0 launched in July 2014, Hip Pocket came to San Jose this spring to debut Version 2.o of this mortgage-comparison solution.

Hip_Pocket_Art0Company facts:

  • Founded in June 2013
  • Headquartered in Lincoln, Nebraska
  • Raised $110,000
  • Has three employees

How Hip Pocket works

Zmarzly says his experience years ago in auto financing helped tip him off to the idea that educating borrowers on their rate options is not only a good service, but also can be part of an effective customer-engagement strategy. “I used to look for people who were overpaying,” he explained. “But there was no practical way to provide rate-comparisons for thousands of borrowers via direct mail.” It was something, however, that could be done digitally, and that was where the idea of Hip Pocket was born.

Hip Pocket lets users compare their current mortgage with both the mortgage products offered by the hosting bank or credit union, as well as with “a unique, unbiased, peer group” based on age, location, marital status, and credit rating.

Hip_Pocket_Art2After entering that demographic information, users add their current rate, value of their home, loan balance, and number of years left on the mortgage. Zmarzly says that with these eight data points, Hip Pocket is able to provide peer and product comparisons, as well as overall market intelligence when the anonymous data is aggregated.

Hip Pocket also achieves low abandonment rates. “Keeping the process simple at just eight data points, yields a nice 84% completion ratio once someone starts the engagement,” Zmarzly said.

Hip Pocket uses natural conversational language and social comparisons to encourage users to action. Messages such as “More than 7 out of 10 people have a better deal than you” and “You pay $10,629 more interest than your peers” are designed to appeal to the user’s sense of both competition and fairness. Zmarzly says this combination allows people to “apply an emotional reason (to) back up a logical reason.”

Hip_Pocket_Art3“Fairness is a big emotion,” he said. “It’s a reason why people make decisions, especially financial decisions.”

Hip Pocket then lets the user see how much he or she could save per month, per year, and over the life of the loan if they refinance with the hosting bank or credit union. This is followed by a specific offer with the rate, a call to action, and preferred contact method.

Users who learn that their rates are better than their peers, are encouraged to share their good fortune with their peers via social media. Zmarzly said that even if this does not result in a new refinancing, it helps build the kind of trust he fears banks and other FI’s have lost in recent years.

The technology is relatively straightforward. The calculator, Zmarzly said, is a “super-simple java script that goes right on the website.” He says the simplicity is all by design: “We wanted easy and fluid so they can make changes later.” The data is available instantly via API. “No uninstall process if they want out,” Zmarzly said.

Hip_Pocket_Art4The future

As one FinovateSpring observer suggested, the challenge for Hip Pocket may be the willingness of lenders to actively compete on rates. To this end, Zmarzly intends to keep the app both diversified and FI-plentiful. “The more data we get, the more we’ll be able to maximize the flow of what goes through,” he said. “More institutions (means) more data.” Currently targeting community banks, especially at the $5 billion-and-above mark, Zmarzly is also keen to partner with credit unions and even PFM partners. “Distribution is our focus,” he said.

Looking forward, Zmarzly envisions companion products such as the retirement-comparison solution the company launched shortly after Hip Pocket’s Finovate debut. The key is a relationship in which both the consumer and the bank gain. “Consumers need context for (banks) to establish value and trust,” he said. He cited a recent survey in which 69% of respondents said that when banks asked for personal data, it was for the bank’s benefit, and never delivers value to the consumer.

Zmarzly said, “That is where Hip Pocket can help.”


Check out the FinovateSpring 2015 demo video for Hip Pocket below.

FinDEVr Preview: Forte Payment Systems

FinDEVr Preview: Forte Payment Systems

FinDEVr2015LogoV2DateFinDEVr Previews highlight companies presenting new developer tools, platforms and integrations at FinDEVr 2015 San Francisco, 6/7 Oct. Early bird savings end Friday, so pick up your tickets today.

Forte Payment Systems will showcase its new platform that empowers developers with the resources to build the next generation of payments-enabled solutions. Spanning the widest spectrum of capabilities in the marketplace, Forte’s payment solutions provide the flexibility to power even the most unique business needs across any channel.

ForteHomepage

Why it’s a must-see

Learn about interesting and unique capabilities that developers can leverage to build solutions for traditional and emerging business models such as marketplaces and the new shared economy.


Check out more of today’s FinDEVr previews: