Announcing FinovateSpring 2013 — Come see Silicon Valley’s best fintech innovations debut live in May 2013!

btn2_ov.png

Today, we’re very excited to announce that FinovateSpring 2013, our San Francisco showcase of the best new fintech ideas from Silicon Valley will take place on May 14-15 next year.

In 2012, the conference grew almost 50% to 1,200 innovators eager to see the future of fintech debut live on stage via our fast-paced, demo-only format. For 2013, we expect the conference to be even bigger and better!

If you want to relive the demos from FinovateSpring 2012 to whet your appetite for next year, they’re all available free in the Finovate Demo Video Archives

If you’re curious the type of people you’d meet at the conference, please check out this small list of sample organizations that attended FinovateSpring 2012.

Tickets for the event are now on sale at the low “pre-sale” price of $995 ($400 off list price). We’re expecting a packed house so please lock in your seat now to guarantee your ability to attend (and these savings).

We’ll see you in San Francisco in May (or Singapore in November)!

FinovateSpring 2013 is sponsored by: Financial Technology Partners and more to be announced

Announcing FinovateSpring 2013 — Come see Silicon Valley’s best fintech innovations debut live in May 2013!

btn2_ov.png

Today, we’re very excited to announce that FinovateSpring 2013, our San Francisco showcase of the best new fintech ideas from Silicon Valley, will take place on May 14 and 15 of next year.

In 2012, the conference grew almost 50% to 1,200 innovators eager to see the future of fintech debut live on stage via our fast-paced, demo-only format. For 2013, we expect the conference to be even bigger and better!

If you want to relive the demos from FinovateSpring 2012 to whet your appetite for next year, they’re all available free in the Finovate Demo Video Archives

If you’re curious the type of people you’d meet at the conference, please check out this small list of sample organizations that attended FinovateSpring 2012.

Tickets for the event are now on sale at the low “pre-sale” price of $995 ($400 off list price). We’re expecting a packed house so please lock in your seat now to guarantee your ability to attend (and these savings).

We’ll see you in San Francisco in May (or Singapore in November)!

FinovateSpring 2013 is sponsored by: Financial Technology Partners and more to be announced

Nutmeg Launches Out of Private Beta

Thumbnail image for NutmegLogo.jpg

London-based Nutmeg, a startup that provides private investment management services to the public, launched out of private beta yesterday.

With a minimum investment of £1,000 ($1,613), U.K. residents over the age of 18 can use Nutmeg’s platform to help them choose the best portfolio balance. According to the Wall Street Journal blog:

“Users joining the service complete a financial profile including assets, income and expenditure, as well as a financial personality profile. For each fund a user sets a target sum to be raised, when they need it, how much, and how often, they want to invest, and the level of risk they are prepared to take.”

All funds are held by The Bank of New York Mellon.

To learn more about Nutmeg, watch its FinovateEurope 2012 demo.

Finovate Alumni News– October 8, 2012

  • Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgCU Insight reports CU Solutions Group partners with SaveUp.
  • mFoundry announces cloud-based Fin.X solution.
  • Taulia featured on Start-ups and Technology: Real Game-Changers presented by SAP.
  • Kashoo CEO, Jim Secord, gives company update.
  • AOL Daily Finance reports Dynamics and UMB increase experience provider rate to 0.5% for ePlate payment system.
  • Business Insider goes behind the scenes of LearnVest’s latest product launch.
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.

Chase Bank’s Remodel: The Death of the “Swiss Army Knife” Banking Homepage?

chase mobile logo reflection.jpg

I’m still digesting Chase’s radical homepage
redesign (see screenshots 1 & 2). While I love the focus
on just three product messages, devoting 50% of the page (above the fold
even
) to the login button seems like a lost opportunity. Perhaps it’s a
temporary welcome area to ease users back onto the site.

chase dropdown.jpg

Only existing customers get the half-screen
login. Non-customers get an additional marketing message on about two-thirds of that
space (see screenshot 3).

The new site looks great on an iPad (portrait or landscape), but it’s not
served to iPhone users at this point. They still see the ultra-trim mobile
screen <m.chase.com>. 

The bank has drastically reduced navigation options. A single tab called
Products & Services launches a dropdown box with links to all the
product areas (see inset).

A second tab, Why Chase?, lays out the major benefits, the
missing tab
at most banking sites. And the final tab, which seems completely
redundant, causes a drop-down login box to appear.

Although I missed it initially, Chase has not done away with the
Personal/Business/Commercial designations. Tiny links in the upper left
allow users to head to the appropriate business version. Biz services are also
listed on the Products & Services dropdown (bottom of inset).

Bottom line: Chase has moved past trying to be all things to
all people on the homepage. That’s huge, and I hope it becomes a trend. Both
Citi and Bank of America have taken similar
paths recently. But Citi uses
striking photography
in the background to give it a more luxurious feel
(as does Salem
Five
). And Bank of America exposes more product areas across the top
(Bank, Borrow, Invest, Protect, Plan).

All in all, I applaud the streamlining after what must have been an epic
battle. But I don’t think the bank has completely hit the mark. Make it an A-  

——————————

1. Chase Bank homepage on first visit (4
Oct 2012; with customer cookies; via PC Chrome browser
)

Chase new site 1.jpg

2. Return visit
Note: Welcome to
our New Home Page replaced with Slate credit-card promo (lower-link portion of
page remains the same and is not shown below)

chase new site 2.jpg

3. Chase Bank homepage with no customer
cookies

chase newsite 3.jpg

4. Landing page explaining changes (link)

chase newpage lander.jpg


ShopKeep POS partners with BlueStar to Distribute Cloud-Based Point-of-Sale Solution

Thumbnail image for ShopkeepPOSLogo.jpg

Cloud-based point-of-sale system, ShopKeep POS, announced today that it has partnered with BlueStar, a distributor of mobility, POS, RFID, digital signage, and security technology solutions.

Through this partnership, ShopKeep POS is able to provide a complete POS system, with software and hardware that uses BlueStar’s bundled “In-A-Box” offerings.

It also gives ShopKeep POS access to more resellers. Now, 16,000 resellers across the U.S. will be able to buy the cloud-based solution directly from BlueStar and join the 3,000 locations that already use it.

To learn more about ShopKeep POS, watch its FinovateFall 2012 demo.

Finovate Alumni News– October 5, 2012

Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpg

  • Ping Identity teams with Criterion Systems to develop secure consumer cloud ID ecosystem.
  • TIO Networks retains Hayden IR to develop strategic US investor relations program.
  • Kapitall and Wired unveil the Social Index.
  • Dwolla releases major updates to its API.
  • Check Point positioned as a Leader in the 2012 Magic Quadrant for Mobile Data Protection.
  • The Next Web lists Fee Fighters as a startup in a small business tech trend space.
  • Business Insider names Wonga and Klarna to its 2012 Digital 100 List.
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.

CIO Interview: John Waupsh of BancVue

BancVueLogo.jpg

This month, we interviewed John Waupsh, Chief Innovation Officer and Creative Director of BancVue, to get an inside scoop on the Austin-based company.
BancVue has demoed at FinovateStartup 2008Finovate 2009 and FinovateSpring 2011. It took home Best of Show titles all three times.

waupshIMG.jpg

Finovate: What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made at BancVue and how did you fix it? 
Waupsh: I started FIRST ROI (now part of BancVue) as a young, immature bull in a china shop. In many ways, I’m still that same guy, just with grey hair. I like to think I learn a little bit each time I make a mistake, but each week I seem to have another… um… growing opportunity. 
One of the biggest errors I made was failing to realize I could indeed trust others as much as I trust my long-time best friend, teammate and CEO of BancVue, Gabe Krajicek. 
As an entrepreneur, you do everything yourself (or, in our case, with a very small team). You trust each other because you’re winging it together. You make mistakes, tweak and you recover together. It’s very exciting. 
But it’s not scalable. We want BancVue to be a world-class, significant company. That means there is no room for brilliant jerks. Each person must feed in to the company, and own its output. It sounds easy, but I can tell you, as one of those guys who was the somewhat-brilliant jerk, it isn’t an easy transition. And the transition itself is quite humbling.
Because, if you’re doing it right, as the company grows, you add literally hundreds of very talented experts. Each person is 100x smarter than you with 100x the wizardry. 
You need to have faith in people you don’t know. You need to trust that the brilliant people you hired will hire people more brilliant than themselves who will all be focused on making tomorrow better than today. Usually it works great. Sometimes it doesn’t pan out. And other times, those you thought you knew well turn around and stab you in the gut. 
Despite the bumps, you need to trust that the company’s goals, values and mission grow deep within your teammates. 
That’s a lot of faith and trust. You may find yourself second-guessing people. That’s wrong. Distrust breeds anxiety, stress and confusion. It’s terrible for the culture. 
Just speaking honestly, trusting my teammates are in it to win it as much as I am has proven especially challenging for me throughout the years. 
Foolish, indeed.
We have an extraordinary team filled with remarkably experienced people who have done it before in big ways. They get it. They are a tight group of the most forthright, intelligent, and dynamic individuals I have ever met. I’m learning to trust them as much as I trust my best friend. And perhaps more importantly, they’re learning to trust me. 
Finovate: If you were hired to run technology for a top-5 global bank, what’s the first thing you’d do? 
Waupsh: Quit. 
For why, I’m going to paraphrase our CEO, Gabe Krajicek, who says it best: “Vibrant, capitalistic competition (in contrast to monopolistic or excessively regulated competition) drives the best outcome for consumers. 99 times out of 100, the person with the best solution also has the most close-up view of the problem. Bureaucracy, though sometimes a necessary evil, is often downright evil. One can rob the passion from an individual by making a person feel impotent to create meaningful change. By robbing the passion of a group people, you rob it from their organization, their communities, their country.  
Money is a proxy for power. Community FIs represent the best and perhaps the only viable means by which we could reverse the current trend of more and more power (money) being aggregated in the hands of a few giant companies. Capitalism works best when it is not just a fight among a few juggernauts (who can all too easily manifest their own destiny at the expense of others), but instead an efficient, flurry of diverse, decentralized competitive forces.”    
You know, on second thought, gimme the reigns to that mega bank’s technology team! I’m not a technologist. I’d wreck their shop from the inside within a month.
Finovate: How many branches does BancVue count as clients? What is the aggregate amount of assets held at those branches? How many FI members does BancVue reach through those branches?
Waupsh: BancVue clients represent over 4,500 branches, $245B in assets, with 2MM hardworking Americans holding BancVue-powered accounts (BancVue clients have quite a bit more total accountholders, 2MM of which are BancVue-powered). That’s a big network. Most of them will soon Kasasa. 
In just a few years, when we have 1,000 Kasasa institutions, we will have the largest reach of any bank in the country. Our network’s lending will be more powerful (since it will be decentralized), our consumers will finally be getting what they deserve from their banking relationship, and our institutions will once again be the go-to for banking products and services. Kasasa will deliver a renaissance of banking done right.
Come to think of it, dang… Community banks and credit unions who don’t Kasasa may be in the same sad canoe as the big banks.
Finovate: Tell us about how you came to have a passion for financial technology.
Waupsh: If you’ve ever read my tweets at Finovate, which I know you do secretly, I have a negative passion for financial technology. “FinTech” should be renamed “SLAP” (Solution Looking for A Problem). It’s no longer as ugly as it used to be, but holy moly, so much of this stuff is fairly useless. 
Well that was harsh. But understand I’m not slighting the hardworking people in FinTech. I do believe these are all very smart people doing some interesting stuff, but often it’s put in the context of what a bank IT guy or an ascot-adorned brilliant jerk wants vs. real consumer need. 
My long-time friend, who is also the producer on the 2013 Kasasa broadcast campaign, has often quoted his mentor, Alexander MacKendrick, as saying “The audience owes us nothing.” What a profound statement.
BancVue doesn’t see itself as a FinTech company. We are a consumer company that intrinsically understands the audience owes us nothing. 
So why do I attend Finovate? I love the people. I love the companies. I love the technology. Therein, the Waupsh paradox. 
Finovate: Why should competitors fear BancVue?
Waup
sh: 
Kasasa. If all of the current Kasasa institutions were one bank, they’d be approaching the 10th largest FI in the country based on number of branches. At Kasasa’s current rate of growth, it will soon be in the top five. 
Unlike the megas who use their scale to consolidate money and power, we use Kasasa’s scale to liberate it. Each account holder is not just a depositor; they are a little nugget of power. Power not aggregated in one place, but instead held by community FIs who use that power to make the communities they love a better place to live.
Those who are like-minded need not “fear” us, but join us. Kasasa is a tremendous win for community banks and credit unions, and even more so for accountholders. We’re looking for like-minded companies (including those outside of FinTech) who would like to shake things up and take Kasasa to the next level for our accountholders. 
Finovate: Finish this sentence: If I weren’t Chief Innovation Officer or Creative Director at BancVue, I would be…..
Waupsh: Chief Father Officer of my daughter Lowen. She is my universe.
Finovate: What is one lesson you have learned from the recession?
Waupsh: Never underestimate American ingenuity. Good and bad, we are a clever people. I have seen there’s lots more good than bad in this country. Now, if our government could trust us businesses enough to get out of our way, we’d be a lot better off. Hmmm… There’s something ironic there… Is USA simply a start-up going through its learn-to-trust phase? Obama: read my answer to #1.
Finovate: What is the career accomplishment you’re most proud of?
Waupsh:It’s an unfinished accomplishment, but… Being part of the team that is truly making a difference to households across America. Our Kasasa FIs have given over $60 million in interest and ATM refunds to people based not on the size of their balance (like typical banking), but based on the consumers’ willingness to adopt technology. This concept of our FIs treating everyone the way most banks treat only the very wealthy, is a very deeply rooted component of Kasasa. 
Kasasa institutions make a profound impact in the lives of everyday people. I think each member of the BancVue team strives to make that their legacy.
Finovate: What is one thing you’re trying to do better?
Waupsh:BancVue is a very diverse, cross-functional team of 300 uniquely talented people working very closely together to achieve one mission. When you interact daily with artists, system architects, CFO-types, writers, developers, engineers, product owners, sales, brand people, etc, you’re dealing with a cornucopia of personalities. I’ve learned that when you can engage with all of these different types of personas, you get amazing results. 
So, I’m working hard to get there. I’m working with a remarkable executive coach who helps me understand my own self, and how I can interact best with the various communication patterns, personalities, etc across our team. It’s transformative.
Finovate: What is one decision you wish you could do over? 
Waupsh: Knowing what we know now, I think we as an executive team would have pushed the idea of Kasasa to our clients years earlier. The first few years of Kasasa involved lots of testing and learning – millions of dollars of testing and learning – and now we’ve got it rocking. 
The virtue of Kasasa both at the FI- and the consumer-level is undeniable. It is now very clear to us that the ONLY way for a community FI to survive and thrive over the next several years will be to team up with Kasasa. 
I fear that many slow-to-join-Kasasa community FIs will soon find themselves in the same boat as travel agencies, Blockbuster, Kodak, etc. That will be catastrophic for our economy and our awesome America. 
Stay tuned for another leadership interview next month on the Finovate blog.

Finovate Alumni News– October 4, 2012

Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpg

  • UPS Store launches small biz solutions portal, Kabbage to join group of service providers.
  • Cognizant and Monitise form mobile money alliance to help global FIs capitalize on mobile money opportunity.
  • Credit Union National Association reports: 150+ CUs sign up for Mitek mobile deposit.
  • PYMNTS reports Doxo puts new spin on QR codes, mobile payments.
  • PC Magazine profiles BellaDati. Come to FinovateAsia to see its live demo.
  • IDTheft 911 covers more than 17.5 million households (more than 45 million individuals) and more than 600,000 businesses in U.S. and Canada.
  • Fast Company examines how Dwolla works.
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.

Finovate Alumni Bring in Funding

Over the past month, we’ve had four Finovate alums receive funding. Here they are in alphabetical order:

Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for BannoLogo3.jpg

Banno
Funding: $2 million
Investors: Iowa Economic Development Authority’s Innovation Acceleration Fund and private sector loan 
Funding total: $2.5 million
Funding purpose: Hire talent, upgrade data center infrastructure
Headquarters: Cedar Falls, IA
Founded: 2008
FinovateFall 2012 demo video

Thumbnail image for BettermentLogo8.25.jpg

Investors: Menlo Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Anthemis Group
Funding total: $13 million
Funding purpose: Improve the mobile experience, add better options for short term goals, and create new ways to encourage people to make the most of their money
Headquarters: NYC, New York
Founded: 2008

Thumbnail image for edoInteractiveLogo.jpg

Investors: VantagePoint Capital Partners, Baird Venture Partners, and other existing investors
Funding total: $54 million
Funding purpose: Expand reach of local offers technology
Headquarters: Nashville, TN
Founded: 2007

Thumbnail image for Fuze_Network1Logo.jpg

Investors: Ribbit Capital, Matrix Partners
Funding total: $5 million
Headquarters: Salt Lake City, UT
Founded: 2009

Launching: Automatic Location-and-Merchant-Based Prepaid-Card Reloading with Spending Controls

image That’s a lot of buzzwords in one title, but they’re all necessary to describe the payment innovation being tested by MoviePass.

MoviePass is a new service designed to do for physical movie theatres what Netflix did for rentals, turning movie-going into an all-you-can-eat subscription service. For $25 to $40/mo (depending on where you live), MoviePass allows you to attend as many movies as you like (but no more than once per day; note 1).

However, the company has had trouble getting theatres on board, who are rightly concerned about cannibalization. So the startup has been working on ways to get around the need to have theater partners. They tried in-home voucher printing, but it proved cumbersome and still required some level of theatre participation.

So MoviePass invented a clever workaround using a proprietary prepaid debit card. The new system allows subscribers to go to any movie at any theatre in the country, as long as they accept debit/credit cards. The service is in private beta with 1,500 users. You can add your name to the 75,000-person wait list here.

MoviePass iphone app Here’s how it works:

1. User goes to the theatre location and checks in using the MoviePass app (inset). The check-in only works within 100 yards of the theatre.

2. MoviePass then adds the price of the movie to its prepaid card.

3. Consumer walks to the window and purchases a ticket with the MoviePass card using up the entire balance (note 2).

It’s a clever mashup of GPS, point of sale, mobile and payment technologies.

Relevance: No word on who’s powering the card, but hopefully we’ll see it used in other applications. It could be a solution for youth spending (parents preapprove locations/amounts), employee purchases (employers preapprove locations/amounts), or rewards/offers (money appears on your card only when you check in at specific locations).

——————————–

Notes:
1. Clearly, the company won’t be able to make a return at $40/mo unless they cut deals with theatres for discounts (especially to fill second-run and weeknight seats), which is the end-game here. At a cost of $5/ticket, it probably works. At $10 per ticket, movie buffs hitting theatres two to three times per week are going to kill the model.  
2. Presumably, MoviePass has controls that limit the purchase to the theatre where the checkin occurred. And it must be limiting checkins to the registered phone only, otherwise the card could be passed to friends and the biz model won’t work. I also assume MoviePass will confiscate any unused balance if the ticket price is less than what was advanced or if the customer doesn’t buy a ticket.    
3. It would be interesting if they also partnered with RedBox so you could get unlimited DVD rentals AND theatres in one monthly price.

Finovate Alumni News– October 3, 2012

  • Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgZoo names baby monkey after Kasasa.
  • Tradeshift announces interoperability agreement with OFS Portal.
  • VentureBeat profiles BellaDati. Come see BellaDati demo at FinovateAsia.
  • Deposit Accounts looks at Kasasa’s checking rewards.
  • Monitise teams up with eMerit Solutions to develop mobile payment opportunities for businesses.
  • ProfitStars introduces Gladiator Advanced Malware Protection.
  • miiCard opens API to First Global Trusted ID as a service platform.
  • Lending Club to use Oracle ERP cloud service.
  • VentureBeat reports Xero brings its accounting software to Android.
  • PYMNTS News reports: Compass Plus helps Quipu achieve 100% service availability.
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.