Finovate Spring 2011 Live Blog (Part 2)

This is a continuation of my Finovate Sprint 2011 Part 1

• Doxo – “Digital file cabinet online.” The aim is to allow consumers to go paperless. Makes it easy for consumers to pay their bills online. This could be interesting, but I think they’ve got a chicken and the egg problem. They need businesses and customers to use it.
• Arroweye Solutions – Allows consumers to personalize their credit cards. You can upload your own photos. They show a picture of a dog for example. What makes them different from other “upload your photo” systems is that they have the factory that prints these cards. I don’t know why anyone would want a personalize credit card. The only purpose I can see is to put some kind of offensive image so that you can shock the cashier at the Gap. That could be fun.
• Billeo – Hey, they’ve got an iPad app. I should sleep for the next 6 minutes and wake up at the next presentation. Their Shop Smart application brings in offers and rewards from partners such as Groupon and Living Social. They integrate social media like Facebook. From a merchant website (like Walmart), you can post a question to Facebook such as “what do you think of this barbeque?” That’s somewhat interesting, I suppose.
• ProfitStars – They create a tool called Margin Maximizer that allows financial institutions understand financial information to maximize margins. If you just said, “huh?” I’m with you on that one. If you are a CFO this may mean something to you.
• BillFloat – Pays bills for people. Sounds great right? Well it’s like a short-term loan. And you pay a fee for the service around $10 a bill. It’s better than a payday loan, but not as good as simply being financially responsible for your bills.
• WikiInvest – They are here to demo SigFig – which will be their new name in a few months. It can examine your portofolio and make some suggestions. It may see a mutual fund that has high fees and poor performance and suggest something similar that is better. They show an example of a person who is paying a $250 commission for stock trades. I didn’t think that people still paid that. This is one of the more interesting companies I’ve seen to present today.
• peerTransfer – Allows international students to pay their tuition. Also allows them to easily transfer money. This saves international students money. If this profile fits you, look up peerTransfer.
• Bill.com – Not to be confused with Bills.com which will present later in the conference. Allows companies to pay their bills online as well as streamline their paperwork. A good example is them setting up a system for Acme who sells products to Wile E. Coyote. They can do all the invoicing and handle the details for both Acme and Wile E. Coyote.
• Mint – They are showing off apps for iPhone and Android. I’m going to rant a bit here. Why not just create a mobile website? There is nothing in the app that couldn’t be in a website.