Lazy Man and Money

What’s Hot and What’s Not from Finovate 2012

by 4 Comments

On Monday, I mentioned that I was going to Finovate for the fifth time, but for the first time I had reservations as to whether the event would be worth going to. When I started going, most of the companies were creating products that you, the consumer could sign up and use right away. Every year Mint, Credit Karma, Lending Club, Prosper would show up. There were companies like Wesabe that didn’t make it and companies like Money Strands that are technically still around, but whose blog has one post in the past year and a half. In fact there were so many PFMs (that’s personal finance management software applications) that I just started summarizing them as, “another Mint.”

Last year around half of the companies at Finovate were marketing their products to financial institutions. Their pitch was, “That’s our demo. If you represent a bank, please come to our booth and invest and/or partner with us.” It’s disheartening to see something interesting only to find that I can’t write about it because people can’t use it.

Yesterday I went to the show with SVB from The Digerati Life and watched 32 companies present demos of their products. Only five struck me as being of possible interest to people who aren’t bankers looking to invest in other companies. I never would have imagined I’d long for the days of writing “another Mint” in my notes.

Here’s a countdown of those top 5:

5. Expense and Itinerary Tracking – There were two companies that seemed to do the exact same thing: Concur and Expensify. They take the paper receipts and turn them into digital ones, making the reporting much easier. This year each company added itinerary tracking to their platforms. Concur bought TripIt, a company I had heard of before and Expensify developed their own solution in house.

4. iQuantifi – This company is has four employees and it is just getting started. They are another personal finance management software company (like Mint). What caught my attention is their goal engine. The user creates goals such as buy a new car or buy a new house and the software creates a saving plan for you. You can drag the new car up, but you’ll need to save more and/or push the new house back. It looked like a great visualization and budgeting tool. While the company is in its very earliest stages, it has promise.

3. Personal Capital – They were launching an iPhone application that seems to do everything you’d ever want in a personal finance application. They showed off integration of many bank and investing accounts and the ability to move money between them easily. I would have ranked it higher, but an HTML5 mobile website would have been preferred so that everyone with a smartphone can use the product.

2. WattzOn – Their software analyzes your energy use and gives you tips on saving money. I wrote about this on Monday and one commenter made the point that their software wasn’t very helpful for them. I’m still giving them second place, because the concept is good. Their management is smart, and if their software doesn’t work for everyone now, it should evolve and be a good resource for consumers for years.

1. BillGuard – This company allows people to flag questionable charges in their bills. BillGuard uses this input from many people (crowdsourcing at its finest), and lets you know if you have questionable charges on your bill. They were at the show to announce something even more helpful: a transaction resolution center. They’ll dispute the charges for you. Lazy-approved!

Day 2 of Finovate is going on as I post this. However, SVB and I decided not to go today. It simply didn’t make much sense when a vast majority of the companies don’t apply to your audience. After yesterday, I gett the feeling that we’re just missing 15 more companies who help people send money from one person to another via a mobile app.

Finovate, Pop Culture, and Personal Finance Links

by 2 Comments

The big news this week is that it is Finovate Spring. For those who don’t know what it is, it is a conference with a number of financial companies (usually start-ups) demoing their products. This is where the Mints get born for example. It’s a two conference, Tuesday and Wednesday, and I hope to live blog a large portion of it. I stress the word hope, because it moves along really fast. Demos are usually kept to some ridiculous time like 5 minutes when the projector is timed to shut off. Net Banker, who organizes Finovate, doesn’t mess around. There seems to be 64 companies presenting, though I noticed that a number are ones that you as a consumer are not likely to care about. One company who makes plastics for credit cards wanted to know if I wanted to interview their CEO. (I passed.) So that’s something to look forward to this week.

Before I get to the links, here are some pop culture thoughts. (I know that’s why you come here.)

  • Went to the Drive-In this Weekend – As part of a pre-mother’s day gift for my wife, I agreed to take her to see the movie of her favorite book – Something Borrowed. Like all movies at my drive-in it was a double feature. The $6.50 per person ticket included a viewing of Prom as well. I thought I’d give you a quick review – perhaps more so for other men who find themselves in a similar situation as I did.

    Something Borrowed – I was prepared to hate this movie. It had typical “chick flick” written all over it… and that’s really what it is. However, it moved fast enough and had enough little twists to keep me interested. Usually, I can pick out the character who is being the jackwagon causing all the problems. In this movie I found myself shifting the blame through the three major characters. The only problem I found with the movie is about halfway through I solved everyone’s problems by suggesting they all live in the house in Westchester together in a non-platonic Three’s Company. I received a dirty look from my wife for that comment. If you are a guy and getting dragged to this movie, keep your chin up, there’s a lot worse out there.

    Prom – Since this essentially came free with Something Borrowed, we figured it was worth it. My wife made the point that it should have been on television like High School Musical. The budget on IMDB had it pegged at $8M – which is next to nothing. For that you don’t get any A-list actors. We were hoping for the girls from Pretty Little Liars, but that didn’t happen. I can only guess the money went into the soundtrack, which wasn’t bad. The movie revolved around several couples and the trials and tribulations surrounding the high school prom. The couples aren’t friends and for the most part their stories are segregated with little overlap. Each story is something that you’ve seen in some other movie such as Say Anything or 10 Things I Hate About You. As a 35-year-old male, it wasn’t exactly my thing, but for the right audience it fills a niche. I should note, that if you happen to be a dog, you might like this movie. Our dog was glued to it for the first 25 minutes, which is the first time he’s watched any movie or television. Also, for the budget, it will make Disney money.

    Oh and for regular readers who thought that I’ve been hiding a child on them with the whole Mother’s Day thing, don’t worry. My wife is a mother to our dog, so I let that qualify.

  • Katy Perry’s E.T. Sounds Familiar – For the second week in a row, I’m writing about a Katy Perry song. That’s somewhat significant since I didn’t write about what I thought was her best song, the one about Las Vegas or the one that most people would expect me to write about, I Kissed a Girl. (Oh wait, I did write about that song.) I was in the car with my wife when her latest single E.T. came on the radio. I didn’t realize at first it was Katy Perry though I’ve heard the song before. I asked my wife and she confirmed it was Katy Perry. I then said, “Something’s familiar about this song. I’ve heard it before.” I just have an uncomfortable feeling about the song. I decided to do an internet search as see what I could find about it. It turns out that nearly a million other bloggers beat me to it and made note that it is essentially T.a.T.u.’s All the Things She Said. I’ll give you just one example of one of the blog posts that allows you hear both songs on YouTube.

Now let’s get to those links:

Money Writers:

Top PF Posts:

Live from Finovate Startup 2009 – Introduction

by 4 Comments

Like last year’s Live Blogging from Finovate, I’ll be giving it another shot this year… and by “this year”, I really mean today. For those not familiar with Finovate Startup, it’s a convention of startup companies around banking and finance held in San Francisco.

Finovate Startup has always interested me. Other bloggers have asked me again and again why I’d want to cover it. I think the better question is why I wouldn’t want to cover it. It’s about 20 miles away from where I live. It has relevant personal finance companies presenting. Companies that you may have heard of like Lending Club, Mint, Prosper, Wesabe, Credit Karma, and a whole lot more. Lastly, they provide free food, free drinks, some smaller swag, and for blogger admission is essentially free. The only thing that I don’t like is that you have to wake up at banker’s hours – ugh.

The other thing that I really like about Finovate is the pace. If you snooze, you lose. Since there are over 50 companies presenting, each one is limited to 5 minutes. On top of that, there are booths outside where you can meet and greet all the companies that recently presented. To add to the chaos, over a dozen companies’ PR firms have contacted me asking if I’d like to interview the CEO. As you might imagine there’s very little time to do this. This puts me in the unusual situation of telling the CEO, “No, it’s not going to happen.” To be honest I get a strange pleasure out of this :-).

I’ll also be trying to keep you updated via my Twitter account. This may be less formal… Expect to see comments like: “Company X looks impressive”, “the lunch is pretty good here”, or “I just met Ramit from I Will Teach You To Be Rich.” As you might imagine, the most interesting Tweets are likely to be expected about 45-60 minutes into the open bar.

Arter that I’m off to a dinner sponsored by Thrive. Some other bloggers will be there: The Digerati Life, RateLadder.com, and Stop Buying Crap. Also at dinner will be Prosper – fresh from announcing they are back in business.

It will be an interesting exercise in multi-tasking for me. I’ll have my laptop going without wifi (to save the battery for the whole day), my cellphone to Twitter (battery shouldn’t be a problem), and my notebook for other notes (though I may pass that up and take notes directly with the laptop. I expect the Twitter to fall a little short and the live blogging to be closer to 10 Tweet-sized thoughts on companies grouped together.

I know I’ll be biting a lot, we’ll see how much I can chew.

Live Blogging from Finovate Startup

by 2 Comments

Today, I’m gong to attempt to live blog from Finovate Start-up. I’ve got my pink Asus Eee in tow.

Here are some things to expect:

  • Many Typos – I haven’t gotten used to this keyboard yet.
  • Short Notes – Each company has just five minutes to demo its product. Since I grew up on MTV this shouldn’t be a problem ““ as long as there are hair bands, pyrotechnics, and Tawny dancing on the hood of a car.
  • Me Fallen Asleep – I had to get up at 5:30 this morning for 7:00AM registration. It seems that they’ve stressed the “finance” part of this more than the “start-up” part.
  • Mini Blogger Meet-up – I have confirmation that the following blogs will be represented, I Will Teach You To Be Rich, Wisebread, RateLadder.com.

I’d like to thank Netbanker for the free press pass ““ it seems there is such a thing as a free lunch.

Finovate Start-up: What Would You Ask Vestopia, SmartHippo and other companies?

by 7 Comments

finovatestartup.gifThis Tuesday, I’m heading to Finovate Start-up hosted by Jim Bruene of NetBanker fame. There are a ton of companies presenting there. Some of the highlights that I’m looking forward to are Buxfer, Loanio (are they ever going to launch), Mint, Prosper, SmartyPig, Wesabe, Zecco, Zopa. I’m disappointed that Geezeo isn’t going to be there. Lending Club bowed out, which is reasonable considering their quiet period.

I’d like to single out Vestopia and SmartHippo (not to be confused with SmartyPig or my upcoming start-up SmarterBoar). These companies have contacted me for one-on-one interviews. I’ve been able to secure a time with Vestopia, but I’m still waiting to hear back from SmartHippo. Other companies have tried to set up meetings with me, but since I don’t know what to expect, I’m trying not to over-extend myself.

I could really use your help coming up with questions for Vestopia and SmartHippo. I’m not very familiar with them, other than what I read on their websites, so you can figure out what I can. As best I can tell, Vestopia let’s you follow what Investment Directors are buying and selling – alerting you about the trade right away within 15 seconds of them doing it. There is a whole community aspect to the site as well. SmartHippo seems to be a community reporting mortgage rates from community members. I look forward to finding the value that this community provides, I found that I did extremely well doing a search for mortgages on Bank Rate. Maybe I got a lucky though.

So if you have questions that you want me to ask these companies – or any others, leave a comment or contact me. If there’s a company that you’d like to know more about, let me know and I’ll try to attend their product demo.