I have a couple friends that work there, and it's an interesting concept. Basically, their business model aims to leverage three things: access anywhere (by being online as opposed to installed software); simplicity; and FREE.

They also have some serious backing by current and former eBay, Google, Yahoo!, and Intuit execs, so they should prove to have strong reach, at least among the Bay Area technologists.

The real question is whether they have the ability to overcome the basic paranoia that the typical user will have -- "do I trust a startup to access and store all my personal financial data?" If they can overcome that obstacle, and assuming they market well in areas outside of Silicon Valley (where every Web 2.0 company is well known), I believe they can be very successful.

That said, I know of at least two other startups that have tried a similar business model (though not exactly the same) over the past five years, and neither has gotten off the ground...

 

Interesting concept. Don't think I'll move away from my financial software package tho. Just too much history.

 

Yup, that's what I kept asking myself as I cruised the site.

Actually, it's not even the fact that it's a *startup*. Would I trust *anyone* to have all my financial data in one place?

Eventually, yes.

But today or next week?

Probably not.

That being said, though-- this is a great idea.

If they can address the security concerns, even if they go to pay for play, they'll have a HUGE market here.

HUGE as in tens of millions of people-- perhaps even more.

-Russ H.

 

I gave it a try -- Looked a like a good concept, and I've got fraud protection on all of my credit cards.... Welp, it's very clunky and it's now taken me about 20 minutes just to try to get 4 of my cards inputted. I've got about 10 cards that I may have in use at any given time, so this service would definitely not be for power users like myself.

It's also taking forever to connect to the banks and download the info. 80% of the time it does not work. No wonder the service is free -- looks like users of this service would be unpaid :banana:Beta testers...

- Hakrjak

 

Also I have multiple accounts at most banks (i.e. 5 at Chase, 3 with B of A, 5 with Amex) -- And I think the system gets confused when you have more than 1 account at a bank.

Oh well, maybe they will get better one day

-Hakrjak

 

This is the same business model as Mvelopes except that mvelopes has been around longer.

 

I think it's a good idea, but you are basically giving all your information out to them for free and you know nothing about them. What do you spend your money on and how much? That's invaluable market research and on an aggregate level that data alone would be worth billions to potential buyers of their company.