FinovateStartup kicks off in less than an hour

Just 50 minutes to go...

Check my live covage on NetBanker.

Visible Banking @ FinovateStartup: I will start to live blog on NetBanker.com in 3h

Jim Bruene invited me to live blog at the most exciting online finance conference of the year, his FinovateStartup in San Francisco.

The conference will start in 3 hours, and it is an only start for me (4:30am local time). One may say that I should be fully of energy as 1) it is already 12:30pm in England, 2) I arrived on Saturday. Fact is that even though my body is still dealing with the jetlag, I am so pleased/excited/proud/motivated that I can't wait to leave my room and head to SoMa and the conference center!

I will do my best to publish interesting, passionate and valuable posts on all the companies presenting at the event. As planned, I contacted most of their Founders and CEOs before the conference (I found all of them on Linkedin), and I blogged about over 50% of them. The last few weeks at work have been hectic, and it was a real challenge to prepare my trip to San Francisco at the same time.

Visit of the Wesabe and the Yodlee offices
I didn't sleep much in the last couple of weeks, but it was worth it. Yesterday, I shot a video interview with Marc Hedlund, Wesabe's Chief Product Officer, and I had lunch with Allese and Gabe , who will both be attending FinovateStartup today. Jason Knight, Wesabe's CEO, had an excellent reason to cancel our meeting: his wife is excpecting a baby, and I believe he had to go to the hospital urgently. I am sorry but I can't tell you Jason's baby's name. I love Wesabe, and to me it is one of the most innovate startups 2.0 out there.

In the afternoon, I took a train to Redwood City to catch up with Melanie Flanagan, VP Marketing at Yodlee, and shoot another video interview with the excellent Peter Hazlehurst, SVP Products at Yodlee. I met Peter at the first Finovate in NYC in October 07 (please check my first interview with him). I was keen to catch up with Peter who kindly found some time in his busy schedule.

Yesterday evening, Jim Bruene and Eric Mattson invited me to have dinner with the Finovate crew. I had a lovely time with the team. I almost felt part of the family! It is a private joke, only Jim and Eric will understand.

I have one more personal message to Peter: "aligato" for yesterday, and a private joke to Marc "may the force be with you"! ;)

It is 5:10am local time and I would better finalize my preparation now. Stay tuned on NetBanker and Visible Banking today!

Banking 2.0 - FinovateStartup: Focus on Vestopia

I covered the first Finovate event organized by Jim Bruene back in October 2007 (in New York City). The event was such a success (it sold out in only 6 weeks) that Jim decided to organize two more Finovate events in 2008: FinovateStartup & Finovate 08 .I was delighted when Jim invited me to be the official live blogger on NetBanker at FinovateStartup in San Francisco.  Before the event, I plan to blog about most of the 40 startups which will demo their products. My goal is to give you a brief overview of those innovative startups.

Expensr, another online community focused on personal finance
I contacted  Steve Markovitz, Chairman and CEO, via Linkedin.

With the continued volatility of financial markets, social networking sites providing investment information such as Covestor and Cake Financial are showing significant increases in traffic.

Now an evolution of that model has been introduced that holds even greater potential because of the superior transparency and reliability it offers. Vestopia, launched in January 08, is allegedly the first online platform to enable users the ability to monitor the private portfolios of professional money managers in real time as they invest their own money. It represents an important option – wisdom of the pros – to the wisdom of the masses found on social networking sites.

Vestopia, which is backed by LightSpeed Gemini Internet Lab (LGiLab) and Ofer Hi-Tech.   

Related articles on Visible-Banking.com
* Coverage FinovateStartup
* Interview Aaron Patzer, Founder & CEO of Mint
* Interview Shawn Ward, co-Founder of Geezeo

Banking 2.0 - FinovateStartup: Focus on VaultStreet

I covered the first Finovate event organized by Jim Bruene back in October 2007 (in New York City). The event was such a success (it sold out in only 6 weeks) that Jim decided to organize two more Finovate events in 2008: FinovateStartup & Finovate 08.

I was delighted when Jim invited me to be the official live blogger on NetBanker at FinovateStartup in San Francisco.  Before the event, I plan to blog about most of the 40 startups which will demo their products. My goal is to give you a brief overview of those innovative startups.

VaultStreet, go paperless - use an online filing cabinet 
I have contacted Carter Kirkwood, VaultStreet CEO and founder, via Linkedin.

VaultStreet is an online filing cabinet that allows consumers to go paperless without hassles, CPAs and tax preparers to get access to their clients' documents without fishing through a shoebox and financial institutions to offer their consumers a service that actually cuts institutional costs (printing and mailing).

Related articles on Visible-Banking.com
* Coverage FinovateStartup

I was delighted when Jim invited me to be the official live blogger on NetBanker at FinovateStartup in San Francisco.  Before the event, I plan to blog about most of the 40 startups which will demo their products. My goal is to give you a brief overview of those innovative startups.

VaultStreet, go paperless - use an online filing cabinet 
I have contacted Carter Kirkwood, VaultStreet CEO and founder, via Linkedin.

VaultStreet is an online filing cabinet that allows consumers to go paperless without hassles, CPAs and tax preparers to get access to their clients' documents without fishing through a shoebox and financial institutions to offer their consumers a service that actually cuts institutional costs (printing and mailing).

Related articles on Visible-Banking.com
* Coverage FinovateStartup

Banking 2.0 - FinovateStartup: Focus on SmartHippo

I covered the first Finovate event organized by Jim Bruene back in October 2007 (in New York City). The event was such a success (it sold out in only 6 weeks) that Jim decided to organize two more Finovate events in 2008: FinovateStartup & Finovate 08.

I was delighted when Jim invited me to be the official live blogger on NetBanker at FinovateStartup in San Francisco.  Before the event, I plan to blog about most of the 40 startups which will demo their products. My goal is to give you a brief overview of those innovative startups.

SmartHippo.com, a vertical search engine & comparison shopping service for financial products
Thanks to Linkedin, I am in touch with George Favvas, Co-Founder and CEO.

SmartHippo.com is allegedly the first-ever site that uses the power of community to help consumers find the best finance rates and save money. SmartHippo.com allows any individual to post information and feedback on the rate they received, and to compare rates with other members of the community with similar profiles. The site is currently focused on the mortgage vertical.

SmartHippo.com champions a consumer-friendly approach to lending based on transparency and accountability. The company uses the power of online communities to level the playing field and put the balance of power back in the hands of consumers, where it belongs.

For banks and financial institutions, SmartHippo.com provides a platform where they can connect with prospective customers and engage them in a conversation at a level never before possible.

Contrary to traditional mortgage comparison sites, SmartHippo levels the playing field by letting any bank or broker post rates for free, and then uses the power of the community to keep them honest as well as report on additional rates that individual members have found.

Related articles on Visible-Banking.com
* Coverage FinovateStartup

I was delighted when Jim invited me to be the official live blogger on NetBanker at FinovateStartup in San Francisco.  Before the event, I plan to blog about most of the 40 startups which will demo their products. My goal is to give you a brief overview of those innovative startups.

SmartHippo.com, a vertical search engine & comparison shopping service for financial products
Thanks to Linkedin, I am in touch with George Favvas, Co-Founder and CEO.

SmartHippo.com is allegedly the first-ever site that uses the power of community to help consumers find the best finance rates and save money. SmartHippo.com allows any individual to post information and feedback on the rate they received, and to compare rates with other members of the community with similar profiles. The site is currently focused on the mortgage vertical.

SmartHippo.com champions a consumer-friendly approach to lending based on transparency and accountability. The company uses the power of online communities to level the playing field and put the balance of power back in the hands of consumers, where it belongs.

For banks and financial institutions, SmartHippo.com provides a platform where they can connect with prospective customers and engage them in a conversation at a level never before possible.

Contrary to traditional mortgage comparison sites, SmartHippo levels the playing field by letting any bank or broker post rates for free, and then uses the power of the community to keep them honest as well as report on additional rates that individual members have found.

Related articles on Visible-Banking.com
* Coverage FinovateStartup

Banking 2.0 - FinovateStartup: Focus on SimpleTuition

I covered the first Finovate event organized by Jim Bruene back in October 2007 (in New York City). The event was such a success (it sold out in only 6 weeks) that Jim decided to organize two more Finovate events in 2008: FinovateStartup & Finovate 08.

I was delighted when Jim invited me to be the official live blogger on NetBanker at FinovateStartup in San Francisco.  Before the event, I plan to blog about most of the 40 startups which will demo their products. My goal is to give you a brief overview of those innovative startups.

SimpleTuition, find student loans - multiple lenders 
I am in touch with Patrick Kandianis, Co-Founder and EVP, and Chris Stevens, VP Business Development, via Linkedin.

SimpleTuition is not a lender. They have partnered with a range of lenders and financial institutions to share more than 100 different education loan options with borrowers and schools. They work with many colleges and universities to provide custom loan application solutions and support financial aid professionals.

I invite you to check the post on the Student Loans Marketplaces posted by Jim on NetBanker.
 
Related articles on Visible-Banking.com
* Coverage FinovateStartup

I covered the first Finovate event organized by Jim Bruene back in October 2007 (in New York City). The event was such a success (it sold out in only 6 weeks) that Jim decided to organize two more Finovate events in 2008: FinovateStartup & Finovate 08.

I was delighted when Jim invited me to be the official live blogger on NetBanker at FinovateStartup in San Francisco.  Before the event, I plan to blog about most of the 40 startups which will demo their products. My goal is to give you a brief overview of those innovative startups.

SimpleTuition, find student loans - multiple lenders 
I am in touch with Patrick Kandianis, Co-Founder and EVP, and Chris Stevens, VP Business Development, via Linkedin.

SimpleTuition is not a lender. They have partnered with a range of lenders and financial institutions to share more than 100 different education loan options with borrowers and schools. They work with many colleges and universities to provide custom loan application solutions and support financial aid professionals.

I invite you to check the post on the Student Loans Marketplaces posted by Jim on NetBanker.
 
Related articles on Visible-Banking.com
* Coverage FinovateStartup

Banking 2.0 - FinovateStartup: Focus on Invesra

I covered the first Finovate event organized by Jim Bruene back in October 2007 (in New York City). The event was such a success (it sold out in only 6 weeks) that Jim decided to organize two more Finovate events in 2008: FinovateStartup & Finovate 08.

I was delighted when Jim invited me to be the official live blogger on NetBanker at FinovateStartup in San Francisco.  Before the event, I plan to blog about most of the 40 startups which will demo their products. My goal is to give you a brief overview of those innovative startups.

Invesra, LTSave.com next generation 
I contacted  Sunil Bhatia, CEO of LTSave.com, via Linkedin.

LT Save is a 5 years old company. Invesra, the new name and new look for LTSave.com, will be launched in April 2008 for banks and Credit Unions.

LTSave is an SEC-registered investment adviser, and offers a complete online web system to these enterprises to provide investment management and retirement planning services.

Sunil will demo their Online Retirement Management System for banks and CU’s for the first time publicly at FinovateStartup. It provides a complete self-service online user experience for retirement and investment management.

Related articles on Visible-Banking.com
* Coverage FinovateStartup

I covered the first Finovate event organized by Jim Bruene back in October 2007 (in New York City). The event was such a success (it sold out in only 6 weeks) that Jim decided to organize two more Finovate events in 2008: FinovateStartup & Finovate 08.

I was delighted when Jim invited me to be the official live blogger on NetBanker at FinovateStartup in San Francisco.  Before the event, I plan to blog about most of the 40 startups which will demo their products. My goal is to give you a brief overview of those innovative startups.

Invesra, LTSave.com next generation 
I contacted  Sunil Bhatia, CEO of LTSave.com, via Linkedin.

LT Save is a 5 years old company. Invesra, the new name and new look for LTSave.com, will be launched in April 2008 for banks and Credit Unions.

LTSave is an SEC-registered investment adviser, and offers a complete online web system to these enterprises to provide investment management and retirement planning services.

Sunil will demo their Online Retirement Management System for banks and CU’s for the first time publicly at FinovateStartup. It provides a complete self-service online user experience for retirement and investment management.

Related articles on Visible-Banking.com
* Coverage FinovateStartup

Banking 2.0 - FinovateStartup: Focus on Jwaala

I covered the first Finovate event organized by Jim Bruene back in October 2007 (in New York City). The event was such a success (it sold out in only 6 weeks) that Jim decided to organize two more Finovate events in 2008: FinovateStartup & Finovate 08.

I was delighted when Jim invited me to be the official live blogger on NetBanker at FinovateStartup in San Francisco.  Before the event, I plan to blog about most of the 40 startups which will demo their products. My goal is to give you a brief overview of those innovative startups.

Jwaala, home to the award winning Money Tracker product
I have met Andrew Taylor in November 07 in NYC. Andrew was presenting at Finovate 2007. 

Jwaala's flagship product is MoneyTracker. It went live at Amplify CU in March 07.

MoneyTracker includes an account aggregation engine, an advanced natural search feature and you can easily turn any search into an automatic alert with the option of receiving the info via email, sms or even personal rss feed. Jwaala's rss feed is a real innovation in the financial services world.

At Finovate 2007, Andrew's demo of the extremely intuitive natural search feature impressed the audience.

I invite you to check the blog they recently launched, BetterOnlineBanking, as well as their two other products, HomeDeposits and SocialCentral.

MoneyTracker 2.0
They have some pretty neat additions to the MoneyTracker platform, things like an iGoogle-like dashboard (or pageflakes/netvibes like), and a slew embeddable widgets.
So now you can embed your networth history widget or your recent starbucks transactions whereever you like (facebook, blog, wiki, etc).
Also, since their customer's can license our full source code stack and use MT as a platform, they have their first customers starting to write their own widgets.

I invite you to watch my video interview with Andrew.

We talked about topics such as Personal Finance, Credit Unions and Web 2.0.

As an anecdote, even though they have been blogging since November 2006, their kept their blogroll short... but the Mint Blog made the list.

Related articles on Visible-Banking.com
* Coverage FinovateStartup
* Interview Andrew Taylor, CTO at  Jwaala
* Interview Aaron Patzer, Founder & CEO of Mint

Banking 2.0 - FinovateStartup: Focus on IP Commerce

I covered the first Finovate event organized by Jim Bruene back in October 2007 (in New York City). The event was such a success (it sold out in only 6 weeks) that Jim decided to organize two more Finovate events in 2008: FinovateStartup & Finovate 08.

I was delighted when Jim invited me to be the official live blogger on NetBanker at FinovateStartup in San Francisco.  Before the event, I plan to blog about most of the 40 startups which will demo their products. My goal is to give you a brief overview of those innovative startups.

IP Commerce, creator of the first world open commerce network
I contacted Chip Kahn, CEO, and Tyler Hannan, Platform Evangelist, via Linkedin.

IP Commerce, Inc. is the software company behind the world's first open commerce network delivering on-demand access to the next generation of commerce services. The IP Commerce Platform, the company's flagship product, is the first open network to connect commerce services from leading financial institutions with software developers and established distribution channels.

They signed partnerships with PayPal, Chase Paymentech, CIT Group, TransFirst, Dialect (now part of TNS), Internet Commerce Corporation, BankServ, and AmbironTrustWave.

* Launch date: 2005
* Employees: 65

Demonstration Description
The IP Commerce Platform allows for the dynamic provisioning and consumption of payment services from disparate providers in a simple fashion.

This demonstration consists of a software application (either POS or back office) that has consumed the free Commerce Toolkit for Applications (see attached product sheet for further information). The addition of additional payment tenders, or workflows, is dynamically enabled by the IP Commerce Platform. Activating new services is as simple as the "click of a button."

This is the first time that the capabilities of the IP Commerce Platform will be demonstrated to a public audience.

Related articles on Visible-Banking.com
* Coverage FinovateStartup

Banking 2.0 - FinovateStartup: Focus on Guardian Analytics

I covered the first Finovate event organized by Jim Bruene back in October 2007 (in New York City). The event was such a success (it sold out in only 6 weeks) that Jim decided to organize two more Finovate events in 2008: FinovateStartup & Finovate 08.

I was delighted when Jim invited me to be the official live blogger on NetBanker at FinovateStartup in San Francisco.  Before the event, I plan to blog about most of the 40 startups which will demo their products. My goal is to give you a brief overview of those innovative startups.

Guardian Analytics, a leader in the the prevention of online account fraud
I contacted Tom Miltonberger, President & CEO, and Eric LaBadie, VP Sales, via Linkedin.

Guardian Analytics provides real-time risk management solutions that protect online channels. The  company supports the end-to-end online risk management process with rich analytics and behavior-based modeling.

Coming up - Web Seminar & Conference
Let me flag two upcoming events involving Guardian Analytics:
* a webinar on the Online Channel & Multi-Channel Fraud - G.A. and the Credit Union Journal will take part of a free webseminar facilitated by SourceMedia on May 8th 08. I used to head up the International Sales Team at Accuity, part of SourceMedia, and I know Jeff Scott, the President Banking Division, very well.
* the Online Retail Banking 2008 conference organized by Marcus Evans on May 19th & May 20th 08 in NYC. I am honored to have being invited to be the Chairperson.

Related articles on Visible-Banking.com
* Coverage FinovateStartup
* Interview John Sharp, Founder & Chairman of Authentium