A long time ago in a galaxy far far away Wells Fargo Bank used to have this program where you could pull financial data from all your accounts to one page. They called in “One Look” and it was truly awesome. But in February of 2005 they stopped the service saying that it was not economical to maintain. I was heart broken. This “One Look” service allowed me to log into one interface and get all my financial data.
Well today I saw Mint demoed at the Techcrunch40 conference and I have to say this is kind of like Wells Fargo’s “One Look”…. ON CRACK.
I sat down with the CEO of the company, Aaron Patzer yesterday and he gave me a complete walk through on the product (although I could not write about it until now due to press embargoes). I am putting it on the line here. If someone held a gun to my head and made me choose a company to invest here at the techcrunch40 conference its a no brainier. I would be all in on Mint. I love the product and I think you will also. Its a true godsend for people who have multiple credit cards/back accounts/debit cards/ brokerage accounts.
Mint also can save you money by suggesting alternatives based on your spending habits… say if you travel a lot it will suggest a certain credit card that gives you miles… or maybe it will suggest a higher cash back card if your just using it for general purchases.
Pretty dope huh?
Mint’s funding has so far come from strategic angel investors, including former or current senior executives from: eBay, Intuit, Google, Yahoo, Charles Schwab, Wilson Sonsini, Reuters, Adteractive and Weblogic/BEA and primary funding from First Round Capitol.
They also gave me this sweet Mint shirt. I guess they know the way to my heart =P.
Mint has opened its doors to the public today if you want to get any account.
The Signup button seems to be grayed out… maybe I posted to soon… I will go find them and see.
September 18, 2007 at 12:31 pm
So they make money on the credit card and loan referrals. Pretty ingenious.
September 18, 2007 at 12:33 pm
This site looks great, but I’m a bit of a skeptic trusting that much of my financial information to one place….Maybe in time as it develops more? Anyone else think this?
September 18, 2007 at 12:35 pm
That’s an absolutely awesome service, but I don’t think I would use it. Aggregating all your financial data in an online application is just a bad idea. Sure, they do offer encryption, and they also have a well written privacy / security policy, but as a security professional, I’m too paranoid to accept that this could actually be totally secure.
I’m sure lots of people are going to use it though, and it’s going to be a gold mine for investors.
September 18, 2007 at 12:35 pm
Is it really open to the public yet? The signup button is greyed out. =(
September 18, 2007 at 12:36 pm
Jack,
It was grayed out for me as well, although, I did find this link to signup:
https://wwws.mint.com/login.event?action=S
September 18, 2007 at 12:40 pm
If they could offer a two-factor authentication process, now that would be awesome… à la Secure-ID / Paypal security key…
September 18, 2007 at 12:41 pm
i can’t sign up
September 18, 2007 at 12:43 pm
Yes, I found that too. Unfortunately, “Only logged in beta invite users can create an account.”
September 18, 2007 at 12:46 pm
https://www.wesabe.com/ – these guys do something very similar and are obsessive about security. Rob, take a look at this:https://www.wesabe.com/page/security
September 18, 2007 at 12:53 pm
Not to mention highly profitable!
September 18, 2007 at 12:54 pm
Can’t see a problem with handing over the info as long as you do it as john/ jane doe, so what if they know a person in their DB is X amount of $ in debt and earns $XXX
September 18, 2007 at 1:00 pm
Wow lol you must have ALOT of shirts now.
September 18, 2007 at 1:03 pm
yep. I was doing some reading and that market is definitely profitable, especially when a company of this nature comes out.
September 18, 2007 at 1:03 pm
I didn’t notice a place to sign up either, but I don’t think I could because this looks like it’s for US residents only? It looks like an awesome service.
A little while ago I heard about this program where you could have all your bills mailed to one location and they would put them all into a system, organize it and make the payments so that you don’t have to manage your bills. That looked really interesting too but also wasn’t available in Canada.
Angela Wills
September 18, 2007 at 1:12 pm
Currently I use Bank of America’s “My Portfolio” feature to keep up to date with multiple accounts, but this looks awesome! Can’t wait!
September 18, 2007 at 1:24 pm
The T-shirt might need some ironing…
September 18, 2007 at 1:27 pm
So how much of a backhander did you get for this writeup?
September 18, 2007 at 1:31 pm
That was the first thing I thought when I saw the ING lion.
September 18, 2007 at 1:36 pm
I love the site design, though I am extremely biased by any site that uses ajax as well as they did.
September 18, 2007 at 1:36 pm
It works now I just signed up.
September 18, 2007 at 1:37 pm
dude shoe is at the techcrunch40 reporting from the trenches. I also read about this today in the wall street journal although shoe does a much better job of explaining it.
September 18, 2007 at 1:41 pm
Thanks Shoe! Will try it out tonight!
September 18, 2007 at 1:42 pm
To bad it’s not available to people outside USA..
September 18, 2007 at 1:48 pm
At first, I thought this was about http://www.haveamint.com
September 18, 2007 at 2:11 pm
Woot, it works now.
September 18, 2007 at 2:13 pm
feels similar to http://www.haveamint.com/
September 18, 2007 at 2:19 pm
Nice tool, I will give it a try
September 18, 2007 at 2:42 pm
Sign up worked. Adding accounts…not yet (or not 5 minutes ago). Will try again later, though, because the interface looks awesome.
September 18, 2007 at 2:49 pm
Damn thing caused a fraud alert for citibank. Citi has locked me out of my online accounts… They also don’t support brokerage accounts at this time.
September 18, 2007 at 3:20 pm
I’ve been using http://www.yodlee.com for about two years now. They have most of the features you mention and Yodlee is free
September 18, 2007 at 3:44 pm
Hey Shoe, Check out our product at the pit we’re #20
http://techcrunch20.com/2007/demopit_company.php?demopit=28
Cheers,
Hamlet
September 18, 2007 at 3:47 pm
Totaly agree, especially with todays company’s thurst for online information
i dunno if i will be able to risk it
September 18, 2007 at 4:07 pm
Nice minty t-shirt
September 18, 2007 at 4:41 pm
Signed up. Tired to add accounts. It looks like they’re having some trouble because I can’t seem to add any. I’ll try later though.
September 18, 2007 at 4:57 pm
Seems useful, Something that I will really use.
September 18, 2007 at 5:04 pm
I just signed up but when I add accounts it gets stuck at “establishing secure connection” — anyone else experience this?
September 18, 2007 at 5:10 pm
*raises hand*
I think they’re getting hammered right now and they don’t have the resources to cope with the onslaught.
September 18, 2007 at 5:12 pm
I would actually be more trusting of Mint. If people I am familiar with know and trust a product, I’d be more willing to use it. I’ve seen how Wells Fargo functions from the inside and I don’t think your information is any more secure there than at any other ‘big’ institution. In fact, a smaller institution would probably be able to control security better than a big bloated company with layers of managers who don’t fully understand computers.
September 18, 2007 at 5:15 pm
Damnit. Every account I add fails. Too bad. Hopefully they will be back up soon because it looks like an awesome tool
September 18, 2007 at 5:16 pm
Anyone actually read the TOS to see if they are selling your info about spending habbits, etc?
September 18, 2007 at 5:17 pm
What do you mean John Doe? They have your name from your account info, how can you stay anonymous?
September 18, 2007 at 5:18 pm
There was a brief write-up on Techcrunch that I read and it didnt seem interesting but after reading it here I signed up right away. Much better info here.
September 18, 2007 at 5:29 pm
Fantastic steer here, Jeremy. I’ve been looking for something like ths for along time. I have a whole folder of FF bookmarks just for various bank and credit card log-ins … this cold be really hot … thanks
September 18, 2007 at 5:56 pm
I would hope a company that just demo’ed at TC40 and has opened its site wouldn’t be stupid enough to do that.
September 18, 2007 at 5:57 pm
I got a beta invite awhile ago, but haven’t bothered to test it out. Maybe I will get around to it (probably not for awhile though lol).
September 18, 2007 at 6:41 pm
So what happened to the mint website analytics tracking? Same logo, same name, new program? Strange.
September 18, 2007 at 7:19 pm
Do you ever though of ironing the shirts before you put them on?
September 18, 2007 at 8:56 pm
I get past that, then stuck on Checking username and password
September 18, 2007 at 9:31 pm
My god the site is so slow!
September 19, 2007 at 12:02 am
Wow, Mint is looking really nice.
September 19, 2007 at 12:02 am
I doubt it lol
September 19, 2007 at 12:03 am
It’s pretty much like any other stats program. Of course it’s useful!
September 19, 2007 at 12:59 am
Damn … it’s only for USA …. and I got so worked up about this
September 19, 2007 at 2:25 am
You’re thinking of http://www.haveamint.com. Same name, similar style but not the same product.
September 19, 2007 at 2:49 am
I was looking to try Mint from many days, i will start using it from today.Mint is really good script and for those who make sales or promote affiliates it helps lot.
September 19, 2007 at 7:07 am
What about just using Quickbooks instead, that way you have more control of your own passwords and stuff, since it is on your own computer, kind of scary to give one company access to all your financial information.
September 19, 2007 at 8:04 am
I do like having everything in one place. It’s a pain if it’s all online but you still have a dozen accounts to keep up with.
September 19, 2007 at 11:57 am
Just signed up.
September 19, 2007 at 12:09 pm
is haveamint or mint same company?
September 19, 2007 at 2:08 pm
So it finally won the TC40 50000$ award as i guessed. I would be the next one i know
September 19, 2007 at 8:03 pm
According to their privacy policy they arent selling your info, they will just use it inhouse to create averages.
September 20, 2007 at 12:36 pm
Well i am considering about signing up to mint, but site loads abit slow.
September 23, 2007 at 12:30 am
I just got an account, it looks sweet.
September 28, 2007 at 3:31 am
Sounds useful – wish they would bring out something similar for people in the UK.
February 10, 2009 at 7:50 am
Wow.. i am liking this – a lot! That is such a quirky way to keep your finances in check.