Finovate 2008 Coverage - The Second 6 Presenters!
Tuesday, October 14th, 2008Vidoop
Mark’s Review: 
Vidoop is trying to break the mold of high security leading to poor usability. The offer secury login alternatives for banks and credit unions.
Several new login verification offering. A ‘verify by phone’ offering will call you and ask for a ‘pound’ or a pin when you are trying to login.
The ‘image sheild’ shows you images that guides you to a login code. This one can be provided for free to banks because the images you see will be ad sponsored.
Another offering involved SMS, but I’m so doped out by the image shield that I’m missing pieces. Your bank or credit union NEEDS to look into this.
Lisa’s Review:
This is pretty cool. Looking around, I see people nodding their heads. They’re seeing the value in this. Unique password authenitcation techniques. Different companies can pay to be put into the picture authorization - that was awesome. Ready for mobile - the demo was on a iPhone. 
Looks great even on the phone. I liked the verifying techniques they implemented. Super userful.
Boulevard R
Mark’s Review: 
BoulevardR is medium to long term financial planning that tries to understand a members goals and current position and develops financial roadmaps based on those. Their latest offering is geared at small businesses and could be an interesting tool in that space.
Lisa’s Review:
“Unbiased Financial Advice.” Provides financial advice to consumers to help them protect their savings. A couple of fumbles at the beginning of this presentation (perhaps get a Mac?). The “helping you reach your goals” page is slick. Not super interesting to me as I’m not considering retirement anytime soon, but something I could recommend to some family members.
Inner8
Mark’s Review: 
A 3 week old beta investing (stock) community that works to match people with stocks. They match, people to stocks, stocks to stocks, and more. It looks like a pretty robust offering for those in the space. That said 45 criteria, fuzzy logic, multiple matching, all seems very intimidating/overbearing.
Lisa’s Review: 
The sliders are a big hit at Finovate this year. Inner8 matches you with other investors that like the same things that you do. Full profiles, communication among members - I like what they’re doing on the community-side of things. A little picky mention, but the site could use a little bit more color. Very clear to navigate, though. They say that “social investing” is what’s unique about them.
Rate Surfer
Mark’s Review: 
A desktop application built to help you manage credit card accounts. and help save you money. It allows centralized management, shows you alternative offerings that could save you money, and will alert you on changes to things like your APR. Interface is nothing to write home about and this a pretty crowded space.
Lisa’s Review:
“Total Credit Card Management.” Manages all info right on your desktop. They claim by using their software, you can save a couple of hundred to a couple of thousand dollars a year. The software looks a little squished. It’s not a very beautiful program, but I guess not everything has to have all the bells and whistles. I think the downside here is that it’s not an online tool.
Fiserv - MyMoney
Mark’s Review:
Geared toward the Gen Y user who spends over 25 minutes on Facebook everytime the login. MyMoney is a facebook app built to help connect members to banks and credit unions. The MyMoney application handles the online application process and includes hooks into online banking and provides a one click access from Facebook to his FI account summaries.
Lisa’s Review:
Gotta love when a company starts off on Facebook’s homepage! Starting off with Gen Y talk, my kind of company. MyMoney’s app is available on Facebook. You can enroll to different financial institutions online - very cool. Helps you shop around for better offers. The MyMoney app pulls information about your accounts (balances, transfers, transactions) without having you leave Facebook. Helpful for FIs to find new customers online. I like it. My only concern would be security.
Loanio
Mark’s Review:
Loanio is a peer lending platform that brings borrows and lenders in an auction style format. Uses co-borrowing (co-signer) to allow people with low or no credit to get involved in the peer to peer lending space. Also includes a (paid) platinum listing option that allows the borrower to have their information (income, etc) listed. While the process does seem very thorough and will allow people that can’t currently enter the space to participate, it adds back many of the hoops that P2P lending have been great at eliminating.
Lisa’s Review:
A peer lending platform. They bring up a good point - is this a bad time to launch a site like this? They can verify applicants’ taxes, check stubs, etc to help provide lenders the best information. Applicants can invite co-borrowers to help them get approved for a loan. Very cool.
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