Gathering data and making meaningful use of it has made 30 year-old Aaron Patzer, a rich man. Aaron Patzer is the founder of the website, Mint.com which is a free personal finance site that has over 1.5 million users. It allows people to track bank transactions, credit card transactions, investments, and loan transactions online.
The site helps you find better prices on things you buy, guides you to the best credit card rewards and minimizes finance charges. It has helped people find $300 million in savings, managed $50 billion in assets and helped track $200 billion in purchases.
Security for this type of financial analysis is of utmost importance to Mint.com. They have bank level security. They also have a “read-only” connection to financial institutions so no money can be moved and no one can drain your accounts. They have low-balance and spending alerts to help you manage your accounts and prevent identity theft or fraud.
What inspired him to create this type of site?
He found that he was spending most of his time working and had little time to track his own finances. Frustrated with how Quicken, Intuit’s financial software, worked, he decided to create his own program. He designed a way to make tracking his finances easier, quicker, and more automated. He created a business model that allowed people free use of the money management tools. From the data aggregated, they could offer suggestions on ways to save money, lower interest rates on credit cards and make better financial decisions
How did he fund the website?
Aaron had to raise venture capital money to fund the project and it was not always easy. He experienced highs and lows. Sometimes he thought his idea was the greatest thing since sliced bread and other times he questioned himself with his attempt at tackling such a big project and competing with Intuit, a $10B company. For comfort in the low phases, he often thought of a quote “Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we might oft win, by fearing to attempt.” Shakespeare
How does the software work?
Aaron Patzer received a license from the company, Yodlee, to use the technology that powers 85% to 90% of all the online consumer finance sites. The communication between you and your bank uses this technology.
Then, he did what he is good at. He began to work on algorithms that would take the financial data and make it useful. One algorithm was patented and contains 105 steps to have transactions labeled with appropriate categories. Other algorithms helped to make recommendations on ways that the user could save money. He now holds 11 patents on algorithms.
How did the site become so popular and successful?
When the site was first launched it won awards from The Motley Fool for the best money management tool. TechCrunch40 awarded them the hottest start up company of the year and they really began to take off. Over the next few years they received 47 awards from well know companies like, CNNmoney.com, Time.com, PC magazine, Kiplinger, the World Economic Fund, LifeHacker.com and Business Week.
What does Intuit think of Mint.com?
Intuit’s executives watched Mint.com for over a year. They became so impressed with the features of the site that the CEO of Intuit, Brad Smith approached Aaron and offered to buy the company. On November 2, 2009, Intuit purchased Mint.com for $140 million, offering Aaron the chance to be in charge of Mint.com and all Quicken online, desktop and mobile offerings, which he agreed to do.
Aaron Patzer, earned his bachelor’s degree in computer engineering, and computer science, and electrical engineering, at Duke University as well as a master’s degree in electrical engineering and algorithms from Princeton University. Some of his first work after graduation was working on a cell microprocessor, used in the PlayStation 3 and it uses three of his patents.
What is Aaron Patzer’s advice to entrepreneurs?
His best advice to other entrepreneurs is to “observe the world around you – everything you do, and especially everything you hate to do – solve a real problem and the world is yours.”
