The next generation bends over. Mint’s sale to Intuit really pissed me off.
Why should I care? Because I think it’s indicative of a VC-induced cancer that’s infecting our industry and killing off the next generation. I don’t know the full backstory, but I’d bet this sale was encouraged by a Mint investor. Here’s a fresh new company that was gunning for an aging incumbent. And not only gunning, but gaining. They were everything their main competitor, Intuit, was not. But here’s what happened: Intuit, last decade’s leader in personal finance, just became the next decade’s leader in personal finance. Mint was a key leader of the next generation of game changers. As more great new companies are absorbed into big old companies, a whole new generation of change is lost.
Thomas Jefferson said “Periodic revolution, ‘at least once every 20 years,’ was ‘a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.’” Software that makes managing business finances easy: Indinero. Mints Aaron Patzer: We Will End-Of-Life Quicken Online In Six to. Yesterday, Intuit closed on its previously announced $170 million acquisition of personal budgeting site Mint, making Mint founder and CEO Aaron Patzer the new vice president and general manager of Intuit’s Personal Finance Group. He is now in charge of not only Mint.com, but also all of Quicken’s online and desktop products. What will his first order of business be? I spoke to him today to find out. “Over the next 6 to 9 months,” he says, “we will end-of-life Quicken Online and their customer’s data will be migrated over to Mint.”
Just a few months ago, the Quicken Online team was questioning Mint’s success. It’s not so much revenge as it is a smart business move. Quicken Online has roughly 1.5 million registered users, but only about 100,000 are active in any given month. Other than Quicken Online’s users, is there anything that he’d like to keep? Building hooks into TurboTax will present other opportunities beyond simply signing up new members. What's the Secret Success of MINT.com? The Real Numbers Beh. Aaron Patzer, CEO of MINT.com, dropped by The Funded and Vator.tv's Juice Pitcher tonight to share some secrets of the company's success.
(Just in case you don't plug the TechCrunch feed directly into your brain stem: MINT is the wildly successful, soon-to-be-acquired-by-Intuit, #1 personal finance site...and oh yes, full disclosure that First Round Capital is a thrilled investor.) Everyone knows that MINT has a great product, but few know the strategic moves. To the point, what did it take to get there? How much did it cost to get started? When and how was it smart to raise money such that both the founder and the investors walked away happy? The straight shot: Why should you raise money, and how much? Garage Phase: What are the costs and milestones?