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I’m Lucky To Have Bet on Mint vs. Wesabe…

Posted on June 30, 2010 ·

I’m sure as hell lucky to have bet on Mint when Microsoft Money died… but to be honest it was a flip of a coin decision, Wesabe, the other web-based personal finance management program looked just as attractive.   Good product, perfect pedigre, strong VC funding.   Now Wesabe is in the deadpool while Mint essentially became Quicken Online.

A comparative analysis of the two, and why one died why the other thrives would be a very educational startup story – if somebody close enough to the fire has the facts.

Wesabe users have until July 31st to export their data (a rather short period, if you ask me, given the importance of such data.).  I certainly hope Mint (Intuit) will step up the plate and offer streamlined migration.

In the meantime, I’m just lucky having bet on Mint. 🙂

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve)

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MinTuit: What’s Next After the Intuit / Mint Deal

Posted on September 14, 2009 ·

mintuit TechCrunch50 could not have asked for a better start:  they get to announce that personal finance startup Mint winner of the $50K grand prize @ TC50 two years ago just got acquired for $170M.

Great exit for a startup – not so sure about concerned users.   But the big question today is why it made sense for Intuit and what the future holds for Mint and its users.  The consensus is that first of all this has been a defensive move.  Mint started to bite into the Intuit / Quicken pie, and Intuit just had to stop it.

There is some irony in this deal: the playbook had been written by Microsoft, against Intuit.

Continue reading …

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Intuit Did Not Kill MS Money. Microsoft Did. Slowly, Over Long Years. Here’s the Full Story.

Posted on June 11, 2009 ·

An era comes to an end on June 30th, when Microsoft discontinues their PFM (Personal Financial Management) product, Money. 

The story started outside Microsoft, with a startup named Intuit releasing their first DOS-based PFM software, Quicken.   The concept was simple and powerful: balance your checkbook, keep track of your financial transactions electronically. It worked; in fact surveys showed that Quicken became the driver for many consumers to buy their first personal computers in the late 80’s.   But it really became popular when Windows, especially the first “good”  version, 3.0 arrived. 

Intuit remained a one-product company until after their IPO in 1993, when they acquired Chipsoft and entered the tax-software market. 

Continue reading …

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