That said, I don't know how well this type of business correlates with raising such a large angel round- are all of those angel investors on board with that plan?
in private, I'd bet that they are looking to build this up for 4-5 years, then sell it off to intuit.
(Some) investors dislike the above when it comes at the expense of growth, and I think InDinero will be also focusing on growth.
If you're saying that investors would be unhappy that InDinero is not planning to flip in a couple years - if anything there are many more investors who dislike companies who seem designed around selling early instead of shooting for the moon (ie, an IPO).
I think the product has potential. I have worked on something similar for many years myself. I'll have a hard time rooting for its success, though, when Jessica seems to routinely make mistakes like this.
Also, I started consulting at age 11 and incorporated at 15, so I think I have the right to call out young people in business when I feel like they could do better.
If InDinero has so many paying customers ("hundreds" according to the interview), there should be no problem referring to one that isn't also controlled by an investor.
Revenue != Income.
http://www.amazon.com/Knack-Street-Smart-Entrepreneurs-Handl...
I really need to stop using brackets so much.
[1] http://www.inc.com/magazine/20090301/university-of-californi...
In fact, one of the problems today is that a lot of the best software is written for programmers/entrepreneurs or other markets which programmers know intimately. Writing software for markets that programmers don't know is done much less so (meaning there are tons of opportunities there).
Just use a spreadsheet if that's all you need..
How long until FreshBooks partners with Yodlee, builds some reports and has a more complete solution?
Or... Intuit creates a version of Mint.com for small businesses? They have a lot more cash and overwhelming marketshare in the SMB market. They'd be able to do this in 5 years, not 20-30. I think this poses a huge threat to InDinero.
That being said, the product that Jessica has already built is quite impressive. But, if it takes 20-30 years to iterate towards solving all of the financial pain points of a small business, you'll be too late because Intuit has a huge head start.
For Intuit, this is close to the textbook example of the innovators dilemma. Intuit cannot do this easily because it will cannibalize their existing business. How would they introduce it?
They can't just add the features to their existing product, because the market for this product is different (business owners, not accountants).
They can't sell it as a separate add on, because that makes InDinero seem really good value for money.
They can't sell it for the same price or less than InDinero because it will eat profits from their existing products.
I can't imagine giving out a login/password that is not restricted to just viewing my banking info. It seems to me that they are asking for full access to your bank account just to retrieve your data.
