Posts Tagged ‘Echoing Green’
February 9th, 2010 | Tags: Acquisition, AlphaLab, BancVue, CentsCity, Echoing Green, Entrepreneurship, Felix Lloyd, Financial Education, Financial Literacy, Finovate, Investment, Press, Social Impact, Social Innovation, Tech Collaborative
BancVue Takes Aim at Financial Literacy With Acquisition of Skill-Life, Inc.
Online Financial Education Provider to Enhance Solution-Based Lineup of Services for Community Banks and Credit Unions
AUSTIN, TX–(Marketwire – February 9, 2010) – BancVue (www.BancVue.com), a consumer research-driven product development and marketing company for community banks and credit unions around the country, today announced it has acquired Skill-Life, Inc., a provider of interactive, game-based resources focused on developing financial literacy.
Skill-Life’s youth-oriented platform adds to BancVue’s innovative lineup of solutions designed to help community financial institutions win the war against megabanks.
“An important mission of any community financial institution is providing financial education for its customers,” said Gabe Krajicek, Chief Executive Officer of BancVue, “and Skill-Life has developed just the sort of Web-based applications that can teach children the fundamentals of managing their money. The combination is a compelling value proposition for our community bank and credit union partners and their account holders.”
MoneyIsland™ formerly called CentsCity, Skill-Life’s flagship product, is essentially an online world where ‘tweens’ — children in the so-called middle years between 8 and 12 — learn financial skills and earn rewards from their financial institution. Parents are able to follow their children’s progress through a dynamic administrative interface. The firm expects to develop additional products applying Skill-Life’s platform, which incorporates casual games, interactive videos and quizzes, administrative tools for adults, and a customizable rewards system.
“With 81% of ‘tweens’ playing online games, and 87% of adults interested in teaching their children financial responsibility, we’re at the nexus of an emerging opportunity,” said Felix Brandon Lloyd, President of Skill-Life. “Through the extensive network of branches of BancVue’s clients, hundreds of thousands, eventually millions, of children around the country will gain access to much-needed financial education.”
The Skill-Life transaction is BancVue’s first corporate acquisition. The Texas-based firm has recently announced a number of strategic partnerships, including Deluxe and CSI. BancVue and its marketing partner FIRST ROI provide REALChecking®, a system of innovative products, superior marketing, and data-driven consulting, INMO™, the online account opening system with the highest funding rate, and FIRSTBranch®, a dynamic online marketing system designed exclusively for community financial institutions.
“In Skill-Life, we’re recognizing that industry leaders like Mr. Lloyd and his company can benefit from our network of clients,” says Krajicek. “At the same time, we gain from their creativity and enhance our own ability to serve BancVue’s partners.”
BancVue was recognized last year as the second fastest growing financial services firm in Inc. Magazine’s 28th Annual List of America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies — the Inc. 500. The Austin-based firm expects to continue its growth trajectory with the nationwide launch of Kasasa™, a national brand of superior products designed to unite community financial institutions with the marketing scale they need to compete and win.
About BancVue
BancVue is the leading provider of innovative products, marketing, and consulting solutions to community financial institutions nationwide. Serving over 650 community banks and credit unions around the country, BancVue’s solutions allow these institutions to compete and win in the war against the megabanks and direct banks. Community financial institutions benefit from the development and implementation of BancVue’s innovative products, including Kasasa™, a national brand of superior products that gives community financial institutions the marketing scale they need to compete with the megabanks, and REALChecking®, a system of innovative products, superior marketing, and data-driven consulting. For more information on BancVue, visit www.bancvue.com.
About Skill-Life
Skill-Life, Inc. began as CentsCity, LLC in January 2007 with the mission of building financially healthy families and communities. With seed funding from the social venture fund Echoing Green, Skill-Life has since gained support from the Alpha Lab, Idea Foundry, Technology Collaborative, Grable Foundation, Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, and several private investors. The Beta version of Skill-Life’s flagship product, formerly called CentsCity, launched in August 2009, employing online games and real-world incentives to teach tweens financial skills.
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August 6th, 2009 | Tags: Beta, CentsCity, Echoing Green, Entrepreneurship, Felix Lloyd, Financial Education, Financial Literacy, Investment, Media, Press, Tech Collaborative
Skill-Life CEO Felix Lloyd is featured in this month’s Black Enterprise Magazine. The article appears below and at BlackEnterprise.com.
- BLACK ENTERPRISE – http://www.blackenterprise.com -
Spend Less Money on Your Startup Budget
Posted By Marcia Wade Talbert On July 29, 2009
Felix Lloyd received consulting services and startup capital from Echoing Green, a social venture fund, to help launch his company Skill-Life Inc.Finding capital to launch your business might be the hardest part of entrepreneurship. An examination of census data [2] shows that black-owned businesses have very low levels of startup capital relative to white-owned businesses and these differences persist across all major industries.But don’t let that dissuade you. There are a plethora of organizations, universities, and companies that provide pro bono or professional services at a reduced fee, ranging from accounting to information technology and from human resource management to marketing. When such services are free, this practice is often referred to as skills-based volunteering.
“When you are capacity constrained thinking outside of the box in terms of pro bono services and volunteer support is a really smart and effective way to add capacity to your organization without adding to your expense line,” says Cheryl Dorsey, president of Echoing Green [3], a New York-based social venture fund that provides capital to support social entrepreneurs.
When Felix Lloyd was looking for backing for his startup, he turned to Echoing Green, which had provided financial support for a former employer. Lloyd, a former educator, needed funding for an online game that would help high school students develop financial literacy and math skills. As an Echoing Green fellow he received consulting services and startup capital to help launch Skill-Life Inc [4].
Echoing Green also reimbursed Lloyd for healthcare expenses, paid him $60,000 over a two year period, and matched him up with free and reduced cost legal services.
“Echoing Green provided my company with critical legal support, branding expertise, and an extensive professional network while challenging me to think and act strategically in building my business,” Lloyd says.
At AlphaLab, a small business accelerator, Felix Lloyd received $25,000, free office space, and an opportunity to network with other tech entrepreneurs.Another entrepreneur introduced Lloyd to AlphaLab [6], a Pittsburgh-based small business accelerator. An accelerator generally includes a group of investors who help expedite the start-up or expansion of a company. In exchange for 3% equity in his company, AlphaLab provided Lloyd with six months of free office space in Pittsburgh, access to software consultants, and $25,000 from AlphaLab’s parent company Innovation Works [7].So far, an estimated $400,000 in money and services has been invested into Skill-Life. Of that only $10,000 came from Lloyd’s personal funds. Although he has never had to take out a bank loan, 27% of Skill-Life equity will be distributed among investors and employees. He owns 43% of the equity and his wife owns 30%.
His first client, a Pittsburgh public radio station, paid Lloyd $3,000 to give 600 students access to CentsCity [8], his online game that launched this month. Lloyd’s accomplishment can be duplicated. If your business budget won’t stretch far enough, use these three steps as a road map to finding and efficiently utilizing pro bono and skills-based volunteer services.
Do your homework. Not every pro bono provider is going to be the right fit for your start up. “The single most important thing that we are looking for are people that have a clear picture of what they need and how our skills will fit with their needs to develop,” says Gaute Ellingsen, an MBA student and vice president of clients at the Small Business Consulting Program [9] at Columbia Business School.
Doing research on what kind of services each kind of pro bono organizations offers will pay off because it will enable you to tailor your requests to what is most beneficial to you and also to the priorities that the pro bono organizations have.
Network, network, network. Existing relationships (with investors, supporters, or friends) can open doors to different pro bono services.
Through an acquaintance, Lloyd learned that Pittsburgh had a strong technology community. At AlphaLab Lloyd shared ideas with his peers and he gained exposure to the breadth of Pittsburgh’s entrepreneurial, investment, and software expertise.
It was through these interactions that he was recommended to advisors and more free office space at Idea Foundry [10], another non profit in the city that specializes in launching information technology and engineering related enterprises.
Check with your local university’s business school for resources and possible skill-based volunteer organizations. Lloyd used the Technology Collaborative [11] at the Tepper School of Business [12] at Carnegie Mellon University and sought free services at the Small Business Development Center [13], a Small Business Administration program housed at Duquesne University [14]. Students at the universities did market research for him without charge and helped him create cash flow projections.
Demonstrate an ability to produce results. Organizations and individuals that offer skills-based volunteering want to be certain that they are not wasting their time and resources. Demonstrate your talent by building a strong Website and public face, says Echoing Green’s Dorsey.
“We have to have some sense that the entrepreneur can execute an idea because essentially ideas are a dime a dozen,” she says.
However, she also emphasizes that a charismatic personality is just as important as a strong business plan.
Article printed from BLACK ENTERPRISE: http://www.blackenterprise.com
URL to article: http://www.blackenterprise.com/entrepreneurs/2009/07/29/spend-less-money-on-your-start-up-budget
Copyright © 2009 BLACK ENTERPRISE. All rights reserved.
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July 3rd, 2009 | Tags: Beta, CentsCity, Echoing Green, President Obama, Social Impact, Social Innovation, White House
I recently attended a White House event, on behalf of my social enterprise Skill-Life, Inc., during which President Obama launched a new Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation. A number of other Echoing Green Fellows attended, including Andrew Butcher & Chris Koch (GTECH Strategies), Kara Bobroff (Native American Community Academy), Sara Horowitz (Working Today), Michael Brown (City Year), Vanessa Kirsch (Public Allies), Eric Schwarz (Citizen Schools) and Mark Levine (Credit Where Credit is Due). Andrew, Chris, and I made the midnight drive down to DC from our home city of Pittsburgh, PA. Cheryl Dorsey also attended and facilitated introductions to leaders in the social sector and from the Obama administration.
There’s nothing quite like sitting in the White House East Room surrounded by portraits of Presidents past and social entrepreneurs present. It’s a rare opportunity that demonstrates the place that social innovation will have in this nation’s journey forward. For me, to be included in a group that the President says is creating the most innovative programs that are transforming communities around the country, is humbling and inspiring.
President Obama’s speech celebrated the work being done by social entrepreneurs across the nation and mobilized us to do more in these times when social innovation is immensely critical. I took away a few major points:
- Financial Support: The administration has begun a $50 million Social Innovation Fund. The President challenged the private sector and philanthropies to match and surpass the government’s efforts to support organizations and approaches addressing the challenges of our communities
- Results Result Results: What matters most to the President and his team is what works. We have to set goals and then achieve exceed, and, ultimately, measure them.
- Take It To Scale: If it works, the White House wants it wherever its needed. It’s key that creative approaches be implemented with expectations to scale up as impact is achieved.
- Not the Usual Suspects: The staff at the Office of Social Innovation — which is led by Sonal Shah (former head of global development at Google.org) along with Michelle Jolin, Carlos Monje, Charlie Anderson, and Howard Buffet — will search the nation for the most innovative and effective organizations and social enterprises. They expect to break out of the box — opportunities will be there for those of us at the early stages of our impact or otherwise outside of the spotlight. In Pittsburgh, we’re planning a follow up roundtable with the White House, Echoing Green, and other public and private partners for the coming months.
In true Echoing Green style, a group of us, including Cheryl and some of the staff from the Office of Social Innovation, ended up talking shop across the street from the White House at the Old Ebbitt Grill. The overwhelming sentiment was that this is the time. At Skill-Life, we intend to harness this energy, action, and opportunity as we launch the beta version of CentsCity, an online world packed with cool games that build tweens’ financial skills, this month. In the next several months, it’s upon all of us to meet the President’s call. As he declared, “now more than ever, we need to build cross-sector partnerships to transform our schools, improve the health of Americans, and employ more people in clean energy and other emerging industries.”
http://www.nacaschool.org/
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July 2nd, 2009 | Tags: AlphaLab, Beta, CentsCity, Echoing Green, Felix Lloyd, President Obama, Social Impact, Social Innovation
I was just writing to Mike from AlphaLab where Skill-Life was incubated last summer and fall. He asked about the trip down to the White House.
As I told him, it was incredibly exciting to be in the White House — one of those things you can’t actually fathom until you’re in the East Room looking at a portrait of Abraham Lincoln that you remember seeing in middle school history books. Even more, to be included in a group of social entrepreneurs who the President says are creating the most innovative solutions to our communities most challenging problems, is humbling and inspiring.
The $50 million fund will help take social enterprises like Skill-Life, Inc. to higher levels as will the fact that the President has established an Office of Social Innovation. Knowing that real dollars are being committed makes a tremendous difference. We made some excellent connections to folks from the private, philanthropic, and government sectors.
These times are calling for the kind of double bottom-line work and outside of the lines innovation that Skill-Life is doing. There is real energy, action, and opportunity that we will continue to build on as we release the beta version of CentsCity this month and continue to grow our business.
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June 29th, 2009 | Tags: Echoing Green, President Obama, Social Innovation, White House
Skill-Life was recently invited to the White House to attend an event with President Obama to highlight the extraordinary efforts in communities to solve some of our country’s toughest problems. The event will be in the East Room on Tuesday, June 30th.
The Office of Social Innovation is set up under the Domestic Policy Council, the body that coordinates domestic policy making in the White House. It has been established to promote creative and effective ways to tackle social problems. The president is proposing $50-million in his 2010 budget for a social-innovation fund.
Felix Lloyd was invited to Tuesday’s event as one of a select group of Echoing Green fellows. To accelerate social change, Echoing Green invests in and supports outstanding emerging social entrepreneurs to launch new organizations that deliver bold, high-impact solutions. Cheryl Dorsey, President of Echoing Green, was recently appointed to the position of vice-chair on the Commission of White House Fellowships.
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May 4th, 2009 | Tags: 360KID, Beta, CentsCity, Echoing Green, Financial Education, Financial Literacy, Newsletter, Product Development, Social Impact
It’s been a long time coming. In fact, it was just about two years ago when we wrapped up the Echoing Green interview process — a process that would lead to our first significant investment in CentsCity. Since that time, we’ve developed countless storyboards of the CentsCity experience, three game design documents, and, of course, our proof-of-concept last October, which until recently we would use for live demos.
In July, Skill-Life, Inc. will officially launch our CentsCity Beta! For the first time, kids and adults will be able to experience the virtual world for themselves and interact with our CentsCity Passport.
We’ve spent much of the last month scoping our latest design of the CentsCity experience and will again be teaming up with 360Kid. It’s amazing how far along this thing has come — how much more dynamic, distinct, and significant our Beta will be versus what we initially conceived. Here’s our chance to make the impact that we have long set out to achieve — building young people’s financial savvy and life skills to afford them greater opportunities as they grow older.
Over the next two weeks, we will be sending out our first newsletter keeping folks up-to-date on the latest news and counting down to our Beta launch. A CentsCity.com splash page will be live this week for new subscribers.
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