Check out MoneyIsland.com — the new teaser site as part of BancVue. MoneyIsland version 1.0, which expands significantly on the existing CentsCity beta version, is set to launch at community financial institutions nationwide in September 2010.
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.
Last week, Skill-Life attended the Software & Information Industry Association’s annual Educational Technology Business Forum. Our CentsCity product was one of 10 innovations featured in the event’s Innovation Incubator.
The program highlights new companies and products poised to change the market. All applicants are reviewed by SIIA’s Innovation Working Group, the Forum’s Steering Committee, and SIIA’s Education Board, then selected to participate in the Ed Tech Business Forum.
“The Software & Information Industry Association is the principal trade association for the software and digital content industry. SIIA provides global services in government relations, business development, corporate education and intellectual property protection to the leading companies that are setting the pace for the digital age.”
We’re winding down our first full day in NYC for the Finovate Conference. It’s been an action-packed one and our 7-minutes on stage are less than 24 hours away (actually less than 18 hours — we’re scheduled to demo at around 3 pm EST).
The highlight of the afternoon was actually getting to check out the venue and take the stage for a rehearsal. It’s a phenomenal looking space with big screens and all the work s everywhere. A lot of time and effort has clearly been put into the planning of this event. The list of companies with which we’ll be presenting includes some heavy hitters including Mint, which was recently acquired by Intuit. And the audience is comprised of execs from Citibank, ING Direct, Wells Fargo, and other banks as well as a number of venture capitalists and influential press. This will certainly be our biggest stage to date — an opportunity that we’ve worked hard to gain and intend to make the most of.
The rehearsal went off without a hitch, which we can only suppose is a good thing (we’re actually assuming that the rehearsal was a minor disaster so as to keep us honest for tomorrow). We’re well prepared on this end and, more importantly, our innovation stands out on its own. CentsCity has a look and feel that’s distinct and our potential value to financial service institutions is tremendous.
After rehearsal, we had the opportunity to have crepes with Heather Marold Thomason of Bad Feather and Andy Hieb of Dtek Digital Media. These two companies have played major roles in the design and execution of the Skill-Life.com and CentsCity.com sites. It was a rare opportunity to sit down with them face to face. We got to talk shop (we’ve just put to print another round of 2,000 CentsCity Passports and are initiating another phase of development on the CentsCity beta that will include the introduction of our first in-world mini-game — the Ducket Dash!). And, as it turns out, all of us have dogs that we love immensely. Go Wendell!
For much of the evening, we met up with folks at a Finovate happy hour. Among the most notables were John Waupsh and Gabriel Krajicek of BancVue and FirstRoi. These guys were full of energy and personality. They had some very interesting and insightful perspectives on the industry and CentsCity’s value to financial service institutions. They also insisted that they would be hands-down the best demo tomorrow (turns out they lobbied to bring a lion on stage with them and/or a choir to hum the “Battle Hymn of the Republic”). Of course, we then let them know that they were up against a giant in CentsCity and the Skill-Life team this year — they’d have to settle on being a great opening act!
Otherwise, it was a southern-cooking dinner for the Skill-Life team. No need for details there aside from saying we tried to keep it light as much as is possible when choosing from a menu on which mac & cheese is a vegetable.
Now, it’s getting in game mode. More to come.
It’s Day One of our trip to New York City to demo at Finovate 2009 and to meet with a few potential partners and investors. Actually, more like Night One and not quite New York City (we’re on a plane making its way to LaGuardia Airport and by the time we land it will be 10:30 pm).
Tomorrow kicks it all off as we head to a demo rehearsal at the Metropolitan Pavillion and later to a happy hour event in Manhattan. At this point, we’ve got the demo all planned. I’ll be doing the pitching while Todd Waits, Skill-Life’s VP of Product Development, does the driving.
It’s 7-minutes on stage and not a second more, so we’re going straight to the essence of CentsCity — a dynamic platform that uses online games and rewards to teach tweens financial skills — and the essence is good. The folks over at Netbanker who are organizing the event have already told us that we’re one-of-a-kind when it comes to financial innovations that will be demoing this yeaar or that have demoed in the past. They believe — and we wholeheartedly agree — that CentsCity exists at the nexus of an emerging opportunity as the need for financial education becomes increasingly clear and online games become increasingly central to how consumers experience everything.
Our value proposition is clear (and here you’ll get a snippet of the pitch we’ll be giving at Finovate) — CentsCity is a unique innovation that will help financial service institutions build deeper relationships with present and future customers at a time when faith in our banking system is especially low. It will be a forward-thinking marketing tool that makes an impact while making great business sense.
We’re hoping that this trip will lead to significant strategic partnerships as we continue to pilot and build upon our CentsCity beta version. On Tuesday, we’ll be on stage at around 3:15 pm as one of 32 companies chosen out of hundreds. Our demo will be followed by a two-hour networking session during which we’ll have the opportunity to speak futher with senior banking executives, venture capitalists, and influential press.
Check us out online at Finovate’s live feed. More to come. Always — more to come.
CentsCity is featured in this week’s issue of Pop City. Check out the article here. Also pasted below:
Skill-Life, an Alpha Lab startup, has quietly launched a new online game that teaches life skills and financial literacy to tweenagers.
Founder and CEO, Felix Lloyd, is also making a splash as a local celebrity, having been recently named to the Pittsburgh Magazine list of 40 under 40 and chosen as one of 32 companies in the world to attend Finovate 2009, a showcase of the hottest new startups and best new financial and banking technology.
The decision to move to Pittsburgh was a no-brainer, Lloyd says.
He and his wife, both former school teachers, considered San Francisco but Pittsburgh made more sense on many levels. His wife works for Google while Lloyd pursues his entrepreneurial dream. The goal, he says, is to build healthy communities and educate young people to be smart money managers through gaming technology and real-life awards.
Skill-Life began as CentsCity in January 2007. Seed funding came from Echoing Green (see the Pop City story here), Innovation Works’ Alpha Lab, the Technology Collaborative, Idea Foundry and local foundations. The software was initially tested with the help of students in Mt. Lebanon and Fox Chapel.
Designed for students ages eight to 14, CentsCity is based on the 70-10-10-10 principle of spending, savings, investing and charitable sharing. Players navigate through a world of landmarks and work their way up to financial guru. Hopes to add a nutrition and citizenship component too.
“This is something we don’t teach in schools,” explains Lloyd. “It’s intimidating to most of us. I was going over the limit on my own credit card, doing all this teaching, and I realized that I needed to learn these things as an adult.”
WYEP is running a pilot program with CentsCity for local youth, giving kids an opportunity to earn concert tickets and prizes by racking up points in the game. To receive a Passport and gain access to the online world, smail here.
Writer: Debra Diamond Smit
Skill-Life has been chosen as one of 32 companies to demo at Finovate 2009, which showcases “the best new financial and banking technology innovations from leading established companies and the hottest young startups.”
These companies will be showcased to an audience of senior financial/banking/credit union executives, influential press, industry analysts, venture capitalists, bloggers, tech companies and entrepreneurs. A few of the organizations already committed to attend include: Bank of America, Citibank, WSJ, Microsoft, HSBC, Wells Fargo, American Express, Dow Jones, the Financial Times, E*Trade Financial, SunTrust, ANZ, Capitol One, Financial Insights, Discover, Sybase, Cardinal Venture Capital, Intuit, Consumer Reports, DataMonitor, Canaan Partners, The Economist, BusinessWeek, and Aite Group.
Skill-Life will demo our CentsCity product and will introduce an expanded set of features to our current beta while on stage at Finovate this September 29th. More info appears on the Netbanker blog, the text of which is also included below.
Finovate 2009 Demoing Companies RevealedBy Eric Mattson on August 5, 2009 |
The demoing companies selected (that we can reveal so far) are:
|
These companies will be showcased to an audience of senior financial/banking/credit union executives, influential press, industry analysts, venture capitalists, bloggers, tech companies and entrepreneurs.
A few of the organizations already committed to attend include: Bank of America, Citibank, WSJ, Microsoft, HSBC, Wells Fargo, American Express, Dow Jones, the Financial Times, E*Trade Financial, SunTrust, ANZ, Capitol One, Financial Insights, Discover, Sybase, Cardinal Venture Capital, Intuit, Consumer Reports, DataMonitor, Canaan Partners, The Economist, BusinessWeek, and Aite Group.
We’d love to have you join us at the fall event and watch the future of finance/banking unfold onstage. If you register today you’ll save $200 via the very-early bird ticket discount. Please note that those prices expire on Friday August 7th at midnight.
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.
Copyright © 2009 BLACK ENTERPRISE. All rights reserved.
From Tuesday (7/21) to Thursday (7/23), we will be conducting private testing of the CentsCity Beta version. CentsCity is a fun online world where tweens learn financial skills and earn real-life rewards!
We are presently looking for a limited number of people to test drive the product. If you would like to give us feedback on CentsCity before we launch publicly, please let us know by responding to this message.
Best,
Skill-Life, Inc.
–
Skill-Life, Inc.
CentsCity — http://centscity.com/ — Learn Money, Earn Rewards!
1739 East Carson St. #323
Pittsburgh, PA 15203
Phone: 412-871-3713
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.