BancVue Takes Aim at Financial Literacy With Acquisition of Skill-Life, Inc.

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

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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Video of CentsCity Demo at Finovate

December 4th, 2009 | Tags: CentsCity, Demo, Finovate

The video of our 7-minute demo a Finovate has been posted here.  Check it out!

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NYC: The Rest of the Story

October 4th, 2009 | Tags: Beta, CentsCity, Demo, Felix Lloyd, Finovate, Investment, Media, Press, Todd Waits

It’s been a whirlwind.  And the days have blown right on by.  So, we missed giving the updates on NYC Days 3 & 4, but in the words of Luther Vandross — “Never Too Late” (bet you don’t hear about Luther on too many tech company blogs!).

Day 3

We demoed.  We showed the crowd CentsCity!

The full day was Finovate.  From 8:30 am until 6 pm, 32 companies gave 7-minute demos of their financial and banking innovations.  It was one after another — some of our favorites being the folks from SmartyPig, TILE Financial, SimpliFi, and BrightScope.  Also really digging Credit.com and Home Account.

Skill-Life wasn’t scheduled until the bottom half of the final group, so we took stage at around 3:15 pm.  This was a new setting for us and CentsCity, so we spent a good portion of the day taking it in and making connections where we could.  The morning and afternoon sessions of demos were followed by 2 hour networking sessions.  Since we had not yet demoed, we spent the morning networking session meeting folks including contacts at FastCompany and Fidelity Investments.

The demo itself went wonderfully well.  By the time we got on stage, we had rehearsed it a number of times.  Both the pitching (Felix Lloyd) and the driving (Todd Waits) went as planned.  We finished with 40 seconds to spare and even gave a moment for the CentsCity soundbed to groove for the audience.

And how did the audience respond?  All signs were up!  The product is so different in look and function than anything that’s out there.  You could tell it caught everyone’s attention.

During the afternoon networking session, we had a table set up and got a constant flow of traffic.  Without getting into great detail here, we had significant conversations with a few venture capitalist, two very likely pilot customers, and a number of potential strategic partners.  Hopefully, more detail to come in future postings as these things take shape.

The “Best in Show” award somehow slipped us by, though the event organizers told us we lost out by hundredths of a point.  Hats off to the guys from BancVue and FirstROI — they guaranteed victory and they delivered.  Helluva demo from those guys with their Kasasa product.

And where did Wednesday leave us off?  Well, the night ended at a bar by the hotel with a few of the other demoing company execs and the good folks from Atomic PR.  More than that, it left us with lots to do in the days ahead and some important conversations to continue.

Day 4

Our final day in NYC was all about making the most of the time we still had in the city.  We met with a few people from the William J. Clinton Foundation, having originally come into contact with them at a meeting on Financial Education & Games at the Casey Foundation in Baltimore.  They had the opportunity to see CentsCity up close as we dug deep into the demo and our expected road ahead.  We’re now working to partner with the Clinton Foundation to have youth in Harlem learn financial skills through CentsCity during the next Financial Literacy Month (April 2010).

Otherwise, I had a great lunch with a potential investor and advisor at the Core Club, before we rushed off to the airport.

From what we’ve been able to track, CentsCity has attracted some coverage from the Wall Street Journal , Spend on Life, PaymentsViews, Student Lending Analytics, and Keeping Nickels.  We also had a recent interview with the Baltimore Sun, which has been looking closely at Financial Education and Video Games.

More to come.

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NYC Trip: Finovate (Day Two)

September 28th, 2009 | Tags: Beta, CentsCity, Customers, Demo, Felix Lloyd, Financial Education, Financial Literacy, Finovate, Game Development, Investment, Media, Press, Todd Waits

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.

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NYC Trip: Finovate (Day One)

September 27th, 2009 | Tags: CentsCity, Felix Lloyd, Financial Education, Financial Literacy, Finovate, Investment, Press, Todd Waits

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.

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CentsCity Featured in Pop City

August 12th, 2009 | Tags: AlphaLab, CentsCity, Customers, Felix Lloyd, Financial Education, Financial Literacy, Finovate, Media, Pilot Partners, Pop City Media, Press, WYEP

CentsCity is featured in this week’s issue of Pop City.  Check out the article here.  Also pasted below:

Skill-Life launches real-life financial game for tweenagers; founder named to 40 under 40

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

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Skill-Life to Demo at Finovate 2009!

August 6th, 2009 | Tags: Beta, CentsCity, Demo, Financial Education, Financial Literacy, Finovate, Investment, Media, Press, Product Development

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.

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