Posts Tagged ‘Media’
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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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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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
http://www.popcitymedia.com/innovationnews/skilllife0812.aspx?utm_campaign=Hot%20Date%20in%20Pittsburgh&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=VerticalResponse&utm_term=Skill-Life%20launches%20real-life%20financial%20game%20for%20tweenagers%3B%20founder%20named%20to%2040%20under%2040
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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.
Finovate 2009 Demoing Companies Revealed
By Eric Mattson on August 5, 2009
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September 29th, 2009 is going to be a memorable day in the history of financial technology. Why? Because on that Tuesday, dozens of leading fintech companies will take the stage in NYC at
Finovate 2009 to debut and demo their latest and greatest product innovations. The quality of the ideas that will be demoed on stage is very high this year and we’re incredibly excited to showcase them to you.
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.
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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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June 27th, 2009 | Tags: Felix Lloyd, Media, Press
Skill-Life President & CEO Felix Lloyd was featured in the June/July issue of TEQ Magazine. TEQ interviews Felix in its “Inter Face” segment. The interview — entitled “Building Skills: Felix Lloyd Launched Skill-Life to Help Tweens Develop Financial Literacy” — can be found here (pg. 26) and is pasted below.
TEQ Magazine June/July Issue
Building Skills: Felix Lloyd Launched Skill-Life to Help Tweens Develop Financial Literacy
You moved to Pittsburgh recently and are running your own company Skill Life. Tell us about how you wound up in Pittsburgh and what you’re up to with your company.
In September 2007, I received a fellowship from the New York based social venture fund Echoing Green. That fellowship would pay me $30,000 per year and health-care benefits to start Skill-Life, Inc. where we build virtual worlds in which tweens earn rewards by playing cool games that teach life skills including financial literacy, nutrition, and citizenship! We are launching the Beta of our first product, CentsCity, in July.
Once I took on Echoing Green’s investment and committed to going at this thing full-time, it didn’t take long for my wife, who works for Google, and I to figure out that $30,000 per year wouldn’t get too far in San Francisco. So, we looked for other cities where Google had offices. We were searching for a place that had a low cost-of-living and, most importantly, significant resources to start an entertainment technology company. Three days after our wedding, we made our second trip to Pittsburgh, in a Uhaul truck.
What’s it been like building your company in a tough economy?
Skill-Life really reached the world in October as we completed our participation in Innovation Works AlphaLab. By that time, the tough economy was already quite clearly upon us. It’s simply been the reality with which my partner, Todd Waits, and I have been confronted. We can’t recall with longing the boom days where investors had deeper pockets and stronger stomachs for early-stage ventures. Rather, we’ve kept down our burn and focused intensely on building a great product and business to ultimately make money while achieving social impact.
On a related note, I couldn’t be more confident that the tough economy has created a unique opportunity for Skill-Life. The first product built on our platform, CentsCity, teaches kids financial skills. The need and demand for such a resource is growing exponentially.
Previously, you were a teacher and were honored as a “Teacher of the Year” in D.C. What made you leave teaching and decide to start your own company?
I often say that I got my first masters degree by teaching 7th graders Civics and Government. My time as a classroom teacher was absolutely invaluable. After five years, however, I no longer saw tremendous opportunities for growth or impact in that role.
Recognition as teacher of the year included my being featured in the Washington Post, Newsweek, and other media. It led to my spearheading Microsoft’s Washington-to-Washington program, which connected my classroom in DC with a classroom in Seattle, Washington. I also became my school’s dean of students and one of its chief administrators. These experience opened my eyes to how much more needed to be done while also giving me the skills and resources to reach higher.
I left teaching to start my own consulting company through which I wrote curriculum and managed GED and summer programs. With a close friend, I started a real-estate company and lost my entire 401K renovating a corner lot in Saint Louis! And I wouldn’t have had any of it any other way. How could I be doing anything other than what I am doing now?
Any advice for those looking to start a company?
Talk about it and be about it. I spend a lot of time meeting people and speaking with them about Skill-Life. Many of the conversations don’t lead to much at all. But, often enough, a simple dialogue leads to someone or someplace else that’s exactly where we need to be. I’ve met one of Skill-Life’s most significant investors, Ron Morris, this way. Also, I always learn more about what we’re doing and need to do by trying to articulate a vision and pin down details to others. The way people hear what you have to say and what they say in return can be golden. For me, the key from there has been to go back into the cave and process it all. We’re constantly revising our pitch, product, and strategy as a result of repeated interactions with customers, investors, strategic partners, and everybody in between.
Best thing about running a company in Pittsburgh and the worst thing.
I’m originally from Washington, DC, where, even as a kid, I had a strong sense that there were people and places close by that would not likely be available to me. In Pittsburgh, I’ve been encouraged by how much access a young entrepreneur like me can gain. Everyone seems one-person removed and, more importantly, willing to give of their time and resources. This willingness has been essential to Skill-Life’s growth thus far.
In some ways, I’m concerned that this small world effect will have its limits. It seems possible that we will in time have exhausted the opportunities to be gained locally. At this point, however, we’ve only just begun digging deeper and Pittsburgh continues to show us its bridges.
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