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.
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.”
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.
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.
The search for an executive producer to lead development of our Beta has been a long one. Over the last few weeks, we have had the opportunity to interview some excellent candidates. And it looks like we’re heading in the right direction with one particularly talented individual — Todd Waits.
Todd is no stranger to Skill-Life. As CEO of Semiotic Technologies, he led the team that produced our current prototype. It’s been a year since I first met with Todd at a Starbucks on East Carson (a day on which I distinctly remember getting caught in the rain and ending up drenched by the time I arrived). Over that time, we have had the opportunity to work closely together, sharing successes and overcoming challenges. Todd is intimately familiar with Skill-Life, from our program code to our mission for social impact. There is perhaps no better partner at this stage to help take our product from prototype to Beta and beyond.
Over the next month, Todd is working with Skill-Life on an interim basis. We intend to use the days ahead to hone in on our product development plans and to strengthen the Skill-Life business model. We’re spending this week meeting with developers in Boston and in Philadelphia while attending the upcoming Echoing Green conference. By next month, we’ll have an even stronger sense of where to take this company and how best to bring Todd on at a high level.
Todd Waits graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in Film. While an undergraduate, he directed a crew of over twenty students and studied cinematic techniques as they relate to video game theory. As a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment & Technology Center, Todd implemented a project to more closely examine the emerging technology of small-screen media such as video iPods, Sony PSPs and cell phones. He worked with ETC Media Services to help further hone the image of the ETC and its focus on creating high quality internal productions. During his final year, he worked with CERT, also located at Carnegie Mellon University, to develop a training simulation prototype to teach supervisors and managers how to detect and mitigate insider computer sabotage. As CEO of Semiotic Technologies, he has partnered with Stephen Calender and Evan Miller to build virtual environments for the White House Historical Society, SimTime, Skill-Life, and others — contracting over $120,000 in sales.