Posts Tagged ‘Todd Waits’
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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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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November 18th, 2008 | Tags: Game Development, Jobs, Social Impact, Todd Waits
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.
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