The latest from TechCrunch
- ReadyForZero Raises $260K To Help Cleanse Consumers Of Credit Card Debt
- Mint Data Delivers A View Into The Spending Habits Of Its 4 Million Users
- Milo Takes Local Product Inventory Search Mobile With Android App
- Google TV Project Moved To YouTube Management
- Endgame Systems Raises $29M, Debuts Web-Based Malware Detection Service
| ReadyForZero Raises $260K To Help Cleanse Consumers Of Credit Card Debt | Top |
| Y Combinator -backed startup ReadyForZero is announcing a $260,000 seed round of funding from a number of well-known angel investors including Steve Chen, the co-founder of YouTube; Dave McClure, Benjamin Ling , Nils Johnson , and Maneesh Arora. Launched in September, ReadyForZero is an easy to use web-based platform to help guide consumers out of credit card debt. ReadyForZero is trying to help those consumers who are having trouble paying their debt off, as opposed to those who are already in collections or bankruptcy. Essentially the site is trying to help people be able to eventually not carry any balances month to month. The company says that in the US alone there are 100 million people with revolving balances, meaning they carry credit card debt from month to month. Combined they owe $900 billion to banks and credit card companies. You import your credit card information, including what types of cards you have, the amount owed, and the startup will then walk you through the same steps a trusted financial advisor would give you. Based on your minimum payments, salary and balance, ReadyForZero will figures out an optimal strategy for what to pay and when. The site will also send you reminders and you can track your progress online. While you cannot actually pay your bills directly from ReadyForZero, the startup will eventually allow users to do this directly from the site. Currently in private beta, the startup will use the funds to help launch to the public early next year. The idea behind ReadyForZero is no doubt a noble cause that wants to add legitimacy to a notoriously shady industry. And credit card debt is certainly an issue that’s relevant to the current economic conditions. As a side note, the startup’s co-founder and ex-Googler, Ignacio Thayer is behind the parody video on fundraising, “ Stupid Questions VCs Ask.” CrunchBase Information readyforzero Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| Mint Data Delivers A View Into The Spending Habits Of Its 4 Million Users | Top |
| With more than four million users, Mint’s personal finance platform no doubt has a massive amount of data that it can mine regarding consumer’s spending habits. In fact, the site already uses some of this data to show seasonal trends. Today, the Intuit owned company is launching its realtime customer data insights to the public, after soft launching the product almost two months ago. Mint Data aggregates anonymous spending data from Mint’s users to give you realtime insight on what people are spending on across the country. For example, the platform lists the most popular restaurants in San Francisco (by visits), the top shopping spots in New York City (by highest average spend), and the highest spending cities in the U.S. Mint Data will also show spending data both by average purchase price and by popularity, which is defined by number of transactions per month. The rankings can be viewed by category, such as "food and dining," by specific business, and broken down to the city level. For example, Mint Data shows that the average spend at a Starbucks in New York City is $5.38. The site also compares this to the average spend at coffee shops overall, which is slightly higher. In terms of actual regional data, you can choose from 300 cities in the U.S. to compare spending. And Mint.com users can compare their own personal finance and spending habits by category or merchant against averages in their area, or against the national average. As a consumer product, this data is pretty fascinating, and a great way to get a little more insight as to how your spending stacks up against the rest of the consumers in your city or at a particular store. I can imagine that that some of this data could be mined even deeper to compare demographics and spending. CrunchBase Information Mint.com Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| Milo Takes Local Product Inventory Search Mobile With Android App | Top |
| Milo, a startup that highlights local inventory at brick and mortar stores in product search results, is taking its platform mobile today with the release of a free Android app. Milo.com tracks the real-time availability and prices of more than 3 million products at over 50,000 stores across the U.S., including Target, Macy’s, Best Buy, Crate & Barrel and more. Using the Android’s phone geolocation, the app will identify a user’s location and return realtime results for a product’s availability at stores in the area. Users will also be able to access where stores are located and how the price compares to other stores in a given area. So if I searched for a juicer in Palo Alto, Milo would return availability of the device at the stores nearby, including Target, Macy’s and Crate & Barrel. The app will also give me driving directions to local stores. While Milo does have a HTML5 optimized site for smartphones, this is the first native app launched by he startup. In all honestly, I think that Milo’s service could even become more popular on mobile phones than on the web. The idea that I can simply look up a product’s local availability on the go or even while I’m at a competitor’s store is incredibly appealing. And it’s no coincidence that Milo is launching as the holiday shopping season ramps up for the year. Milo co-founder Jack Abraham tells me that he expects the app to immensely popular amongst users, especially as consumers use the app for price comparisons on the go. Abraham says that a similar app for the iPhone will also be released shortly. As to why he launched on Android first, he said that the process of developing an app for the Android platform was simply easier. Of course, there’s also another factor to consider for Milo’s move to publish on Android first. Google recently launched a similar feature, called Blue Dot, on the mobile version of Google Product Search, Similar to Milo, Blue Dot allows users within search to see if a product is in-stock at nearby stores. But as Milo countered, Google doesn’t have the inventory reach that Milo has. Milo also recently launched a deal with comparison shopping site Pricegrabber to show local inventory in search results. Earlier this year, Forrester reported that the "online research, offline buying" consumer market represents $917 billion in consumer spending, which was 30 percent of all U.S. retail sales at that time. This market is significant and if Milo can develop a loyal userbase on its mobile apps, it can grab a piece of a pretty big pie. CrunchBase Information Milo.com Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| Google TV Project Moved To YouTube Management | Top |
| Google TV, more an internal project than a real business unit, has been moved under YouTube manager Salar Kamangar. This means little in terms of real change to the platform but it will give Google TV, thus far plagued with refusals by many content providers to allow streaming over the device, a bit more leverage with stations and studios. Read more… | |
| Endgame Systems Raises $29M, Debuts Web-Based Malware Detection Service | Top |
| Cybersecurity solutions provider Endgame Systems has raised a whopping $29 million in first-round funding from Bessemer Venture Partners , Columbia Capital , Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and TechOperators . Coinciding with the financing announcement, the company is today releasing ipTrust , a cloud-based botnet and malware detection service. | |
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