Why Mint Matters: A Message to Entrepreneurs About Products
This is a column that really doesn’t need to be written. Or at least, shouldn’t need to be. Most entrepreneurs already understand this concept pretty clearly. But some do not, and for those of you thinking about taking the plunge into startup-land, there is an important message here: it’s all about the product. Take it from Aaron Patzer.
VCs spend a lot of time boiling down the characteristics of successful companies into their simple essence. I think I speak for most when I say it is usually: team, market, product. (Feel free to disagree, fellow VCs.) As an entrepreneur, I always thought most about those three subjects as well. Going back to my Apple days, however, I learned a valuable lesson that I did not always practice as an entrepreneur, and Aaron Patzer, the CEO and founder of Mint reminds me of why it is critical: the product must be absolutely stellar. Not good, not “okay for now”, but, to steal from SJ, insanely great. Have you used Mint.com?
Mint.com is the leader of several startups focused on personal financial management. It’s an audacious notion, since Quicken’s Intuit and, to a lesser extent, Microsoft’s Money, are so dominant. But Aaron recognized weakness in the market leaders: the products have become overly complex, have not adapted to the lifestyles and needs of today’s digital consumers, and perhaps most importantly, their innovation has been non-existent for almost a decade. But that realization is not the only thing driving his success. It’s because his product is amazing.
Aaron has both EE and CSE degrees from Duke and Princeton. Engineers often make great CEOs. But he is also the chief product visionary for the company. And he doesn’t just discuss what he’d like to see in the product — he designs things himself. He showed me the specs he creates in Photoshop. They are more than just wireframes. They looked like completely designed pages to me. You can see his attention to detail in the product. Although it is missing key features to completely overtake Quicken, it is light-years ahead in its usefulness and intuitiveness (pun intended). Mint demonstrates both a better understanding of the customer and a much better product than Intuit has delivered. And it’s paying off. Since launching in September 2007 and winning the TechCrunch 40, Mint has about 1M users and has probably developed an insurmountable lead over its new-startup competition.
The incumbents are taking notice. As if scripted perfectly by the Mint PR team themselves, Intuit’s lawyers actually sent Mint a letter two weeks ago flabbergasted by Mint’s claims of growth. Quicken has been caught completely flat-footed — their Quicken Online product is a weak, uninspired, water-downed version of Mint itself and their forthcoming version of Quicken for Mac, while claiming to be a complete re-write, still misses the mark completely (why must my entire financial life reside on one computer all the time and not online? Why must Quicken insist on charging banks in order to support Quicken when Mint supports more than 7500 financial institutions in the US, virtually every one that matters, and, with Mint’s iPhone app and email alert system, Mint is built for those of us who live our busy lives online and through multiple devices and presents us with beautiful budgeting and investment analysis — just the stuff that matters.)
Mint is not complete. And if any other company shipped it, I may not use it until more features appeared (most noticeably, bill pay and reporting). But because the product is so fantastic, it drew me (and one million others) in. And Aaron will get there.
So, the lesson here is clear: you need an absolutely killer product. Pulling a team together who understand that need and know how to get there is important. But as the founder or founding team, make an honest assessment of your strengths of producing a world-class product. One of the founders must have this ability, and it might just be best if it is you.
Note: Venrock nor I have an investment in Mint. I just really like the company.
