ashish bahl.june 3 presentation
TRANSCRIPT
Powering Your Venture
Lessons Learned in Succeeding with the Right Startup
Ashish BahlCEO, Acculynkwww.acculynk.com
Rock Star Presentation for the TAG/ATDC Entrepreneurs
June 3, 2010
A glass is never half empty
Bluebirds are the exception to the rule
Establish a game-plan from day one to provide a roadmap for execution
Expect the unexpected and learn to roll with the punches
Take time to enjoy the excitement of creating your own path
Executive Summary
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Agenda
I. Personal Overview
II. Current Ventures
III.Lessons Learned
IV.Questions
3
Personal Background
Serial Atlanta entrepreneur with 22 years of experience in the payments space
B.S. in Mathematics and Electrical Engineering from Vanderbilt University and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University
Civic responsibilities include Board positions in Leadership Atlanta, TIE, TechBridge and the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG)
Married to Debora Bahl with 4 children
Interests include adventure travel, tennis, and wine collecting4
Professional History Founded and served as the CEO of Exchange Place Solutions (EXPS)
– EXPS' primary competence was within the area of electronic payments, including ACH, Wire, I-ACH, and SWIFT
– EXPS was acquired by iXL in 1997
Became the Senior Vice President of iXL Ventures and the founder of iXL's Financial Services Practice Group (FSPG)– Grew the practice to the largest industry component within iXL, accounting for
approximately 33% of the company’s revenue during 1998, the year of its IPO
Founded Harbor Payments in 2000– Harbor Payments was the recognized global leader in the emerging electronic
invoicing industry– Rated as one of the fastest growing technology firms by Deloitte in 2005– Purchased by American Express in 2006
Launched/Relaunched Acculynk in 2008 and Twitpay in 2010– Currently serve as Chairman and CEO of Acculynk, the only provider of a payment
method for Internet PIN debit payments
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Agenda
I. Personal Overview
II. Current Ventures
III.Lessons Learned
IV.Questions
6
Acculynk: Bringing PIN Debit to the Internet
Acculynk is the only provider of a software-only service for PIN debit payments on the Internet, PaySecure ®– Standard adopted by 7 EFT networks– 10 patent families, including 4 issued patents
PaySecure is a compelling online payments innovation, as it meets the needs of all stakeholders– Merchants: instant adoption, no incentives, reduced fees, lower
fraud/charge-backs– Consumers: familiar, convenient and secure payment experience leveraging
their current debit card– Issuers: lower fraud, attractive margins, competes against alternative,
extends issuer brand
PaySecure is already the second largest alternative payment type in the market, projected to have over 90M active users by Q4 2010
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Consumer checks out on merchant website
Consumer enters debit card number
No proactive choice required
Only appears if transaction is PIN-able
No abandoned transactions
No redirection
Merchant steering
Bank branded
Highest level of security
Scrambling PIN-pad
Mouse click only
Card number entry
Confirmation pageEnter PIN
Make selection
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Consumer receives payment confirmation directly from merchant
The PaySecure Payment Process is Simple and Familiar
Acculynk Investment Hypothesis, 2008
Existing State– Payment method required a “download” – No commercial transactions– Non-payment management team– Direct customer acquisition– Slippery and fuzzy numbers with partners
Vision– Recruit payment experts to build credibility– Convert to a hosted application using an Ajax frame– Publish “open” pricing to all parties– Make the industry standard– Underwrite merchants through acquirers
Valuation– At the time of investment: Under $1M– Current valuation: Over $50M
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Twitpay: Powering Socially Visible Payments
Twitpay is the first and largest payment service built on top of Twitter– Only provider of a service that allows Twitter users to simply and securely make
charitable donations from their Twitter account– Sophisticated payments platform backed by a provisional patent around the
initiation of a financial transaction by posting a message on a social network
Twitpay has been processing peer to peer payments through Twitter since 2008– Enjoys a strategic relationship with Twitter’s development, business develop and
Non-profit organization (NPO) relations teams
Twitpay is migrating its success in P2P payments to serve charities with RT2Give™ – Users donate to their favorite charities through their Twitter account, and “re-
tweet” the donation to their followers– Users “re-tweet” the donation to the their followers, utilizing a lucrative viral
component that encourages additional donations to that charity 10
RT2Give™ leverages the power of Twitter
Step 1: Consumer’s favorite non-profit tweets a call for donations
Step 1: Consumer re-tweets the NPO’s tweet
Step 3: Twitpay sends confirmation via direct message (DM)*
*Consumer follows @RT2Give_Confirm automatically, when they sign up
Step 4: Consumer replies “yes” to the DM and the donation is complete
Consumer re-tweets
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Twitpay Investment Hypothesis, 2010 Existing State
– Communication channel between PayPal and Twitter– Limited margin– Did not own payment system– Did not own payment data
Vision– Create a proprietary payment system
• Own data through enrollment• Own funds flow
– Leverage Twitter’s low-cost rails– Target low-fraud industries
• Charitable donations, virtual games– Build significant user base for other applications– Create preferred payment system for Twitter and others
Valuation– At the time of investment: Under $1M– Current valuation: Over $10M
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Agenda
I. Personal Overview
II. Current Ventures
III.Lessons Learned
IV.Questions
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Lessons Learned: Picking the Right Opportunity
Stick to something that you know – in our case, payments
Have an analytic screen
Lead with intellectual property
Balance the desire to have the perfect technology
Find a “Big Brother”
Define a “real” economic model
Finance creatively
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Lessons Learned: Creating the Right Corporate Culture
Be decisive: cost of failure is low but cost of missed opportunity is high
Ride the emotional cycle of change
Surround yourself with positive “can do” people
Focus on efficiency, don’t only be an educator
Balance business extensions with results
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Agenda
I. Personal Overview
II. Current Ventures
III.Lessons Learned
IV.Questions
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