Open Source Banking

Why Union Square picked Wesabe

This post from VC Union Square Ventures about their client, Wesabe, is well worth the read. In particular I found the criteria for selecting Wesabe fascinating. Those criteria could apply to online banking initiatives.

On the web it can be a whole different story. If you manage your expenses on a web based service you have the opportunity to contribute to community and to take advantage of its collective wisdom. Allowing your service provider to aggregate transaction data anonymously makes it possible for that provider to deliver a service that is better than desktop software in a number of important ways.

Source: Union Square

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4 thoughts on “Why Union Square picked Wesabe”

Mark McAlister says:

2007-06-21 at 14:29

This link is very interesting.

What are the chances of getting a Canadian Bank to start getting interested in this kind of disruptive technology…maybe helping to start a kind of skunkworks…no harm in dreaming…
bob says:

2007-06-21 at 19:30

Hard to believe the “collective wisdon” will be worth much when most of the commumity has got to made up of people that have a hard time managing their own money!
Ed Terpening says:

2007-06-22 at 08:42

My favorite quote from that same post is this “Using a web based financial services provider makes the notion of personal financial services less personal and more communal.” I love the notion of “Communal Finance”.
Colin says:

2007-06-22 at 13:06

Thanks Ed …. that entire paragraph is a good quote actually.

There are other benefits of moving personal financial services to the web. Using a web based financial services provider makes the notion of personal financial services less personal and more communal. Managing your finances within a community allows you to share your goals with others and learn form their experiences and to share yours. Many of these folks have grappled with financial challenges like yours. Everyone wants to be able to be able to send their kids to college. Would it be helpful to know how other people in similar circumstances did that? So you get the idea. When you move word processing onto the web not much changes; when you move personal financial services onto the web everything does. Once we realized that we started looking in earnest for an opportunity to invest in a service provider in this space.