That was the biggest takeaway for us, says Kortino, who founded Venmo in April, 2009 with Magdon-Ismail as a way to settle their IOUs in a fun and easy way. We try to make our product as fun to use and conversational, which we believe is consistent with texting. When you use our service it should feel like youre talking to your friend, not boring or overly complicated.
Venmo, which earned top honors among companies who presented their applications and utilities at the Mobile Monday event last month, is pitched as a safe way to collect and send money via text message. One of Venmos differentiators in an increasingly crowded mobile payments space is the concept of a financial network, which, like LinkedIin as a business network and Facebook as a social network, consists of a network of people with whom someone makes frequent transactions.
Venmo charges transaction fees between 3-3.5 percent for organizations and merchants and its utility is free for individual users. That’s key for merchants who might be seeking credit card processing services, which are often cost-prohibitive. Kortino especially likes Venmo for use by musicians or artists to sell merchandise at a performance or gallery, food trucks, and non-profits. Four food trucks on Penns campus use Venmo as well as some restaurants in New York and meet-up type groups who use it to split restaurant bills. He offered the following invitation code–“philly205”–for new users to check it out.
Peter Groverman, a Villanova University law student who is organizing The R.E.L.I.E.F Foundation group that will bring $250,000 in supplies and donations to Haiti, is already Venmos biggest cheerleader, and with good reason.
Venmo turned into the most practical choice for us, says Groverman. We didnt have time to wait for people to send checks.
Source: Andrew Kortina and Iqram Magdon-Ismail, Venmo
Writer: Joe Petrucci
