Dave

Oct 19 2010

Meet the Startup – ZestCash

Payday loans get a bad rap: exorbitant interest rates, bullet-proof glass, cries of predatory lending. However, a team led by a former Google CIO (Douglas Merrill) and a former Capital One Chief Credit Officer is poised to change how the world thinks about the industry.

Area 224 sat down with Shawn Budde, Co-Founder and Chief Risk Officer of ZestCash, to get the story.

224: What’s it like to get “TechCrunched?”

Shawn: The reality is that we just launched Wednesday night. So, between the attention from TechCrunch and the fact that we’re making sure the operation is ready, it’s been a busy week.

Editor’s note: See last week’s TechCrunch coverage here.

224: How does traditional payday lending work, and how will ZestCash be different?

Shawn: Most payday loans work rather simply: you get charged $20 in interest for every $100 you need. You write a post-dated check and, when you get paid, you pay back the loan and the interest. However, when someone gets into trouble and can’t pay their loan off in time, they’ll roll it over and pay what they can against the balance.

The traditional payday loan requires that you pay off the balance or roll it over – and, if you have to roll it over, you pay down the interest first. Principal comes afterwards, and that is where the interest can get quite high.

Where we’re different is that, with our loans, we’re letting customers who fall behind pay down on the principal and interest. The result is a loan that is structured in a way that isn’t as onerous.

224: Your storefront for these loans is the Internet. Why?

Shawn: We’re looking to have a connected relationship with customers, but we want to avoid having real estate costs. We’ll still be very connected to customers – our team handles customer interface from start-to-finish, working directly with those who take out loans. We’ll also communicate with customers through phone, email, text messages – but we’re looking to differentiate ourselves from payday loans.

224: Why this industry, and why you and Douglas?

Shawn: Douglas started looking into this industry a couple years back and realized that it is not terribly sophisticated. He also has a passion to do better things for people – and, having been at Google, he knows how machine learning tools can help make this process better for customers.

On the other hand, I’ve been in sub-prime credit for more than 20 years – so I’ve done everything in lending but the IT component – which is where we complement each other nicely.

224: On your timeline, where are you compared to where you’d hope to be?

Shawn: It took us 4 ½ months to get out into the marketplace with the product, which is quite good. Now that we’re in the marketplace, we hope to do a lot of learning over the next couple months.

Oct 18 2010

5 Signs Your Current Newsletter Is Meh

We actually enjoy email newsletters. Good, bad, phenomenal and just “meh” – we sign up for quite a few of them. Here are 5 signs that yours may be, well, meh.

Meh. Average. Doesn’t make you turn cartwheels, doesn’t make you call the cops either. Let’s dissect some common newsletter problems – email newsletter or paper newsletters both apply here. For instance:

1. Jargonization. Webster’s Dictionary defines “meh” as…wait, there’s the first problem. I may not know what you’re talking about when you say meh. Just as your reader may not know what you’re talking about when you say…well, you get the picture. Remember that one person’s jargon is another person’s desire to go to the airport, book an airline ticket, get on a plane and use the barf bag. We’ve railed on this stuff in the past, and we’ll continue to do that. If you write decent copy, you can avoid jargon.

2. Lack of a Point. We got one today that said, well, about fifteen different things. “Come see our store, I’m new at this job, there’s a lot going on, wow it’s nice outside, look, a shiny object!”

Buried in there was an invite to introduce yourself to the new guy, whose job is to meet as many people as he can and make you feel as welcome as possible. There’s the point!

3. Lack of an Objective. Volume 1, Issue 1 always gets people excited. Usually the boss says “let’s do a newsletter.” Then there’s an editorial meeting, and maybe a design meeting, and a really good first issue.

Then, stay tuned for Volume 1, Issue 2. Wait for it…wait…oh, whose job is this? MINE? Oh crap, well, I’m really busy, and…

The lack of clear objectives behind any project is a recipe for disaster. So, too, can be:

4. Failure to Grab Attention. Hook us with a clever subject line or headline. Entice us with a deal of some sort. Mention something about unicorns. We don’t care what – just grab our attention.

And, email marketers, don’t do it with “Re: your message.”

5. Over-personalization. Email marketers blend 4 and 5 for so much eye-bleeding pain I need an antacid. “Re: Dave’s new software.” While brilliant 3 years ago to get an email from Barack Obama that says “I need 20 people like you, Dave,” this was also from ye olde tyme days when we actually thought there was a slight possibility that the person on the other end knew our name.

(I didn’t actually think that. Other people did.)

The personalization tags are out of control – they’re nice to have and can be attention-grabbing. But still…use with caution.

Now, before y’all comment, here are a couple things to share from Area 224 HQ:

A. We do send out an email newsletter from time-to-time. BUT we don’t overdo it; and partly because we would rather focus on our blogging efforts.

B. And we do have an objective behind our blog. It’s sharing BS-free knowledge, insights, and commentary on marketing, marketing communications and startups as they pertain to emerging businesses and emerging communications trends.

We do both and avoid the meh. Here’s hoping you do the same.

Oct 17 2010

Buzzword Watch – How to Innovate with Truly Innovative Innovation

We’re at it again: after Friday’s anti-Engagement rant, today we think “innovation” is over-used.

Dissecting the buzzword “innovation” is going to get us in trouble with the pundits. After all, a good percentage of the readers, viewers and commenters on this site might, themselves, be innovative individuals.

For instance: are you the Chief Innovation Officer of your company? Good for you. You’re joining the ranks of companies that make innovation a priority. By announcing to the world that you have someone in charge of innovating, you prove that innovation is truly innovative at your company (which is probably called “Innova”).

If you don’t have a Chief Innovation Officer, then you could always hire this guy, whose ad pops up when you Google the term. (Here’s a link to the Complete Innovator.)

If you do have a Chief Innovation Officer, what is it that they do? (Other than this unfortunate recent incident from a company whose troubles go beyond hiring someone to innovate.)

Do they report into the Chief Strategy Officer?

Back in the day, Dave from Area 224 worked at a company in the financial data space. At the time, this company didn’t have a Chief Innovation Officer – but they did have a CEO whose plain-speaking style got the troops motivated. One of his favorite sayings ended up posted on quite a few cubicle walls:

If our customers knew what we were working on right now, would they pay us for it?

A-ha! That might not be “innovation” – but it makes a heck of a lot of sense in the client services universe.

Here are the challenges we’ll issue to you, gentle (innovative) readers:

Any Chief Innovation Officers who actually Innovate?

AND, is there a better way to articulate the fact that you are consultative, smart, and are adding value?

Let’s cut through the BS, please.

Oct 15 2010

My Engagement Is Better Than Your Engagement

“Before you throw stones at the glass houses, be sure the glass is half full.”

If that doesn’t make any sense, well, neither does “engagement” to a lot of people.

Case in point: had a great dinner with a friend whose startup is kicking a%%. I told him there’s something called “Blog World.” His eyes rolled back in his head.

We then went back to talking about how his startup is kicking a%%.

I had another chat today with a leading provider of software to an industry that thrives on social commerce. They’re engaging just fine – companies, brands, people who sell stuff are doing the “customer service” thing correctly.

I emailed another friend whose business is doing just fine, with a Twitter page that has more followers than Area 224 does.

#bwe10 would not be happy, since this company’s Twitter page does nothing to engage followers.

But hey, if you’ve got objectives – like you know why you’re in business – the engagement will come. Or it won’t.

That’s the point, kiddos.

Whether my engagement is better than your engagement is irrelevant.

Oct 14 2010

Underground Strategies for Selling Your House Without a Broker

Editor’s Note: This is a sneak peek of our upcoming “Underground Strategies” series – eBook, downloadable templates, and a complete course for anyone who wants to sell a house, condo, apartment, co-op or vacant land – and doesn’t think they need a broker. Pre-order the whole megillah using the link below.

Thing one: I come from a family of real estate agents. Thing two: Some Realtors are really good at their jobs. Thing three: you don’t need one.

This is going to sound counter-intuitive coming from Area 224; after all, we did write the book on Social Media Marketing for Real Estate. But, after working with Realtors on marketing for the better part of the last 18 months, watching their mistakes, weeding through the home selling clutter, etc., we can safely say that most of you can sell your home without using the services of a broker.

And the great thing is this: a good chunk of the tools that will help you sell your house without a broker are free.

Start Writing Killer Copy NOW.

Ah, the counter-intuitive approach. You have a home that might need a little work, and maybe you’re 90 days away from being able to actually list the darn thing – if you focus on fixing that creaky stair, or painting the porch, or whatever.

So why do we want you to start writing?

We want you – actually we NEED you – to get in the right mindset for selling your house. And the right mindset means you need to focus on WIIFM. “What’s In It For Me.”

And the “me” is your target – the person you want to buy your house.

Go ahead, start writing for them. Here’s the approach:

1. Write an email headline that will have a good chance of getting opened.

“Buy my house” is not what we’re going for here. In order to get yourself in the WIIFM mindset, you have to figure out why on earth someone would want your home. Then you need to focus on a couple of the attributes of your home that are attention-grabbing.

Five-minute walk from the train, lots of kids in the neighborhood, so why are we selling our home?

Notice that the email headline leaves the reader guessing.

2. You’re now ready to whet the appetite by being personal.

Any schmoe can talk about price here. You are not a schmoe, and there are scores of sites out there that will talk about price FOR YOU. That’s not the direction we’re headed with what the industry would call killer real estate sales copy.

Back to WIIFM. You don’t have to be all syrupy; but you do want to appeal to the senses.

When Bob and I first moved here, we couldn’t imagine looking out the kitchen window and being able to see our kids playing at the park. And the office upstairs was really an office – not a room with bunk beds in it. Having a beer on the front porch swing was replaced with a cup of coffee while the school bus pulls up.

Are you there yet? Imagining what made this house a home? That’s where you need to get the reader. A few paragraphs that go into details about the place – not granular stuff, just the basics, like when you replaced the furnace, or what you’ve done to the bathrooms.

3. No price, just permission.

The most counter-intuitive portion of the program is this: you are not selling your home with this email. In fact, you are not even talking price. Your whole point is to lay the groundwork for your underground marketing program.

You do this by asking permission.

Although it’s hard to believe, given all the history we have at this place, but we’re getting ready to sell our home. If it’s okay, we’d like to send you the listing information before we send it out to the rest of the world. Click here to confirm that it’s okay.

You’ve begun the process of circumventing the broker by putting yourself in the right mindset, and by writing some killer copy. So now what?

Yes, the rest is part of the Underground Strategies series, and, like we mentioned above, you can pre-order it below.