1. Powering Your Venture Lessons Learned in Succeeding with the Right Startup Rock Star Presentation for the TAG/ATDC Entrepreneurs June 3, 2010 Ashish Bahl CEO, Acculynk www.acculynk.com
2. Executive Summary 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 2
4. 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 collecting 4
5. 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 5
7. 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 7
8. The PaySecure Payment Process is Simple and Familiar 1 Card number entry Make selection 2 Only appears if transaction is PIN-able No abandoned transactions No redirection Merchant steering Consumer checks out on merchant website Consumer enters debit card number No proactive choice required 4 Confirmation page Enter PIN 3 Consumer receives payment confirmation directly from merchant Bank branded Highest level of security Scrambling PIN-pad Mouse click only 8
9. 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 9
10.
11.
12. Users “re-tweet” the donation to the their followers, utilizing a lucrative viral component that encourages additional donations to that charity10
13. 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 Consumer re-tweets Step 3: Twitpay sends confirmation via direct message (DM)* Step 4: Consumer replies “yes” to the DM and the donation is complete *Consumer follows @RT2Give_Confirm automatically, when they sign up 11
14. 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 12
16. 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 14
17. 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 15
