Without the Intuit corporate spin... how about the mint founder & CEO spin? Did you read his blog post?
Mint's stated goal was to make finances easier for the average Joe who doesn't know how to use Excel to understand. Here is what Aaron Patzer sent out in an e-mail yesterday:
"I’ll personally be taking on the role of GM of Intuit’s Personal Finance group responsible for online, desktop and mobile consumer personal finance offerings."
Which means, instead of your vision of Quicken dying while its entire market share is eroded by mint's innovative model, the entire makret share of Quicken will be taken up by that innovative model much more quickly with mint's former CEO at the head of Quicken.
Why should I care? Because I think it's indicative of a VC-induced cancer that's infecting our industry and killing off the next generation. I don't know the full backstory, but I'd bet this sale was encouraged by a Mint investor.
Here's a fresh new company that was gunning for an aging incumbent. And not only gunning, but gaining. They had a great product, great design, and great potential. They were growing rapidly and figured out the revenue game. They were on their way to redefining an industry - one that was left for dead by the current custodians.
They were everything their main competitor, Intuit, was not. While Mint was inventing, Intuit was out of it. People used Quickbooks/Quicken out of habit and legacy. People used Mint because they loved it. Intuit was disgruntled, Mint was disruptive.
Comments
Mint's stated goal was to make finances easier for the average Joe who doesn't know how to use Excel to understand. Here is what Aaron Patzer sent out in an e-mail yesterday:
"I’ll personally be taking on the role of GM of Intuit’s Personal Finance group responsible for online, desktop and mobile consumer personal finance offerings."
Which means, instead of your vision of Quicken dying while its entire market share is eroded by mint's innovative model, the entire makret share of Quicken will be taken up by that innovative model much more quickly with mint's former CEO at the head of Quicken.
http://37signals.com/svn/posts/1927-the-next-generation-bends-over
Jared,
You are my forum hero for today. That blog completely nails it.
Site is getting hammered right now.