Idea Napkin 2.0
Who I am
My name is Carlos Valencia. I am a Comp. Science major in the I.A. Some of my talents include analyzing information (sometimes too much), learning fast, flexibility in working environments, and different languages. I want to become a software developer, be it an independent one or in a tech company. I would hope that, if this business was to be launched, it was a catalyst for my career as a developer, and I would also hope that one of the big techies saw it, and tried to make their own version of it, because that means it’s working.
What I offer
I offer a better way to manage mobile banking, investments, and finances in the form of an app that acts as a global portal, like Canvas is for schools. From the app, you can access all your accounts, even if they are in different banks. This can standardize mobile banking, giving all banks access to the same features within the app, and making all bank pages easy to use. By doing this, security can be increased. If the portal is successfully encrypted, data transfer would be secure and closed end-to-end, only viewable by the sender (the specific bank) and the receiver (the user). And to make it easier to identify purchases, we could use maps to get business addresses, and display them in bank statements. The app would also offer investment options. If you want to invest on your own, you select where you want to invest that money. If you would instead prefer a form of automatic investing, like what Acorns offers, you can do that too. And you will always know how much you invested, how much you have made from the at investment, and what that investment is exactly. I must be explicit in this: the portal allows ONLY USERS to access multiple banks. It does not allow banks to access ALL of a user's information. So if one of their users has a second account with a different bank, they won’t even know it, much less be able to access that other account’s information. We don’t store any data from any of our users either, and there are no fees for using the portal.
Who it's offered to
The portal app itself is offered to any bank customers who have at least one account. While mainly targeted to younger generations who are able to quickly adapt to evolving technology, older generations are still taken into account to make the app as accessible and user-friendly as possible. Banks would be offered admission to the portal. If admitted, they get access to our API so they can design the overall look of their bank-space, and make their servers work with our features. If admitted, banks MUST implement ALL features, which they can preview before admission to avoid later disagreements.
Why customers care
Most people might be willing to change their app in order to improve their mobile banking experience. And, lots of customers are exposed to card freezes, or single-purchase limits as well as daily-spending limits. And there is no fast and easy solution to this. The only solutions are either going to the bank, or calling. It can’t be done online because of security issues. But if we used biometrics, most of which are already being used by smartphones, for authentication, we can provide an easy solution that would appeal to all customers.
My core competencies
Some of my competencies include punctuality, determination, fast-learning, and responsibility. I'd rather be an hour early to a class, or a meeting, than be even one minute late. Once I set my mind to do something, I'll keep going until it's done, as hard as I might have to work. I'm also good with languages. I already speak two, and if I tried to learn a third one, I'm sure I could learn it fairly quickly. This one is probably a given, since I'm a C.S Major, but I'm good with computers and technology overall. But what I think not many people have is the ability to learn how to use a piece of technology by tinkering with it (i.e: trying random things). Sure, I can also learn by merely watching someone else do it, and I can read about it and learn as well. But if I have to do it on my own, I can figure it out. I'm also very adaptable. Since I've never really stayed at anywhere too long (Peru excluded), I have learned to adapt faster, and I'm used to being the "new guy", so it doesn't affect me as much.
Reflection
I think most of these elements fit pretty well together. Perhaps the only one that may be a slight misfit is my desire to do the right thing. From a business stand point, this may be considered as either a weakness or a strength. Other than that, everything I am fits with my business idea. I know programming, I speak two languages, which helps with globalizing the app, and I would genuinely enjoy this, since it involves helping people AND programming. If I can do both in one, oh I'm 100% in.
Feedback Memo
Unfortunately, I got no feedback from Idea Napkin 1.0. However, I looked at other posts, and took some feedback from there. Some points that were brought to my attention where the potential need of a physical bank and the bank independence issue. I explained that the portal doesn't allow banks to get information from the the user's foreign bank accounts. The former issue was slightly harder to address, but as I noticed, it may have originated from the somewhat poor description of the portal. So I described the portal in a little more detail, and was a little more specific to illustrate one point: the aim of this service/app is to make mobile baking easier. It's goal is to allow users to have access to everything they would have access to if they went to a physical bank. Therefore, establishing a physical bank would go against our own business. Could that be a setback for expansion and adoption of the portal? Probably.
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