The success of leading personal finance Web site Mint.com since its win at TechCrunch40 last year gives some idea of what might be in store for this year’s winner, Yammer. The real prize, or course, isn’t the $50,000–it’s the publicity.
Since it’s win, Mint.com raised $17 million in funding, according to a blog post by Jessica Guynn at the Los Angeles Times. It was also named one of the 50 Best Websites of 2008 by Time
Magazine and one of the Top 25 Innovations of 2008 by PC World, CEO Aaron Patzer told me at the TechCrunch50 conference Tuesday. "It was probably the most important seven minutes of my professional life. I was as nervous as could be," Patzer says of his presentation last year.
Unlike personal finance software Quicken, Mint.com is entirely online and therefore can be accessed from anywhere, is free to use, and takes only five minutes to set up on one screen, according to Patzer. The company has 450,000 users–eight times ore than Quicken online, Patzer says–and receives revenues from the banks when the users sign up for credit cards the site recommends as money-savers.
—Kelsey Blodget, Associate Producer
