Courtesy of thekenyeung
Mint.com is a free personal finance web-based service, which offers money management services similar to that of the popular Quicken program. Mint has quickly become known to many on and off the web for it’s simple and yet still powerful interface. This week in the spotlight we take a look at young entrepreneur Aaron Patzer, who created Mint and just more recently sold it to the makers of Quicken for a cool $170 million all within a 3 year window.
Summary:
Name: Aaron Patzer
Age: 27
Location: Mountain View, CA
Claim to fame: Mint.com (free web-based personal finance service)
Initial cost: < $500
How He Did It:
Aaron Patzer attended Duke University where he obtained a Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering. He later attended Princeton University where he then graduated with his Masters in Electrical Engineering. Patzer went onto work for several companies (i.e. IBM) where he held various engineering positions. Patzer thought of the idea for Mint in 2005 when he wished for a simpler solution to the popular Quicken software as he believed Quicken to be much too complicated for typical use. Patzer then went onto develop Mint in his spare time throughout 2006 (using Java J2EE & mysql). Patzer would later meet Josh Kopelman (founder of half.com) later that same year who would provide initial funding for Mint going forward. In September of 2009 with a growing number of users and a service that rivaled Quicken in many ways, the makers of Quicken decided to buy Mint from Patzer for a $170 payout! Not bad for just about 3 years of work.
Lessons Learned:
- Ideas are often inspired through the use of existing products and service. (Patzer saw a way to make personal finance software easier to use and more accessible to the internet age)
- Self develop your idea if you can and outsource if you can’t (Aaron was able to develop Mint for very little of his own money, but many entrepreneurs often outsource the physical development of a project)
- Collaborate with others in your project focus area to get help (Patzer used a connection with another entrepreneur to help further fuel his efforts to get Mint developed and launched to the public)
- Take the time and effort required to develop a solid product/service
Did you miss last weeks spotlight? Check it out here: The Entrepreneur Spotlight: Milun Tesovic
Be on the lookout for our next entrepreneur spotlight article in this ongoing series. In the meantime, be sure to leave a comment and let me know what you think about the success of this week’s entrepreneur. Also, please let me know if you have an entrepreneur you would like to see featured here in the weeks to come.
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