Ashish bahl.june 3 presentation

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

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

Agenda
Personal Overview
Current Ventures
Lessons Learned
Questions
3

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

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

Agenda
Personal Overview
Current Ventures
Lessons Learned
Questions
6

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
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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

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

Twitpay: Powering Socially Visible Payments
Twitpay is the first and largest payment service built on top of Twitter
Only provider of a service that allows Twitter users to simply and securely make charitable donations from their Twitter account
Sophisticated payments platform backed by a provisional patent around the initiation of a financial transaction by posting a message on a social network
Twitpay has been processing peer to peer payments through Twitter since 2008
Enjoys a strategic relationship with Twitter’s development, business develop and Non-profit organization (NPO) relations teams
Twitpay is migrating its success in P2P payments to serve charities with RT2Give™
Users donate to their favorite charities through their Twitter account, and “re-tweet” the donation to their followers
Users “re-tweet” the donation to the their followers, utilizing a lucrative viral component that encourages additional donations to that charity
10

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

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

Agenda
Personal Overview
Current Ventures
Lessons Learned
Questions
13

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

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

Agenda
Personal Overview
Current Ventures
Lessons Learned
Questions
16

Ashish bahl.june 3 presentation

by Melanie Brandt

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