VENMO ON SOCIAL PAYMENTS
Andrew Kortina and Iqram Magdon-Ismail, founders of mobile payment startup Venmo, understand that exchanging money is not just monetary. It’s social, as well. Their “social payment company” adds a bit of fun to settling bills and IOUs with friends, as users send payments to each other via SMS and mobile apps.
Venmo’s simple premise brings trust and transparency to monetary exchanges. Users can broadcast payments on facebook or Twitter (“Andrew paid Iqram $10 to buy a girl a drink”). And a special feature for only the most “trusted” relationships allows the closest friends to pluck money from each others’ accounts (“Iqram charged Andrew $10 for lunch”).
With a user base that doubles every month, $1.2 million in seed funding closed at the time of their visit, and more and more businesses starting to accept payments through Venmo, it’s clear this idea of a transaction model that emulates the nature of human relationships is gaining traction in the marketplace.
Ease of use can’t hurt either: our team had a Venmo relay race, passing $1 from phone to phone around our conference table in mere minutes.
Click here to try Venmo.