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Twitter's Alex Payne quits, heads onto something new.

al3x.net

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Re: Twitter's Alex Payne quits, heads onto something new.

#111

Post by petercooper »

maxklein wrote: post #33

I'm sorry, but I want my bankers to be grave old men in suits. I also want my bank to have offices all over the world and I want to know that they are handling money many hundreds of times larger than whatever I have. I don't want a bank started by a guy called al3x, and who just left twitter. It sounds innovative, but it doesn't sound...dependable. And if there is one feature I want my bank to have, it's dependable.

My mother-in-law thinks that shopping online is crazy because she thinks people can steal her credit card number from over the wires too easily and because you don't know if you're using a "real" shop.

Re: Twitter's Alex Payne quits, heads onto something new.

#112

Post by ax0n »

I kind of wondered if this was coming, due to the very specific nature of Twitter's job postings as of a few months back that kind of treaded on al3x's turf.

Best of luck to him. Also, I think I want in. On being a customer, not an employee. I just got my dream job.

Re: Twitter's Alex Payne quits, heads onto something new.

#113

Post by jackowayed »

Kilimanjaro wrote: post #84

Guys guys guys, great idea, I applaud your efforts but... More than once I'll be typing banksimple and hitting ctrl+enter so I'll go right to a phisher's page ready to empty my bank account as soon as I type my id/pass. Really, get a dot com.

How would one go about stopping that? Does phishing break the social contract that allows people to keep their rightfully-squatted domains? As in, when someone's using their domain for phishing of your site, will ICANN take their domain away since they're abusing the privilege of having that domain?

Re: Twitter's Alex Payne quits, heads onto something new.

#114

Post by Qz »

maxklein wrote: post #33

I'm sorry, but I want my bankers to be grave old men in suits. I also want my bank to have offices all over the world and I want to know that they are handling money many hundreds of times larger than whatever I have. I don't want a bank started by a guy called al3x, and who just left twitter. It sounds innovative, but it doesn't sound...dependable. And if there is one feature I want my bank to have, it's dependable.

Oh yes, because the banks seem so dependable right now. Good thing they're such experts at handling obscenely large amounts of money. I mean, it's not like we're funding them with our tax dollars or anything...

Re: Twitter's Alex Payne quits, heads onto something new.

#115

Post by axod »

DrJokepu wrote: post #86
axod wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> "Banking does suck." FWIW, This may be true in the US, but certainly isn't a worldwide phenomenon. For example, UK banks pretty much work really well. Seeing US banking in comparison is like using a time machine to go back to the 1950s.

Well, we must be living in a different UK then. I would be actually willing to pay a monthly fee for a bank account at a bank that has a call centre with staff who actually speak English.

Barclays is pretty good, but all the in branch staff are good.

All call centers suck, and all telephone support sucks IMHO.

I certainly wouldn't pay extra just to get telephone support. How often do you need it? If you need it a lot, then that's a really really niche use case.

It may be due to the Barclays online banking being pretty solid. HSBC is also fairly good.

Re: Twitter's Alex Payne quits, heads onto something new.

#116

Post by megablast »

petercooper wrote: post #111
maxklein wrote: post #33

I'm sorry, but I want my bankers to be grave old men in suits. I also want my bank to have offices all over the world and I want to know that they are handling money many hundreds of times larger than whatever I have. I don't want a bank started by a guy called al3x, and who just left twitter. It sounds innovative, but it doesn't sound...dependable. And if there is one feature I want my bank to have, it's dependable.

My mother-in-law thinks that shopping online is crazy because she thinks people can steal her credit card number from over the wires too easily and because you don't know if you're using a "real" shop.

She is correct. It is a real skill to be able to detect the dodgy websites from the real ones. There are lots of fake ebays out there as well. Sure, you and I can tell from the domain name, lack of SSL cert, spelling mistakes, or such, but so many people can not.

Your mother in law sounds smart enough to realise that she can not tell the difference. A rare commodity these days.

Re: Twitter's Alex Payne quits, heads onto something new.

#117

Post by megablast »

axod wrote: post #53
mattmaroon wrote: post #5

I've wanted to do something very much like this in a future startup. Banking does suck. Unfortunately, it's debatable how much of banks' suckiness is avoidable. Retail banking is caught in a vice-grip between fierce competition for low margins and government regulations. For example, from what I understand you pretty much have to run mainframes with certain antiquated, government-approved software to process stuff th…

>> "Banking does suck." FWIW, This may be true in the US, but certainly isn't a worldwide phenomenon. For example, UK banks pretty much work really well. Seeing US banking in comparison is like using a time machine to go back to the 1950s.

UK Banks, hahaha. Don't make me laugh. While it is great to have a bank that actually pays interest, they have only just started to move away from signatures for all transactions, and towards pins.

Plus, they have required huge bailouts as well, I think the RBS is now 70% owned by the government.

Australian banks are actually ones that have come out very well, limiting there exposure to toxic assets, no gov bailouts. Of course, Australia has maintained a very strong economy so far.

Re: Twitter's Alex Payne quits, heads onto something new.

#118

Post by jon_dahl »

ErrantX wrote: post #11

oh no... Don't get me wrong if they pulls this off it will rock. But we've discussed this before... and it is a hard problem. Extremely Hard

Not to sound glib, but:

it is a hard problem. Extremely Hard

Isn't that exactly what an ambitious entrepreneur should look for? Especially someone who's had some startup success in the past?

Re: Twitter's Alex Payne quits, heads onto something new.

#119

Post by al3x »

maxklein wrote: post #33

I'm sorry, but I want my bankers to be grave old men in suits. I also want my bank to have offices all over the world and I want to know that they are handling money many hundreds of times larger than whatever I have. I don't want a bank started by a guy called al3x, and who just left twitter. It sounds innovative, but it doesn't sound...dependable. And if there is one feature I want my bank to have, it's dependable.

Hi Max,

I understand where you're coming from.

The simplest answer is: if you don't want to bank with us, then don't. We don't imagine that we'll replace every bank ever. There are plenty of traditional banks that may be going bust left and right, but hey, you're free to do business with them.

A more complicated answer is that BankSimple will have the backing of established, traditional financial entities who are fully FDIC insured from the get-go, so the risk to you as a customer is quite low.

There's no such thing as banking without risk, but I understand why you feel drawn to more traditional financial institutions. They certainly do a good job of marketing themselves as stable and dependable.

Re: Twitter's Alex Payne quits, heads onto something new.

#120

Post by al3x »

mattmaroon wrote: post #5

I've wanted to do something very much like this in a future startup. Banking does suck. Unfortunately, it's debatable how much of banks' suckiness is avoidable. Retail banking is caught in a vice-grip between fierce competition for low margins and government regulations. For example, from what I understand you pretty much have to run mainframes with certain antiquated, government-approved software to process stuff th…

I was just as dubious about what could really be done until I talked to the guys who are now my co-founders. There's actually a ton of good stuff that can be done, today, in the current regulatory environment. The future looks good.
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