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What happened to Mint?

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Re: What happened to Mint?

#351

Post by bananamerica »

vonmoltke wrote: post #348
bananamerica wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When you use it to describe someone else's business it's often considered a slur I see. I find it a bit unsettling that in some cultures stating that a business has priorities other than profit at all costs is considered a slur.

If you are using "lifestyle business" to mean "a business has priorities other than profit at all costs", you are using it incorrectly. A lifestyle business is one where the owners have set a target business size and profit level, and do not try to grow past this; some owners even actively inhibit growth to keep the business from getting too large. The purpose of the business is to give its owners a fixed cash flow.…

Yes, of course. As you said, there is certainly a spectrum between "profit at all costs" and "fixed growth" or similar constraints. That is easy to visualize.

I find it interesting and even inspiring that some economies allow entrepreneurs to make this kind of choice. That is not my reality at all. In South-America, we grab every chance we get and don't let go. There is much less opportunity.

Re: What happened to Mint?

#352

Post by enobrev »

Every year around tax time I find myself looking to replace Mint, being unimpressed with the competition, and wondering the same thing as I import the previous year's mint csv into a spreadsheet... Why isn't there an open source set of tools for us to do this for ourselves?

Considering how many people seem to use Mint just to download the CSV of their transactions for Excel or whatever, I'm surprised there isn't some sort of open-source scraping tool (or set of scrapers) meant to be used by developers (and normal people) that will simply grab data from your bank using your credentials and save them into some sort of standardized format.

The standards of such a tool would revolve around standardizing the inputs (url and auth) and outputs (structured financial info).

The obvious answer is that I should start it ("...2nd best time is now"). Unfortunately, I don't have the time. I suppose that's also the answer to the larger question.

Re: What happened to Mint?

#353

Post by taurath »

EpicEng wrote: post #232
taurath wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a product is good, we shouldn't judge it on its inability to continuously add new features.

Not sure I understand that. If I want feature X, and doesn't have feature X, then that's a negative. Doesn't mean is not "good", but it's certainly criteria by which to judge it.

If is good, then its nice to focus sometimes on the fact that its good, rather than on what it doesn't have. Its similar to judging a Honda for not being a Maserati that gets 200 miles per gallon.

Re: What happened to Mint?

#354

Post by EpicEng »

taurath wrote: post #353
EpicEng wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure I understand that. If I want feature X, and doesn't have feature X, then that's a negative. Doesn't mean is not "good", but it's certainly criteria by which to judge it.

If is good, then its nice to focus sometimes on the fact that its good, rather than on what it doesn't have. Its similar to judging a Honda for not being a Maserati that gets 200 miles per gallon.

Sure, but whether or not I decide to stick with depends on many factors. One of those is "does it do everything I need/want." If the answer is no, then that factors into my decision.

Re: What happened to Mint?

#355

Post by ineedasername »

My impression of Intuit's acquisition of Mint was always that it was done precisely so that it wouldn't grow and become a major player in personal finance. That what they were really purchasing was the Mint userbase in an attempt to cross sell them on paid products. And so they have kept Mint around with the absolute bare minimum of effort for the sales funnel through to revenue generating products

Re: What happened to Mint?

#356

Post by nordsieck »

wyclif wrote: post #343
avarun wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a positive term....

Sometimes. Depending on the context. But usually in SV VC circles it's a dismissive term.

> But usually in SV VC circles it's a dismissive term.

Sure.

But that's always going to be true because VCs don't invest in lifestyle business.

Re: What happened to Mint?

#357

Post by taftster »

alexilliamson wrote: post #240
dangus wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They’re great, but they aren’t super quick with features and I wish the product had more, especially when it comes to the graphical reports. It’s also an expensive product for most people. But we do need more of these sustainable low-growth non-VC style SaaS companies out there.

I love YNAB but definitely not for the reports. I've been downloading my data and analyzing it in Rstudio whenever I want prettier charts.

Agreed. Their reports are horrible and for all practical purposes useless. It has a few other warts and areas of improvement, which bother me, but none as much as the lack of reporting.

Re: What happened to Mint?

#359

Post by exolymph »

wyclif wrote: post #272
ASinclair wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think you could run a reasonable lifestyle business here if you don’t take VC, but I’m skeptical this can ever be truly mass-market. You Need a Budget (YNAB) is proof of this. I don't believe they've taken any VC funding and are a pretty successful lifestyle business in the Budgeting/Finance space.

I hate the phrase "lifestyle business." Look: it's a business. No, it's not going to make VCs billionaires. But it's a perfectly respectable business nonetheless. Nothing wrong with that.

You pretty transparently have a chip on your shoulder about this. "Lifestyle business" is not a pejorative. It can be, but it generally isn't.

Re: What happened to Mint?

#360

Post by sergiotapia »

creade wrote: post #216

One of my longest standing mint mysteries is how I alone was A/B tested into them trying to bum pizza off me: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CSg_ZxLU8AAF96d?format=png&name=... I haven't been able to find any other confirmation that this was a thing outside the one time I saw it.

lmao is this real
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