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Dwolla Raises $16.5M from Andreessen Horowitz

blog.dwolla.com

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Re: Dwolla Raises $16.5M from Andreessen Horowitz

#41

Post by abawany »

jessedhillon wrote: post #40
marknutter wrote: post #37

So I tried Dwolla last week to pay somebody back for some concert tickets and it was not a good experience. I, naively I suppose, thought that maybe Dwolla had come up with some clever new workflow for on-boarding people you wanted to send money to. Alas, I got a few angry texts from the person complaining about having had to input their social security and bank account numbers and, after feeling uncomfortable about…

Capital One 360, formerly ING Direct, has nailed this on the sending side. The sender needs to know the recipient's email addr and the last four of their bank acct # -- the recipient will receive an email which takes them to a page where they enter the full account # and, if those match, money transferred.

SSN to receive money from Dwolla!? Holy cow. Yes, I like the ING solution very much as well though for repeated (but not recurring) transfers, the need to re-enter the bank account number gets a bit cumbersome.

Re: Dwolla Raises $16.5M from Andreessen Horowitz

#42

Post by [deleted] »

jessedhillon wrote: post #40
marknutter wrote: post #37

So I tried Dwolla last week to pay somebody back for some concert tickets and it was not a good experience. I, naively I suppose, thought that maybe Dwolla had come up with some clever new workflow for on-boarding people you wanted to send money to. Alas, I got a few angry texts from the person complaining about having had to input their social security and bank account numbers and, after feeling uncomfortable about…

Capital One 360, formerly ING Direct, has nailed this on the sending side. The sender needs to know the recipient's email addr and the last four of their bank acct # -- the recipient will receive an email which takes them to a page where they enter the full account # and, if those match, money transferred.

[deleted]

Re: Dwolla Raises $16.5M from Andreessen Horowitz

#43

Post by toomuchtodo »

brandall10 wrote: post #20
pc86 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've considered using it to have clients pay me because the only other options are to give away 3% to CC processors, or wait a week+ for a check to come in the mail. If there was a way for me to pass new client onto a single sign-up process (whether I built it via an API or whether it was on Dwolla's page and tracked via referrer), that would go a long way to convincing some of them to use it.

Just an FYI, if by clients you mean for consulting work, Freshbooks has an arrangement w/ Paypal (yeah, I know) where payments are a flat $.50 (yes, 50 cents ) for all invoices up to $10,000. You will still have to put up with a wait to get that money in your bank account (3-4 business days if payment is immediate), but it can all be handled online. I've had all my payments over the past year go thru Freshbooks and t…

Thank you for this contribution. My business uses Freshbooks, and I was unaware of this.

Re: Dwolla Raises $16.5M from Andreessen Horowitz

#44

Post by robryan »

pc86 wrote: post #5
moonboots wrote: post #3

As a developer, the biggest concern I have with Dwolla is the initial friction for new users, e.g. entering their bank account number. I would like to see the complete end user signup flow featured more prominently. I didn't see anything on the topic while signing up for a developer account. Criticism aside, I'm definitely rooting for Dwolla. I don't think they need to match the comparative ease offered with credit c…

I've considered using it to have clients pay me because the only other options are to give away 3% to CC processors, or wait a week+ for a check to come in the mail. If there was a way for me to pass new client onto a single sign-up process (whether I built it via an API or whether it was on Dwolla's page and tracked via referrer), that would go a long way to convincing some of them to use it.

In Australia we can login to Internet banking and send money to another account with any bank in Australia free of charge and usually within 2 business days.

Is something like this not possible in the US?

Re: Dwolla Raises $16.5M from Andreessen Horowitz

#45

Post by javert »

Ataub24 wrote: post #4
moonboots wrote: post #3

As a developer, the biggest concern I have with Dwolla is the initial friction for new users, e.g. entering their bank account number. I would like to see the complete end user signup flow featured more prominently. I didn't see anything on the topic while signing up for a developer account. Criticism aside, I'm definitely rooting for Dwolla. I don't think they need to match the comparative ease offered with credit c…

It's coming! I work on partnerships at Dwolla and full account creation as well as getting money into the account quicker are big initiatives for us. Hit me up at AlexT@dwolla.com if you want to chat more.

What would be great would be if you could fund and de-fund your Dwolla account using Bitcoin.

Bitcoin is either going to be important, or it isn't.

If it is going to be important, somebody is going to make it easy to transfer money between Bitcoin and USD, and they're going to be hugely rewarded.

Dwolla is _extremely_ well-positioned to do this in the sense that it already is an established company that has banking connections and is in a good spot regulation-wise.

The only company competing in this space right now is coinbase, but I think the part of the problem Dwolla has already solved is harder than the actual bitcoin part of the problem.

So this is Dwolla's opportunity to lose, pretty much.

Disclaimer: This is probably laughable to any company insiders because there is no way you all haven't already thought through this kind of thing (and probably found good reasons to reject it...).

Re: Dwolla Raises $16.5M from Andreessen Horowitz

#46

Post by hisabness »

Ataub24 wrote: post #4
moonboots wrote: post #3

As a developer, the biggest concern I have with Dwolla is the initial friction for new users, e.g. entering their bank account number. I would like to see the complete end user signup flow featured more prominently. I didn't see anything on the topic while signing up for a developer account. Criticism aside, I'm definitely rooting for Dwolla. I don't think they need to match the comparative ease offered with credit c…

It's coming! I work on partnerships at Dwolla and full account creation as well as getting money into the account quicker are big initiatives for us. Hit me up at AlexT@dwolla.com if you want to chat more.

why can't you all delete dkhenry's account information from your system?

Re: Dwolla Raises $16.5M from Andreessen Horowitz

#47

Post by maxerickson »

robryan wrote: post #44
pc86 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've considered using it to have clients pay me because the only other options are to give away 3% to CC processors, or wait a week+ for a check to come in the mail. If there was a way for me to pass new client onto a single sign-up process (whether I built it via an API or whether it was on Dwolla's page and tracked via referrer), that would go a long way to convincing some of them to use it.

In Australia we can login to Internet banking and send money to another account with any bank in Australia free of charge and usually within 2 business days. Is something like this not possible in the US?

The user experience for person to person transfers varies and is usually poor.

Electronic transfers (ACH) only take a couple of days though, and for things like payroll, once the accounts are set up it all works fine. They also work pretty well for making payments to businesses and what not.

Re: Dwolla Raises $16.5M from Andreessen Horowitz

#48

Post by jerfelix »

javert wrote: post #45
Ataub24 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's coming! I work on partnerships at Dwolla and full account creation as well as getting money into the account quicker are big initiatives for us. Hit me up at AlexT@dwolla.com if you want to chat more.

What would be great would be if you could fund and de-fund your Dwolla account using Bitcoin. Bitcoin is either going to be important, or it isn't. If it is going to be important, somebody is going to make it easy to transfer money between Bitcoin and USD, and they're going to be hugely rewarded. Dwolla is _extremely_ well-positioned to do this in the sense that it already is an established company that has banking c…

with coinbase, I transferred maybe $600 to Bitcoin. With Dwolla, I transferred maybe $60,000. That should be an indication of the potential.

The reason is that with Dwolla / Mt Gox, I could control my purchase much better. I love ooinbase: they are a GREAT consumer service. But for large sums, I think Dwolla could have a huge win.

Re: Dwolla Raises $16.5M from Andreessen Horowitz

#49

Post by javert »

jerfelix wrote: post #48
javert wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would be great would be if you could fund and de-fund your Dwolla account using Bitcoin. Bitcoin is either going to be important, or it isn't. If it is going to be important, somebody is going to make it easy to transfer money between Bitcoin and USD, and they're going to be hugely rewarded. Dwolla is _extremely_ well-positioned to do this in the sense that it already is an established company that has banking c…

with coinbase, I transferred maybe $600 to Bitcoin. With Dwolla, I transferred maybe $60,000. That should be an indication of the potential. The reason is that with Dwolla / Mt Gox, I could control my purchase much better. I love ooinbase: they are a GREAT consumer service. But for large sums, I think Dwolla could have a huge win.

Yeah. Similar story here.

Dwolla possibly (probably?) does more Bitcoin business than coinbase does, and that has probably been true since before coinbase existed.

Re: Dwolla Raises $16.5M from Andreessen Horowitz

#50

Post by wahsd »

marknutter wrote: post #37

So I tried Dwolla last week to pay somebody back for some concert tickets and it was not a good experience. I, naively I suppose, thought that maybe Dwolla had come up with some clever new workflow for on-boarding people you wanted to send money to. Alas, I got a few angry texts from the person complaining about having had to input their social security and bank account numbers and, after feeling uncomfortable about…

Come on. That may have been a bit of an uncomfortable situation, but it was primarily your fault. Just forcing some unknown service on someone you owe money to that they then have to provide all kinds of rather sensitive information to is not good etiquette. If someone owes you money and you offer that they transfer it using Dwolla, and tell them they'll have to sign up for an account and add their SSN of security, sure. But I would then also suggest explaining what Dwolla is.

Also, transferring money from bank to bank or even using checks is not a fair comparison in any way, shape, or form. When you create a bank account you have to provide your social and all kinds of information too. And if you don't have an account and try to cash a check they even take your finger print and then gouge the heck out of you where they can.

You are being kind of ignorant in your gripe about how the service didn't work out well for you because it was your fault and you are comparing two incomparable scenarios.

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