I'm the CTO of BankSimple. I can confidently say that there's nothing fundamentally broken about the concept or company. BankSimple wasn't the right place for Dave, but he's a brilliant programmer – seriously, one of the best I've ever worked with – who will end up doing great things no matter where he ends up. I'm really grateful that we got a chance to work with him.

To be clear: this is not the easiest business in the world to start, particularly given the slow-moving pace of the banking industry, regulatory burdens, etc. But we've been making substantial progress, and we have a growing team who do fantastic work.

You are, of course, free to be skeptical of how I present the state of our company because it's in my best interest to put a positive spin on things. That said, it's also in my best interest to be open, because we know that many of our early (potential) customers are coming from communities like this one, and building trust is critical for our success.