al3x

Hi, cofounder of Simple here.

You call us if you have a problem or question. We'll let you know what bank your funds reside at, but you should never need to contact them. We have our own in-house customer relations staff.

What questions would you like us to answer, or where do you think we can be more specific? We're always trying to improve the way we explain what we do, so we're open to suggestions :)

We're planning on doing smartphone check deposit. We have a huge fee-free ATM network, but you're right, we don't reimburse all ATM fees. Thing is, most banks that do reimburse all ATM fees are either making that money back by charging account maintenance fees or subsidizing it through brokerage account fees. There's no free lunch.

So, we may not be a perfect fit for you, but I hope you'll give us a second look with that in mind.

Sorry that you think the name is "weak" and "generic", but I'm glad that you get what we're doing.

"Simple" is definitely a generic term, but brands are built over time. Personally, I love our new logo (by our own @3n), and I think it'll resonate when you start seeing it on actual debit cards and such :)

Answering etherealG's question here because I can't reply to him below:

Yes, you'll know what institution your funds are at. When you get your Simple card, it'll say "issued by {Bank Name}" on the back.

Yup. Those laws are pretty loosely enforced and vary on a state-by-state basis, but they're definitely a concern.

Hi, cofounder of Simple here.

It's extremely unlikely that we'd ever partner with an institution like BofA. We chose bank partners who are comfortable with our vision, and that includes not charging outrageous fees and engaging in other customer-hostile practices. The big banks have shown time and again that they're not in business to act in the best interest of their customers, and that makes them poor partners for us.

We don't currently have plans to allow customers to select the institution with which their funds reside, but it's something we'll take under consideration. Thanks for your thoughts.

Hi, cofounder of Simple here.

We're focused on banking right now, but one of the things we like about the Simple name is that it gives us room to grow.

Another thing the new name gets us is freedom from both legal issues around the term "bank" and negative associations with the retail banking industry.

Plus, people kept mixing up "BankSimple" and "SimpleBank". That was driving me nuts :)

Hi, cofounder of Simple here.

It wasn't a cheap domain, but our investors felt it was worth the expense. It's memorable, flexible, and to-the-point. We're generally not a profligate company, but we felt strongly about this.

That was a concern, but not the sole reason for our rebranding.

Hi, cofounder of Simple here.

We had a "team" page on our previous site (under the BankSimple name). We plan on revising and reviving that page, it just didn't make the cut for our updated site for the Simple rebranding.

I like knowing who's behind the products and services I use too.

Hi, cofounder of Simple here.

From a regulatory perspective, we're a lot like a prepaid card. It's a well-known model that banking authorities, legal experts, and the government is comfortable with. You probably already use financial products that work similarly to the way we do.

That said, we hold ourselves to the same security standards that "real" banks do. I'd like to think we're going above and beyond when it comes to security.

Thanks for getting it :)

The "Bank" in "BankSimple" was problematic for us. We're technically not a bank. We also don't want to be associated with the way people have approached banking, particularly in the US.

Sorry you're not crazy about the new name, but we're happy with it. It gives us a lot of room to grow.

Hi, cofounder of Simple here.

We work with partner banks who hold on to deposits. For all intents and purposes, you never have to think about who that partner bank is, but if you ever need to contact them directly, you'll know where your funds are.

You might find our FAQ informative: https://www.simple.com/faq/.

Can't answer the second question, but we haven't gotten very frequent updates. I'm hoping that will change with the transition to Enterprise, but GitHub:FI lagged behind "public" GitHub pretty badly.

(I'm a co-founder of BankSimple.)

A lot of the banks mark up their wire transfer fees. We won't. Domestic US transfers with us (ACH) will be free. International transfers (SWIFT) cost us ~$15, and we'll pass that on to our customers with no mark-up.

We're trying to make electronic payments easier than checks with some UI innovations that today's demo didn't fully address. We want people to move money electronically, not with paper checks.

Bill pay in the US is a mess. We're going to try to have a great bill presentment system to help address this.

A lot of the banking world in the US is baffling to us, too. that's why we're doing what we're doing. We won't be able to fix everything overnight, and there's lots that's out of our control at the moment. But over time, we'll chip away at the problems and try to make banking better.

We're not doing the consolidation/aggregation thing. Mint does, of course. But we can't do a lot of what we want to do with the sort of low-fidelity, read-only data access that a service like Mint has.

We're subject to the same security requirements that the rest of the financial industry is. We try to go above and beyond them. Nobody's security will ever be perfect, but we push our bank partners to be as secure as possible. We take security very, very seriously.

That's exactly what we're doing. If you tell us about your savings goals, you can then "lock" the goals that you really don't want to dip into if you're overspending. We'll prevent transactions from going through, in that case. We keep you honest :)

(I'm a co-founder of BankSimple.)

Our easily-searchable transaction list is just one feature. That feature alone wouldn't make it work switching. What we're doing is holistic: it's about taking every part of the banking experience, from technology to customer service, and making it better.

What we demoed today was just the beginning. And some of what we're doing doesn't really demo well; it's intangible.

(I'm a co-founder of BankSimple.)

So, what you're talking about to the best of my understanding is the kind of billing systems that are popular outside of America but pretty underused here. Our CEO and CFO are both from outside the US, and our CEO in particular really prefers to pay his bills that way.

It's definitely something we'll get to, but it's also not something that will be totally unique to us; like you said, it's possible today, just clunky. This technology is called "electronic bill presentment", if you're curious.

Thanks for your thoughts!

(Oh: an actual API is in the works, too.)

(I'm a co-founder of BankSimple.)

Once you tell our service about your savings goals, we're able to tell you what you can _safely_ spend. That means not dipping into the savings that you should be building, or putting yourself in a situation where you can't pay rent.

We've done a lot of early customer development. Our features and approach are built from feedback from thousands of conversations. So, yes, a bunch of people do want to know how much money they can spend right now, but we want to let them know that in a way that won't harm them financially.

Payments (wire transfers, etc.) are coming soon. If there's a banking feature you think could be done better, we're probably going to try to do it better :)

I'm kind of a foodie, and our project manager is definitely a foodie. He runs this site that lists some great places to eat and drink if you're only in a city for a couple days. Here are his picks for Portland: http://noms.in/portland

I've seen very few places here that categorize themselves as gastropubs. There are a lot of breweries in Portland, and some of them have their own restaurants/pubs. But's that's a relatively small percentage of the diverse dining options here.

Even though I guess I'm supposed to be the one sticking up for Portland in these comments, I have to agree with this. I don't think Portland or any other city is likely to be the next Silicon Valley. I also don't think that's a bad thing for some types of businesses.

We asked our employees here, and even the ones who live on the East Side enjoy working in the Pearl. Plus, we like that there are other startups in this neighborhood, PIE (the incubator), etc. etc.

Cute. But, actually, if my co-founders had decided to move the company to another city entirely, I would have happily moved. Portland happens to be a good fit for what we're doing, particular from a customer service hiring perspective.

You got it.

We don't have to relocate "literally everyone" in the company. We have myself (one of the co-founders), three engineers, and a project manager here in Portland already. A couple of other people planned on moving for personal reasons in the next few months.

Still, there are a number of people in the company who are uprooting their lives in NYC, SF, and elsewhere, and we really appreciate that they were willing to do so.

We're not a bank, but we view our customers as being the people who would use traditional banks. We partner with banks, and those banks are located around the country.

That said, our processing technology partner, TxVia, is located in NYC, as are several of our investors.

Nope.