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Who is Fast Company serving with this article? So the PR firm BankSimple hired pitched an article; fine. Declaring that a product that hasn't even launched to

Who is Fast Company serving with this article? So the PR firm BankSimple hired pitched an article; fine. Declaring that a product that hasn't even launched to anyone outside of family "doesn't suck" is irresponsible reporting. "Aims to not suck" is accurate. There's nothing in this article to indicate that the writer has been using the service (just perhaps seen the interface). I'm as excited about BankSimple launching as anyone else but these type of articles rub me the wrong way.

tptacek 15y ago
Who does Fast Company ever serve with an article? The charter of Fast Company is to identify what the cool kids are talking about, digest it, and regurgitate it for the kinds of people who use magazines like Fast Company to keep up with trends. With a few notable exceptions this is how all print tech journalism works. I think you're looking for a semiotic value to Fast Company stories that doesn't really exist. They aren't getting written up because something important is happening. They're getting written up because people have been talking about them. That is probably literally the only element of newsworthiness underpinning the story.
- smikhanov 15y ago
  I never heard of BankSimple anywhere except for the HN and al3x's Twitter which I happen to follow (and I read lots of technical news). There were maybe couple of mentions on TC. BankSimple is not Foursquare or Facebook, I seriously doubt anyone, leave alone cool kids, talks about it. So, yeah, it apparently was just a pitch from the PR firm.
  - ghotli 15y ago
    Eh, I for one have been talking about it. I hate banks and bank apps and things that only work with mint some of the time. If they solve this problem I'll be a happy man and I'll tell everyone I know. I don't care if this is just self serving PR. Here's hoping I'm pleased with the product and that they get the hype / exposure needed to become profitable.
    - joshuahays 15y ago
      Doesn't it say on their site that they aren't really a bank, but just a simple... umbrella for other banks? I think they are just supposed to provide front-end tools for big banks so users don't have to deal with the banks. I'd rather it be a all-in-one bank.
      - Unseelie 15y ago
        I'd much rather it be what it is..But that's a case of its incentives. Banks don't necessarily have the incentives of being any more user friendly than fits the needs to attract and keep customers, and they can use, to some degree, lockin and acquisitions to do that job. Bank Simple, on the other hand, doesn't make money from anything but attracting savings and checking customers, which is the service i want from it, and as that's its only profit stream, its likely to work pretty hard to keep us happy...by doing the work of securing the best banks to work with, rather than leaving that work to me.
        joshuahays 15y ago
        And if they don't secure the bank I'm with?
    - EwanG 15y ago
      You might want to try USAA's bank rather than waiting around then. They have had an option to deposit a check with your iPhone for almost two years (out much before Chase had theirs), have consistently scored high in customer satisfaction, and have been mentioned in several places as having some of the lowest fees around. FWIW...
      - nicksergeant 15y ago
        I'm a USAA customer and unless you have ties to the military, you can't use the iPhone check cashing service. USAA is quite great (debit card points, ATM fee kickbacks, interest on checking balance), but I'm still very much looking forward to BankSimple, mostly for the iPhone check cashing and Mint-style finance tracking. USAA doesn't let me put in future transactions such as bills, savings for vacations, etc, which puts me back into using some finance app to track that (which sucks).
  - erikpukinskis 15y ago
    HN is the coolest kids, dog!

tptacek 15y ago

Who does Fast Company ever serve with an article? The charter of Fast Company is to identify what the cool kids are talking about, digest it, and regurgitate it for the kinds of people who use magazines like Fast Company to keep up with trends. With a few notable exceptions this is how all print tech journalism works. I think you're looking for a semiotic value to Fast Company stories that doesn't really exist. They aren't getting written up because something important is happening. They're getting written up because people have been talking about them. That is probably literally the only element of newsworthiness underpinning the story.

smikhanov 15y ago
I never heard of BankSimple anywhere except for the HN and al3x's Twitter which I happen to follow (and I read lots of technical news). There were maybe couple of mentions on TC. BankSimple is not Foursquare or Facebook, I seriously doubt anyone, leave alone cool kids, talks about it. So, yeah, it apparently was just a pitch from the PR firm.
- ghotli 15y ago
  Eh, I for one have been talking about it. I hate banks and bank apps and things that only work with mint some of the time. If they solve this problem I'll be a happy man and I'll tell everyone I know. I don't care if this is just self serving PR. Here's hoping I'm pleased with the product and that they get the hype / exposure needed to become profitable.
  - joshuahays 15y ago
    Doesn't it say on their site that they aren't really a bank, but just a simple... umbrella for other banks? I think they are just supposed to provide front-end tools for big banks so users don't have to deal with the banks. I'd rather it be a all-in-one bank.
    - Unseelie 15y ago
      I'd much rather it be what it is..But that's a case of its incentives. Banks don't necessarily have the incentives of being any more user friendly than fits the needs to attract and keep customers, and they can use, to some degree, lockin and acquisitions to do that job. Bank Simple, on the other hand, doesn't make money from anything but attracting savings and checking customers, which is the service i want from it, and as that's its only profit stream, its likely to work pretty hard to keep us happy...by doing the work of securing the best banks to work with, rather than leaving that work to me.
      - joshuahays 15y ago
        And if they don't secure the bank I'm with?
  - EwanG 15y ago
    You might want to try USAA's bank rather than waiting around then. They have had an option to deposit a check with your iPhone for almost two years (out much before Chase had theirs), have consistently scored high in customer satisfaction, and have been mentioned in several places as having some of the lowest fees around. FWIW...
    - nicksergeant 15y ago
      I'm a USAA customer and unless you have ties to the military, you can't use the iPhone check cashing service. USAA is quite great (debit card points, ATM fee kickbacks, interest on checking balance), but I'm still very much looking forward to BankSimple, mostly for the iPhone check cashing and Mint-style finance tracking. USAA doesn't let me put in future transactions such as bills, savings for vacations, etc, which puts me back into using some finance app to track that (which sucks).
- erikpukinskis 15y ago
  HN is the coolest kids, dog!