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Just use yodlee.com (they power Mint's backend anyway). I've been a happy user for years. I agree with your second statement: to the uninformed observer (me an

Just use yodlee.com (they power Mint's backend anyway). I've been a happy user for years. I agree with your second statement: to the uninformed observer (me and everyone else in this thread) something does seem off. Bank and credit card leads pay from $50-$200 per pop let alone the riches that mortgage leads bring in. I was in fits of laughter during the initial Mint acquisition HN thread (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=821615 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=821615) when people accused Mint of being unable to make money. To some, advertising and subscription payments are the only way to monetize.

whopa 17y ago
Maybe with the current economy the bank and credit card leads don't pay out as well? And the mortgage stuff is still in total downturn. Perhaps between the crappy economy and whatever Yodlee is charging for their data, Mint may not be anywhere near profitable. They may have acquired a lot of users, but they have to pay Yodlee for all those users' data, and cover the costs by the fraction of those users who go for the bank/credit card stuff suggested. During the time I used Mint, none of the financial offers presented were better than my current ones, so I never bit.
tjogin 17y ago
Mint's backend isn't the point, it certainly isn't what made Mint popular —— it's the frontend.
- fallentimes 17y ago
  That's partially true, but what also made them popular is exceptional PR, SEO and marketing. Yodlee has some features Mint does not and vice-versa.
  - dcurtis 17y ago
    No, none of those things made Mint popular. The quality of the product did.
    - fallentimes 17y ago
      That's just not true as the CEO himself admits and as their job postings and SERP rankings reveal. Mint were absolute masters of SEO and PR: http://spyfu.com/Domain.aspx?d=-3624320565025573542 http://spyfu.com/Domain.aspx?d=-3624320565025573542 http://www.onecubicle.com/page/jobs/job/4581 http://www.onecubicle.com/page/jobs/job/4581 "We didn’t have money for writers, so most of our original blog content then was guest posts from other personal finance blogs, plus a couple of columns on people’s worst financial disasters. To build demand, we started asking for email addresses for our alpha 9 months in advance of launch. Then when we had too many people sign up, we asked people to put a little badge that said “I want Mint” on their blogs to get priority access. We got free advertising and 600 link backs which raised our SEO juice." Instead, we relied on press. It’s where I spent 20% of my time. I’m spending it right now while writing this." http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/14/the-value-of-techcrunch50-mint-acquired-by-intuit-for-170m-two-years-after-winning-tc40/ http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/14/the-value-of-techcrunch... Having an awesome product certainly helped but it was in conjunction with their other efforts.
    - tylerhwillis 17y ago
      Don't agree with you 100% here. The product made the success possible. It was necessary, but not sufficient for success.
- mountaineer 17y ago
  I disagree. Without adequate coverage of financial institutions, a nice frontend is useless. Users don't want to use a pfm that they can't add all their accounts to. I'd argue the backend (Yodlee) was very instrumental in making Mint easier to use and thus more popular. Competitor sites did not have as much coverage.

whopa 17y ago

Maybe with the current economy the bank and credit card leads don't pay out as well? And the mortgage stuff is still in total downturn. Perhaps between the crappy economy and whatever Yodlee is charging for their data, Mint may not be anywhere near profitable. They may have acquired a lot of users, but they have to pay Yodlee for all those users' data, and cover the costs by the fraction of those users who go for the bank/credit card stuff suggested. During the time I used Mint, none of the financial offers presented were better than my current ones, so I never bit.

tjogin 17y ago

Mint's backend isn't the point, it certainly isn't what made Mint popular —— it's the frontend.

fallentimes 17y ago
That's partially true, but what also made them popular is exceptional PR, SEO and marketing. Yodlee has some features Mint does not and vice-versa.
- dcurtis 17y ago
  No, none of those things made Mint popular. The quality of the product did.
  - fallentimes 17y ago
    That's just not true as the CEO himself admits and as their job postings and SERP rankings reveal. Mint were absolute masters of SEO and PR: http://spyfu.com/Domain.aspx?d=-3624320565025573542 http://spyfu.com/Domain.aspx?d=-3624320565025573542 http://www.onecubicle.com/page/jobs/job/4581 http://www.onecubicle.com/page/jobs/job/4581 "We didn’t have money for writers, so most of our original blog content then was guest posts from other personal finance blogs, plus a couple of columns on people’s worst financial disasters. To build demand, we started asking for email addresses for our alpha 9 months in advance of launch. Then when we had too many people sign up, we asked people to put a little badge that said “I want Mint” on their blogs to get priority access. We got free advertising and 600 link backs which raised our SEO juice." Instead, we relied on press. It’s where I spent 20% of my time. I’m spending it right now while writing this." http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/14/the-value-of-techcrunch50-mint-acquired-by-intuit-for-170m-two-years-after-winning-tc40/ http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/14/the-value-of-techcrunch... Having an awesome product certainly helped but it was in conjunction with their other efforts.
  - tylerhwillis 17y ago
    Don't agree with you 100% here. The product made the success possible. It was necessary, but not sufficient for success.
mountaineer 17y ago
I disagree. Without adequate coverage of financial institutions, a nice frontend is useless. Users don't want to use a pfm that they can't add all their accounts to. I'd argue the backend (Yodlee) was very instrumental in making Mint easier to use and thus more popular. Competitor sites did not have as much coverage.