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.
But be careful, Al3x. Being professional about these sorts of things generates almost no News Forum Karma, which as we all know is a critical resource for startup fund raising. I suggest you edit your post with a few tactical emoticons.
Errr ... can you explain the reasoning behind your reply? Did you feel that the average reader would not be intelligent enough to notice that you did not actually answer the question? (why did Dave quit/was fired).
If anything your post has gotten me to trust your service significantly less, because it looks like you think you can get away with duping potential customers with some polite doublespeak.
Can you explain how it is you are being open when you did not in fact answer the question?
Of course not. And if al3x had just said that, it would have been swell. In fact, that would have fit much better with his claim of openness than the cookie-cutter non-answer he actually gave.
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.