MintLife Blog | Personal Finance News & Advice » mint team

Mint Team Spotlight – Sid Bhatt

Mint.com — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 09:00:10 +0000

Name:: Sid Bhatt
Title:: Sr. Manager, Business Development
Education:: MSEE and MBA

Current Financial Strategy:

Right now all I have is a checking account, 401K, and an IRA. The reason it’s so risk-averse is because I can’t find time to trade the markets.

Worst Financial Move:

Trading options. It’s not because I picked the wrong equities to trade options on. One of the key differences between stock and options is time value – the value of options deteriorate over time. Stock might lose it’s value in the near-term, but it can also go higher in the long run. With simple options trading you bet whether the equity will go up or down before an expiration date. Getting the timing right can be tricky.

Best Personal Finance Advice:

Use balance transfers as an alternative method to finance big purchases. When you purchase big-ticket items, you have several payment options: pay cash, bill me later, applying for a store credit card with 0% purchase APR, or you can use your rewards credit card. My credit card earns me miles. If I use the store card, I would get the 0% APR but not the miles. So I’d put the charge on the rewards card, and then transfer the balance to a card with 0% APR for 12 months. There could be a small balance transfer fee. Don’t use the balance transfer card for new purchases, and make minimum payments to pay it off over time.

How Do You Keep Spending in Check?

With Mint, I receive alerts when my balances are low and when I am exceeding my budget limits, and that helps. I made a commitment to deposit some amount each month into an IRA account. Discipline is important.

Who Taught You About Finance?

Well, I got my MBA, but that’s more about corporate finance. I taught myself about personal finance and investing.

How Many Credit Cards Do You Have?

I have only one. It’s a credit card that earns me miles. I pay it off in full every month.

Where Did You Work Before Mint?

Prior to Mint, I started a travel community site, which didn’t take-off. Prior to that, I worked at Discover Financial Services in their rotation program. The program runs for about a year so I worked in several divisions and learned how the credit card industry operates.

What Difference Do You See Going From A Large Company to a Start-up?

Less red-tape and lots of ping pong.

What Drew You to Mint?

I found out about Mint from TechCrunch 40. I was looking for opportunities so when I saw the ad on LinkedIn, I contacted Anton. During the initial interviews there were three things that drew me to Mint:

The business model — it made money
It was in the personal finance realm
I had the potential to contribute significantly to it’s success

How Will You Help Mint Grow?

Business development strategy, revenue, product, and what ever else that’s put on my plate. At the end of the day, Mint is all about data. It’s possible to get insight into spending patterns and find the best money saving opportunities for Mint users.

What are Your Typical Hours?

I am usually in the office after 10 a.m. until 8 p.m. When I go home I do work too, so from 8 p.m. on.

What’s your Favorite Things About Mint?

Definitely the people. There’s such a wide spectrum here. Every person is different and everyone contributes something unique. They’re all brilliant and really good at what they do.

What Has Been the Weirdest or Funniest Moment at Mint:

I find it weird that we don’t stock beer in the pantry. Like the other valley startups, Mint offers a lot of perks for employees-flexible hours, well-stocked kitchen, free lunch on Fridays, etc.

What Do You Do At Mint that You Never Thought You’d Be Doing

I never thought I’d do spot checks. It’s a lot of fun. Once in a while, I go around to each Mint employee’s desk and ask them to show me their Ways To Save Page and check their offers.

What Do You Look Forward to Every Day

I look forward to free-lunch Fridays! But on a serious note-working with partners to create value and generate revenue and growth for Mint.

Mint Team Spotlight – Damon Billian

Mint.com — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 14:00:30 +0000

Name:: Damon Billian
Title:: Director, Customer Evangelism
Education:: School of hard knocks.

Current Financial Strategy:

None… working on it. As I recently got married, keeping a simple budget going is a little more difficult than I would like (I am also quite lazy).

Worst Financial Move:

Too many to list here. Some bad moves: buying a car with cash, not being patient with stocks and getting married (just kidding).

Best Financial Advice:

To be honest, I would tell all young kids to finish college. I would tell parents to teach their kids about how saving money can make you money down the road. I would also advise folks in their twenties to be careful with credit.

How Do You Keep Spending in Check?

Try not to go out on weekends. That doesn’t always happen, though!

Who Taught You About Finance?

Hmmmm… not a single soul. I still have work to do in this arena. Some of the blogs on the Internet have solid information and I have read a few books about investing that made me understand the basics much better.

How Many Credit Cards Do You Have?

Three. My favorite is the American Express Starwood Preferred Guest Card. I am going to pay one off and move to two. I also have several department store cards that I don’t use and will be getting rid of them.

Where Did You Work Before Mint?

SimplyHired.com, PayPal/eBay.

What Difference Do You See Going From A Large Company to a Start-up?

Getting things changed in a larger company is more difficult and there’s definitely a lot more political issues in a larger organization.

What Drew You to Mint?

I think Mint has a great product. The people here are extra spiffy as well.

How Will You Help Mint Grow?

Identifying key product requests and other issues that cause customers problems. As we’re still very much in beta, I don’t think many customers realize that we’re still testing things out & making as many improvements as rapidly as we can.

What are Your Typical Hours?

Generally 50-60 hours per week — I often work at home after office hours. My role also requires that I generally work 6-7 days per week.

What’s your Favorite Things About Mint?

Besides the product and people? Working in downtown Mountain View again—good food around here. I also think the product will help folks save money.

What Has Been the Funniest Moment at Mint?

Probably not fit for a public blog. Let’s just say that one of our employees got called a bad word by a competitor.

What Has Been the Weirdest Moment at Mint?

Actually having them hire me. Do they know what they got into?

Mint Team Spotlight – David Michaels

Mint.com — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 13:00:33 +0000

Name:: David Michaels
Title:: VP Engineering
Education:: BS in Computer Science from NJIT, and a MS in Computer Science from Stanford.

Current Financial Strategy:

Work really hard now so I won’t have to worry about tracking my money later.

Worst Financial Move:

Thinking I could win back my online [Texas] hold’em losses more quickly if I moved up to a higher-limit table. Then repeating that again.

Best Financial Advice:

If you must play [Texas] hold’em, do it in person. It’s less convenient so you’ll do it less often. And all that time the dealer spends shuffling cards the old-fashioned way is time that you’re not losing any money!

How Do You Keep Spending in Check?

I almost had an answer for this, but I realize it’s mostly wrong. I don’t really keep my spending in check very well! However, by working typical startup hours, I limit my idle time when I would be inclined towards tracking my money.

Who Taught You About Finance?

I’m mostly self-taught.

How Many Credit Cards Do You Have?

Right now I have 4, but I never carry a balance on them. I collect frequent-flier miles on two of them and use them for international travel — there were lucrative bonus miles offers upon sign-up worth over 60,000 miles.

Where Did You Work Before Mint?

I was building encryption-related security products for PGP Corporation.

What Difference Do You See Going From A Large Company to a Start-up?

I tend to join startups very early on, and stay with them as they grow into bigger companies, so I have gotten accustomed to the differences and don’t really focus on them anymore. At Mint in particular, we all wear our titles lightly — everyone contributes in multiple ways. No job is too small to be done by a VP here.

What Drew You to Mint?

Every start-up has at least one reason they think they’re going to win — why they are better than existing solutions. The problem is that the future is hard to predict and one reason might not pan out. Although I am willing to take certain risks and join very small companies, Mint is not the first company I joined that had only 3 employees. So, I am very conservative when it comes to choosing one reason. Mint had at least eight distinct kinds of competitive advantages:

Effortless – Thanks to account aggregation and accurate automatic categorization, we can provide lots of value with little user input.
Simple – We make usability a primary focus, and emphasize simplicity over feature-bloat.
Accessible from Anywhere – Unlike desktop personal finance software, we are not tied to a particular computer.
Save & Make Money – Mint can apply intelligence to make you offers that improve upon what you’re doing now — and we quantify our suggestions.
Always-On, & Notification – Being server-based, we can constantly monitor your personal situation as well as the marketplace. PC-based software can only act while you’re running it. We can reach out to you and alert you in real-time when necessary.
Collaboration – We can enable users to work together in pursuit of their financial objectives. This can be limited to husband and wife, roommates & friends, or a broader community. This can be structured or unstructured, but the former is better.
Aggregate Knowledge – Mint is in a position to learn from other users, and can apply that information to benefit you.

The sheer multiplicity of these opportunities was very rare in the business plans I’ve seen — and I was sold.

How Will You Help Mint Grow?

Web businesses thrive on technology, and it’s exciting to be in a role which has such a direct impact on the company’s success. In particular, Mint’s security has to be absolutely airtight for us to earn and keep users’ trust. If we architect our system smartly, we can ensure that we maintain uncompromising security while having the high feature velocity essential for an Internet startup.

What are Your Typical Hours?

To say I’m not a morning person is a colossal understatement, so I come in well after rush hour, but usually before noon. As for when I go home, that’s usually before noon too, but typically on the next day.

What’s your Favorite Things About Mint?

Working with such a motivated and talented team in pursuit of solving a real need.

What Has Been the Weirdest or Funniest Moment at Mint?

Telling someone on my team to install “ant on bomber1″ and then finally understanding why they broke out laughing. “Anton” happens to be the name of our VP of Business Development, and that sentence can be parsed as “Install Anton bomber 1″, which conjures up a pretty funny mental image. (”Ant” is a java build tool that we use to compile our code, and “bomber1″ is a load-generating server in our performance testing lab.) Anton is a perfectly likable fellow who should not be bombed by anything.

What Do You Do At Mint that You Never Thought You’d Be Doing?

I can’t think of anything. This is exactly what I always wanted to do.

What Do You Look Forward to Every Day?

Watching how quickly our product gets better and realizing all the dreams we have for it. There’s so much left to do.

Mint Team Spotlight – Tuan Le

Mint.com — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 17:53:27 +0000

Name:: Tuan Le
Title:: Software Architect
Education:: B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Berkeley.

Why are you working at Mint?

We have a genuine challenge to solve here, and I love software start-ups with that kind of impetus behind them. Plus, I love developing software that I would use myself.

What do you do at Mint?

I’m responsible for making sure that the overall application can scale to meet the needs of our Mint users. I make sure that the software and the hardware can communicate with each other in an efficient way, so that all of our users get the right information and have a great user experience.

How do you think Mint will help the average consumer?

Mint helps people keep on top of their money, so they can dial back on all of the little things they spend money on that add up to really big chunks of change. I know from experience that having that kind of control, no matter where you are, can really boost your financial confidence.

What features are you currently working on?

I’m currently buckling down on performance, email and text alerts.

What features do you like best about Mint?

I like the fact that Mint gives me a bird’s eye view of my personal finance, and I can drill it down to any level of detail I want.

Tell us something interesting about yourself.

I’ve had four near-death experiences. Three of them involved being at sea, and one of them involved being on a mountain. So if I were a cat, I’d have five lives left.

Best financial tip?

Pay yourself first; and always make sure you have emergency funds for those true emergencies.

Worst financial move?

I wasn’t exactly disciplined with my investments during the market’s peak around the year 2000.

How did you handle your personal finance before Mint?

I used to use Quicken, but I quit because it was too convoluted and just plain labor-intensive. Now I follow a basic 60% rule. I try to live off of 60% of my take-home pay, and save 40% of the rest.

What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?

A personal trainer for celebrities. I would get to keep in shape, get others in shape, and hey, receive a nice paycheck as a bonus.

What profession would you absolutely not like to participate in?

I was a dishwasher at a restaurant once, and I would never want to be one again. Deliver me from sudsy wash basins.

What do you do after work?

I’m pretty domesticated now, so I just go home and spend quality time with my wife.

Mint Team Spotlight – Anton Commissaris

Mint.com — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 19:00:21 +0000

Name:: Anton Commissaris
Title:: VP Business Development
Experience:: Anton is responsible for Mint’s business strategy, partner development and distribution for customer acquisition. Anton brings to Mint over 15 years of experience in the software and Internet sectors, spanning legal, operations, marketing and business development roles.

Why are you working at Mint?

Because I think Mint will be a highly valuable service for the consumer and something that is not available in today’s market place. Money is, at the end of the day, important to all of us. And I think Mint has the makings of a great company, and a household brand name.

What do you do at Mint?

I’m primarily responsible for revenue generation. That means I’m focused on recruiting Mint merchants in financial services, communications and other areas that affect consumer finances. These merchants present compelling offers to our users that will save them money relative to their current spending. I also work on customer acquisition through distribution relationships. And I’m responsible for overseeing Mint’s privacy and security policies.

How do you think Mint will help the average consumer?

By allowing them to simply understand their money flow — by that I mean, where their money is coming from, and where it’s going each month. From there, I think we can help consumers do more with their money by presenting them with saving opportunities that are tailored for them.

Mint will also be a forum for general education on money matters by way of our upcoming content network, and the feedback we collect from the community of Mint users.

What do you think will be the security and privacy concern of an average consumer?

Without getting into technical matters, I think most people will want to keep their income and spending information private and they will want to avoid being exposed to any fraudulent activity such as identity theft.

The average consumer will think, my money matters are private, and my money is mine.

In what ways are you addressing security and privacy for Mint?

First of all, our users can choose to be anonymous on the service — that’s to say, we won’t know who they are. We only ask for an email address, which can be anonymous, and a password to use the service. We don’t collect names, addresses, age, gender and all the rest that is typically required of most Web sites these days.

Beyond that, the site itself has been built from the ground up with bank-level security to ensure that there is no unauthorized access to personal financial data. And finally, we don’t and won’t ever sell or rent our users’ personal financial information. Take a look at our Privacy and Security Policy for more information when you sign up. We’ve put a lot of work into that. We think it’s so important.

We’ve also formed a privacy and security executive committee at Mint that sets the policy in this regard and constantly monitors new developments to ensure that as we grow our service, we earn the trust of the Mint community and safeguard the integrity of their data.

Tell us something interesting about yourself.

I never foresaw this growing up in New Zealand, but strangely enough, I’m a member of the Paris bar (law), — a French Avocat. I took a year off early in my career where I was working in London, to go and relax in the south of France. I somehow ended up with a Masters Degree in Law from the University of Montpellier — without having been able to speak a word of French two years earlier. Then I went north and got a job as a lawyer in Paris. Why not?

And now I work at a Startup in the United States — in Silicon Valley, where I’m rarely called on to speak any French or give any legal advice.

Best financial tip?

Start saving as early as you can. And check your credit score at least once a year to make sure that you have a clean bill of health, because it impacts all of your money matters.

Worst financial move?

Traveling extensively and aggressively whenever I could — very early in my post college life. In other words, I could have been working and saving but I was committed to seeing the world. It was the best life move though.

How did you handle your finances before Mint?

I was an on again, off again Quicken user. I guess you could say it was a love-hate relationship with the software. I really worked at that relationship but it wasn’t meant to be.

What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?

I’d like to be a musician (singer and songwriter) and a wine maker.

What profession would you absolutely not like to participate in?

The legal profession. I guess I’d also not like to be an undertaker.

What do you do after work?

I like to hang with my kids and play soccer and other sports. I play the guitar for relaxation and to keep a certain part of my brain tuned. I read a lot of books. I also like to cook and sample different wines from around the world. I still dream of travel. I wish I had time for more things, but I don’t.

Mint Team Spotlight – Jason Putorti

Mint.com — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 13:00:28 +0000

Name:: Jason M. Putorti
Title:: Lead Designer
Education & Experience:: University of Pittsburgh ‘02 – BS in Computer Science and Mathematics. I started my MFA at Parsons, but left to help launch a college guidebook company. Later I started a creative agency, and a few software ventures before deciding it was time for California Love.

Tell us about yourself.

I’ve packed a lot of life experiences and lessons learned into my 24 years so far- both personal and professional. People describe me as ambitious, competitive, and genuine.

Tell us something interesting about yourself.

After Mint I want to move to Italy for a while, and then either try acting in Los Angeles, start another company, or both.

Best financial tip?

Put your finances on auto-pilot: set up auto-pay on all your bills, the fewer little things you have to worry about, the better. More importantly, use Mint.com when it launches: it will show you where your money goes every month so you can make informed decisions, and how to save more of it without changing your daily spending habits.

Worst financial move?

Launching a company with an investor without doing some serious due diligence, yeah… that’s a big one boys and girls. I’m still paying for that one.

Funnier was when I dove into day trading stocks without knowing anything about technical analysis or timing. My friend wrote a ticker symbol I’d never seen on a post-it and said, “let’s get into this – it’s been going up like crazy all day.” I lost almost $1,000. The stock exchange can be like Vegas minus the tawdry decor if you’re not careful.

How do you handle your finances?

I try to spend less than I make and grow my net worth every month. I keep a close eye on my balances by utilizing online banking features most days, but I don’t specifically budget.

What’s the funniest/craziest thing you’ve seen while working at Mint?

One employee wallpapered his cube with bubble wrap, and pops it when he gets stuck on a problem. He also puts chipotle pepper sauce on everything he eats- it started a trend.

Why are you working at Mint?

I’ve wanted to work in the web software field in Silicon Valley for several years, and Mint was by far the best “Web 2.0″ idea I was exposed to, and met all of my criteria in evaluating a business: most importantly a potentially wide consumer audience, and it is a product that I’d use and be passionate about building and improving on every day.

What do you do at Mint?

I handle the product design – basically, everything visual – I create the look and feel of the product and manage the brand image of the company from the logotype to the web site.

Favorite part about working here?

What gets me excited about working at Mint is that tens of thousands of people, hopefully, will see and interact with a product that I’ve designed and worked on- I suppose I like an audience.

I also have a lot in common with everyone that works here, and I believe Mint has a very friendly work environment – everyone is sociable, and the employees are a close-knit group of people.

What don’t you like about working here?

Designers (at least me), really like natural light and lofty modern spaces. The recreation of the sets from Office Space in here is very faithful, except we have fewer windows.

What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?

Professional soccer player.

What profession would you absolutely not like to participate in?

A really stringent corporate job that doesn’t allow me to be creative, or most importantly have my ideas listened to- which is probably why I’ve always either been my own boss or been in a startup.

What do you do after work?

Play soccer, go swimming, hit the beach and play some volleyball; I love going to the beach as I’ve been landlocked my whole life.

Do you have a website or a blog?

Novaurora.com is the agency I started in Pittsburgh, and I always like people to contact me on Linkedin.

Mint Team Spotlight – Poornima Vijayashanker

Mint.com — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 13:00:39 +0000

Name:: Poornima Vijayashanker
Title:: Software Engineer
Education:: Duke University – Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science. Stanford – Master in CS – Quit to work at Mint.

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I actually never wanted to be an engineer, as all the men in my family are engineers. I always wanted to be a corporate lawyer, but things changed when I got to college — I decided to be an engineer, as I thought it was a cool and intense field.

Tell us something interesting about yourself.

I’m very flexible. Like, super-bendy.

Best financial tip?

Don’t spend more than you make.

Worst financial move?

Paying too much tax on short-term capital gain by selling stocks too quickly.

How do you handle your finances?

Before Mint, I used spreadsheets. I basically figured out what my spending on non-discretionary items were (food, shelter, etc.), and the money I have left over gets put into savings, retirement account, 401k, and ESPP.

What’s the funniest/craziest thing you’ve seen while working at Mint?

Noah Kagan.

Why are you working at Mint?

I always wanted to work at Mint; it was just a matter of right timing. In fact, I actually came up with the name for Mint. I was in the early stages when the ideas came about, and once the company began to solidify, I decided it was the right time to join up with Mint. I definitely contributed to the ideas behind Mint, and I always wanted to work for a startup.

What do you do at Mint?

When I started, I was almost doing everything (back-end and front-end). Now I’m just the code monkey, and I do pretty much what anyone wants.

Favorite part about working here?

Being able to joke around, do some work, play ping pong, head home, and do some more work (I also get to curse while coding).

What don’t you like about working here?

Being the only girl. I get picked on a lot.

What sound do you love?

Laughter.

Who is your favorite hero of fiction?

Dagny Taggart.

What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?

Being a writer.

What do you do after work?

Work out, bikram, tennis, and code some more.

Do you have a website or a blog?

Femgineer.com

Mint Team Spotlight – Matt Snider

Mint.com — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 18:00:37 +0000

Name:: Matt Snider
Title:: Lead Front-End Engineer
Education &Experience:: I spent 3 years studying at UCSB, attempting to earn a degree in Computer Engineering. However, I dropped out when I figured out how to make a lot of money playing video games.

Tell us something interesting about yourself.

I once sold virtual currency in Final Fantasy 11 and earned about $14,000.

So you stand while you work. What’s up with that?

I had a motorcycle accident that causes me many problems with back pain. Standing while working is best for the strain on my back, and it is actually quite comfortable once I got used to it.

Best financial tip?

Put a little money every month into a retirement account, and think of it as money you’ve never earned.

Worst financial move?

Dated a girl who was really into material things, spent all the money I made in Final Fantasy 11, and accumulated $6,000 in credit card debt before I finally broke up with her.

How do you handle your finances?

Excel. Oh, and Mint.

What’s the funniest/craziest thing you’ve seen while working at Mint?

I was about to interview someone and the previous interviewer comes out saying: “I think he’s high.”

Why are you working at Mint?

Out of all the web startups that I have seen, Mint was the first internet startup with a solid business plan that has the greatest chance of success.

What do you do at Mint?

I wire up everything that the users interact with.

Favorite part about working here?

How intelligent everyone is at Mint.

What don’t you like about working here?

Cubes suck.

What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?

A professional space skydiver.

What profession would you absolutely not like to participate in?

Anything in the service industry.

What do you do after work?

Work, again.

Do you have a website or a blog?

www.mattsnider.com

Mint Team Spotlight – Atish Mehta

Mint.com — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 17:00:30 +0000

Name:: Atish Mehta
Title:: Software Engineer
Education & Experience:: Graduated USC with a B.S. in Computer Science. Did IT consulting in Los Angeles and a summer internship in Germany working on a Home Automation application. Worked at Walgreens in High school.

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I’ve never been pregnant, never met Gorbachev, and was an alternate on the James B Conant High School Math Team, class of ‘01. I believe that the internet is the center of the universe.

Tell us something interesting about yourself.

I know how to play seven different instruments.

Best financial tip?

My advice to someone is to set a recurring transfer every month from your checking to your savings – pretend like you never even see that money in the first place. While you’re at it, every time you get a salary increase, put the difference away (or at least half of it) into your savings.

Worst financial move?

That $100 we spent at the hardware store to build that beer bong in college. Seemed like a good idea at the time… Should have used it to pay for food.

How do you handle your finances?

I hate to admit it, but before I joined Mint, I didn’t – I’m a great Mint user because I’m really lazy. I just checked my balance every month to make sure I had enough money to pay rent… but now, I use Mint.

What’s the funniest/craziest thing you’ve seen while working at Mint?

Seeing a fellow coworker getting out of a parking ticket (in the Bay Area) by hugging the meter maid. Also, one of our engineers chooses to stand while he works, that’s kind of weird.

Why are you working at Mint?

I work for Mint because I want to work for a company that makes a product that I will actually use, which really motivates me… Actually, the real reason I work here is because we have daily ping pong tournaments after lunch.

What do you do at Mint?

I am a software engineer. I work on aggregating data, talking to the banks/credit cards, and analyzing the overall health of the system… I also eat all the free snacks.

Favorite part about working here?

I love working with really smart people who are passionate about doing awesome things…and they’re cool to hang out with, so work is fun.

What don’t you like about working here?

I’d love to pull an Office Space and tear down these cubicles…

What do you do after work?

Create electronic music, see house DJ’s in the city, Wikipedia, Facebook, and Yelp. I guess technically, I do some of those at work also… shhh…

Do you have a website or a blog?

http://atish.net/wordpress/