PS27 has a venture fund for startup entrepreneurs

You are probably familiar with "Shark Tank," the TV show where budding entrepreneurs pitch their business plans to a panel of rich folks hoping one of them will be their investment partner.  

PS27 Ventures is built on a similar idea. It's also a potential funding resource for startups but without all the celebrity glitz.

PS27 Ventures is based in Jacksonville, FL, the home of company founder Jim Stallings. A former Marine Corps captain, Stallings worked for General Electric and IBM where he managed the company's Linux software business and its intellectual property division.  

Like the TV show, Stallings and his crew interview early-stage entrepreneurs who are looking for venture capital to launch or grow their businesses. They can request an opportunity to tell their story by filling out an application form on the PS27 website.

The site lists more than 15 client companies in areas such a e-commerce, financial technology and food services, many of them with minority, veteran and female founders. Examples include 

Smartbox, a healthy snack subscription service, Ryze, which makes mushroom blended coffees, Payall, which has a platform for cross-border payments and international money transfers, and  NotedSource, which matches businesses with academic researchers. 

PS27 is also exploring potential partnerships with young Florida-based businesses in the B2B, clean energy and SaaS arenas. One example is Sensatek Propulsion Technologies in Daytona Beach, a company that develops sensors for high-temperature applications in energy, aviation and aerospace industries. Others include Miami-based JourneyTrack, a customer-mapping developer, and Keyno in St. Augustine, that has fraud-prevention solutions for the fintech industry.

For a closer look at PS27 Ventures, visit the company's website or connect on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok or X. 

 

By: Ric Manning On 3/14/2024

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Chatbot automates insurance marketing

When one of my insurance policies was up for renewal a few months ago, I did some comparison shopping to see if I could find a better deal. My search involved a lot of late-night Internet browsing, many Google searches and encounters with some very frustrating websites.

At a typical insurance agency site, I would be asked to send an email or fill out a long questionnaire. And there were a surprising number of sites that just said call us during business hours. I'm sure that meant their business hours, not mine.

My quest would have been a much more pleasant experience if I had encountered an agent that used Leadsurance to build its online presence. Leadsurance is a platform that uses artificial intelligence and automated quoting to generate sales leads. It also gives potential customers what they want: a smooth and frustration-free route to price quotes on the policies they want - regardless of the time of day or night.

To get a first-hand look at the platform, the folks at Leadsurance set me up with a demo account. That's where I met Scott Stewart, or Scott the Bot, as he calls himself. Scott was on duty and instantly available, even while I was watching one of the late-night talk shows.

Scott's chatbot window appeared as soon as I clicked a Get Quote button that offered "a great rate in just a few seconds." In conversation bubbles, he offered rate quotes, answers to my questions or help with a policy.

Since this was a demo account, I didn't get any real quotes. If I had knocked on the digital door of a live account, my queries would have been routed to live quoting engines and delivered to a live insurance agents in real time. Agents who use the Leadsurance platform can get notifications delivered to their mobile phones or tablets, even while they're watching the same late-night shows.

The agents can also get a dashboard that collects and organizes leads with contact information and other details provided by potential customers. Agents and their offices can use the dashboard to track site traffic, manage search engine visibility and publish content. They can also analyze social media data and customer reviews.

The basic Leadsurance package costs $99 a month and includes a custom website, hosting, instant lead alerts and social media management.

The chatbot, analytics dashboard and SEO optimization are among the features included in an upgraded package that costs $199 per month. Both packages have 24-hour support.

You can get a closer look at the service in the video below and more details on the Leadsurance website, which includes a blog and a an interesting look at how chatbots are being used in the insurance industry.  Leadsurance is also on Twitter @Leadsurance. 

By: Ric Manning On 1/28/2019

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PPaccepted knows which vendors accept PayPal payments

I've been a PayPal user for more than a decade.  I buy and sell items on eBay where it's long been the accepted platform for sending and receiving payments.

I also use PayPal to transfer money among friends and family members. And I knew that some merchants and services accept payments through PayPal but I didn't know how far and wide that acceptance goes until I discovered PPaccepted, a website that collects and categorizes the may different ways you can spend your PayPal cash.

For example, I didn't know I could pay for airline tickets through ChearOair or buy them directly from Lufthansa. I can order school supplies from Walmart and concert tickets from Ticket Liquidator.

PayPal is also accepted at Omaha Steaks, CafePress, GoDaddy, and ProFlowers. And hundreds more retailers and service providers. That's my estimate after browsing the lists at PPaccepted.

Visitors to the site can browse about a dozen categories, drill down through subcategories and click a link to go to the vendor's website. And they can post comments and feedback about the vendors that they found at the PPaccepted website's database.

By: Ric Manning On 5/21/2018

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This stock-picking service follows proven winners

With perfect hindsight, we would have been able to predict that tech stocks like Amazon, Facebook, Tesla or Google would double or quadruple in the years after the companies went public.

But some savvy investors like Carl Icahn and Warren Buffett could see that far into the future and they made a bundle of money by betting on some of those and similar tech stocks. Buffett is still buying share of Apple.

So, if they’re so good at it, why not just buy what they buy? That, in a nutshell, is the philosophy behind Express Alpha, an investing system that says it “beat the S&P 500 by a huge margin over the past 10 years.”

The company calls its approach an “investing accelerator.” It’s a system that helps small investors  piggyback their stock trades to moves made by a group of successful investors that includes Icahn and Buffett along with other billionaires and investment funds.    

Express Alpha says it provides it’s subscribers with regular buy and sell advice, along with its assessment of the investor it’s currently tracking, looking at the investor’s success and strategy.

To get more details, use the Contact Us page on the Express Alpha website.

By: Ric Manning On 5/27/2017

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Service turns gift cards into donations

Gift cards are a fine concept, but they sometimes fall short of their purpose. We often get cards for businesses we don’t patronize and don’t completely exhaust cards that do get used.

A new service called Gift Card Tank has a way to turn gift cards into money for charity.

An organization with a good cause to promote can set up an account on Gift Card Tank that lets them collect donated cards. They can use standard page on the website to accept donated cards or create a special page for their group’s own website.

Donors enter the details about the gift card that they are donating and Gift Card Tank converts the card into cash. The charities get the money through PayPal. Gift Card Tank deducts a processing fee but does not charge to be part of the program.

To get more information, visit the Gift Card Tank website and click to the FAQ page.

By: Ric Manning On 3/27/2017

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Investment group is looking for startups

My wife and I are big fans of the TV show Shark Tank. We enjoy hearing entrepreneurs make their pitch to the panel of potential investors and we’ve seen more than a few get rejected because they doubt the inventors have the necessary leadership skills to make their company successful.

Freddie Achom, the co-founder of Rosemont Group Capital Partners, also looks for leadership qualities when his company chooses companies to invest in. Achom says as much in the video below.

Like the TV investors, Rosemont is looking for the next big idea to invest in. The company focuses on funding for startup companies through equity financing, angel investments and venture capital.  

A social media company called JustGo that was launched with financial help from Rosemont was recently sold to a company called Tunecore. Here’s what Rosemont said in a recent news release:

JustGo launched in 2013 by founder Justin Golshir, raising $1.7 million in venture capital led by Freddie Achom’s Rosemont Group Capital Partners. The company quickly positioned itself as a dominant force in social media management in the music industry launching its beta exclusively focused on the fast growing electronic dance music industry.

Rosemont says it invests in “solutions and concepts that address large target markets” and that it is actively seeking “interesting ideas, concepts and businesses to invest in.” Rosemont is based in London with offices in New York and Mumbai.

For more details and contact information, check out the Rosemont Group Capital Partners website and follow @RosemontGroup on Twitter.

By: Ric Manning On 1/27/2017

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Acorns app makes investing easy and painless

My mother opened my first bank account and taught me the value of saving the money I earned from summer jobs. But it was up to me to decide when to put money in the account and when to blow it on candy and baseball cards. Too often Maris and Mantle won.

Many years later, it’s still difficult to find money to set aside for that proverbial rainy day when there are more immediate demands on your money. But now there are apps and computer programs that make saving and investing easy and painless.

For example, there’s an app called Acorns that will build an investment account by automatically collecting your spare change. Users can start with as little as $5. It works like Bank of America’s Keep The Change program, which is an option for customers who use the bank’s debit card.

Both programs help users save money in small increments on the theory that it’s easier to part with one dollar 50 times than it is to part with $50 once. They track your spending and round up the price you pay for goods or services.  When you spend $7.34 at the coffee shop, they round the bill up to $8 and put aside 66 cents. The bank puts the change in a savings account while Acorns invests the money.

Acorns can be fine-tuned to match your investment priorities and your degree of engagement. You can make regular or occasional direct deposits, or just go with the round ups. Acorns puts the money into a variety of mutual funds and users can choose a level of risk for their investments. Younger people might be fine with investments that target higher returns but also carry a higher level of risk. Baby Boomers who are at or near retirement age are likely to be more comfortable with lower-risk investments. 

I started an Acorns account about a in the spring of 2015. I seeded it with $100 and told Acorns to round up purchases made from two checking accounts and to put the largest portion of the savings into government and corporate bonds.

At the end of 2016, the account had accumulated more than $1,400. Most of the money came from what I had contributed but I had also earned a few dollars through my investments. Acorns takes a fee of $1 a month for accounts with less than $5,000 and, like any investment account, it’s value can fluctuate with the ups and downs of the stock and bond markets. 

Overall, I have been satisfied with my investment, especially the “set it and forget it” approach. I have saved more than I expected and did it with pretty much no effort at all. And I didn’t blow my spare change on baseball cards. 

Between now and Jan. 10, Acorns is giving $5 to new members plus $5 to the person who refers them. My referral code is 7BATGG. 

By: Ric Manning On 1/02/2017

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Aroko FX offers easy overseas payments

Several years ago we wanted to send some money to our son while he was traveling in South America. I asked my bank about wire transfers and discovered that their process was complicated, expensive and fraught with delays.

We decided to mail a check and hope for the best.

The last time we sent him some cash, we used an electronic transfer service and the money arrived in minutes.

Services like Aroko FX have figured out how to cut out all the bureaucracy and make money transfers easy for anybody to use. The UK-based service, which recently expanded to the US, lets consumers send funds through the Aroko FX website using a computer or a mobile device.

The Aroko FX service can be especially appealing to people who want to send money from Europe or the US to destinations in Africa or to other areas where many existing money transfer providers charge stiff fees.

According to Aroko FX, their fees can be up to 95% less than fees charged by many vendors. Here's how they say they can keep fees low:

Our rates remain the best as we do not have an intermediary broker to facilitate the foreign exchange for us, we do it in-house using our own infrastructures to deliver the best rate to our customers.

Aroko FX's customers include individuals and businesses that send international payments or settle invoices from overseas suppliers and students who pay tuition fees abroad.

More details are available at the Aroko FX website, on the company’s Facebook page and @arokofx on Twitter.

By: Ric Manning On 10/19/2016

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Android app manages your credit card details

Here’s the thing about credit cards: They are easy to get, easy to use and some give you cash back or discounts on stuff. And they’re almost free, so long as you pay of the balance on time.

And that payoff part can be a problem. Each card comes with a different due dates, grace periods, credit limits and interest rates and the more cards you have, the the harder it is to keep track of all those details.

It’s a job for a credit card manager, an Android app called Manage Credit Card Instantly. The Android app was developed by someone who had a dozen credit cards and couldn’t find an easy way to stay in control of all of them. The app works offline, so you'll have to manually enter and update transactions if you want to see how much you've charged and which card you used for gas and which one for groceries.

Perhaps more important are the card cutoff dates. The app issues a reminder when a payment date is near so the cardholder can avoid getting dinged with an interest charge or penalty. It also tracks grace periods and stores the hotline number that you would call if a card is lost or stolen.

There’s more information about this credit card manager app in the Google Play Store where Manage Credit Card Instantly is available for $2.99. That’s way less than what I get charged when I miss a credit card payment date.

By: Ric Manning On 7/27/2016

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eTaler app shows where the money goes

Back in the 1990s, I used Quicken, a popular personal finance program, to help me see how I was spending my money. But tagging and categorizing my personal and business expenses was a time-consuming chore and I eventually gave up.

eTaler looks like a better option. It’s a mobile app that has the potential to actually make tracking expenses an easy and useful experience rather than punishment.

With eTaler, users enter a series of categories and how much you can to spend on food, entertainment, household goods and so on before spending outruns your income. When you spend money on categorized items, you enter the amount in a simple numeric keyboard on the screen, a process that takes only a few seconds.

The app’s dashboard tracks spending and displays totals in a series of color-coded graphs. You get an instant picture of where your money is going and how close you might be to your targets. You’ll know immediately when you have to cut back on travel or restaurant dining to pay for those expensive concert tickets.

To get a closer look at the app, visit the eTaler website or the profile page in the iTunes App Store where the app is on sale for .99 cents through the end of the month.

By: Ric Manning On 7/25/2016

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Mobile payments: Why millennials don't carry cash

Many years ago, when I was a college student needing a transfusion of funds, my mother would enclose a check in her next letter to me. When I had time during banking hours, I would walk to a bank and exchange it for cash.

The process took about 10 days between the time I requested the money and when I was again able to afford a pizza and maybe a weekend date. Fast forward to a few weeks ago when I sent money to my son, who lives more than 1,000 miles away. Using an app that we had both downloaded, I moved money from my bank account to his phone and he had the cash in about 20 seconds.

Speed is just one of the reasons why the mobile phone generation like my son have flocked to peer-to-peer payment services. Money-moving apps are also supplanting traditional financial services like bank transfers and Western Union because they are free and convenient. Users can easily split a lunch tab, tip the landscaper, pay back a loan, or chip in on the cost of a gift or event at any time and from any location. No actual cash required.

Mobile payment services also let users ask for money. When your brother again forgets to pay his share of mom’s birthday present, an app lets you send him a payment request instead of making that awkward phone call.

Four of the most widely-used services are PayPal, Google Wallet, Venmo, and Square Cash. Each service has a website and free mobile apps for Apple or Android devices. All use the same security standards that are followed by the major credit card companies and none of them charge a fee to sign up or to use most of their services. While PayPal and Google Wallet can be used almost anywhere in the world, Venmo and Square Cash operate only in the U.S.

When you sign up for one of the services, you will be asked to link the service to a debit or credit card or to a bank account. That gives the service the authority to use your bank balance when you’re sending cash and deposit money when you receive a transfer.

When you’re ready to send a payment, all you need is the recipient’s email address or mobile phone number. Let’s say I want to send $20 to my daughter for the extra groceries that she picked up for us. I log into my account, enter the amount and her phone number or select her from my contact list. Almost instantly, she will get an alert on her phone telling her that I have sent money to her.

If she and I use the same service, Venmo for example, the payment will go directly into her Venmo account. If she’s not a Venmo user, the message will direct her to a website where she can create one. That’s the only way she can get the money.

While all of the major personal payment services operate in the same fashion, there are some differences and it’s a good idea to read the rules before you plunge in. For example, there’s no fee to send money through Venmo or Square Cash using a debit card. PayPal and Google Wallet charge for transfers from debit cards, but not from bank accounts. Some services also put a limit on how much money you can transfer in a week or a month.

It’s also good to remember that personal payment services are meant to be personal. They work best when the financial transaction involves small amounts of money exchanged with people you know. If you’re dealing with strangers, perhaps someone selling an item on Craigslist, there’s a higher level of safety using more traditional methods such as a bank card or that old standby, the paper check.

By: Ric Manning On 7/20/2016

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Stock-trading algorithms come to mobiles

The well-known stock trading companies often point to their high-level technology as proof that they have an edge over the individual investor. But some of that technology is starting to become available to people who want  to actively manage their portfolio.

One example is Clone Algo, a company that has figured out how to incorporate artificial intelligence based algorithms in a mobile app. The idea is to put your trading portfolio on autopilot, but one that only does whet you want it to do.

The  algorithms can be programmed to execute trades based on variables such as the stock’s price and current market conditions. They don’t analyze large volumes of data or try to predict a future stock price. But they can carry out instructions without constant monitoring by humans.

Clone Algo works with a group of registered brokers that are set up to communicate with and accept instructions from the mobile app. After the app is up and running and a trading account in place, users can track an algorithm live to assess its performance over  period of time before choosing one that will be good fit.

For more details, visit the Clone Algo website and check out the mobile apps in the iTunes App Store and the Google Play Store.

By: Ric Manning On 7/06/2016

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Track builds a nest egg to pay taxes

As a freelance writer, I'm an independent contractor. That means I’m part of the growing population of people that the financial press refers to as 1099 workers.

While I get paid for what I do, either by check, direct deposit or digital transfer, no taxes are withheld from those payments. And come each spring, I have to settle up with the IRS. My accountant says I should regularly set aside some money to meet that tax liability. I know that’s easier said than done and so do the people who created Track.

Track is an automated tax withholding service that silently and painlessly withdraws a few dollars from your bank account and deposits it in a separate account dedicated just for taxes.

The service uses bank-level encryption and security, so it can make withdrawals without seeing any of your private information, just the way you can give permission to a merchant or utility company to automatically withdraw a bill payment.

Track updates your tax calculations with each paycheck or purchase and it lets you know how much money to set aside or if there is a tax deadline approaching.

The service costs $9 per month with no contract and no minimum time period. To check it out, visit the Track website.

By: Ric Manning On 7/04/2016

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This mobile payment service accepts Bitcoin

You can tell that Bitcoin is catching on when merchants start accepting it as payment for pizza and beer. I’ve heard of two shops in my city that accept the cryptocurrency and the local Bitcoin evangelists tell me more are coming soon.

The growth of Bitcoin transactions fits in smoothly with the expansion of mobile payment services like Circle Plus Payments, which I have been told is the first such service that will process payment using Bitcoin.

Circle Plus has a mobile app that will let users accept credit card payments through their phones and tablets. We’ve seen street vendors and other merchants do that using PayPal or Square. But, unlike those service, Circle Plus doesn’t require a card-swiping attachment or any other extra hardware.

Company founder Nitish Kannan says more than 200 merchants are using the app and the service has processed more several hundred thousand dollars in transactions.

Circle Plus has other advantages over the competition. In most cases, transaction fees are cheaper than those charged by other mobile services. Circle Plus is also available around the globe, including China where mobile payments is just also starting to get traction. And it accepts a wire range of payment options, including Apple Pay and Android Pay as well as Bitcoin.

For a closer look at the service and its features, visit the Circle Plus Payments website.

By: Ric Manning On 6/30/2016

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Stock screener uses rules from Buffett's mentor

You may not know who Benjamin Graham was, but Warren Buffett does. Buffett, of course, is the zillionaire investor from Omaha whose company bought $1 billion worth of Apple stock after a recent price drop.

Graham was Buffett’s mentor and his first boss. Buffett talks about Graham and his approach to investing in this YouTube video. According to Wikipedia, Buffett credits Graham with giving a sound intellectual investment framework.

Graham recommended three categories of stocks - Defensive, Enterprising and NCAV (or Net-Net) and he developed a set of rules to help investors find value among the stocks in those categories.

Serenity Stocks is a company that has developed algorithms based on Graham’s 17 rules. Their service allows investors to evaluate more that 5,000 U.S. stocks against all 17 Graham rules, adjusting for inflation. Serenity says its screeners let users compare all stocks against each other to help them make the best possible investment decisions.

Anyone can use Serenity’s Classic Benjamin Graham Stock Screener for free at Serenity’s website. An advanced version that allows for more customization is available for $22 a month.

By: Ric Manning On 6/12/2016

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