BTN: What kind of data is currently available on Bundle?
Kim: You can see what Americans are spending on almost anything. For example, you can see on a broad level what people are spending on food and drink and other categories like office supplies or electronics. And for each category, you can dig in further, by zip code or age group or income level to see what 'other people like me' are doing. We're hoping to help people make decisions about how they're spending money, to find ways where they can cut back or spend better.
We hope to later add in more tools that work on top of this data. The site also has editorial content and user-generated content around the data, with a staff producing original content. Bundle also works with partners such as MSN Money to produce relative content.
Where does the data come from?
The consumer information comes from partners [MSN Money, Morningstar and Citigroup] and from other third parties like government sources...We have a team that's working with data, putting it through a process to remove personal identity information; and other internal processes that we've developed to analyze the data, to allow us to go through large data sets to cull information that we think will be useful. Our [internally developed proprietary] system also scrutinizes the data to ensure it's accurate. This allows us to get spending information from tens of millions of consumers that are using different kinds of financial products to buy and pay for items.
What kinds of new data are you interested in providing?
We're also working on finding new sources of data that fills 'gaps' in the knowledge that people also have around saving money. You'll be able to see what people like you have saved, how much is in checking accounts, how much is in 401Ks and savings, etc. Right now, we're looking at spending data first, but we are also looking at other data that our partners may provide to expand what we're doing. There's an element of market research involved in this; we conduct our own research and also work with our partners.
What have you found out about consumer demands for information?
There are parts of the population that want to hear about how their peers are saving for college or retirement, for example, or want to know stuff like how to save for a big screen TV. We'll then try to find relative data sources to produce the peer comparisons. The big thing that we're hearing right now is people want to know how other similar people are making their home payments.
Have you considered offering Bundle as part of online banking services via a white label offering?
We've had some discussions with parties that have been interested in working with us in that regard [as part of a larger online banking offering]. Naturally, over time, there will be types of data that banks will be interested in.
What about Citi?
Citi is a partner, but Bundle is largely operated independently, so while we are in discussion to see how Bundle data might be used by our partners, it's not a given.
Do you have plans to expand your services to allow consumers to change their spending habits by using tools on your site?
We don't want to make this data available in a vacuum, where people may see the information but don't know what to do with it. So we are looking to build tools that allow people to take action based on the information that they can get from out site. For example, if someone finds out that other people in his or her neighborhood is spending 30 percent less on groceries, you want to be able to allow that person to take steps to change that spending. People can change on their own, of course, but we think it's a natural evolution to provide actionable tools to allow people to cut back or alter spending. A [product development] partnership with a card provider to provide spend controls based on Bundle's data is a ways off.
Do you have a timetable to pitch institutions on forming partnerships?
There's no pubic timetable right now. Loosely we're looking to have fairly regular updates on what kind of data we're adding, then ultimately financial tools. It's safe to say we'll have a number of new data options in place by late summer or fall.
How are you dealing with security concerns?
Right now [with the data largely focused on spending], if you look at the application, there's not much that you perceive in terms of security if you're a user. There's no log in or registration. Behind the scenes in terms of handling data we've built the core applications so that going forward [as Bundle adds more robust services] users can be comfortable, and that includes using encryption and providing user authentication...Because Citi is a partner, they might not be using the Bundle's information within the walls of Citi, but we're still subject to the same security reviews and standards.
