May 25, 2012
The Tennessean
by Jamie Page
SPRING HILL — A Spring Hill couple’s startup software platform was voted “Best of Show” at FinovateSpring 2012, the finance industry’s premier invitation-only technology conference.
The vote of confidence was for their invention of iQuantifi, an online-based software platform that provides automated, personalized financial advice.
Tom and Karen White of Spring Hill were asked to unveil the demo of their product to a record-breaking crowd of more than 1,200 people at the two-day conference in San Francisco where the newest financial tech innovations are showcased. It was these attendees who voted for iQuantifi out of 63 other presenting companies.
“Just being invited to demo at Finovate was an honor,” said iQuantifi founder and CEO Tom White.
“But winning ‘Best of Show’ voted by those within the financial services industry is a strong validation of what we’re doing. It’s confirmation that our product offers a solution, one that can’t currently be found in the marketplace, and one that will really help people reach their financial goals.”
The company is now seeking $1.25 million in capital to get through beta testing and the public launch of the product.
“Given the positive feedback and interest from institutions and investors at Finovate, we hope to secure the funding in the coming months,” White said. “While most of the interest was from outside of Nashville, we do hope to gain some traction from the local investment community.”
The advice iQuantifi provides is entirely from the expertise of White’s 15 years as a practicing financial adviser. In fact, iQuantifi spun off in June 2011 from Cool Springs-based CAP Partners, a financial planning and registered investment advisory firm of which White is principal.
How it works
The way iQuantifi works is the user is asked a detailed series of questions about his or her finances and financial goals, such as buying a home, saving for retirement or building a college fund. Based on the responses, the user is given personalized financial advice and directed to certain financial products.
IQuantifi is looking at financial partners to become part of its offerings list. These organizations, which include banks, credit unions, mortgage and insurance companies, investment firms and others, will be recommended to users as they take action on financial decisions.
IQuantifi, which serves a different market than the traditional financial adviser community, targets users who don’t qualify to work with a financial adviser, or those who prefer to manage their own finances.
It accomplishes this using a patent-pending timeline that turned out to be the wow factor at the conference. The timeline offers the user an instant visual picture of his or her entire financial life, showing when all of their goals will be accomplished.
“While we thought the timeline was pretty cool,” White said, “it was hearing it from so many others within the financial community at Finovate that confirmed we really did create something unique.”