Powering Your Venture

Lessons Learned in Succeeding with the Right Startup

Ashish BahlCEO, Acculynkwww.acculynk.com

Rock Star Presentation for the TAG/ATDC Entrepreneurs

June 3, 2010

A glass is never half empty

Bluebirds are the exception to the rule

Establish a game-plan from day one to provide a roadmap for execution

Expect the unexpected and learn to roll with the punches

Take time to enjoy the excitement of creating your own path

Executive Summary

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Agenda

I. Personal Overview

II. Current Ventures

III.Lessons Learned

IV.Questions

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Personal Background

Serial Atlanta entrepreneur with 22 years of experience in the payments space

B.S. in Mathematics and Electrical Engineering from Vanderbilt University and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University

Civic responsibilities include Board positions in Leadership Atlanta, TIE, TechBridge and the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG)

Married to Debora Bahl with 4 children

Interests include adventure travel, tennis, and wine collecting4

Professional History Founded and served as the CEO of Exchange Place Solutions (EXPS)

– EXPS' primary competence was within the area of electronic payments, including ACH, Wire, I-ACH, and SWIFT

– EXPS was acquired by iXL in 1997

Became the Senior Vice President of iXL Ventures and the founder of iXL's Financial Services Practice Group (FSPG)– Grew the practice to the largest industry component within iXL, accounting for

approximately 33% of the company’s revenue during 1998, the year of its IPO

Founded Harbor Payments in 2000– Harbor Payments was the recognized global leader in the emerging electronic

invoicing industry– Rated as one of the fastest growing technology firms by Deloitte in 2005– Purchased by American Express in 2006

Launched/Relaunched Acculynk in 2008 and Twitpay in 2010– Currently serve as Chairman and CEO of Acculynk, the only provider of a payment

method for Internet PIN debit payments

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Agenda

I. Personal Overview

II. Current Ventures

III.Lessons Learned

IV.Questions

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Acculynk: Bringing PIN Debit to the Internet

Acculynk is the only provider of a software-only service for PIN debit payments on the Internet, PaySecure ®– Standard adopted by 7 EFT networks– 10 patent families, including 4 issued patents

PaySecure is a compelling online payments innovation, as it meets the needs of all stakeholders– Merchants: instant adoption, no incentives, reduced fees, lower

fraud/charge-backs– Consumers: familiar, convenient and secure payment experience leveraging

their current debit card– Issuers: lower fraud, attractive margins, competes against alternative,

extends issuer brand

PaySecure is already the second largest alternative payment type in the market, projected to have over 90M active users by Q4 2010

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Consumer checks out on merchant website

Consumer enters debit card number

No proactive choice required

Only appears if transaction is PIN-able

No abandoned transactions

No redirection

Merchant steering

Bank branded

Highest level of security

Scrambling PIN-pad

Mouse click only

Card number entry

Confirmation pageEnter PIN

Make selection

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Consumer receives payment confirmation directly from merchant

The PaySecure Payment Process is Simple and Familiar

Acculynk Investment Hypothesis, 2008

Existing State– Payment method required a “download” – No commercial transactions– Non-payment management team– Direct customer acquisition– Slippery and fuzzy numbers with partners

Vision– Recruit payment experts to build credibility– Convert to a hosted application using an Ajax frame– Publish “open” pricing to all parties– Make the industry standard– Underwrite merchants through acquirers

Valuation– At the time of investment: Under $1M– Current valuation: Over $50M

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Twitpay: Powering Socially Visible Payments

Twitpay is the first and largest payment service built on top of Twitter– Only provider of a service that allows Twitter users to simply and securely make

charitable donations from their Twitter account– Sophisticated payments platform backed by a provisional patent around the

initiation of a financial transaction by posting a message on a social network

Twitpay has been processing peer to peer payments through Twitter since 2008– Enjoys a strategic relationship with Twitter’s development, business develop and

Non-profit organization (NPO) relations teams

Twitpay is migrating its success in P2P payments to serve charities with RT2Give™ – Users donate to their favorite charities through their Twitter account, and “re-

tweet” the donation to their followers– Users “re-tweet” the donation to the their followers, utilizing a lucrative viral

component that encourages additional donations to that charity 10

RT2Give™ leverages the power of Twitter

Step 1: Consumer’s favorite non-profit tweets a call for donations

Step 1: Consumer re-tweets the NPO’s tweet

Step 3: Twitpay sends confirmation via direct message (DM)*

*Consumer follows @RT2Give_Confirm automatically, when they sign up

Step 4: Consumer replies “yes” to the DM and the donation is complete

Consumer re-tweets

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Twitpay Investment Hypothesis, 2010 Existing State

– Communication channel between PayPal and Twitter– Limited margin– Did not own payment system– Did not own payment data

Vision– Create a proprietary payment system

• Own data through enrollment• Own funds flow

– Leverage Twitter’s low-cost rails– Target low-fraud industries

• Charitable donations, virtual games– Build significant user base for other applications– Create preferred payment system for Twitter and others

Valuation– At the time of investment: Under $1M– Current valuation: Over $10M

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Agenda

I. Personal Overview

II. Current Ventures

III.Lessons Learned

IV.Questions

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Lessons Learned: Picking the Right Opportunity

Stick to something that you know – in our case, payments

Have an analytic screen

Lead with intellectual property

Balance the desire to have the perfect technology

Find a “Big Brother”

Define a “real” economic model

Finance creatively

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Lessons Learned: Creating the Right Corporate Culture

Be decisive: cost of failure is low but cost of missed opportunity is high

Ride the emotional cycle of change

Surround yourself with positive “can do” people

Focus on efficiency, don’t only be an educator

Balance business extensions with results

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Agenda

I. Personal Overview

II. Current Ventures

III.Lessons Learned

IV.Questions

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