The competition was stiff and the challenge itself was arduous, but after ten 6-minute demos to ten different audiences, Phroogal emerged triumphant in the 2014 Bank Innovation DEMOvation Challenge. San Francisco-based Phroogal is a question-and-answer portal for financial advice — a sort of Quora for the financially curious. The service is currently in beta testing. The first DEMOvation Challenge was held last Tuesday at Bank Innovation 2014 in Seattle. Conference attendees were divided into ten groups that made their way around the room listening to six-minute pitches from each fintech hopeful. Afterward, participants voted via text message and Phroogal emerged as the clear winner. Phroogal, founded by Jason Vitug and Max Martines, was initially launched as an Indiegogo project. The about $78,000 it raised between last fall constitute its sole funding to date. (The goal of the campaign was $75,000.) The platform is not considered by its founders to constitute a social network in and of itself, but Phroogal is very much a social media product and ties into other popular platforms. During their presentation, the Phroogal founders said that they believed the “social media wars” were over and that the dominant platforms today will be the dominant platforms for the [...]
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