The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.
Name: Splitable
Quick Pitch: Splitable lets you divide the cost of anything with anyone online.
Genius Idea: Think of Splitable as a group chat that takes credit cards — letting you plan events, communicate details and collect money in one place.
Mary Foden is a natural-born planner. Amongst her group of friends, she is always the one organizing concerts and party prepping. She thinks the hassle of collecting payments from people is what turns others off embracing the role of social organizer.
In order to make this aspect easier, she founded Splitable in mid-2011. Splitable is a web tool that let's you divide and conquer bills. It enables a large party to split the dinner bill, roommates to share the cost of a TV or a bride's best friends to split her bachelorette party bill.
"We wanted to totally level the paying field and get rid of the burden," she says.
Splitable allows you to invite friends to a "team" where you can share the payment of one thing or several expenses and combines the process of making invitations, going over details and collecting payments into one platform (see above). Each individual credit card will not be charged until the team is committed. You can cancel personal transactions from the account any time before the team is committed.
"This allows the team to come together without risk to any individual member's money, and encourages the team members to rally others to get on board quickly," Foden said.
Now a buddy's birthday dinner or trip planned for six people won't be ruined when friends don't pay up after you've fronted the bill. A network of close to 1,000 users are signed up for the Splitable web application. Foden says she uses the application all the time for fundraisers and for splitting baby shower gifts.
"My hope is that more people will take initiative [to plan events] and think in more collaborative ways about things they are buying and using. Saying, 'Maybe I'll share that New York Times subscription with my neighbor.' It's about community," she said.
Splitable isn't just a stand-alone website. It also has an API that third-party sites can use to offer their customers a choice to split a bill. The next step will ideally allow those sites to also give individuals an option to use several credit cards when paying for large purchases.
The company is currently starting partnerships with wedding and baby registries. It has been self-funded up to date and makes commission from sites that use the Splitable API. The use of Splitable is completely free to users who create teams, but there is a small credit card processing fee for transactions.
Image courtesy of Flickr, Mourner
Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark
The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.
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