Featured Startup Pitch: PaidThx enables consumers to transfer money to whoever they want, regardless of where they bank

Company: PaidThx

Website: www.paidthx.com

Founders: Thomas Eide, James Rhodes, Ryan Ricigliano, Robert Kirchner, Hugo Camacho

Headquarters: Richmond, Virginia

Year Founded: February, 2012

Investors: Privately funded

Twitter: @paidthx

Facebook: www.facebook.com/PaidThx

Brief Company Description: PaidThx is a social payment network designed to make quick and secure transactions with friends, family and charitable organizations.

By Thomas Eide, president and CEO

Product Overview

PaidThx is a social payment network that lets you transfer money with your friends, family and favorite organizations quickly and easily. The new technology works similarly to online banking tools that are in the market today with one major difference: PaidThx users can send and receive money with all of their contacts, no matter where they bank. Not only is PaidThx great for exchanging money with your contacts, but it can also be used for donations to charities and religious organizations.

With PaidThx, users will no longer have to carry around cash or a checkbook—just their smartphone. Sending money via Android, iOS, the mobile web or online is as simple as the swipe of a finger. The PaidThx network will be launched later this year. Interested users can enter their email address at www.paidthx.com to claim their invite and be among the first to use the network.

Founders’ Story

A group of five Richmond, VA-based entrepreneurs founded PaidThx, the first social payment network. While speaking with my priest one Sunday after church, I realized that churches and charities were struggling to raise donations, especially among younger members. These advocates still wanted to donate, but many times couldn’t because they simply were not carrying cash or had no checkbook. Realizing the detriment a cashless society would have on those less fortunate, the other founders and I started working on the idea of using cutting-edge mobile technology to let people send money to their friends and favorite non-profits quickly and easily. People want to donate when they are ‘in the moment’ and without carrying cash or checkbook the churches and charities lose that ‘in the moment’ spark. The inspiration for PaidThx was based on the observation that mobile devices are carried by people, not cash. Working from my own home for the better part of a year, the PaidThx team is just about to unveil a mobile payment revolution.

Marketing/Promotion Strategy

PaidThx partners directly with churches, charities and community non-profits so that they can collect donations, pledges and membership dues through the network. NPOs that would like to use PaidThx and be listed on its giving directory should email giving@paidthx.com. For individuals, anyone can use PaidThx to get paid-back from their friends or send family member money. Visit www.paidthx.com and enter your email address to get an invitation to the network.

How We Differentiate from the Competition

PaidThx offers individuals the opportunity to exchange money with others or to donate to their favorite charities at no cost. While other providers charge for these simple services, we believe this core functionality of our platform should come without an additional charge to the user. PaidThx also uniquely leverages social networking components like signing-on with Facebook and easily paying your closest friends.

Business Model

PaidThx makes money by offering value-added services to its users. For example, if you needed to get money to a friend right away, there will be a small fee associated with this expedited payment. We’ll also offer our network to developers who want to use it to process payments for their applications and charge them a small fee for the service.

Current Needs

We are always looking for new talent to join the PaidThx team, specifically those with experience in mobile development.

PaidThx – www.paidthx.com