Venmo seeks to simplify peer-to-peer payments (simply, paying your friends back)

I write more I O U notes than I care to admit. I just never have cash and the coffee shop in my buildingSadly, not a joke doesn't accept credit card for purchases under $5 (a practice that violates their terms with the credit cards, but that I support). While I'm always good for the $3, surely there is another way. A way to avoid the awkwardness of buying a friend lunch when he forgets his wallet, and then promptly forgets your generosity. A way to avoid PayPal'ing a friend money for buying your tickets to a conference and have 3% taken off in fees.

Square will revolutionalize merchant payments. But for peer-to-peer paybacks, I'm excited about Venmo, a 100% free way for individuals to text each other payments. Users can deposit money directly into their Venmo account or have it pull from their bank. So instead of writing I O U $2.50, I can text Venmo "send Anita $2.50". We're immediately settled up and transactions costs are 0. Lovely.

Comments

[Anita]

Lovely indeed! I will finally get my $2.50! (Just kidding-- actually you will soon get your $2.50 via Venmo...) What is really exciting about this is to see if Venmo will help us finally witness mobile paymets reach mainstream use in the US. (I have heard of \other mobile payments models but it seems they were not very user friendly or easy to scale). One question I have is how does the "friends" part become integrated into using Venmo... on the website it says "No fees, 100% free to use with friends" and I am wondering if this means that there is some social networking involved behind the concept as well--such as adding your Venmo friends to your account? Nonetheless it is an amazing service and I am excited to see how it develops and what kind of uptake it has.

Thank you for the post!