SXSW Interactive is abuzz with startups of every size, color, and flavor. Among the smart soil monitors, robotic prosthetic arms and even an exhibit on Martian colonization, there is a
triumphant sense of community— a community of people tackling real issues and real possibilities, a brave community starting to reshape the world.
These startups, and the
people behind them, are brave. With startup failure rates at nearly 80%, the stakes are high for both companies and investors in this process of discovering, nurturing, and funding ideas. But so are
the rewards. Companies like IBM and Shell, and even countries including Ireland, and Germany are searching for entrepreneurs and up-and-comers, and are drawing U.S. investor awareness toward their
respective homegrown startups.
What sets one startup apart from another? Trending within the most promising SXSWi 2015 startups, is the idea of transparency for consumers. Three
startup companies in particular leverage transparency to provide consumers with greater ability and choice when making healthcare, financial planning, and investment decisions.
Spotlight Health: Giving Consumers More Power
In Dallas, a knee replacement surgery may cost $16,722 from Doctor X and $61,585 (nearly quadruple) from
Doctor Y. Although procedure costs are publicly available, they are not easily accessible or readily provided to many health care seekers. Furthermore, high-deductible insurance plans are by and large
rapidly eliminating cost-based pricing of healthcare procedures. While healthcare is further becoming a consumer-driven market, consumers are left with few tools to navigate their complex and
financially impactful healthcare decisions.
Spotlight Health employs transparency to deliver true healthcare price clarity to simplify the decision making process for consumers.
Users can search, shop, and do side-by-side cost comparisons of common procedures per market online, allowing consumers to make more financially sound, quality-driven healthcare decisions.
Honest Dollar: Re-Engineering Retirement
With pensions nearly gone, inflation on the rise, and small businesses overall unable to offer savings plans to
employees – retirement isn’t what it used to be for most. The rare small businesses that offer 401(k)s and other savings plans are hit with astronomical fees. And Deloitte’s
Investment Survey for the Investment Company Institute indicates that the employees pay 87% of fees on average anyway.
Honest Dollar, the Austin-based financial-technology startup,
aims to “re-engineer retirement” by easing the pressure on small businesses and offering investment portfolios of low-cost exchange-traded funds for employees. And with an easy-to-use app,
signing up only takes 90 seconds for employers. At the touch of a finger, retirement becomes much more clear— and easier.
With a proposition like that, it’s no wonder
Honest Dollar won SXSWi’s “ReleaseIt” Startup Competition.
DRAFT: Investment Analysis You Can Understand
It comes as no surprise
that the 2014 Edelman Trust Barometer indicates that consumers do not trust the financial services industry. And that cannot be truer with investments. Complex and intimidating, most customers (me
included) do not have a firm grasp on the ins and outs of investing and continued discussion around new fee structures and fine print breeds apprehension.
DRAFT app, an
Austin-based financial technology startup, brings transparency to consumers and aims to be the tool that helps investors understand how the performance, asset allocation and annual fees of their
current strategy compare to that of their peers. With the app, users can start analyzing their finances and move money towards less expensive investment vehicles.
What does
it all mean?
These startups are tackling some of the oldest (and vital) sectors in the world head on with sensible, logical solutions that work in the interests of the
people. And by shining a light of clarity into complex and ambiguous waters, the transparency trend is bringing companies and consumers together, allowing for smarter, better, and more efficient
decisions by all.
And with an ecosystem ripe with opportunity, this is, hopefully, just the beginning.