BillShrink, Inc., a new, free online service to help consumers save
money by making continuously updated, personalized, usage-based money-saving
recommendations on everyday services, announced the appointment of Matt
Coffin to its Board of Directors. A seasoned veteran of Internet technology,
Coffin led LowerMyBills.com from concept through its 2005 sale to Experian for
$380 million. Coffin, Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2007, is an
experienced entrepreneur, investor, and visionary, who will be central in
advancing BillShrink’s mission.
BillShrink aims to be the consumer’s personal advisor for managing
everyday services — such as cell phone (http://www.billshrink.com/cell) plans
and credit cards. For these services, which often lead to consumer frustration
and complicated bills, BillShrink automatically monitors the market’s millions
of continuously changing product combinations, as well as each person’s
individual usage behavior. BillShrink then matches the up-to-date product
information and terms against current usage patterns to deliver simple,
apples-to-apples comparisons and personalized, actionable money-saving
recommendations.
After a year in development and significant private testing, BillShrink
released the beta of its free online service for cell phone
(http://www.billshrink.com/cell-phone-advisor) users, finding users an average
of $300 per month in savings. In the near future, BillShrink will introduce
services for evaluating and monitoring rate plans from other complex products
such as credit cards.
“BillShrink promises to change the way consumers interact with the
providers of their most common and frustrating bills, and Matt’s experience
and insight will be invaluable to delivering on that promise,” said Peter
Pham, CEO of BillShrink. “We are very excited to have him join the team and
look forward to growing our business together.”
Currently, Coffin is an angel/early-stage investor in Mahalo, Rubicon
Project, DocStoc, MarketProbability, eBureau, Momentum Ventures, Demand Media
and several other companies based both in the United States and overseas.
Before venturing out as an investor, Coffin served as president of both
Experian Interactive Online Customer Acquisition Services and the Experian
Interactive Innovation Center, where he was charged with incubating new online
ideas leveraging Experian data and analytics resources.
“I’ve always been a fan of teams with lots of intellectual horsepower who
have a passion for exceeding consumers’ expectations, and Peter and the
BillShrink founders are definitely of that ilk,” said Coffin. “Providing
unprecedented transparency for the consumer creates an incredible product with
a huge potential market. BillShrink’s mission is in some respects similar to
my original vision for LowerMyBills, and given the evolution of web technology
and the increased adoption of researching purchase decisions online, now is an
exciting time to bring a next gen product to market. I really look forward to
helping them achieve their goals to help as many consumers as possible.”
Schwark Satyavolu and Samir Kothari co-founded BillShrink, which is backed
by Bessemer Venture Partners. The company was created to help people sift
through the complexity built into everyday service relationships like cell
phone (http://www.billshrink.com/cell-phone-advisor) plans and remove the
confusion and frustration of dealing with the providers and their complicated
bills. BillShrink monitors the market for changes and creates an ongoing
relationship with consumers to continually alert them to savings opportunities
and potential surprise fees and bill increases. BillShrink plans to
eventually move into other verticals, such as credit cards and insurance
plans, with the end goal of becoming a destination that consumers can trust
and return to frequently for advice on dealing with their service providers.
Web technology has finally evolved to a place where cell phone providers’
data is available to consumers, allowing BillShrink to process millions of
rate plan combinations and distill them to simple, personalized, actionable
recommendations. Beyond that, because rate plans change frequently among the
carriers, BillShrink tracks promotional deals, expiration dates, early
termination fees, call patterns and dozens of other data. It also constantly
monitors cell phone use patterns and sends alerts when it finds a better
mobile plan for a consumer’s needs.