An intense night of thoughts emanating. A rendezvous with the future, an attempt to share a vision. I was in LA, on February 16th 2007 for a holiday. I was driving with my good friend Sanjeev at Mullholland drive.

“Dude”

What?

“I think I have an idea which will change the world”

You’ve said that before but I guess people like you and me just talk, when will we actually do something?

“Hmmm., I think there is a lot of voyeur in dreaming an idea before making it Big. Let me tell you about this idea. It’s something very basic, yet noone seems to have thought about it”

Interesting.

“Ever thought about what one could do with some much of financial data, for instance our credit card, checking account transactions? THINK ABOUT IT. Even if the target audience is America, almost everyone has a checking/credit card. Many have multiple. With years of purchasing history stored in these banks, what have we done with that information? Can you even begin to think the patterns of purchasing power if all this data is somehow made anonymously available holding the privacy of the actual person who spent it?”

I don’t get it. How can you make the data anonymous?

“Simple. You have 3 years transactions in some format (excel, microsoft money, quicken). Simply publish your transactions without an account number or any attribute that reveals the identity. All you care is that you WANT your transactions to be processed, analyzed and help you to manage your money efficiently. By getting tips, by seeing graphs, by sharing transactions with a Community (This is Web 2.0), isolating purchasing powers within regions, age groups, domains etc. The horizon is limitless. Given the purchasing habits of a few million users (even anonymously), we probably have the world’s most sought after information at fingertips. Forget Google adwords”

Sounds interesting but how do you get the Web 2.0 in here?

“Simple. Firstly this website is going to be free. It is WYSIWYG interface which does a few good things. Upload your transactions, you can remain anonymous. We will show you exactly what you need to know. Your spendings/ savings graph and more – We will get you connected with other users just like you. You can tag transactions, share it in a community, Blog about buying secrets. etc. Its a healthy community that wants to help each other, not a corporate bully which wants your money”

That is all fine but isn’t there Quicken already which does pretty much all that and much more?

“Yeah, I used it and it sucks. Firstly I don’t need 75% of it’s features. Second I don’t have the time to analyze on my own with it’s overwhelming analysis of information . Third – there is no community support and Web 2.0. And its not free”

So you think it would work?

“When google wanted to start, people put it off. Apple was put off by HP about Personal computers”

Haha! Right you’re comparing this with the likes of Google?

“I’m not, just saying that good ideas can be simple. Just because it isn’t there doesn’t mean it will not work. In fact it means, it could work”

5 months later, last week I came across this site from a friend’s delicious links.

Wesabe

Ever felt like puking your guts out knowing how badly you have failed in a test you could have scored the max? That was exactly what I felt when I came across this site. This guy did JUST THE SAME idea I had envisioned back then. Boing Boing says – “Wasabe is a damned cool idea” and it’s shortlisted in “Best of the Web 2007″

Like they say, Dreamers only dream, true Visionaries execute. My best wishes to Jason, who started it all.