www.smarthippo.com

HQ Location: Montreal, Canada
Product Being Demoed: SmartHippo
Product Launched: September 2007
Metrics: $250K raised, 5 employees

How they describe themselves:
SmartHippo.com is a vertical search engine and comparison shopping service for financial products. We are the first-ever site that uses the power of community to help consumers find the best finance rates and save money. SmartHippo.com allows any individual to post information and feedback on the rate they received, and to compare rates with other members of the community with similar profiles. The site is currently focused on the mortgage vertical.

What they think makes them better:
Traditional mortgage comparison sites have adopted either a 1) a lead generation model, where consumers think banks have competed to provide them with their best offers but in reality their personal data has simply been sold to the highest bidder; or 2) a pay to play model where banks pay to post teaser rates which often have little relation to reality. SmartHippo levels the playing field by letting any bank or broker post rates for free, and then uses the power of the community to keep them honest as well as report on additional rates that individual members have found.

Executives: George Favvas (CEO), Martin Hudon (VP Strategic Business Development), Nicolae Caralicea (Director of Engineering)

Investors: George Favvas (www.favvas.com), Martin Hudon

Advisory Board Members: Lori Collins (former VP&GM at LendingTree, SVP at Bank of America, VP at Fidelity Investments), Bill Rice (CEO of Kaleidico, former VP of home equity and corporate programs at Quicken Loans), John Phillip Green (founder and CTO of LearnHub)

Customers: Quicken Loans, Bank of Internet, RMC Vanguard Mortgage Corporation

Contacts:
Business Dev. & Sales – Martin Hudon, Co-Founder and VP Strategic Business Development, martin@smarthippo.com, 514-667-1574
Press – Dov Smith, SmartHippo Public Relations, dov@smarthippo.com