Startup Directory

PayPerks

During her second year in the Greenhouse Program, with one failed venture (RIP hijinx) under her belt, Arlyn Davich ’09BUS sought to find a business idea that would solve a problem for a large and underserved market.  When she learned that nearly 1 in 4 Americans do not have a bank account, she focused on understanding what problems needed to be solved for “the financially underserved”.

PayPerks is a financial empowerment and rewards platform for the emerging middle class. Their patent–pending model pairs engaging tutorials about product features and benefits with the excitement of sweepstakes–based incentives to maximize behavior change.

PayPerks is well on its way to building the leading web-based financial services company for low and middle income consumers.  The company’s first product, the PayPerks Rewards Platform, is enabled as a feature on several card programs including DirectExpress, the U.S. Treasury’s program for Social Security benefits disbursement.  PayPerks was recently named the “Best Newcomer in Payments”, the “Next Big Thing in Prepaid”, “Company to Watch” and the “The Most Promising New Idea for the Emerging Middle Class”.  And they are hiring: http://jobs.payperks.com.

Arlyn Davich is the Founder and CEO of PayPerks. Prior to founding PayPerks, Arlyn worked in various facets of consumer engagement and marketing for companies including Louis Vuitton, Time Inc., Rubenstein Public Relations and Dannon.  Arlyn was a winner of the 2009 Lang Fund for Entrepreneurship at Columbia Business School where she conceived the idea for PayPerks while receiving her MBA. She received her undergraduate degree from Bowdoin College in Maine. During her time there she founded the Bowdoin Startup Series: a master class in Entrepreneurship.  She was a competitive tennis player back in her glory days and is among the country’s worst backgammon players.  She is usually up for a challenge at either.