History of Quicken

THE HISTORY OF QUICKEN

FROM KITCHEN TABLE TO BOARDROOM TABLE: CELEBRATING OVER
TWO DECADES AS A LEADER IN PERSONAL FINANCE

An accidental meeting in front of the Stanford University library in 1983 brought Scott Cook and Tom Proulx together. Proulx, a computer science major, was in search of a new software idea; Cook, a former marketing manager at Procter & Gamble, was posting flyers seeking a code developer to help him realize his vision—a software program that would help people automate their finances.

That first simple conversation would lead to the development of the best-selling personal finance software product of all-time ; a product that has revolutionized the way people manage their personal finances.

After the chance meeting, Cook and Proulx realized that the more they talked about the project; their goals, values and ethics echoed one another’s. The programming job was offered and accepted and the company began unceremoniously in the dormitory courtyard.

Laying the Groundwork
The idea for Quicken was born at Cook’s kitchen table, where he often watched his wife pay bills. He knew she loathed this tedious and repetitive monthly chore, and realized that there might be an easier and faster way to get it done. He imagined a computerized software system that would automate the entire bill-paying process. At the time, the personal home computer industry was in its infancy as developers struggled to find uses that related to peoples lives away from the office.

Cook and Proulx decided to call their company “Intuit” in an effort to communicate that the company’s products would make the difficult process of financial management an easier proposition. Naming their first product, however, would prove more challenging. They wanted a compact name that would convey the product’s ease of use, as well as its ability to make financial management faster for consumers. As the product shipment date rapidly approached, Cook headed to a Palo Alto bookstore in search of a compelling name and inspiration. There, he picked up a thesaurus and flipped to the word “fast”—and there it was: Quicken.

It Looks Just Like a Checkbook!
With a business model employed by consumer products giant Procter & Gamble, Cook and Proulx set out to build a product based entirely on consumer needs (Cook’s idea to apply consumer marketing techniques to software is widely heralded as a pioneering act for the industry). Cook began conducting extensive interviews with people randomly selected from Palo Alto, CA, and Winnetka, IL, (the only two phone directories he had handy) and questioned them to learn more about their financial habits. He was able to pinpoint the challenges they faced and discussed solutions that would make the process easier. He confirmed a consistent customer problem: people disliked managing their finances, but could not escape the burden.

Based on this research, they determined that their new product should accentuate the basic financial tasks that software could easily and accurately perform, such as writing checks, maintaining the check register and reconciling monthly balances. They also decided the software should look and work like the forms people used in the real world. When Quicken launched, there were forty-six other personal finance products on the market. All of them were exceedingly complicated to use.

It was determined that the strongest selling point for Quicken software would be that it looked familiar—just like a check and checkbook register—and that it was incredibly easy to use. To drive this point home, Cook enlisted the Palo Alto Junior League as the company’s first beta testers!

Aloha Quicken!
While the product was taking shape, the software industry was not. In 1984, the personal computing industry had crashed with venture capitalist investments falling 25 percent after tripling the year before. Basically, Intuit found itself trying to raise capital at exactly the moment when nobody was interested in funding software development. Without the proper funding, a retail launch was out of the question, so it was decided that the best way to get Quicken into consumer’s hands was through commercial banks. Bank of Hawaii was the first to sign on and heavily promoted the availability of the product through its branches and in newspapers and flyers. The result: Quicken was soon outselling software giant Lotus 1-2-3 (which was sold through retail locations) throughout Hawaii.

From 47 to Number One
In 1986, A+ Magazine touted “The Quicken Breakthrough” stating “Finally, a check writing program that may make itself indispensable to you.” Cook and Proulx had finally tapped into the kind of enthusiasm that would make Quicken a household name. In an effort to achieve mainstream acceptance, the team marketed directly to consumers. Full-page ads in computer magazines touting the benefits of Quicken resulted in staggering sales during the holiday season. With mass appeal, Quicken gained distribution in many of the top software retail stores.
In March 1988, PC Magazine, the gold standard of the computer industry, ranked Quicken the number-ten best-selling software program. Five months later, in September 1988, Quicken became the number-one selling consumer software product.
HISTORY
Listening to Customers and Changing With the Times
“What made Intuit successful was that both the engineering and business sides infused the same principles into product development,” said Cook. “When we design and build products, we start with and focus on the customer.”

For the past two decades, Intuit has consistently relied on customer driven invention along with keeping a keen eye on economic conditions facing customers and the latest technologies to create annual versions of Quicken that best meet the needs of consumers. Just a few releases that stand out include:

In 1989, Intuit reinstated the “follow me home” program that Scott Cook started in the early days of Quicken. Through the program, Intuit employees would go to the homes of Quicken users, watch them use the product, and gain valuable insight as to how they manage their finances and how we could improve Quicken to alleviate their financial headaches. Intuit employees now talk to over 50,000 customers each year.

• In 1991, Intuit introduced “Quicken for Windows” taking advantage of the new graphical user interface. Electronic bill payment functionality through Checkfree was introduced to meet the growing customer demand for this service.

 

• From 1990 to 1997, holdings of individual investors in equities, bonds and securities more than tripled.  Based on the growing trend toward individual investing, Quicken 98 added the ability to download brokerage information into Quicken simplifying investment tracking for tax purposes. Leveraging the Internet boom, integration with Quicken.com was added providing anytime, anywhere access to your finances.

• In 1997, when it was discovered that almost a third of customers were using Quicken to track their business finances, Intuit created Quicken Home & Business offering tools to help users run their business and personal finances separately or together.

 

• In light of the market decline and tech bubble bursting, Quicken 2001, released in August 2000, included support for capital losses, and an improved portfolio with 30 new performance indicators.

• With more than 100 customer-recommended improvements, Quicken 2005 addressed users’ most requested suggestions and helped solve customer’s new bill tracking and paying challenges associated with the multiple ways people pay bills.

 

• Leveraging the growth and popularity of online banking, Quicken 2007 improved connectivity, setup and download of data from financial institutions and enables the ability to attach electronic documents right into Quicken. Quicken personal finance software fills the gaps in functionality where bank sites fall short and is also the perfect companion to the way people manage their finances online.

From those humble beginnings two decades ago, Quicken has grown to become much more than a checkbook register. In fact, more people have bought Quicken software than all other personal finance software combined.  The Quicken brand now consists of an integrated family of products and services that continue to revolutionize the way people manage all aspects of both their personal and business finances.

And the best is yet to come.