Ben Milne, the founder of Dwolla, an innovative payment network system as an alternative to credit cards, started his company in 2008. This innovative online system makes moving money or making payments incredibly easy, affordable, transparent, and safe. He built it out of frustration after losing approximately $55,000 a year to MasterCard and Visa. The feelings of being robbed and the question that aroused in his mind “how do I get paid through a website without paying credit card fees?” inspired him to save millions from the same feelings.
At the age of 18, Milne dropped out of University of Northern Iowa and started his first company Elemental Design. Before starting Dwolla, he also ran an e-Commerce business for speakers. By launching Dwolla, he has made the process money transaction very easy and time saving. One just has to type the name of the person to send the money, email address and the people will easily receive it. Moreover, unlike Credit Card or PayPal, Dwolla doesn’t take a percentage of transaction, what it takes is just 25 cents for any transaction, whether it is $1 or $1000. According to Business Insider, it moves between $30 and $50 million every month, which is more than $350 million per year.
The company which started with the investment of $1,200 is now paying him over a million in revenue. Milne recently revealed that Dwolla was running on its own and that he was focusing on another project.
Image Source: Business Insider
Info Source: Business Insider, Wikipedia, Dwolla
