Intuit announced Share A Refund as the winner of the Small Business App Showdown developer contest at the third annual QuickBooks Connect user conference. The $100k grand prize sponsored by Intuit was presented to Share A Refund owner / founder Nick Hoffman, on stage in front of more than 6,000 attendees.
More than 100 businesses competed over the course of several months for the chance to be selected as one of ten finalists given the opportunity to present to a panel of judges. Finalists were chosen based on several metrics including quality of integration to QuickBooks, innovation, market impact, number of votes and number of users on QuickBooks.
Share A Refund was selected as a finalist and presented in front of a panel of judges including Gina Bianchini, CEO and Founder, MightyBell, Mike Michalowicz, Author of Profit First and Marnie Stretch, an Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor in Canada and the US and a member of the Intuit Trainer/Writer Network. Selection of the winner by the panel of judges was based on metrics including innovation, market impact, and quality of integration with QuickBooks.
Judge Mike Michalowicz said, “Judging the impact of software in 3 minutes sounds like an impossible feat. But, quite frankly, most prospects put in about that much time when evaluating technology. They want to know if what they are getting will work for them, the impact it will have and their ROI. Within 3 minutes it was clear Nick and his team had developed an app that answers all 3 of those questions the way clients want: A fast easy way to save a lot of money.”
The winner was announced by Scott Cook – Founder and Chairman of the Executive Committee, Intuit Inc. during a keynote speech, and the $100k cash prize check presented to Nick Hoffman the owner and founder of Share A Refund during a keynote speech on the second day of QuickBooks Connect 2016 in San Jose, CA.
Ankit Sharma (@ankit_sam), owner / founder of Share A Refund said in a statement Friday, “Many sleepless nights went into building Share A Refund. The cash prize will be used to extend the platform, adding more features and localizing to targeted geographic markets across the globe. We intend to make Share A Refund a global brand.”
Share A Refund is a shipment auditing platform that finds and secures unclaimed refunds within FedEx and UPS small parcel shipping accounts. The performance-based service saves companies 4.5% on shipping on average, with no upfront or ongoing fees, just a split of the savings delivered. Share A Refund operates under the moniker “Found Money”, and businesses use Share A Refund to save money on shipping.
Share A Refund brings shipment auditing to the QuickBooks ecosystem. Business can install the Share A Refund app from the QuickBooks App Store. QuickBooks ProAdvisors can deploy the reseller program to offer shipment auditing as a value-add service to customers, wherein the entire shipment auditing platform is white-labeled as a branded service.
