An innovative date with Intuit [Video]

Intuit -the makers of Quickbooks, GoPayment and Mint.com invited The Next Web on a filming date to an “Innovation Gallery Walk” and check out their Connected Services strategy in Mountain View last week.

Besides plying me with beautiful flowers, a box of chocolates and some wine (full dating points Intuit) they gave me access to the technology they are building around mobile and tablet computing.

Intuit’s focus on mobile is particularly impressive with development of GoPayment -payments swiped through a card reader on your phone. The service is not unlike Square, although its hardware is more industrious looking, but what Intuit has over Square is a trusting customer base and relationships with existing financial properties. Other services developed on mobile include taxes filed with the snap of a photo and text messages to help farmers in India get the best price for their produce- this was by far the most impactful service I’ve seen in Silicon Valley in a while.

The development of mobile innovation is clearly fueling Intuit’s growth; customer growth in Intuit’s payments business is driven by the rapid adoption of GoPayment, used to process millions of dollars per day. More than 50% of Mint customers access the service through their mobile devices and 35% of new Mint customers sign up via mobile. Lastly, the number of end-customers using Intuit’s mobile banking solutions has tripled over the past year.

Intuit was founded in 1983 by Scott Cook and Tom Proulx. It’s great to see such an old company acting like a startup and innovating from within, but many of the services are not launching until the beginning of next year. Also, there was a brilliant wire-framing tool only available internally, which makes me wonder if they are getting their new services out to market quickly enough to stay ahead of other startups who might be leaner and innovating in the same space.

Would I ‘date’ Intuit again? Yes! At 28-year’s-old, they are one of Silicon Valley’s older software companies, but have not forgotten their young, innovative startup roots, as the saying goes; you’re only as old as you act.