Advanta

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Advanta is an American banking company. Currently, it controls two banks, Advanta Bank Corp and Advanta National Bank. The banking corporation is not associated with Advanta Energy Corp., an energy consulting practice based in California. Originally a provider of personal loans to teachers, Advanta describes its corporate focus as on "small business credit cards." In 2000, Advanta's credit card receivables were $1.6 billion.

Advanta was founded in 1951 by Philadelphia schoolteacher Jack Alter, who originally ran the company from his spare bedroom. By 1972, the company had $25 million worth of investments in its investment certificate program. In 1985, Advanta became a publicly traded company (it is currently traded on NASDAQ under the symbol ADVNB). By 1995, Financial World named Advanta one of America's Best 100 Growth Companies. In 2000, Advanta was ranked among the "America's Most Admired Companies" by Fortune magazine. Advanta is still in its growth process^{[citation needed]}.

KivaB4B

In April 2008, Advanta announced the KivaB4B project [1] in conjunction with Kiva.org, a non-profit organization whose mission is to connect people through micro-grants by lending money via the Internet to small businesses in developing countries. The KivaB4B project matches micro-grants to Kiva made with an Advanta business credit card for Kiva entrepreneurs up to $200 per month per account in total. New applicants can also opt to get a Kiva-branded card to show their support for Kiva.org [2].

ideablob

Inspired by Advanta, ideablob® (alternatively, ideablob.com) is an active online community for entrepreneurs and small business owners. This social networking site enables users to share and explore business ideas. In exchange, users receive feedback, advice and votes from the community. Each month the community votes and the best idea wins $10,000.

Origin

Advanta, which began as a small business in 1951, launched ideablob in September 2007 with the intention of supporting entrepreneurs and small businesses and helping their ideas grow.
Past $10,000 Winners:
Matt Allison, Portable Personal Trainer, April 2008 Winner

John Studer, No Sweat Apparel, March 2008 Winner

Aaron Fleishman, Mashavu, February 2008 Winner

Naomi Bar-Yam, Mothers' Milk Bank of New England, January 2008 Winner http://www.milkbankne.org

Chris Elam, Misnomer Dance Theater, December 2007 Winner

Marci Schankweiler, Crossing the Finish Line, November 2007 Winner

Tom Krieglstein, Red Rover, October 2007 Winner

Description

To submit an idea, users need to register and activate an account. Once a person joins, he or she is free to submit ideas, vote and comment on other ideas. The community is the judge. Anyone who is registered on ideablob.com is eligible to vote for the winning idea.

The ranking is calculated at the end of each day (12:00am CST). Each month is one cycle. Each cycle is divided into four periods: the first three periods are called sprints, which are followed by the Monthly Showdown. The Sprint Leaders are the ideas that have gained the highest number of votes in that particular sprint. The Most Overall Votes are the ideas that have gained the highest number of votes since the ideablob contest began in September 2007. An idea could have been submitted several months ago, but if it has become one of the most-voted for ideas, it can make the finals.

The Monthly Showdown begins at the end of three sprints. The two ideas with the most overall votes and the six ideas that have gained the most votes during each sprint compete for the final $10,000 award. To level the playing field, each of the eight finalists begins the monthly showdown with zero votes. Once a month, one idea will move ahead of the pack based on the number of votes it receives. The top idea will win $10,000 to help it grow. Any legal U.S. resident 18 and over can participate by registering on ideablob.com Official Contest Rules.

After the Monthly Showdown, all eight finalists' ideas are inducted into the ideablob Hall of Fame. Finalists can re-submit their current idea or submit a new idea. Votes remain intact for the ideas that do not make it to a Monthly Showdown, and those ideas are still in the running to earn $10,000. The blob contacts the winner by email, phone and mail. The $10,000 prize is paid by check.