Growth Is Happening

If you’ve been a heavy Dwolla user over the past 6 months you probably noticed a few things:

• Customer service responses went from hours to days.
• We’ve had a lot of updates going on lately.
• The mobile API is blazing fast in comparison to a month ago.

Some good. Some bad. To remedy the first issue we’ve put in a lot of time (and added new staff) to get things back on track. As of Friday, we’re back on track with response times.

If you’re part of the DSM community you’ve probably noticed something over the past month:

• I bowed out of virtually every project I advise on or help with.
• I haven’t been to a tech event lately.
• If it’s not on the schedule I probably didn’t make it and half the stuff on the schedule I couldn’t get to.

The end result of this is we did some hiring, we improved some process’, and we got a lot smarter about how to prepare for the next major influx.

On the back end there have been a lot of changes that affect:

• Account opening procedure(s) which have been expedited.
• We’ve switched our customer service systems entirely.
• We’ve moved the .COM environment into a more advanced and more scalable solution.
• The .ORG environment has started to depreciate to make things easier to understand.
• All the API’s have been highly modified lately to support the influx of usage.

We’re gearing up for some more big things but we greatly appreciate honest feedback you continue to give us. The feedback has driven a lot of internal developments and there are a lot of consumer facing changes in the pipeline thanks to the feedback.

How can we keep growing pains to a minimum?

The infrastructure of Dwolla scales through the next chunk of growth as we see it, and we’re making a lot of organizational changes to support the new demands on customer service.

In other news

We are looking for a location for our next Meetup. We’ve got some new stuff in the pipeline.

Any ideas for locations?

Thank you for your patience and continual support!

Connect to your social networks easily

In a peer 2 peer transaction Dwolla’s unique social payment features are one of a kind in the payments world. For those who aren’t aware you can easily use Dwolla to send money to:

• Any Facebook friend
• Any Twitter follower
• Anyone with an e-mail address

The advantages to this are pretty straight forward. Once you connect you can easily send money to people you’re connected to.

Connecting is easy. Follow these steps:

1. Sign in
2. Click Settings
3. Click Social Networks
4. Connect to Facebook and Twitter

If you haven’t connected to your social networks. It just got a lot easier. Users have been asking for a long time for an easier way to manage their social connections. Well here it is

Here is how you do it:

Here is what the options look like in the settings section:

Android Users – Please Update :)

We pushed an update to the Google Android application this morning which resolves some certificate issues that were happening.

These issues didn’t involve security but the applications ability to connect to the API and allow you to log in.

If you are an Android user… Please update your Dwolla application!!!

Merchant Highlight: 87 Central (10% off orders when made with Dwolla)

“Shirts so fine, they’ll blow your mind.”

Deal: 10% off orders when made with Dwolla (Expires: 12/31/2011)

It’s no secret that we here at Dwolla are HUGE fans of our friends at 87 Central. Not only do they print all of our t-shirts, but they’re also some of the most fun and creative people you’ll ever meet. Over the last few years, the custom screen-printing masters have hand-printed thousands of shirts for companies, organizations, outings, and events on a type of tee that you’d actually want to wear (I’m looking at you Gilden…).  Point is simply put: Want to make a shirt or design? Go to the timezone’s best t-shirt printers and artists at 87central.

Also, did you know that make some of the Midwest’s most recognizable websites? Yup, they do.

Website: eightsevencentral.com

Location: 400 East Locust #7, Des Moines, IA 50309

Phone: (515) 288-2066 ‎

Facebook | Twitter (a must follow, by the way… #shopbanter)

80/35 Winners Announced!(special video edition)

Last week we announced a spectacular partnership with our friends at the Des Moines Music Coalition for the upcoming 80/35 Music Festival this weekend. What does this mean for you? Simple:

• Use Dwolla to pay for tickets at the event
• Use Dwolla to buy drinks at the beer tent with your phone!
• Use Dwolla to find, shop and dine at one of the friendly downtown establishments!

For the competition we asked our community why they thought they  deserved 2 VIP tickets to the two day jamboree in downtown Des Moines. Here are a few examples of our favorites!

Each reason counted as one entry (a photo counted gave you another 3) and we drew one winner… Oh, and guess who stopped by to help announce?

(more…)