The next generation of banking is moving from physical to digital space, from computers to tablets and mobile phones, and Michael Duncan ‘04 is at the heart of the transition.

Duncan, a 2004 Kettering University graduate from the Computer Science department is the founder of Bankjoy, a full-fledged mobile banking platform intended to serve credit unions and smaller financial institutions.

“Credit unions are great. There are 100 million people that trust them,” Duncan said. “But now everyone expects to be able to do everything on a mobile device.”

The ability to bank from mobile devices is a consumer expectation at this point and unfortunately, local credit unions don’t have the resources to continuously invest in a robust mobile platform to keep up with the ever-changing mediums of technology. Duncan’s aim is to provide a customizable platform to each credit union in order to allow their services to compete against national and international banks.

From Co-op to Start-Up

Before Duncan was considering Kettering, he had already taught himself how to code while in high school in Lathrup Village, Michigan.

“I taught myself C++ and wrote programs in my spare time,” Duncan said.

Professionally, Duncan was ahead of schedule and he was looking for a school that would match his knowledge, independence and desire to apply practical skills.

“I chose Kettering because I was really attracted to the co-op program and the ability to get some work experience while I was at school,” Duncan said. “I ended up getting a great co-op because it was a startup.”

Duncan completed his co-op at Nu-Intellect, Inc., a software company that built programs for industrial machines. Between working for a small company and the small classroom environment at Kettering, Duncan benefitted from the one-on-one mentoring relationships with professors and co-workers to expand his body of experience.

Duncan graduated in 2004 with a degree in Computer Science and went to work for Unisys in Plymouth Michigan, a then-Fortune 500 company focusing on large-scale public and private software solutions. His specific project was to help build a payments system for child support for the States of California and Oregon.

“It was an electronic check imaging system,” Duncan said. “When child support checks came in, they were scanned and it streamlined the process and made it electronic.”

Duncan stayed in Oregon until 2009 before moving to Vermont to work for a beverage company and that’s where his focus shifted from software to the greater digital experience for users.

“That’s where I started doing web development. We built all of the applications for the web and mobile,” Duncan said. “There I also got an interest in product design and development, specifically focusing on user interfaces and designs.”

In 2010, with his newfound knowledge and passion, Duncan moved back to Michigan, this time, to work for Michigan First Credit Union as a developer for mobile banking in an effort to differentiate them from other similar institutions across the State.

“I was really dissatisfied with the quality of the online and mobile banking product. They were very dated in terms of the user experiences and functionality,” Duncan said. “The rate of innovation was very slow. Our products were falling behind. That was true for the entire industry.”

So Duncan left his secure job at Michigan First in 2014 to venture off on his own to solve a problem that he worked on from within the credit union industry for four years. During this transition, he also received support from a fellow 2004 Kettering graduate.

Developing Bankjoy

“I remember reading Michael’s application myself. It was an interesting idea. It’s an idea that I’ve thought about doing myself before,” said Qasar Younis, a 2004 Mechanical Engineering graduate and Partner at Y Combinator in California.

Younis did not know Duncan while they were at Kettering. The first time he met him was earlier this year when Duncan was selected as one of the few fortunate companies to present their startup idea to Y Combinator; an organization that provides seed funding to startups. Bankjoy was one of the businesses that Y Combinator invested in during their last batch of funding.

So what is Bankjoy?

"Customers don’t want to go to a bank. They want to do everything on their mobile device,” Duncan said. “We are building that mobile banking application and selling it to credit unions.”

Duncan and his team are building customized mobile banking platform with 24/7 support for credit unions across the country. The modern interface is one that other developers can leverage to produce more products which is a sharp contrast to the current antiquated system that some financial institutions are using.

“Credit unions really love our products. We’ve gotten very few negative responses from it,” Duncan said. “So far the only reason that a credit union won’t sign up is because they are locked into contracts of two-to-five years which is a lifetime in terms of technology so they’ve basically fallen behind and they have no choice. We don’t believe in those long contracts. We go month-to-month. We want a credit union to stay with us because they love the product.”

Bankjoy is providing the Application Program Interface (API) for credit unions which provides the foundation to allow developers to create applications and integrate mobile banking transactions and processes to the product.

Earlier this year, Bankjoy was featured in an article on TechCrunch where it was stated that there are 6,000 credit unions in the United States who serve 100,000,000 members.

“I believe in Michael’s thesis,” Younis said. “The hypothesis is good. The team is good and they have the right background. Now let’s see if these guys can do it.”