This year marks the 10th anniversary of Mint’s win at the first ever TechCrunch Startup Battlefield competition (back then – lost in the mists of time – it was known as TechCrunch 40). But what is less known about founder Aaron Patzer is that he’s one of the pioneers of AI. Now based in the Southern Hemisphere, he’s coming to speak at Techcrunch Battlefield Australia.
In January this year, he started Vital Software, with Dr. Justin Schrager of Emory University, which makes software for hospital emergency rooms. That’s the short version. When you include the fact that it’s a mobile patient check-in for patients, and automatically creates electronic medical records designed for doctors and nurses, with the aim being to cut ER wait times in half, you start to understand the AI heritage it’s come from.
Patzer will join us as a speaker at TechCrunch Battlefield Australia in partnership with ELEVACAO, on November 16th at Australian Technology Park in Sydney.
Both the visionary and technical mind behind Mint, the first free, automatic and secure way to manage and save money online, Patzer designed Mint to meet his own needs and those of people like him who value immediacy, simplicity and their free time.
Prior to founding Mint, Patzer was an architect and technical lead for the San Jose division of Nascentric. Before Nascentric, he worked for IBM and founded two web development and online marketing companies.
Patzer is hugely experienced in Machine Learning, having about a dozen patents in algorithms. It was this that allowed Mint to categorize and classify financial transactions, which in turn allowed budgeting, spending alerts and a host of other things to unlock the user experience.
He believes “AI is an enabler” and that it’s what you achieve with it that matters most, not the AI itself. Wise words.
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Join 10k+ tech and VC leaders for growth and connections at Disrupt 2025
Netflix, Box, a16z, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Hugging Face, Elad Gil, Vinod Khosla — just some of the 250+ heavy hitters leading 200+ sessions designed to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don’t miss a chance to learn from the top voices in tech. Grab your ticket before doors open to save up to $444.
Aaron saw both Mint and Fountain acquired, and many others he was involved with, so he’s very aware of what a good acquisition and integration looks like.
TechCrunch Battlefield is the first of its kind in Australia. There will be five sections of five companies competing for the cash prize and the title of Best StartUp in Australia, along with six industry tracks exploring all of the hot topics in Australia from Crypto and Blockchain, to AI and FinTech.
