I spent the last three weeks balls deep into the idea/prototyping/validation phase of a fintech idea I had for a while. I felt (feel?) like I was (am?) onto something, but at the same time something feels off.
In the last three weeks, I learn a lot, and this knowledge won't be wasted. Some of the time has been honestly thrown away on (now) useless things: picking a name, buying the domain, getting accounts everywhere for the new company, squatting on social media, setting all up shining ... Thank god I didn't incorporate yet, nor raised a single dollar.
Without further ado, this is why I think my project is promising
The Good 😍😍😍
- It is something I need for my own (motivation++)
- It has a positive impact on society (not selling useless shi*)
- I have the technical abilities to build a big chunk of it
- Can be easily monetized with standard recurring business models
- LTV is huge, churns are very unlikely.
- The target audience is well defined (although not a niche), and not hard to reach
- With a fixed number of customers, revenue goes up with time
The Bad 🥺🥺🥺 (a non-comprehensive list of NO-GO items)
- The entry barrier is high (regulations around finance), probably too high for a solo founder.
- A solo-founder SaaS, most people don't trust it with their own hard-earned money. And they prefer banks, even if more expensive. (tested and verified)
- The problem it solves, is not generally FELT in the bones: it’s not something people google in the morning: it often requires generating awareness and educating people about it. It scares me, I did it in the past.
- Another scary thing: Since it manages long-term investment I have to maintain it for decades, by definition (unless sold earlier)
- Customer support must be very intense since it revolves around the management of money, and people get nervous sooner than in other domains when things don't work perfectly as expected.
- There is a strong and well-funded competitor in the US, doing something pretty much identical to what I have in mind.
- It's very country-dependant: Banking/investment/taxes ... each country is its own world, and will likely require different integrations and licenses in each one of them to work as intended. I could pick one country to start with and be happy about it? maybe...
- Requires very high standards of security and privacy, most likely certified levels, since its dealing with financial data.
- Last but not least: I admit I fell in love with the idea myself. which is generally bad, isn't it?
Ok, I can envision I can mitigate SOME of the above issues, balancing them with pivots/funding/time/energy/patience... But, most of the problems are intrinsic to reality, and I don't feel arrogant enough to think I can change people's minds and international laws.
Sooooo... What would you do in my shoes? (Survey at the end)
Some context: I'm 36 with 2 kids, quasi-FI (passive income covers 70% of my recurring expenses). I got burned by a couple of startups that tried (and managed) to raise money before any real traction and quit. I'm coming fresh from a 2-years mini-retirement dedicated to sports, family, and smaller projects. I'm looking for an IH journey, on MY terms.
Sounds like it's not something you can do as an indie, and "Go big, become a bank" is clearly not in line with your personal goal of "an IH journey, on MY terms".
Therefore it's either "pivot to something simpler" (if that's possible) or find something different entirely.
Is it possible to partner with someone that can help you with one or more of those problems?
Or is it possible to niche it down further to where it'll be easier to launch but creates a foundation for the hard stuff to be added later?
Everything you wrote are hypothesis. None of them are a fact.
One of them is "...churns are very unlikely". Says who? Your guts?
Forget about investing money before validating. Build a very simple landing page in less than 5 hours of work. Then share it ay your Facebook profile, WhatsApp groups you are in, and in every place you can. Ask your friends if they know potential users of this platforms and contact them directly.
That landing page should have a form so interested people will contact you. Send them a text and have a call to validate all of the things you said.
After doing that with at least 15 company's owners then you can write this list again but the bullet points will be validated.
The question of continue or not will cost you nothing and you'll be able to reply yourself.
I'll give you the advice I was wish I was given when I went through the exact same process.
Meet with someone senior at the relevant regulator, and get a written confirmation from them that they endorse and support what you are doing.
If you don't know anyone senior at the regulator who will write the letter, ask yourself serious questions about whether you have the right connections to get this off the ground.