Gentle Finance
It's an sms based expense tracker.
I have deprecated the tool. Some thoughts about SMS based app. It's very hard to take your users through a tutorial. It's also weird to have them create an account on a platform to then let them know that all they have to do is to text the app. Also, all the information they sent may be secured once on your servers, but it stays in their SMS app! Not the best for things that could be sensitive.
Regarding personal finances in particular, it turns out that even though people (me included) really like the idea of keeping control by entering their expenses one by one, it's not sustainable on the long run. Even I stopped doing it after a while.
What I got from it was to finally talk to real people and get people on a platform I built myself! Now on to the nest one...did I tall you about Forget Me Not? :)
It feels reaaaally good. I have all the main features I think are necessary to on board beta users. It's not yet possible to pay directly on the platform, but for now I will do without.
There are SO MANY more features I can think about. Cool ones that would flow easily from what already exist. However, it's all technical. As I have said before, I am using the MVP myself (it was one of the motivation to start this project at all), and even I don't think I would use the additional features I am talking about.
Anyway, it's rare that I get to this stage. Now the challenge is to use the channels I had previously identified and see if people are actually excited about it. I'd say it's the only flaw in my execution. As many here, the validation has been somewhat overlooked. In my mind, it's redeemed by the fact that I need what I am building (sorry, what I HAVE BUILT :) for myself. I also think that it will boost my profile when looking for jobs or contracts. The other reasoning behind it is that people are already paying other companies for the same kind of service, so I know there is a demand for it. The uncertainty lays in knowing if the different approach I am offering is tempting enough.
Anyway, here is the link to the landing page again: https://gentlefi.com
You can also read a couple or articles about why I think this service is important on my blog: https://blog.gentlefi.com
Okay, I have my prototype, now what?
I need a landing page. I picked Carrd (https://carrd.co) for that. They are super cheap and let me use my custom domain.
My problem is that I am not a designer. My prototype works but it is ugly. Only I can understand my landing page because I know the project. I will need to somehow fix that before flooding the internet with the link to get early access emails.
In the meantime, here is the link to request an early access to the ugly beta https://gentlefi.com
-
1
Hi, I really like this business idea! Simple and effective. landing pages are crucial for a customer facing business. It’s their first impression to your products story or purpose. The purpose of a landing page is to have a Call to Action and convert. Yours is for customers to gain access to beta trails. That’s great and you have that. id suggest 2 things. First, try to make the color of your text the same color as your logo. You want consistency. And second for the CTA button, give it more color contrast.
Anything else on a landing page is the cherry on top. You have great info but it doesn’t seem organized . I’d suggest organizing and defining the sections more, like “why customer needs your Gentle Fi”, “features”, and “pricing”. You don’t need to spell it out. Your design (colors, spacing, text, and graphics ) can help define sections.
Happy to talk more if you want. Not selling anything, just happy to explain my suggestions more. Let me know.
-
1
Hello! Thank you so much for your advice! I made quite a few changes to the page according to your feedback. Could you tell me if it fits what you were talking about?
I am still working on the wording for the "why" section, but hopefully there is more context there.
Of course I'd be happy to talk about it if you have more feedback to provide!
-
1
I really like the changes you made. It flows really well!
A little change I would make, the "Request Access to the Beta!" font color should match the white logo.
-
1
Done! I hadn't even realized I had two different colours there, thank you for catching it. And I am glad you like the new design, I am quite happy with it as well. There still are improvements to be made but I will start sharing it around.
If you know anybody who could benefit from the service, please send them my way!
-
-
-
I have heard time and again that speed of execution is paramount. As I mentioned in my previous post, I had already tried to build a working prototype five times. Every time with a different technology. I was taking the long road to it.
And then I lost my job.
Maybe unsurprisingly, it boosted my determination to have something done. So I went for the absolute path of boredom. No new technology, no additional feature. Just the one I wanted to use for myself, deployed. That was the goal. So I did it and now it's working and using it on a daily basis for my own needs feel amazing.
The thing with executing is that it creates momentum. And momentum feels good. You can't even create an account yet. Only I can log in. But it's live, with its own domain name, and it gives the whole idea a new dimension. It's not an idea anymore. It's something real.
For the first time in eleven years of failed projects, I have a working prototype up and running.
Now what?
I have used a mobile only expense tracker in the past. It was quite cheap, and mostly fit my needs. However, a coupe of things were bothering me.
1 - It was very tedious to add a new expense. I had to go through multiple form fields (amount, date, labels, note, etc.)
2 - I could only add one expense at a time
3 - recurring expenses were weird and buggy
4 - There was no web equivalent, so all my expenses were on this app on my phone.
5 - There was no way to share a subset of those expenses with my partner.
6 - The reporting graphs were nice, but too limited.
As I looked around, I saw that the main recommendations to solve those issues were Mint and YNAB.
I absolutely hated everything about them.
Not that they are bad, but they had found the perfect combo of features to make my entire being fall in a pit of guilt and despair. Just thinking of all the time I would need to spend using those tools was enough to bring me on the verge of tears.
But I am a developer. I build things for a living so I gave it a shot.
Five times.
I can't explain why I couldn't finish this project. Every time something would come up and I would give up. Until today, so I am writing those lines.
Comment