Spave

Over the last six years, we have performed several primary research studies among our target audience. Our findings revealed that consumers -- particularly Millennials and Gen Z -- struggle with managing their finances. Budgeting is a 4-letter word. The know they could and should do better, however, they don't see a way forward. The good news is, they want to know they're making a difference and they are actively seeking resources to help them create better balance and chart a path toward a secure future. 

In a nutshell, they told us:

- "Show me that you know me and make me trust you."

- "I know what I want and I want it now."

- "Don't make me work for it."

- "I want to know I'm making a difference."

According to a recent survey conducted by Standard & Poor's, a little over half of all Americans are financially literate. That means nearly 50 percent of U.S. citizens aren't knowledgeable about things like investments, inflation and risk diversification. That's a problem, especially given the uncertain nature of the economic times we live in.

Worse yet, nearly three-fourths of U.S. adults worry that they wouldn't be able to afford one month's living expenses if they lost their job, per Bankrate. Nearly 60 percent wouldn't be able to afford a $1,000 emergency.

At Spave, our mission is to transform spending for good. Our one-of-a-kind tech promotes healthy financial habits that give users more confidence in and command of their finances. By making saving, charitable giving and paying down debt effortless, Spave helps users achieve financial wholeness without changing their lifestyle.

WHAT:  Spave enables consumers to aggregate and view all their bank accounts (from multiple banks), track and analyze spending, save for their future, pay down debt and reach charitable giving goals in one single app. 

HOW:  

1)  User downloads the app and links their bank accounts (checking, savings, investments, debit & credit cards -- even store cards, like Target REDcard). 

2) User can set multiple goals to live a more healthy, balanced life. They can save, invest, donate to charity and/or pay down debt. Personal circumstances and needs vary. Spave meets users where they are at and offers them control, choice, convenience and community on their terms.

3) User determines their method of spaving. They can choose to round-up, add a percentage to each purchase or select a fixed amount. Whatever works best for them.

4) Every time the user makes a purchase using the linked accounts, they will ignite micro-amounts (“spavings”) to be deducted from the user's primary checking account. 

5) Leveraging AI and machine learning (ML), Spave deploys nudges and affirming messages to reinforce positive behaviors to make healthy decisions and accelerate goal achievement. 

PARTNERS:  Spave is built entirely on AWS and partners with Plaid to aggregate and report users' daily transactions. Depending on the user's spaving method, Spave will calculate the specific user's spavings amount and transfer funds from user's primary checking account and direct funds to their defined destination via ACH processing through a partnership with Dwolla. Spave batches and distributes users' spavings weekly. Eventually, we will perform this task in real or near-real time to enhance user experience.

Explainer video (1:37 min):  https://youtu.be/H1tHKynouAg

Product demo video (3:35 min):  https://youtu.be/DYrjl7cGe_A

Spave targets younger generations — Millennials and Gen Z, specifically — who are digital natives and are comfortable using their devices to conduct personal financial transactions. This population -- 140 million strong -- has also grown up through turbulent economic times that include the 2008 crash and the COVID-19 pandemic. They tend to be the most underserved in terms of financial literacy. Spave makes financial wellness simple, relatable, and doable for these young people, who often feel overlooked and overwhelmed by the world of finances.

We have created a hyper-targeted persona -- Olivia -- for our current market rollout:  Olivia is between 30-40 years old. She is married with children, employed, handles the family finances, knows her monthly bills and is motivated to save and give to make a better future for her family and others.  

Olivia is extremely busy. She is involved in her kids' activities, her community and has a large mental overload trying to balance it all. 

Olivia is actively seeking solutions to help her mom better, live a balanced life and feel rich with what she has.

TRIGGERS:

- Pain points:  lack of time, busyness, FOMO

- Value drivers:  children/family, life hacks, peer groups/mom communities, things that provide ease and convenience

- Major milestones crossed:  marriage, kids, new home, divorce

Spave provides relevant, actionable information in-app to help Olivia make informed, healthy decisions to meet her personal financial and social impact goals on her terms. Spave will eventually provide Olivia the opportunity to create a family plan and empowered to teach financial wholeness to her children, setting them on a solid path with a healthy mindset about money at an early stage. Group saving and giving is also in our roadmap to inspire, facilitate and amplify community engagement and social good.

Spave stands for:  Sharing Purpose And Value Everyday. Affirming messages will motivate users to continue to make small moves that make a big difference.

More than 50% of our team members represent our target persona of "Olivia." Plus, we have spent years and over six-figures researching the target market. We intimately know and understand the end user. We deeply understand her pain points, value drivers and key life events. We know where she lives, works, worships, shops, and plays ... and why. 

Spave is an experience-centric organization. Spave leverages technology, marketing and data to help improve the lives of our users, partners, team members and community. As such, we have created intensive feedback loops from all channels of the user, partner and team member's journeys. This includes:  in-app, website, social media, partner meetings, team engagement. Our philosophy is to listen, learn and grow.

We conduct monthly Town Halls, quarterly 1:1 update meetings with our channel partners and quarterly conversations with team members to gather and share relevant audience and end user learning. 

Advocates representing our target audience -- users, partners, team members -- are tapped to test and review app features and functionality prior to release.

We are at the initial stages of onboarding credit unions and accelerating engagement with select nonprofits (Spave Faves). A large new release is scheduled for August 2023, which is when we are planning a full-scale market launch.

In 2023, the Spave engine processed over $17.3 million of spending from 200,000 transactions to generate $77,000 of spavings from 364 individual users.

Our goal is to have 1,000 users actively spaving on our platform by the end of 2023.

In my experience, it's never about the money and all about connections and relationships that will help flesh out and enrich the entire business model, product design and go-to-market strategy, as well as to discover and retain top talent and strategic resources -- employees, partners, advisors, vendors. Money follows.

Spave's unique focus on giving and inspiring social good is perfectly aligned with the purpose and values hailed by Solve's Global Challenge. Most specifically, we are interested in tapping into the following:

• Join a powerful network of impact-minded leaders across industries and sectors, with dedicated spaces to meet year-round and during Solve’s flagship events such as Solve at MIT.  

• Receive monitoring and evaluation support to build an impact measurement practice. 

• Gain exposure in the media and at conferences.

Our release in August is significant and we want to do all we can to ensure a solid, strong roll-out with limited resources -- leveraging every possible tool, connection and opportunity. Solve would play a substantial role in providing exposure to and credibility among targeted users and partners who share our passion for inspiring social good and empowering others to make their own world of difference.

Spave is unique in that it's the first-ever financial wholeness app with a unique focus on giving and inspiring social good. Our solution teaches users good financial habits through automatic, effortless micro-transactions. We like to say that it's like tipping yourself, which helps users to develop savings and charitable giving habits without having to make wholesale or cumbersome changes.

Spave could catalyze broader positive impacts from others in this space because of the unlimited potential it offers nonprofits. Our solution is connected to every nonprofit that's in good standing with the IRS (more than 1.5 million organizations). Spave offers those nonprofits a solid, fast, free, and secure connection with donors. Their potential to receive donations through Spave is unlimited, at comes with no cost or overhead.

This year, our goal is to add thousands of new users who are using our app to contribute to both savings and giving goals at least every two weeks.

Within five years our goal is to have multiple millions of users using our app to contribute to both savings and giving goals at least every two weeks.

Our biggest metric/indicator is active users, which we define as users who have used our app to contribute to a savings and/or giving goal within the last two weeks.

We’re on a mission to transform spending for good. Our app makes saving and giving to causes effortless. Our theory is that our solution will help millions to realize they can make their own world of difference, all through the effortless, automatic micro-donations our app generates.

Our tech links with a user’s banking account to make savings and/or charity contributions automatically based on their purchases.

Spave is committed to creating a work environment where all employees are valued, treated fairly, and given opportunities to develop to their full potential. Each person’s skills, talents, life experiences, differences, knowledge, self-expression, and unique capabilities broaden the range of perspective in and approaches to Spave’s work. We embrace and encourage our employees’ differences in age, color, disability, ethnicity, family or marital status, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, physical and mental ability, race, religion, sexual orientation, political affiliation, socio-economic status, veteran status, and other characteristics that make our employees unique and build a diverse culture.

Spave’s diversity initiatives are applicable, but not limited to, our practices and policies on recruitment and selection, compensation and benefits, professional development and training, promotions, transfers, social programs, and terminations.

All employees play a role in supporting a diverse workforce and an inclusive work environment by demonstrating dignity and respect for each other at all times. All employees are expected to exhibit conduct that reflects inclusion during work, at work functions, and at all other company-sponsored and participative events. Teamwork and employee participation should permit the representation for all groups and employee perspectives. Additionally, employer and employee charitable contributions will support communities we serve to promote greater understanding and respect for diversity, in alignment with our core values.

Any employee found to have exhibited any inappropriate conduct or behavior against others may be subject to corrective action, up to and including termination based on the severity of the action. Employees who believe they have been subjected to any kind of discrimination that conflicts with the company’s diversity, equity, and inclusion policy and initiatives should seek assistance from Human Resources and/or management. 

Our revenue comes from each charitable donation made through our solution. We withhold 6.5 percent of each donation. Spave also charges a flat $1,000 fee to each financial institution with whom we contract to provide a custom label of our solution.

Our revenue comes from each charitable donation made through our solution. We withhold 6.5 percent of each donation. Spave also charges a flat $1,000 fee to each financial institution with whom we contract to provide a custom label of our solution.

Spave has signed 4 financial institutions to custom-label contracts. So far, that has led to hundreds of new users and has generated thousands of dollars in revenue.