FinDi

Approximately one-quarter of the U.S. population is unbanked or underbanked and seventy percent of Americans don't have $1,000 in savings. Unfortunately reasons for this are not due to choice as a sizable number of Americans have limited access to traditional financial services and subsequently use alternative financial services markets. Recent surveys indicate one of the most frequent reasons for this is due to insufficient funds to maintain a minimum balance.

Saving large sums of money takes a great deal of time, support, willpower, and other financial literacy skills which causes many people to fall short of their goals. Most people struggle to save “nest eggs” for purchases such as homes or education and even for purchases such as weddings, cars, vacations, or laptops. Most importantly, many don't have an emergency savings stash for the unexpected such as medical expenses, car repairs, etc.

When considering income, moderate to low income households are often those most likely to be under or completely unbanked. When considering race, approximately 70 percent of black families’ financial portfolios are in illiquid assets compared to 54 percent for white families; this translates to the average white family having 31 days of liquid savings on hand and black families only having 5 days.

These alarming disparities lead to the most vulnerable seeking alternative financial service market options which offer high cost products and in general predatory pricing. That is not to say traditional financial services do not have a history of predatory and exclusive practices including exorbitant overdraft fees and penalties.

Findi is an online platform and mobile application which makes it easy, fun, and profitable for people to save large sums of money. This is done by utilizing automatic payments and behavioral nudges to make it easier to avoid spending and competition and create incentives to keep users engaged.

The platform asks users to pledge to a specific savings goal(s) and then breaks the larger task of saving into small monthly, weekly, or semi-weekly withdrawals from the user’s account. 

Also, it ensures that you stick to these pledges by letting you choose one or two Goalkeepers (GKs) who will also be made aware of your pledge. The GK functions as a deterrent to withdrawing money from the FinDi account before it reaches its predetermined goal commitment.

If users try to withdraw the funds early, the GK will be required to give permission for early withdrawals.

This encourages users not to break their pledges. Once the account has reached maturity, the Vault opens and users have uninhibited access to the funds; no GK necessary.

Future iterations of the FinDi app will include additional features including:

•  in app purchase relevant to savings goal (e.g.: individual saving for a down payment on a house will be connected with mortgage lender), 
• group saving goals, 
• FinDi card features that unifies all existing payment cards into one.
• AI budget planner which uses previous aggregate spending data
• Financial literacy library of content
• Findi Box - digital card safe for temporary spending abstinence

Product Demo can be found here.

Our target population is marginalized Millennial and Gen Z Americans, especially persons of color representing 25 million people in America where there is a more urgent need for financial support. For example, the net wealth of a typical black family is 1/10th that of a typical white family. Millennials are conscious of the stark difference in financial outcomes between them and their predecessors (e.g.: Student loan and credit card debt).  Gen Z has shown more proficiency for being money-savvy and planning for the future, however, due to history of inequity and disparate financial conditions, outcomes, and access, may not trust traditional institutions to guide them in their financial planning. 

This will eventually grow into anyone who feels that they need to do a better job holding themselves accountable to their financial goals. Any person who has failed at their goals in the past and is looking to do better with their life (which is almost everyone) can benefit from FinDi.

Our team has known each other for 10+ years. We mostly met in high school or college and work together very well. We're special because we are all highly trained professionals who are also passionate about the problem at hand.

Between us, we have decades of experience in the fields of business, software development, marketing and public health. We have intimately grappled with meeting financial goals and overspending in the wrong places when we first started having large streams of income.

We are able to relate to our target population as we are all Gen Z and Millennial people of color  who are engaged leaders in this demographic.

Here are some specifics about our background.

• Our head of marketing is the CEO of Moonman Studios with 10+ years experience in the marketing industry building partnerships with major corporations. 
• Our CEO has 10+ years leading organizations in Fortune 100 companies and startups. 
• Our development lead is a project leader of software consultants for the largest consultancy in the world.
• Our operations lead brings 10+ years of experience in public health and community health education research.

We currently have 1000 people who have downloaded the app. Of these downloads, 150 have started goals at some point whether in the past or currently, and about 25 are active savers. 

Though our team comprises quality talent, we are a small group. We would like the support to partner with nonprofits, navigate regulation, build relationships with institutions such as banks, and market-making. We would like to join a network such as Solve to build our capacity to create an app that can help level the financial playing field of our target demographic. 

FinDi will rise above the financial tech space because we're more than a financial information app. We go beyond reporting the past(reactive) and budgeting(proactive) by also enforcing the budget(real-time). We take over the difficult aspects of saving money by allowing our users to outsource their willpower to us. We help "Save You from Yourself" using never before seen behavioral nudges that are the strongest in the industry. FinDi targets the niche of young people of color as they are primed and ready for change but also distrustful of many institutions. As an alternative to traditional institutions that is comprised of members of our market, we are positioned to speak to our market in a way that is friendly, relatable, and helpful. We are also building a community and a social network around this which will make our grip on our market more defensible. As we scale, each user we add to our competitions and advice sharing forums is a fencepost in creating a defensible property that draws people back to the community.

Our solution uses:

1. AI and biometrics to learn which types of spending translate into the best happiness outcomes for users 
2. Machine learning to make recommendations of how best to allocate money and 
3. Our enforcement mechanisms such as personal accountability and gamification to enforce behaviors that bring the most happiness and help users enjoy it as they do it

The FinDi approach can eventually even be applied outside of the world of finance as we develop the best behavioral nudges and push the field of self-discipline in a new direction.

Increase the financial literacy, wealth creation, and economic mobility among people and small-to-medium enterprises of color (financial excluded individuals).

Reduce our user base’s reliance on payday lenders by creating a cash cushion that can be used for emergencies and financial shocks

Increase the happiness in our users lives by helping to remove the constant mental struggle of willpower vs gratification, allowing users to let go and enjoy their money.

As ap app in its pilot phase, one of our areas of support is in the monitoring and evaluating our our output, activities, and impact. However, this is how we wish to measure our impact progress.

Increase the financial literacy, wealth creation, and economic mobility among POC.

• Financial Literacy: Assessing individual understanding of basic financial concepts, such as interest rates, credit scores, and budgeting through surveys, focus groups, and/or interviews.
• Access to Financial Product: Changes in access to financial products such as bank accounts, credit cards, loans, and insurance measured by tracking the number of individuals who have opened bank accounts, taken out loans, or purchased insurance products
• Financial inclusion: Changes in financial inclusion measured by tracking the number of people who have access to financial services and products
• Asset ownership: Changes in asset ownership done by tracking the number of user who own homes, stocks, bonds, and other assets after using FinDi.

Reduce our user base’s reliance on payday lenders

• Payday lenders: The number of payday loans data will be tracked amongst users
• Emergency savings: One key indicator of progress is the amount of emergency savings held by our user base.
• Financial stability: Tracking financial stability of our user base will be done by tracking changes in savings and debt levels as well as tracking adherence to budget. 

Increase the happiness & allowing users to let go and enjoy their money.

• Spending behavior: Measured by tracking changes in the percentage of income that users are saving, spending on discretionary items, and frequency of impulse purchases. 
•  Financial stress: Measured by tracking changes in users' reported stress levels over time, as well as the number of users who report feeling financially stressed or anxious.
• Debt reduction: We will track changes in the amount of debt held by our users, as well as the number of users who are making progress towards paying off their debts.

The theory of change behind FinDi is based on the premise that people, particularly financially excluded individuals and small enterprises, can build wealth, and withstand financial shocks by outsourcing their willpower and allowing the FinDi app to help users save regularly and consistently over time. The app aims to encourage this behavior by providing an easy-to-use platform that incorporates several key features.

The app uses automatic payments to make saving automatic and easy. This feature removes the need for users to actively transfer money to their savings accounts, making it easier for them to save without having to think about it. Future iterations of this will also give the option for users to start group savings goals. We hope that at least 75% of those that download out app will have at least one savings goal within 6 months of downloading FinDi

Second, FinDi uses behavioral nudges to make it easier for users to avoid spending and stay on track with their savings goals. These nudges include reminders, notifications, and other prompts that encourage users to save and avoid unnecessary spending. Additional behavioral nudges will us AI technology and machine learning to help suer create budgets and temporarily abstain from purchases. 100% of user will benefit from these behavioral nudges. 

Third, the app incentivizes users to save by providing a competition and reward system. Users can compete with others on the platform to achieve savings goals, earn rewards, and win cash prizes. Additionally, and with the help of corporate partners such as mortgage lenders, we also plan to provide user the opportunity to make in-app purchases relevant to their goals. We hope that 50% of our savers will take advantage of this incentivization and at least 10% of savers will take advantage of the in-app purchase feature. 

Finally, FinDi incorporates an accountability partner feature called Goalkeepers (GKs). This feature encourages users to stay committed to their savings goals by adding an additional layer of protection to their savings. Users must seek permission from their GKs before withdrawing money from their savings account, making it more difficult to break their savings commitments. 75% of all savers will have at least 1 goalkeeper. However, only 25% of user will attempt to remove money from their goal prematurely. 

 From this, we foresee the following outcomes:

• Increase in financial literacy among users
  •  80% increase in financial knowledge through pre and post test data
• Number of active users (aka savers)
  • 67% of downloads will convert to savers by create at least 1 savings goal
    • 50% will set 2 or more savings goals
• Number of financial goals set and achieved
  
  • 75% of all goals set will be achieved

Our app's core technology is a React Native based application for iOS and Android with Google Firebase used as the backend. 

However, our app also uses the following:

1. AI and biometrics to learn which types of spending translate into the best happiness outcomes for users 
2. Machine learning to make recommendations of how best to allocate money and 
3. Our enforcement mechanisms such as personal accountability and gamification to enforce behaviors that bring the most happiness and help users enjoy it as they do it

As previously mentioned our team is largely comprised of BiPOC individuals, specifically black and brown talented individuals. Our collective experiences inform how we have built the current iteration of FinDi and how we communicate and engage our target demographic. We hope that the FinDi and all of its technology centers the marginalized and helps us level the playing field. Additionally, it informs who we partner with and the vendors we engage. Lastly, we hope that as we build infrastructure and capacity, the data we collect informs how to make it easier and more affordable for individuals and MSMEs to make investments and transfer payments, across geographies and different types of platforms.

Our users are able to achieve a level of wealth and financial stability that they may not have been able to achieve without the use of the FinDi.

Our corporate partners will gain access to a new diverse, normally underfunded customer, that may not have been able to purchase their products (e.g.: mortgage lenders) without the use of the FinDi application. 

We have five main lines of revenue. 

The first is our commission-based purchases. The goals that people save for with their goal vaults, will be able to be purchased within the application from a specific company once the goal vault is unlocked. These companies are one of our customers. We will negotiate with the companies that offer these products for a commission for anything purchased within the application. 

Second, is our premium features such as FinDi infinity which unlocks new levels of use of the application such as FinDi infinity which allows users to take their number of goal vaults to the extreme with an infinite number of vaults opposed to the base number that all users begin with(3).

Third is interest revenue. The company will use a Venmo/Paypal-like model in which we make interest from the money held in the application except we will actually share some of this with our users. 

Fourth is data monetization as our data in aggregate can be easily monetized for use within the financial ecosystem in particular.

Fifth is targeted advertising which can be sparingly used to offer relevant products to people who may need them.

Our architecture costs have been kept low during pilot as we are based on Stripe and Google Firebase and we have minimal other external costs. Our financial projections are included here.