Motion

Today, money management tools do not offer a minimalistic and unified approach to personal finance processes. Current money management tools are:

• Complex: Cash management strategies require calculations to determine how much money to transfer, where to transfer, and when to transfer. Consumers require deep knowledge of various financial instruments to optimize cash management.

• Manual: Navigating various streams of income and expenses, bank accounts, and investment options requires significant time and effort.

• Restrictive: People do not have a centralized view of their financial situation, which makes tracking and managing their money and accounts difficult. Additionally, monthly variations in income and expenses make traditional budgeting challenging.

The struggles posed by complex, manual, and restrictive money management processes result in serious financial and opportunity losses for individuals. In total, households manage $4 trillion1 in checkable deposits, which do not earn interest (Appendix 1), while the average individual misses out on $5 thousand in potential interest over 10 years due to mismanagement. We surveyed over 230 people and 85% of respondents reported that current personal finance apps are not meeting their needs. Our survey also indicated that many respondents are leaving too much money in their checking accounts for too long. Simply put, people are leaving a lot of money on the table through their current management processes.

Motion is the minimalistic app that integrates the most essential personal finance functions to help users manage their money with ease. Motion provides personalized recommendations to immediately improve the way users manage their money and minimize the amount of cash that is earning nothing in users' accounts. Motion is account agnostic, sitting on top of users’ existing accounts, and automatically adjusts recommendations when our users' financial situations change. The platform ensures that every dollar is in motion for our users. 

Motion’s go-to-market mobile app will provide users with four crucial features to effectively manage their money: account aggregation, cash management, debt management, and benchmarking. 

• The user onboarding flow starts with users creating a login, then connecting their financial accounts (checking, savings, credit card, brokerage, etc.) through a process we call account aggregation. This allows users to easily monitor their full financial picture in one place while tracking their earning, spending, assets, liabilities, and more. 

• Next, the user sets their cash management criteria. These include setting their minimum checking account balance threshold to ensure their checking account never goes below that amount, then setting percentage splits between their various short- and long-term investment accounts. Based on this criteria, Motion analyzes the user’s income and expenses, then calculates the user’s excess cash and provides recommendations on where to move their cash, when to move it, and how much to move. 

• Users will also have a detailed debt management view where the platform will track the number of payments completed, monthly payment amounts, total interest paid, total cost of the loan, and the payoff date. Then, Motion helps users understand debt paydown strategies through a simple sandbox environment.

• Lastly, once our users improve how they manage their money by using Motion, they can benchmark their financial progression to people like them at every step of their financial journey, offering valuable peer-based guidance to inform our users’ money management choices. The platform will use specific user details including: age, income, debt, payment history, cost of living, and different metrics/ratios (e.g., spend margin, debt to equity, open to buy, etc.). As we collect more data, the benchmarking we provide will become more robust. 

Economic inequity is a social issue that Motion addresses. The lack of access to capital and resources for marginalized communities is a serious challenge, and individuals from underrepresented backgrounds, including women, people of color, and those from lower-income areas, have faced systemic barriers when it comes to finances and access to funding. This gap perpetuates cycles of poverty and limits opportunities for social mobility. Motion serves two key underserved populations: low-income earners and immigrants. Both groups are often:

• Isolated in their personal finance journey, and they don’t know what to do or where to start. Motion’s benchmarking features provide immigrants, and other users, a place to see how people are tackling personal finance in America. Motion will then guide immigrants, and users in general, how to improve their financial situation.

• Limited in their access to financial services, which stems from the lack of credit history, making it challenging to open bank accounts or access traditional banking services. This forces many immigrants to rely on costly and less secure alternative financial services, exacerbating financial strain. Uncertainty surrounding the credit and banking systems adds another layer of complexity. Immigrants may lack knowledge about how credit works in the U.S., hindering their ability to establish credit histories or access loans and mortgages. Without a solid understanding of banking practices, they may struggle to navigate financial institutions effectively, further limiting their financial opportunities. 

• Motion provides precise cash management and forecasting functions. On the platform, users can easily manage variable income streams and expenses. Utilizing Motion’s automated cash management strategies, users living paycheck-to-paycheck can earn interest in between payday and days bills are due, a function that other personal finance apps do not provide. Motion’s benchmarking tool and dataset will provide banks with ‘ideal’ borrowers. Credit should not be based on how much a person has, but rather how good they are at managing their financial situation. Someone who manages $40,000 well will also manage $400,000 well, and Motion intends to incentivize and reward this behavior for low-income earners through better borrowing terms via lenders.

Motion is led by co-founders Josh, Priya, and Adrian. Josh, Motion’s CEO and visionary, brings a deep background in capital markets, banking, cash and liquidity management, and more to the fintech industry. At the CME Group (CME), he managed over $1 billion in daily cash positions and, on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY) Trading Desk, he analyzed financial markets to inform and implement monetary policy. Priya, COO and Go-to-Market lead, has deep experience in growth strategy, product launches, content strategy, customer acquisition, and marketing from her time leading Growth at Airplane from Series B through its acquisition by Airtable. Adrian, CTO, brings a wealth of product management and fintech expertise. As a current product manager at Capital One, he manages a team implementing AI models to produce enhanced transaction decisions.

All three of us are children of immigrant parents, and Josh also grew up in a low-income household with a single mother. We all witnessed firsthand how our parents struggled with personal finances early on in the U.S. Our parents had extremely limited access to financial institutions, services, and education, and experiencing these challenges as kids significantly impacted our attitudes toward money and personal finances. Personal finance remains a major source of stress and anxiety, whether stemming from a lack of financial literacy or living a frugal lifestyle. We are solving for ourselves. We are solving for our parents. We are solving for everyone that is experiencing and will experience these same challenges. 

We launched our web app MVP in March 2024 and currently have 10 alpha testers. This version includes the cash management feature, but does not include account aggregation, debt management, or benchmarking, which will be available in our go-to-market mobile app. The web app MVP also includes user-friendly dashboards like daily cash flows and earned interest, as well as compound growth and interest growth breakdown. Our go-to-market mobile app will include the same features from the MVP, and will also include API-based account aggregation, debt management, and benchmarking. We currently have built a waitlist of over 100 signups for our v1 mobile app launch.

Motion is also in discussions with a training academy to incorporate financial literacy and tools into their curriculum. The training academy is based in Chicago and builds essential life and professional skills for (mostly black and brown) young adults in underprivileged communities.

Joining the Solve program is a critical step for Motion to gain legal, technical, and market entry mentorship. Fintech is heavily regulated, so clearly defining where Motion sits in the regulatory landscape is key. Motion could benefit from guidance on regulatory requirements, registrations, and potentially more. Motion does not intend to become an RIA, but we need to clearly define these activities so we do not violate SEC rules. Setting up payments infrastructure, especially with FedNow, will be a technical and legal challenge, and Motion would welcome assistance on this front. State licenses might also be required for money transfers and payments. We also would love to explore and incorporate ML/AI applications for Motion with the Solve program. Additionally, we aim to leverage the Solve program to gain further traction and market entry. We will test different customer acquisition strategies to see which work best for us, iterate on our product based on feedback, and learn how to establish partnerships with lenders (banks, credit unions, etc.) and investment advisors.

Motion is a simple yet effective cash management tool. Cash management is often considered more innovative than traditional budgeting because it offers real-time insights and dynamic decision-making capabilities. Unlike static budgets, which rely on predetermined allocations and projections, cash management tools utilize advanced technology such as AI algorithms and machine learning to track income, expenses, and cash flow in real-time.

Innovative cash management platforms can provide detailed analyses of spending patterns, identify trends, and offer personalized recommendations to optimize financial decisions. They may also incorporate features such as automated bill payments, cash flow forecasting, and goal tracking, empowering users to make informed financial choices and adapt quickly to changing circumstances.

Motion's benchmarking feature is also an innovative hook that creates a
community around the growing financial transparency trend.

Additionally, cash management tools often integrate with multiple financial accounts and offer mobile accessibility, allowing users to manage their finances conveniently from anywhere. This flexibility and agility make cash management more responsive to individuals' financial needs and goals compared to traditional budgeting methods, which may be more rigid and time-consuming to maintain.

Motion is built on a tech framework designed to support rapid growth and user-friendly experiences. The mobile app's frontend is built using React Native, optimizing for an iOS-first launch with the flexibility to extend seamlessly to Android. This approach ensures a consistent user interface across platforms and allows for rapid iteration based on user feedback. The backend infrastructure of Motion is powered by Python with the backend server being hosted on Heroku, providing a reliable and scalable solution at a minimal starting cost. Financial data, a critical component of Motion’s operation, is managed through API integrations that connect apps to financial data from over 15,000 banks, cards, and accounts. APIs the integration process with features such as a universal API, native SDKs for major platforms, and next-generation institution coverage, all designed to enhance connectivity and performance. Motion will also utilize the newly launched FedNow instant payments to support our money transfers feature. As user numbers grow, the system is designed to scale seamlessly, maintaining performance and security. 

3 full-time, 1 part-time

6 months (0.5 years)

The Motion team is diverse and inclusive. Team members are diverse across racial/ethnic backgrounds, socio-economic backgrounds, cultural backgrounds, genders, and sexual orientations. We prioritize diversity and inclusivity by actively seeking candidates from diverse backgrounds, fostering an inclusive culture, investing in professional development for all staff, supporting employee resource groups, providing diversity training, and ensuring accessible policies and practices. These efforts aim to create a welcoming environment where every team member feels valued and has equal opportunities for growth and success.

In order to convert our high quality leads into revenue generation, we are utilizing a freemium model.

In our freemium model, users can utilize the ROI calculator previously discussed, and then use the app with provided demo data of a user with similar information.

Once users are in the app and see the benefit that the product will provide, we will convert them into a paid user that can realize the ROI via the use of automated account connections, personalized cash and debt management, and benchmarking tools. Our average user will gain a 3x return.

With users’ permission, Motion will funnel users that use the platform app to become clients of lenders (banks, credit unions, etc.) and investment advisors, securing greater financial access and better financial borrowing terms for Motion users. MOTION would receive some kind of multiple-year remuneration for the partnerships.