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6 months in and $1k MRR: my biggest mistakes so far

lunchbag.ca

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Re: 6 months in and $1k MRR: my biggest mistakes so far

#91

Post by jnfr »

drastorguev wrote: post #13

Did you struggle in convincing people to share their account details with an unknown startup? What if you are fraudster and not a real company?

It'll always be a struggle but it's not something I'm actively pushing for anyone to do. If you're comfortable with it, great! If you're not, I think I'd be the last person to change your mind.

The company is definitely real, but anyone with at least a few hundred bucks can incorporate. Building trust is a non-trivial thing, and I try to do that by putting my name and reputation behind the product and blogging transparently about the journey.

Re: 6 months in and $1k MRR: my biggest mistakes so far

#92

Post by jnfr »

steve_adams_86 wrote: post #4

I use YNAB but I'm compelled to give this a try. I love the simplicity and I enjoy the transparency behind the product's development (not that it makes a difference while budgeting, but I'm a sucker for a personal touch). Really cool, I'm stoked to see how the trial goes. Thanks for sharing Jen. Keep up the great work.

Thanks for the kind words! If you run into anything during your trial, feel free to let me know!

Re: 6 months in and $1k MRR: my biggest mistakes so far

#93

Post by jnfr »

colinloretz wrote: post #11
steve_adams_86 wrote: post #4

I use YNAB but I'm compelled to give this a try. I love the simplicity and I enjoy the transparency behind the product's development (not that it makes a difference while budgeting, but I'm a sucker for a personal touch). Really cool, I'm stoked to see how the trial goes. Thanks for sharing Jen. Keep up the great work.

I've tried YNAB and use Mint alongside Lunch Money and I'm super sold. I started using it when she first launched on HN and have been in love with it so far because it's super speedy and not as manual as YNAB. The way she handles recurring expenses is what made it for me. I set a task in my todo app to reconcile my transactions every day (usually only happens every week).

Colin, that's awesome to hear! Thank you for your support from the beginning!

Re: 6 months in and $1k MRR: my biggest mistakes so far

#94

Post by jnfr »

kayson wrote: post #52

I'm always hesitant to use any of these services because (AFAIK) they need to store your banking credentials in order to access your account. The one exception I've found to this is Chase, which actually has an API. But even with providers like Plaid, its not clear whether the API is being used - I don't think it is, because the request does not go to Chase. Is there a better way? Or a service that would let me enter…

Totally understandable that you'd like to avoid using services like Plaid. We have a lot of users who share the same sentiment, and also many international users who cannot use Plaid, so it's a priority to ensure the experience is without Plaid is still an enjoyable/practical one.

We offer two other ways to bulk insert transactions: 1. we offer a CSV import tool, and 2. we are currently beta-testing our developer API (so you could write your own integration with Chase)

Re: 6 months in and $1k MRR: my biggest mistakes so far

#95

Post by DoreenMichele »

perl4ever wrote: post #87
DoreenMichele wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'd be surprised at how awful women can be to each other. LOL. No, I wouldn't be surprised. I'm well acquainted with the phenomenon. The only people I see activity holding back women is other women. This framing may be on the mark, but my observation has been that the primary way men are a problem is that men mostly don't want to engage a woman too much if they aren't looking for a sexual relationship and this is a…

"...I don't think most men are intentionally, actively and on purpose trying to keep women out, but it's a big, big problem that they don't want to talk too much to a woman for fear that it might lead to an affair or a really terrible misunderstanding or gossip" It's bewildering how everybody knows there are these tremendous informal barriers, that have withstood all past attempts at equal rights, and yet everybody a…

I posted a link elsewhere in this discussion to a piece I wrote some years back called The Gray Zone.

TLDR: Establishing trust is always a long, involved process, no matter who the parties are. But it's just much, much clearer that it's platonic and for purposes of doing business when it's two (apparently) heterosexual males. The waters get muddy really quickly when it's a heterosexual man and a heterosexual woman.

Edit:

One thing that jumps out at me is you seem to be saying what holds women back is that men don't trust them.

I would say that women end up under pressure to meet a higher bar for trust than men typically face. If men had to meet the same bar, they would fail more consistently as well.

Re: 6 months in and $1k MRR: my biggest mistakes so far

#96

Post by jnfr »

roughfalls wrote: post #16

This looks great and I'm inclined to give it a try. But do you have a privacy policy? I try to avoid services that sit between me and my financial institutions, as I worry they're building analytics off my spending patterns and selling it to third parties.

A very valid concern! Our Privacy Policy is listed here: https://lunchmoney.app/privacy

A promise we make from the beginning is we're definitely not ever going to be selling any of your data. We don't have an incentive to since we're selling the service directly to the user as a subscription.

Re: 6 months in and $1k MRR: my biggest mistakes so far

#97

Post by jnfr »

projproj wrote: post #43
roughfalls wrote: post #16

This looks great and I'm inclined to give it a try. But do you have a privacy policy? I try to avoid services that sit between me and my financial institutions, as I worry they're building analytics off my spending patterns and selling it to third parties.

I felt the same way, and it's part of why I made spendweek.com (a privacy-first, easy-to-use competitor to Lunch Money, YNAB with a single focus on saving money instead of keeping track of all your accounts). I am sort of proud of my privacy policy, so it's a link right at the top of the home page. Here's the basic manifesto of the SpendWeek framework in case anyone's interested: https://www.spendweek.com/blog/you-ne…

Cool approach! Best of luck!

Re: 6 months in and $1k MRR: my biggest mistakes so far

#98

Post by jnfr »

projproj wrote: post #72
DLarsen wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice domain and nice concept. I too am among those with a home-grown approach to managing the budget. Mine is more of a spending journal than it is about planning or reconciling the entire budget, with motivations similar to those who would have a meal journal. I focus on the decision making process and self-evaluate spending according to my budget and my overall values. My approach won't appeal to a lot of folks, bu…

Yes! This is awesome. Looking at all the budget software that uses monthly time frames, I was wondering why no one uses weekly. This quote is a great way to say it, "Even though most bills are paid monthly, discretionary spending is more naturally tracked on a weekly basis."

A quick answer to this is that 365 doesn't divide into 7 so cleanly. In any case, the use case for weekly budgets is definitely strong :)

Re: 6 months in and $1k MRR: my biggest mistakes so far

#100

Post by jnfr »

Guidii wrote: post #9

WRT the android/ios app question: Why do you want to implement a native app? Seems like a significant investment if you're already meeting user needs with your PWA offering.

Exactly :-)

It's definitely punted for now as I continue to round out the product. When the time comes and we're ready for an official mobile offering, we'll evaluate the current solutions out there (the landscape is always changing!)

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