Money Nanny: Making money management simple
Money Nanny is a platform that offers the best combination of finance and lifestyle features allowing users to keep track of their finances, savings and expenses. Think of it as more than just a budget controller because it uses machine learning to help users make better decisions.
As is the case with most entrepreneurs, Nadya’s concept was born out of a personal experience. It was at a time when she was looking for a tool that would help her with her own personal finances. While the tools available were many, none of them offered the right mix of features. Nadya asked the question: “Why do finance apps have to be so mechanic and soulless?” In that moment, she decided to take up the challenge of creating a personal finance app that would include lifestyle features to create a more humanised customer experience.
With a Master’s Degree in Journalism and a 13-year stint in advertising as a TV producer, Nadya had little experience in the field, so she fell back on her intuition and focused solely on creating a quality application. “When I ventured out to start Money Nanny, I didn’t know much about the industry. It was very tough initially. On one hand, I was trying to build the right infrastructure for my product and on the other hand, I was testing the solution and focusing on its launch. It was a lot of juggling, but in the end, it all works out,” she shares.
Leveraging her strengths
In the year since Money Nanny’s inception, the team has grown from two members to six. It’s now also part of the prestigious in5 accelerator and has managed to get a small pre-seed amount from a private investor. That’s a lot of boxes ticked for a small start-up.
“Within a short period of time, we’ve combatted several challenges of getting access to data, collaborating with the banks, learning how to position our solution (we’ve already restructured it once now) and getting an investor on board. We also had to change the UX completely, as it turned out that what we thought would be clear and easy to navigate wasn’t really the case. It’s learning curves like these that bring us a step closer to success,” remarks Nadya.
Having crossed these major milestone, the entrepreneur now firmly has her eyes set on her next big moment: the beta version launch before the end of the year. “We are looking to launch before the end of 2017 and it’s a really exciting moment. We’ve come so far and being able to finally unveil our new solution is a testament to all the hard work we’ve put in. We estimate to start generating some minor revenues (meaning above zero) within a year from launch,” she beams.
A breath of fresh air in the crowded finance landscape
Nadya knows her challenge, but the best part of starting at the bottom is that the only way is up! She is looking to expand into APAC as she is on her mission to help people get rid of personal finance stress. “APAC would be our primary focus due to the infrastructure it offers and its market potential. We might also consider cooperation with remittance platforms and reward points payment gates.”
She’s also preparing herself for the digitalisation of the banking system, a trend she predicts will disrupt the industry in the foreseeable future. “I see digitalisation of the banking system upon us. We will see a shift from branches to fully digital banks.”
While Nadya has a lot of positives to draw inspiration from, what really keeps her going is competition. “We always get asked the question: how will you set yourself apart from the more established apps out there? My answer is simple: by keeping our solution user-friendly and easy-to-use. I’m here on a mission and want to prove that logging income and expenses CAN be fun!” she laughs. “But, I’ll also say this. It’s harder than you think, you will hear tons of ‘no’, be ready for that, lower expectations, pull up your sleeves and get to work.”
