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One solution to the savings conundrum is hyper jar, Budgeting apps and prepaid debit cards allow you to save and spend money in different ‘jars’, allowing you to practice ‘budgeting like a boss’.
Tell us more about the app and its features. Fintech Times We spoke with the founder and CEO Matt Megens Discuss exactly how apps can help consumers and explore the idea of social spending.
HyperJar is a consumer app that helps people spend their money more effectively. I realized that there is a gap in terms of consumer finance. There are banks that help people keep their deposits, there are many different companies and different fintechs that help them spend their money, but none of them actually help them on their budgeting journey . HyperJar is built to help you spend your money wisely so you don’t regret it when you do. And spending money well usually means having a little extra money to live a better life in the end.
We revolve around the simple principle of helping people spend and build visual budgeting apps and tools around that concept. HyperJar encourages the idea of preserving behavior and seeks to motivate it by giving it real value. We do not provide credit. Do not use credit. We are looking to provide people with an alternative to credit through our app. credit It can be great, but it can also be potentially dangerous. So we’re just trying to give people an alternative to credit. That way, they can get through this spending journey and have a way to stay out of debt.
I’m from Canada, but I’m originally an electrical engineer, so I have a bit of a tech background, and I’ve worked in startups. Then I switched careers to finance and that’s what brought me to London. I worked in a field called supply chain finance, helping provide credit to the supply chain. When I was working on the product, I was frustrated by the nature of it. I came up with the first idea of trying to make the supply chain more efficient and bring people’s capital into the equation. It evolved. Combining these two ideas has evolved the budgeting app into what it is today.
That was not the initial thought process. It was all about me as a saver wanting to capture more value in my savings. But when I came up with the idea of building the concept and allocating the money visually to different jars, I wondered what would happen if I had to share this particular expense with my partner and budget together . Suppose both husband and wife use cars and need to spend from the allotted fuel budget. I needed a way to share it. So for this idea to really work, it has to work for a household, whether it’s a couple, a family, a roommate, or someone taking care of an aging parent or a neighbor who needs help with shopping. My first thought was that there was a Covid lockdown.
We realized that this huge gap really aligns with our mission to help people spend better. A bit of a coincidence, but it’s very popular and has a lot of potential.
The first challenge was building this technology. And when we got there it was all about launching and spreading the word about who we are. . In the beginning, it took me a long time to get to that level of credibility, but from there I started getting media attention and it really skyrocketed. We started getting organic reviews and people came to us by word of mouth. As a result, we have overcome the challenge of customer growth.
Another challenge has to do with how to incentivize spending. Obviously you have to have a retail department as part of it. We spoke with many large retailers and everyone was interested in our mission. But big companies have so many projects and priorities on the go. So it was difficult to convince them to invest time and energy into integrating with HyperJar. As a small startup we were just starting, it was a challenge to let them take the risk. But as we’ve grown, the conversation has changed, with established brands on board.
As a startup, we’re closing a funding round and trying to manage cash flow. We basically shut down all marketing expenses as we focused on the next version of the issue. But in fact, the number of consumers is increasing. More customers are signing up every day through organic word of mouth and positive reviews. They’re saying, “This has really helped me. Now I can make money work in ways it never could.”
I think a lot happened because a year or two ago things were very different. Interest rates were low and the economy was doing well even during Covid. Now it’s quite the opposite, people are looking for solutions to help themselves. And it just keeps growing.
There is an expression “save now and buy later”, and I have been using this from the beginning. This idea revolves around the idea of using and consuming debt rather than using and consuming accumulated wealth. Generally speaking, debt is good for investing in larger assets such as cars and homes. However, it may not be the best tool for small purchases such as clothes and shoes. We wanted to give people an alternative.
The research we did was about debt and the emotional impact of BNPL.In the latter case, it is very easy and takes very little effort to get into a BNPL arrangement. After that, I receive my purchase, and I am really hungover. No one is really talking about that hangover and how it can have detrimental effects on some people. I wanted to explore that side of things because I want to be a person. This research focuses on how to avoid that feeling while balancing the need to consume in today’s world.
It all leads to the idea of financial education, so many are unprepared to handle this pressure. Whether it’s the pressure to keep up with friends or influencers, the next best thing be that you have a Then there are also predatory loans where people are sold and don’t understand the consequences. There is a lot of complex financial jargon that people don’t always understand, and elderly and vulnerable people are often targeted. If you can, it’s already a head start. We are committed to education and want to make education accessible to everyone.
As for the product, our next big release will be to integrate the retailer side into our current budget management app. We intend to make it more seamless, and a big feature of that will be gifting. to pay. The difference with this gift voucher is that it is virtually bankrupt proof. So even if your shop is in financial trouble, your money is safe and won’t lose its value. We believe this is very innovative and will help drive spending, especially for parents and children.
We also have a big rewards engine coming soon. Any kind of incentives retailers can think of can be explored via the HyperJar budgeting app and integrated into your money management. For example, delivery companies like Deliveroo can offer financial rewards for Friday night usage. When you purchase an item, it is automatically redeemed. The idea is to get more money out of everything people spend so they can have more money in their pockets at the end of the month.
Polly Harrison
