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Braid - Simple Money Pools — Pool money and manage group expenses together
Create simple, free money pools for anything. When you have ongoing, shared expenses, constantly splitting and tracking expenses can get annoying. We wanted a better way to share money, so we made one. Available for iOS and Android.
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@rrhoover Thanks Ryan! So far two really interesting and unexpected use-cases: one user has been using it to manage his real estate investments, collecting rent and making individual accounts for each of his properties. Another interesting use-case has for sure been divorced couples who use it to track their shared expenses and child support. It seems to save a lot of headaches there.
@rrhoover @amanda_peyton child support market for this product is HUGE. Don’t underestimate it. Look into target marketing that segment. Good luck!
Congrats Amanda and Todd and team for the launch! A couple questions to kick off the convo:
1/ When did you develop conviction that this was what you wanted to spend the next decade building? What was that journey?
2/ (Without sharing too much...) What can users expect in terms of what's to come in the future?
@eriktorenberg Thanks Erik!
1. We both had issues in the past sharing money, and realized that it's a widespread issue. For us, this was a problem that we both had, but also one where we realized we might be able to help solve a real problem for others, too.
2. Lots! We are working on features that make it easy to ask multiple people for money at once, for example. We're currently paying a lot of attention to early feedback and making improvements based on that.
@mdagabriele Hi Mario. I think it's hard to ask someone to change their financial habits, and this is just as much as social problem as it is a financial one. So I think the right solution needs to do both.
I've be using this product for the last few months and love it. It's made managing money between me and my girlfriend and me and my roommate so much easier. A must try!
@damirbecirovic Thanks, Damir. We think there are a lot of couples who would find this useful!
Love the fact that this provides a fast and easy alternative for couples instead of having to set up a shared account. Have you guys been able to review what the most common use cases are for this solution so far? I can imagine that it’s ideal for roommates, families and couples but I am wondering whether there are any other obvious use cases which I am missing?
@ericahal People who share money with family members is another one. We have some early users who send money to their elderly parents, for example.
Hey everyone! Excited to share Braid with you all today and get your feedback. Thanks to Erik for hunting us!
Right now it's really easy to send money, but still hard to share it. Sharing money can be painful, especially for ongoing expenses with roommates, family members, significant others, etc. Most people use a combination of Excel, Splitwise and Venmo/Cash App/Zelle. We realized that what we really wanted instead was a group account, and that’s what we’ve been building.
Braid is a group account that eliminates the need to track expenses after-the-fact (no more spreadsheets). The only product for this currently is a joint bank account, but that’s not ideal for a bunch of reasons. We tried to make it as easy as possible to create a group, invite people, add money and spend it together. Braid groups have chat, too. That way you can talk about money and spend together, right in the same place. You can set permissions to specify who can spend the money and how, and use the unique account/routing numbers and virtual cards to pay for shared expenses.
Some usage we've seen so far from early users:
-Couples using it as a lightweight joint account
-Roommates using it as a house account
-Sharing money with family members as a way to help/support everyday expenses
-Divorced co-parents who share childcare expenses
-Social envelope budgeting
The product is totally free. U.S. only for now. You can download the app for iOS or Android and get started quickly. For the Product Hunt community, we’re also offering 1:1 onboarding. Someone from our team will give you a tour of the app, and walk you through our sign-up process. If you’re interested in that, sign up here: https://getbraid.typeform.com/to...
We'd love for you to check it out and tell us what you think. I'll be here answering questions, or you can email me directly: ap@braid.co.
-Amanda
Links
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-App Store: https://apple.co/33sUaNf
-Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/ap...
-Website: https://braid.co
-Our Twitter: https://twitter.com/braid_app (it’s brand-new!)
-Medium post: https://medium.com/@ap_8218/shar...
makes so much sense - there's a clear need, why didn't this already exist before?! can't wait to use this for my next group trip (whenever that next happens). could could also be great for caregiver incidental expenses
@jennifersmith6 Yes, we've seen the caregiver usage really resonate a lot. You can create a group with a caregiver and then add money and see where the money is spent.
@amanda_peyton that's great - certainly beats having a debit/gift card system that you have to remember to refill
Is there any plan to make it non app dependent? utilising existing comms channels that users would have on their devices already.
Braid has been quite useful during the pandemic to ensure my mom had money for all the last minute doctor, groceries, and gas trips. It reduces a lot of friction that was there with other products. Thanks @amanda_peyton
Congrats @amanda_peyton! Found the case of people paying rent to their landlords very interesting! Maybe will be even more interesting to see in co-living spaces
@aldo_silva Yes, for sure. We are looking for co-living spaces who want to give us a try.
Congrats, @amanda_peyton & Todd & team! The rebrand looks awesome – My husband and I use it as a super lightweight joint account. Been loving it so far. Yay! Excited for the official launch!!
Beautiful & intuitive interface, the perfect solution for when you want to share expenses but not a bank account. (Braid, in particular, fills the niche for me & my live-in partner where we have a shared credit account but don't want a shared checking account. Great for travel expenses and cash living expenses like paying our cleaning lady.)
@danielaperdomo Thanks Daniela! We really appreciate the comment and are excited you are using it with your partner.
Facilitating payments with caregivers has been huge for me -- both for my kids and my 105-yr-old great aunt, who still lives in her Brooklyn apartment, but still needs quite a bit of support. With shelter-in-place and health concerns for her specifically, Braid has been a huge help. Has anyone else tried Braid for this use case? Highly recommend.
Can you compare some pros/cons of Braid vs. a joint account? I currently have a joint account at my main bank with my husband but am interested in trying this out.
Love the concept. After reading some of the comments, have some friends who could use this (real estate, household spending, etc.), will share! Awesome work @amanda_peyton
@tim_lawton Thanks so much. Yes, we are looking for early users and feedback so would love to hear what they think.
The Braid team is building everything that Venmo Groups should have been and so much more. @amanda_peyton and team are building a long needed solution for virtual group accounts and payments to/from group accounts.
I can think of so many use cases! Basically every group message in my iMessage should have a corresponding braid group. And the network effects are going to be VERY strong.
The Braid rebrand looks great ! My friends and I make groups for different trips that we go on and I like how quickly you can transfer money in the app between groups. Very happy for Amanda & Todd :)
Amazing to see money go multiplayer, @amanda_peyton and @tberman! I could see this having all kinds of uses, from co-parenting to even co-proprietors of small businesses. (And the card is magical!) Congratulations :]
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