In About Money, Finance Specialist Miriam Caldwell writes that keeping track of expenses is the “first step to understanding how you are managing your money, and to taking control of your finances.”
Forget receipts and cashbooks. Smart personal finance app Wally aims to be your new BFF in keeping tabs on your daily expenditure. After an enormous success on iOS, the company decided to bring it exclusively to Android users. It received 4.7 out of 5 stars on iTunes and made it to the number one spot in 22 countries. Completely revamped, Wally+ is packed with even more exciting features such as bank-less management to allow users to better manage their money.
Vulcan Post spoke to the CEO and Founder of Wally, Saeid Hejazi.
There are a lot of personal finance apps on iTunes and Google Play. How does Wally differ from them?
It’s true that are tons of cool personal apps, and it’s hard to distinguish between them. We were their users before, but we weren’t satisfied with their functionalities, so we built Wally.
If we can agree that money is involved in most of our experiences, then we think there’s a better way to summarise them than numerical breakdowns and pie charts. And that’s why Wally focuses on the experiences that surround expenses. This allows us to appreciate money more, and inspires us to manage it better, so we can keep having these experiences.
Moreover, when looking at your past it’s important to understand context. Who did you share those moments with? What happened? Did you enjoy the experience?
Lastly, we felt that we need to better understand our spending or savings patterns. Across all cultures, personal finance is a taboo topic, leaving us as individuals, in dark. With Wally, you can understand your patterns compared to people similar to you, while keeping your details private and secure.
We believe that context matters.
This is why our iOS app is the highest rated in the world, and we’re excited to delight our new Android users with Wally+.
Also read: Feeling Broke? Here Are 5 Helpful Financial Tips For Young Adults
Wally won first place in 3 start-up competitions — that must had been out of this world! Could you share what that was like? Do you have any advice for budding entrepreneurs?
When competing in competitions, you get the opportunity to take a step back and really consider your business model, strategy and ability to execute.
These competitions are good to create some initial awareness and a (small) form of external validation, especially when you’re facing stiff competition as we were. All our fellow competitors are now funded by Silicon Valley VCs.
For us, it’s important to realise that though it’s cool to win, the real world is tougher. There’s no second place and by the time you realize you’re not winning, it’s already too late. As far as advice goes: titles are cool, but keep your feet on the ground and don’t drink the Kool-Aid.
What’s your favourite part of the app?
Definitely tagging my friends in expenses and sharing moments with them.
This feature will prove to be tremendously useful when accused by your partner of not taking them out.
How was the idea conceived? Could you share your ‘Aha!’ moment?
Wally has been a series of milestones, whose sole focus is on the user and their journey.
There’s been some powerful advancements in technology around the world that we are yet to bring to our users.
It’ll be at least 6 years before we reach our ‘Aha!’ moment. But considering our long term plans, that’s not too long.
Where do you see Wally in 5 years down the road?
One year away from our ‘Aha!’ moment!
If you’d like a sidekick to help better understand your expenses, hop on over to Google Play.
Also read: Lost Your Android Phone? Now It’s Just A Whistle Away
