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Hey, everyone.
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Thank you for tuning into the Embit podcast.
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In today's episode, we have 2 guests joining us
to talk about their startup fridge, which is a
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social finance app for Gen Z.
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Today, Catherine Karof and Alexandra of Medina.
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Both are the co founders of the company with
Catherine being the CEO.
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Quick disclaimer, the podcast is not financial
or investment and is for informational purposes
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only.
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So Catherine and Alexandra, would you mind
talking a little bit more about your
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backgrounds and how you came up with the idea
for a fridge?
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Yeah.
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Happy to get started.
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So both me and Alexandra were living in New
York at a time, and both of us had worked and
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studied across multiple different continents
around the world and struggled ourselves with
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personal finances, both the students and young
professionals.
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And as during COVID, all of us had a bunch of
free time.
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We really wanna build something together and we
were kind of going through different issues to
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young people facing in personal finances
somehow, stayed on top of that.
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And then, you know, as we, again, had a point
of free time, We were testing out different
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available budgeting tools and really didn't
like any of them.
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And that made us think about apps that we did
like, which for different fitness tools,
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whether it was like a training club or Strava
or my fitness pal that together we had used
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religiously for years and really, really those
things really helped us, you know, shape our,
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fitness journeys and our healthy habits.
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So we wanted to connect those two together.
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So bringing in the elements of success from
fitness apps to personal finances.
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And how did you both meet?
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I noticed you both went to NYU.
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Did you meet there?
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And when did you decide to co found a company?
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Yeah, I mean, I'm happy to say that.
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So Catherine and I, we met in our 1st year at
NYU.
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So we actually went to NYU Abu Dhabi.
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Just met there during the 1st semester
Katherine ended up, transferring to another
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school, but we somehow just ended up being
really, really close friends during our
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travels.
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And while we were even though our past kind of
diverse, we kept them a lot in touch when we
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shared those common similarities that Catherine
just mentioned, like, you know, how tricky it
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is to move from place to place, to find and
build a new friend group, to sustain that
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friend group, to find figure out how manager
finances in different countries.
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And as we went, through these processes, being
students, and then obviously graduating and,
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like, working, we just kind of, like, found our
way back in New York then started kind of
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really doubling down trying to figure out this
problem for ourselves.
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And and I think the catalyst really was COVID
because we were kind of bored.
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There was so much free time, so we're like,
okay.
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Like, it's now or never.
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So, Catherine, you talked about how Fritz is
trying to build the social finance app for Gen
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Z.
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When did you come across that Gen Z needs some
more personal finance help?
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I mean, it really was first, like, looking at
our own personal problems, right, like, seeing
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ourselves and our friends, all of them, like,
you know, gradually from some of the best these
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and still not knowing, like, how much should
you be budgeting for, like, dining out their
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bars, or what are you supposed to be doing with
your money in your, like, early twenties,
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whether it's school or when you start your
first job.
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And, you know, just seeing that there weren't
any tools out there that were guiding you or
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that were letting you compare yourself to your
community, definitely one of the things that
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was driving us.
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And I think, you know, fintech happened to have
a moment in time and also Gen Z as a generation
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was having a moment in time because I think it
was right during COVID or after COVID when the
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world started to understand that it's, you
know, one of the biggest generations out there,
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and that's really gen z is the future, and we
need to build tools that are relevant their
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generation.
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And speaking of tools, how does Fritch help
solve that problem with getting Gen Z access to
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more personal finance tools?
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Yeah.
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So we briefly talked about this before.
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We started the conversation here on the
podcast, but, The really big differentiator
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between Gen Z and I think Gen Z is the 1st
generation that is actually willing to embrace
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this is the fact that we're so open talking
about our problems because we've seen the world
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all apart so many times in front of us.
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So we're like, okay.
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Let's just collectively figure out how can we
deal with this?
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And one of the big things that people are so
willing to talk about is money because they've
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seen their parents, their older siblings, their
cousins, whoever goes through multiple economic
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breakdown, seeing that they can't afford buying
a house.
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They can't afford to have children.
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They can't afford literally anything even
though the work, you know, those, like, perfect
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9 to 5 jobs that were always kind of set to,
like, lead to a very comfortable financial
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life.
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So we realized that that that was the first
thing.
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Like, people are really willing to talk about
it.
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And, obviously, you are a transient yourself
and assume most of the audience here as well.
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Is, you know, that what matters for us is
community.
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Like, we want to have that purpose.
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We wanna have a purpose driven community.
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And the big thing that really right now is is
kind of shining through is the fact that we
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don't want we don't trust these, like,
traditional institutions that tells what to do
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because we've seen in our own lives how people
have been following some advice and they're
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nowhere.
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Their their lives just fell apart.
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So what we wanna do instead and what we've seen
in, like, different other, platforms like
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Discord or wherever else TikTok, people's
sharing their ideas of how to, like, how to,
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retire by 25.
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We've seen that we wanna find these community
leaders and we wanna follow their lead and
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wanna see proof of how they got these things.
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So with Bridge, what we do is that you have
your close friends.
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So you invite your close friends too.
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Share your finances with to have this open
conversation to be a little bit more open.
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What's your financial situation?
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What can you and what can't you afford?
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And then have your logic community.
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So you have this anonymized group of community
where you can see how, for example, on average,
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New York or is in their early twenties?
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How much did they spend on coffee?
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Like, how much is it normal for me to spend on
coffee?
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And then I entered this challenge.
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I see where I benchmark against them.
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And then I can have my closed low community,
and I can share my daily wins and failures.
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So you, as a close friend of mine, can see that
you know, on Tuesday, I actually went and I
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bought that coffee.
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But within that big of community, I can see
that.
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Okay.
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But I'm still kind of living up to the expected
amount.
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So I know how to dedicate my budget.
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And this is how we're starting.
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We're starting with really figuring out, like,
how do you set a budget?
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How do you manage your spendings?
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And from then, obviously, we can go forward.
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Can start thinking about other avenues of how
can you plan your life based on your financial
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prospects.
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And an interesting statistic that I've come
across after interviewing quite a bit of SAS
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entrepreneurs is less than 25% of people open
up an app after the first time.
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How do you plan to keep getting users back on
the app and continuing to use it?
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That is a very, very I mean, that's a painful
and true statistic.
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An app has to give you value.
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So, I mean, there's there's multiple ways.
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Like, there's one which is fully just like a
product perspective where you just have to
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figure out a way very, very quickly to convey
the value you can give to the user.
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So, from my side of the team, since I lead the
whole product team, our big goal in our
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workload is You know, how do we give this big,
moment as quickly as possible?
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Like, how do you make that click in your brain
where you're like, oh, now I get it.
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This is what fridge does.
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This is the value the fridge can get me.
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And once you figure it out, then you're kinda
hooked because you you well, I mean, whether or
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not you're hooked, the people that will find
value in Fritchard State because they
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understand that that's what it does.
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And if we fail to bring this early enough, Then
like you said, like one 1 out of four people
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will just drop off because they won't figure
out what the reason for this app is.
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And then, of course, like, from other parts of
the company.
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There's multiple moving blocks, so to say.
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So, you know, the marketing team's working
really hard.
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You know, we're trying to partner with vendors
that you like, partner with university so that
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we're always kind of in the vicinity of your
life we're gonna try to make sense to you how
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fridge plays a big and lasting well in your
life.
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And then obviously, like you mentioned, social
media is such a big thing.
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So, really trying to explain what we do and the
most relatable and non, intimidating way as
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possible over such social media channels is
like TikTok.
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And since you are partnered with Mastercard,
later down the line, do you plan to offer your
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own debit slash credit card that offers
incentives that would pair well with your app?
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So Mastercard was kind of the first step along
our entrepreneurial journey.
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So right after we put French out there and link
it in and, like, AngelList.
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Before we really even knew what we were doing,
we got scouted by them.
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And that put us through direct accelerator,
which was a really intense 12 week program
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where, honestly, I feel we, like, acquired most
of our very, like, kind of sometimes boring,
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but, like, really useful knowledge about how to
build a company in fintech.
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So they've been supporting us from day 1.
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That being said, I think debit card is
something that can happen down the line, but
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right now, really, really focused on, you know,
fixing the core problem, which is fixing people
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spending habits, helping them leverage their
community to develop better spending habits,
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whether it's gonna be social life or, like,
bigger goals down the road.
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So I think that's something we still gotta
decide internally.
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Gotcha.
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And being that 34% of Gen Z is learning
personal finance through tiktok and YouTube,
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according to a Yahoo Finance article, How does
fridge plan to take advantage of short form
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media to grow their brand?
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That's a really, really good question.
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I would, I mean, question and statistic.
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I would also wanna, like, follow-up with that.
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I think for 70% of those people also say like,
yes.
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That's where I get most of my knowledge from.
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But I don't really trust these sources.
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Like, I know this is not going to be this thing
that's gonna make me be able to retire in the
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decade.
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So I think in, like, a very, relatable and,
again, non intimidating way, we can just kind
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of poke fun at you a little bit.
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Right?
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I think Gen Zay is super super good at making
fun of themselves and laughing together about
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themselves with their friends.
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So that's, like, one thing that we're doing.
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We are playing a little bit this this card of,
you know, where we're just giving you some
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tough love.
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Like, we are your, like, relatable, and we are
your reliable friend.
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Like, imagine if your, like, the mom friend of
your group was an app.
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Like, that's what fridge wants to be.
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And in terms of, like, how can we leverage this
content?
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I think One, obviously, our social media is a
really, really big tool of how we can acquire
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users, especially as we grow, but There's also
some elements that we can implement inside of
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the app.
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So very familiar visual elements and features
that you've seen elsewhere.
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So that you know, the idea of a finance app
that suddenly doesn't sound as intimidating
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because it looks similar to things that usually
bring you positive emotions in your life.
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So that's actually something we're trying to
leverage.
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So how do we, for example, involve the idea of
stories into a finance app?
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Like, how do we involve the the feature of,
like, liking things and commenting things and
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and and how do we involve chatting and, like,
group and communities.
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Like, how do we do these things so that it
reminds you of things that usually give you a
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little bit of a serotonin boost.
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So that when you open up a finance app, you
don't feel bad about yourself every single
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time.
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For sure.
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Fintech has been an extremely popular space in
the past couple of years.
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How do you compared to other finance apps like
mint and intuit.
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Yep.
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I mean, I would say, like, the first thing we
always say when we even start describing for it
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is the is not a budgeting tool.
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They're building a community for Gen Z.
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I think tools like mint and digit and couple
other ones that are out there.
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I think they were great for millennials, and
they serve kind of the tracking purpose, but
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Gen Z is not looking for tracking.
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They want someone to guide them.
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They want to learn from their community.
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They wanna connect, you know, for a purpose So
I would say we're just playing in 2 totally
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different categories, and we are building for
the new generation.
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And speaking of building a community, what do
you believe is the number one most important
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thing to factor in when you're building a
community?
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It's a $1,000,000,000 question.
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I mean, I think Listen, there's, like, so many
problems going around now of, like, how do you
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moderate your community?
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How do you like, how do you balance you being a
free platform for everyone versus, like, making
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sure no one gets offended.
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No one gets hurt.
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So I I don't know if we if we've figured it out
yet.
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But I think for us, really, it is to fully
understand when you think of your life goals,
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And that's like another thing that, we realize
is that, you know, when we think about money,
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we don't really think like, oh, like, In 4
years, I wanna have $8328 in my bank account.
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Like, that's not what you're thinking about.
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You're thinking, okay, in 3 years, I wanna
have, a super nice apartment in West Village.
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I wanna have maybe a car.
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I wanna have X Y Z, whatever it is.
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So that's how we're trying to figure out, like,
these things, like, how do people think about
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details and elements creative community.
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Like, when you think of your life goals and
your financial goals, what are the elements
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that make you feel similar to someone?
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And how can we group you with similar people?
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But then, like, sprinkle in a few, like,
aspirational people.
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So they keep you, motivated so that, you can
look at them and you can be like, okay.
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That's my north star.
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This I'm gonna follow their lead.
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They know what they're doing.
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And really trying to figure out, like, what is
that core element that makes you feel like you
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belong somewhere?
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So I think the other big things that huge, huge
social media networks are trying to figure out
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right now.
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I think it's just the the ping the losses of,
like, the dating period is over, and now you're
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like, oh my god.
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Social media, like, really sucks.
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Like, there's so many bad things about it.
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But for us, like, we really just wanted to be
Anonymize.
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It's more about your very, very close friends.
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And then there's this anonymized North Star
that you're working towards.
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So we just have to figure out, like, how do we
give you this?
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How do we know that you align with this goal so
that we can give you this aspirational thing to
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too.
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And earlier, you talked about raising capital.
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You've raised capital from Financial Venture
Studio, Antler, and K Twenty.
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Having this been your first time raising VC,
what is your advice to founders in the audience
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that might be looking to do the same?
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I would say couple of pieces of advice.
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1 would be 1st, like, fundraising is definitely
more, like, a numbers game as well, especially
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in the very early stages when you just have
your vision.
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So, you know, don't get discouraged if the
first five people say no.
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Maybe the first, like, 100 say no, but the 100
and first investors gonna say yes, and they're
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gonna be the perfect fit.
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So I think I didn't know that, and we didn't
know that this is the norm.
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So I think that's really important than knowing
that, like, confidence really matters, like,
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especially in the early stage, like, you
probably have no product or users.
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So it's just kind of your vision that you have
sell and monetize.
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So it's really like almost like a sales job at
the end of the day.
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And then lastly, I think something we're now
figuring out within a really positive element
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is investors are there with you for the long
ride.
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Maybe it's not as intents of a marriage like co
founders have, but, like, it's still they're
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gonna be really involved probably you know, for
the next 5 years at least.
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So you wanna make smart decisions and see kind
of how your relationship plays out before you
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take a bigger check of money so they're gonna
have a bigger ownership in your company.
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And to wrap it up here, what are some takeaways
about personal finance and where can people
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find more about fridge?
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Yeah.
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I mean, I think we what we've really, really
learned during this journey is actually quite
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sad.
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People have a lot less of an idea what to do
than we expected.
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The very first version of fridge was,
basically, like, kind of free for all.
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Like, we're like, okay.
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Here's all the tools that you can do.
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Go out there, set your child for yourself, and
we just saw people being, like, dumbfounded.
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They were like, I don't really know.
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Like, what's the normal?
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What do I do?
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So there was like a kind of like a tough
learning and kind of sad to see.
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But the upside is that we're working on, we're
working together with smart people to create
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those journeys, for you and and build those
communities for you.
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So That is like one big learning for, personal
finances.
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And I think, you know, a lot of times, if
anyone out there is trying to build, like, a
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finance product, A lot of people are gonna tell
you, like, it's an oversaturated market.
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Don't try.
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Like, there's already, like, mints and acorns
and blah blah blah blah blah.
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But the problem is still there.
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Right?
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Like, ask around how many of your friends are
in debt.
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Like, how many of your friends are so nervous
if they're going to survive until they're next
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paycheck.
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That is that is assigned for you.
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There's a signal that the problem hasn't been
solved.
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So there needs to be a little bit more
creativity there.
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So it's definitely, if anyone's interested so
much space.
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So many more problems to solve.
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So I really I I actually do have A lot of hope.
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I I I think the more people think about
community and the more people think about,
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like, sharing and, like, more of, like, a
positive spend.
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I think there's like some really, really cool
products coming out.
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So I think, hopefully, it's gonna help all of
us to become more financially smart.
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But, if you want to download Bridge, we can
only do it, unfortunately, right now, on the
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iOS app store.
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So only if you have an iPhone, so just search
French Furch as in effing Rich.
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That's that's what the name stands for also.
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And if you wanna find this in our socials, it's
Furch Money.
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Got it.
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00:18:09,805 --> 00:18:12,285
Well, I appreciate you both for coming on the
podcast.
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That wraps it up for today's episode.
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Everyone else in the audience that are
interested in checking out fridge, I'll have a
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link to the app posted in the episode
description down below.
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Thank you for having us.
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Thank you so much for having us.
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I appreciate it.
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:00,560
Hey, everyone.
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Thank you for tuning into the Embit podcast.
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00:00:02,799 --> 00:00:06,960
In today's episode, we have 2 guests joining us
to talk about their startup fridge, which is a
4
00:00:06,960 --> 00:00:08,814
social finance app for Gen Z.
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00:00:08,974 --> 00:00:11,855
Today, Catherine Karof and Alexandra of Medina.
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Both are the co founders of the company with
Catherine being the CEO.
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00:00:15,375 --> 00:00:20,500
Quick disclaimer, the podcast is not financial
or investment and is for informational purposes
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00:00:20,559 --> 00:00:21,039
only.
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00:00:21,039 --> 00:00:24,480
So Catherine and Alexandra, would you mind
talking a little bit more about your
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backgrounds and how you came up with the idea
for a fridge?
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00:00:27,504 --> 00:00:27,744
Yeah.
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Happy to get started.
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So both me and Alexandra were living in New
York at a time, and both of us had worked and
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studied across multiple different continents
around the world and struggled ourselves with
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personal finances, both the students and young
professionals.
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And as during COVID, all of us had a bunch of
free time.
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We really wanna build something together and we
were kind of going through different issues to
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young people facing in personal finances
somehow, stayed on top of that.
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And then, you know, as we, again, had a point
of free time, We were testing out different
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available budgeting tools and really didn't
like any of them.
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And that made us think about apps that we did
like, which for different fitness tools,
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whether it was like a training club or Strava
or my fitness pal that together we had used
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religiously for years and really, really those
things really helped us, you know, shape our,
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fitness journeys and our healthy habits.
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So we wanted to connect those two together.
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So bringing in the elements of success from
fitness apps to personal finances.
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And how did you both meet?
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I noticed you both went to NYU.
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Did you meet there?
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And when did you decide to co found a company?
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Yeah, I mean, I'm happy to say that.
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So Catherine and I, we met in our 1st year at
NYU.
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So we actually went to NYU Abu Dhabi.
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Just met there during the 1st semester
Katherine ended up, transferring to another
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school, but we somehow just ended up being
really, really close friends during our
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travels.
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00:01:52,015 --> 00:01:57,739
And while we were even though our past kind of
diverse, we kept them a lot in touch when we
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shared those common similarities that Catherine
just mentioned, like, you know, how tricky it
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00:02:02,395 --> 00:02:06,954
is to move from place to place, to find and
build a new friend group, to sustain that
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00:02:06,954 --> 00:02:11,340
friend group, to find figure out how manager
finances in different countries.
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00:02:11,879 --> 00:02:16,599
And as we went, through these processes, being
students, and then obviously graduating and,
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like, working, we just kind of, like, found our
way back in New York then started kind of
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really doubling down trying to figure out this
problem for ourselves.
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And and I think the catalyst really was COVID
because we were kind of bored.
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There was so much free time, so we're like,
okay.
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Like, it's now or never.
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00:02:32,960 --> 00:02:37,544
So, Catherine, you talked about how Fritz is
trying to build the social finance app for Gen
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00:02:37,544 --> 00:02:38,044
Z.
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When did you come across that Gen Z needs some
more personal finance help?
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00:02:43,384 --> 00:02:48,780
I mean, it really was first, like, looking at
our own personal problems, right, like, seeing
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ourselves and our friends, all of them, like,
you know, gradually from some of the best these
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and still not knowing, like, how much should
you be budgeting for, like, dining out their
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bars, or what are you supposed to be doing with
your money in your, like, early twenties,
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whether it's school or when you start your
first job.
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And, you know, just seeing that there weren't
any tools out there that were guiding you or
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that were letting you compare yourself to your
community, definitely one of the things that
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was driving us.
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And I think, you know, fintech happened to have
a moment in time and also Gen Z as a generation
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was having a moment in time because I think it
was right during COVID or after COVID when the
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world started to understand that it's, you
know, one of the biggest generations out there,
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and that's really gen z is the future, and we
need to build tools that are relevant their
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generation.
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00:03:31,294 --> 00:03:36,894
And speaking of tools, how does Fritch help
solve that problem with getting Gen Z access to
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more personal finance tools?
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Yeah.
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So we briefly talked about this before.
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We started the conversation here on the
podcast, but, The really big differentiator
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between Gen Z and I think Gen Z is the 1st
generation that is actually willing to embrace
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this is the fact that we're so open talking
about our problems because we've seen the world
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all apart so many times in front of us.
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So we're like, okay.
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Let's just collectively figure out how can we
deal with this?
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And one of the big things that people are so
willing to talk about is money because they've
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seen their parents, their older siblings, their
cousins, whoever goes through multiple economic
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breakdown, seeing that they can't afford buying
a house.
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They can't afford to have children.
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They can't afford literally anything even
though the work, you know, those, like, perfect
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9 to 5 jobs that were always kind of set to,
like, lead to a very comfortable financial
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life.
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So we realized that that that was the first
thing.
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Like, people are really willing to talk about
it.
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And, obviously, you are a transient yourself
and assume most of the audience here as well.
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Is, you know, that what matters for us is
community.
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Like, we want to have that purpose.
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We wanna have a purpose driven community.
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And the big thing that really right now is is
kind of shining through is the fact that we
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don't want we don't trust these, like,
traditional institutions that tells what to do
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because we've seen in our own lives how people
have been following some advice and they're
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nowhere.
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Their their lives just fell apart.
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So what we wanna do instead and what we've seen
in, like, different other, platforms like
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Discord or wherever else TikTok, people's
sharing their ideas of how to, like, how to,
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retire by 25.
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We've seen that we wanna find these community
leaders and we wanna follow their lead and
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wanna see proof of how they got these things.
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So with Bridge, what we do is that you have
your close friends.
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So you invite your close friends too.
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Share your finances with to have this open
conversation to be a little bit more open.
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What's your financial situation?
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What can you and what can't you afford?
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And then have your logic community.
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So you have this anonymized group of community
where you can see how, for example, on average,
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New York or is in their early twenties?
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How much did they spend on coffee?
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Like, how much is it normal for me to spend on
coffee?
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And then I entered this challenge.
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I see where I benchmark against them.
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And then I can have my closed low community,
and I can share my daily wins and failures.
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So you, as a close friend of mine, can see that
you know, on Tuesday, I actually went and I
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bought that coffee.
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But within that big of community, I can see
that.
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Okay.
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But I'm still kind of living up to the expected
amount.
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So I know how to dedicate my budget.
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And this is how we're starting.
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We're starting with really figuring out, like,
how do you set a budget?
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How do you manage your spendings?
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And from then, obviously, we can go forward.
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Can start thinking about other avenues of how
can you plan your life based on your financial
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prospects.
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And an interesting statistic that I've come
across after interviewing quite a bit of SAS
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entrepreneurs is less than 25% of people open
up an app after the first time.
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How do you plan to keep getting users back on
the app and continuing to use it?
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That is a very, very I mean, that's a painful
and true statistic.
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An app has to give you value.
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So, I mean, there's there's multiple ways.
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Like, there's one which is fully just like a
product perspective where you just have to
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figure out a way very, very quickly to convey
the value you can give to the user.
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So, from my side of the team, since I lead the
whole product team, our big goal in our
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workload is You know, how do we give this big,
moment as quickly as possible?
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Like, how do you make that click in your brain
where you're like, oh, now I get it.
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This is what fridge does.
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This is the value the fridge can get me.
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And once you figure it out, then you're kinda
hooked because you you well, I mean, whether or
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not you're hooked, the people that will find
value in Fritchard State because they
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understand that that's what it does.
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And if we fail to bring this early enough, Then
like you said, like one 1 out of four people
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will just drop off because they won't figure
out what the reason for this app is.
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And then, of course, like, from other parts of
the company.
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There's multiple moving blocks, so to say.
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So, you know, the marketing team's working
really hard.
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You know, we're trying to partner with vendors
that you like, partner with university so that
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we're always kind of in the vicinity of your
life we're gonna try to make sense to you how
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fridge plays a big and lasting well in your
life.
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And then obviously, like you mentioned, social
media is such a big thing.
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So, really trying to explain what we do and the
most relatable and non, intimidating way as
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possible over such social media channels is
like TikTok.
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And since you are partnered with Mastercard,
later down the line, do you plan to offer your
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own debit slash credit card that offers
incentives that would pair well with your app?
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So Mastercard was kind of the first step along
our entrepreneurial journey.
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So right after we put French out there and link
it in and, like, AngelList.
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Before we really even knew what we were doing,
we got scouted by them.
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And that put us through direct accelerator,
which was a really intense 12 week program
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where, honestly, I feel we, like, acquired most
of our very, like, kind of sometimes boring,
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but, like, really useful knowledge about how to
build a company in fintech.
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So they've been supporting us from day 1.
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That being said, I think debit card is
something that can happen down the line, but
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right now, really, really focused on, you know,
fixing the core problem, which is fixing people
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spending habits, helping them leverage their
community to develop better spending habits,
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whether it's gonna be social life or, like,
bigger goals down the road.
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So I think that's something we still gotta
decide internally.
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Gotcha.
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And being that 34% of Gen Z is learning
personal finance through tiktok and YouTube,
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according to a Yahoo Finance article, How does
fridge plan to take advantage of short form
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media to grow their brand?
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That's a really, really good question.
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I would, I mean, question and statistic.
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I would also wanna, like, follow-up with that.
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I think for 70% of those people also say like,
yes.
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That's where I get most of my knowledge from.
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But I don't really trust these sources.
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Like, I know this is not going to be this thing
that's gonna make me be able to retire in the
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decade.
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So I think in, like, a very, relatable and,
again, non intimidating way, we can just kind
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of poke fun at you a little bit.
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Right?
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I think Gen Zay is super super good at making
fun of themselves and laughing together about
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themselves with their friends.
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So that's, like, one thing that we're doing.
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We are playing a little bit this this card of,
you know, where we're just giving you some
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tough love.
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Like, we are your, like, relatable, and we are
your reliable friend.
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Like, imagine if your, like, the mom friend of
your group was an app.
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Like, that's what fridge wants to be.
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And in terms of, like, how can we leverage this
content?
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I think One, obviously, our social media is a
really, really big tool of how we can acquire
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users, especially as we grow, but There's also
some elements that we can implement inside of
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the app.
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So very familiar visual elements and features
that you've seen elsewhere.
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So that you know, the idea of a finance app
that suddenly doesn't sound as intimidating
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because it looks similar to things that usually
bring you positive emotions in your life.
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So that's actually something we're trying to
leverage.
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So how do we, for example, involve the idea of
stories into a finance app?
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Like, how do we involve the the feature of,
like, liking things and commenting things and
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and and how do we involve chatting and, like,
group and communities.
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Like, how do we do these things so that it
reminds you of things that usually give you a
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little bit of a serotonin boost.
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So that when you open up a finance app, you
don't feel bad about yourself every single
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time.
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For sure.
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Fintech has been an extremely popular space in
the past couple of years.
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How do you compared to other finance apps like
mint and intuit.
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Yep.
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I mean, I would say, like, the first thing we
always say when we even start describing for it
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is the is not a budgeting tool.
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They're building a community for Gen Z.
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I think tools like mint and digit and couple
other ones that are out there.
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I think they were great for millennials, and
they serve kind of the tracking purpose, but
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Gen Z is not looking for tracking.
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They want someone to guide them.
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They want to learn from their community.
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They wanna connect, you know, for a purpose So
I would say we're just playing in 2 totally
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different categories, and we are building for
the new generation.
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And speaking of building a community, what do
you believe is the number one most important
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thing to factor in when you're building a
community?
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It's a $1,000,000,000 question.
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I mean, I think Listen, there's, like, so many
problems going around now of, like, how do you
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moderate your community?
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How do you like, how do you balance you being a
free platform for everyone versus, like, making
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sure no one gets offended.
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No one gets hurt.
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So I I don't know if we if we've figured it out
yet.
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But I think for us, really, it is to fully
understand when you think of your life goals,
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And that's like another thing that, we realize
is that, you know, when we think about money,
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we don't really think like, oh, like, In 4
years, I wanna have $8328 in my bank account.
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Like, that's not what you're thinking about.
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You're thinking, okay, in 3 years, I wanna
have, a super nice apartment in West Village.
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I wanna have maybe a car.
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I wanna have X Y Z, whatever it is.
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So that's how we're trying to figure out, like,
these things, like, how do people think about
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details and elements creative community.
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Like, when you think of your life goals and
your financial goals, what are the elements
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that make you feel similar to someone?
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And how can we group you with similar people?
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But then, like, sprinkle in a few, like,
aspirational people.
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So they keep you, motivated so that, you can
look at them and you can be like, okay.
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That's my north star.
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This I'm gonna follow their lead.
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They know what they're doing.
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And really trying to figure out, like, what is
that core element that makes you feel like you
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belong somewhere?
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So I think the other big things that huge, huge
social media networks are trying to figure out
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right now.
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I think it's just the the ping the losses of,
like, the dating period is over, and now you're
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like, oh my god.
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Social media, like, really sucks.
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Like, there's so many bad things about it.
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But for us, like, we really just wanted to be
Anonymize.
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It's more about your very, very close friends.
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And then there's this anonymized North Star
that you're working towards.
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So we just have to figure out, like, how do we
give you this?
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How do we know that you align with this goal so
that we can give you this aspirational thing to
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too.
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And earlier, you talked about raising capital.
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You've raised capital from Financial Venture
Studio, Antler, and K Twenty.
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Having this been your first time raising VC,
what is your advice to founders in the audience
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that might be looking to do the same?
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I would say couple of pieces of advice.
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1 would be 1st, like, fundraising is definitely
more, like, a numbers game as well, especially
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in the very early stages when you just have
your vision.
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So, you know, don't get discouraged if the
first five people say no.
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Maybe the first, like, 100 say no, but the 100
and first investors gonna say yes, and they're
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gonna be the perfect fit.
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So I think I didn't know that, and we didn't
know that this is the norm.
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So I think that's really important than knowing
that, like, confidence really matters, like,
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especially in the early stage, like, you
probably have no product or users.
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So it's just kind of your vision that you have
sell and monetize.
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So it's really like almost like a sales job at
the end of the day.
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And then lastly, I think something we're now
figuring out within a really positive element
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is investors are there with you for the long
ride.
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Maybe it's not as intents of a marriage like co
founders have, but, like, it's still they're
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gonna be really involved probably you know, for
the next 5 years at least.
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So you wanna make smart decisions and see kind
of how your relationship plays out before you
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take a bigger check of money so they're gonna
have a bigger ownership in your company.
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And to wrap it up here, what are some takeaways
about personal finance and where can people
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find more about fridge?
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Yeah.
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I mean, I think we what we've really, really
learned during this journey is actually quite
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sad.
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People have a lot less of an idea what to do
than we expected.
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The very first version of fridge was,
basically, like, kind of free for all.
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Like, we're like, okay.
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Here's all the tools that you can do.
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Go out there, set your child for yourself, and
we just saw people being, like, dumbfounded.
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They were like, I don't really know.
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Like, what's the normal?
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What do I do?
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So there was like a kind of like a tough
learning and kind of sad to see.
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But the upside is that we're working on, we're
working together with smart people to create
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those journeys, for you and and build those
communities for you.
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So That is like one big learning for, personal
finances.
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And I think, you know, a lot of times, if
anyone out there is trying to build, like, a
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finance product, A lot of people are gonna tell
you, like, it's an oversaturated market.
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Don't try.
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Like, there's already, like, mints and acorns
and blah blah blah blah blah.
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But the problem is still there.
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Right?
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Like, ask around how many of your friends are
in debt.
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Like, how many of your friends are so nervous
if they're going to survive until they're next
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paycheck.
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That is that is assigned for you.
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There's a signal that the problem hasn't been
solved.
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So there needs to be a little bit more
creativity there.
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So it's definitely, if anyone's interested so
much space.
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So many more problems to solve.
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So I really I I actually do have A lot of hope.
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I I I think the more people think about
community and the more people think about,
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like, sharing and, like, more of, like, a
positive spend.
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I think there's like some really, really cool
products coming out.
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So I think, hopefully, it's gonna help all of
us to become more financially smart.
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But, if you want to download Bridge, we can
only do it, unfortunately, right now, on the
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iOS app store.
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So only if you have an iPhone, so just search
French Furch as in effing Rich.
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That's that's what the name stands for also.
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And if you wanna find this in our socials, it's
Furch Money.
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Got it.
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00:18:09,805 --> 00:18:12,285
Well, I appreciate you both for coming on the
podcast.
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That wraps it up for today's episode.
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Everyone else in the audience that are
interested in checking out fridge, I'll have a
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link to the app posted in the episode
description down below.
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Thank you for having us.
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Thank you so much for having us.
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I appreciate it.
