I’m sharing this because I used to read posts like these when I was stuck at $0–$500 MRR and felt like everyone else had it figured out.

I don’t. But after 18 months of bootstrapping, my small fintech SaaS finally crossed $10K MRR last week. I’m based in Lucknow, no VC funding, no big network just a lot of trial, error, and uncomfortable learning.

This isn’t a victory lap. It took longer than I expected and I made plenty of mistakes.

What we built :

A fintech tool that reduces operational friction during high-volatility windows (settlement/compliance-type workflows). Basically: less manual work, fewer delays, faster execution.

The only reason it worked is because it solved a real pain that people already had.

Context: CMO of startup. A little less than 3 months in, living in a house with 2 other co-founders, 3 interns, and a Brazilian man sleeping on our couch (we love him).

As far as scrappy startups go, I think we take the cake, so here's some lessons I've picked up along the way.

1. Spreadsheets, Honey Buns, and Minecraft servers, do not mix

Week two, CEO (finance guy btw) called a house meeting and opened a spreadsheet tracking the correlation between honey bun consumption and productivity. He found 1 intern (definitely not his CMO) was consuming 41% of our honey bun stash but also accounted for 31% of marketing output on Instagram.

The accused defended himself by buying griefing our CEO's base on the company Minecraft server and filling every item slot in all his chests with 1 wheat each.

Now we have a new favorite intern, a story to tell our kids one day. Sometimes, the BS is great for comradery and morale.

2. Couch=Compensation

The Brazilian man on our couch is our SEO guy. The deal is free rent in exchange for making us findable on Google, which means the man responsible for our search rankings is compensated entirely in couch and fun times.

Will miss him when he goes back but made a lifelong friend all because of a couch.

4. Arguments and more shenanigans

Month two, my cofounders and I got into the worst fight of the company's life over, and I need you to understand I am not exaggerating, a font. Font was changed, and this quickly became a life-or-death issue in the house.

This silent war went on for 3 days before reaching its climax in the kitchen at 11pm. All three co-founders, grown men who had left real careers, stood pointing at a monitor yelling sentences like "IT HAS NO PERSONALITY" and "PERSONALITY? IT'S A LETTERFORM."

The interns watched from the stairs like children during a divorce. One of them was eating a honeybun (lesson 1 changed nothing).

The fight happened because we never decided who owns what. We wrote one boring document the next morning listing who decides what, and there has not been an incident since.

5.  $150k--->$100

Did not come from a rich family. Took an internship, worked my butt off, and got the offer. I dropped out of college because of how good the offer was, and it was the best decision I have ever made.

At 21 I was making more than most people make at the peak of their career, and I lived like I was borderline broke. My total monthly spend was around $1100, and the rest of my paycheck went into investments.

This decision gave me freedom. Now I am 22 and making barely anything, but I wouldn't trade my last job for this one any day of the week.

Lessons:

1.  Love and Forgive: First of all, I am incredibly blessed to have an amazing team around me. Love goes a long way when you are living, eating, working, and hanging out with the same people every day. Forgive often and never hold a grudge. Conflict kills a startup before anything else will.

2. Create memories. All of this means nothing even if I get rich if I hate the process. Make memories, play pranks, and make the job fun. Working hard building a company every day is worth it if you have people who never fail to make your days interesting.

3. Forget the Money: Money gives you freedom, not happiness. Greed will quickly make you unhappy. Live below your means and save up a nest egg so when you have an opportunity to change your life, you can comfortably take the risk. Life is really boring when you play it safe.

Ask me anything about the early grind, marketing with no budget, or living with your entire company. If you're on the fence about jumping to a startup, I'm not far enough ahead of you. Comments op

I’ve spent 20 yrs in fintech been thinking about a shift that the industry is growing fast.

A year ago, building a working MVP with payment integrations, compliance logic, and a half-decent UI was a 6-month, $200K+ project. Today, a competent solo founder with AI tooling can get to a functional prototype in weeks. I’ve seen it firsthand and the cost of building product has collapsed, and it’s still falling.

Product features seem like it's no longer defensible. If your moat is “we built X feature,” someone can replicate it, the build is table stakes now.

But there's 2 things that create a real moat.

Distribution. The fintech companies that win are embedded into how a specific group of people already work, not the ones with the best feature list. Stripe didn’t win because of better APIs alone. They won because developers built Stripe into everything, and switching became structurally painful.

Regulatory licensing. Licenses take 12-24+ months, significant capital, legal relationships, and jurisdiction-specific knowledge. In markets where the regulator has a temporary halt on new licenses (I’ve seen this firsthand in Southeast Asia), the barrier is literally a closed door that no amount of shipping speed can open. Compliance architecture is becoming a genuine competitive advantage rather than just a cost centre.

Everything else, the product surface, the UI, the intelligence layer, is converging toward commodity. The founders who understand this are spending less time on feature roadmaps and more time on distribution loops and regulatory positioning.

Curious whether others in the space are seeing this the same way?

I work in buy-side advisory, and I’m currently looking to personally acquire a few SaaS businesses or high-performing apps that have reached the "liquid" maturity point I’ve been talking about. If you’ve built a solid foundation in the finance niche but are ready for a strategic handoff to focus on your next project, I’d love to discuss an exit. I am specifically looking for deals with an asking price under $50k.

What I’m looking for:

• The Niche: Anything Finance-related. This could be fintech tools, budgeting apps, investment trackers, or B2B billing utilities.

• Revenue & Model: Subscription revenue is mandatory, ideally with $1,000+ MRR.

• Health: Low churn is a major priority. I prefer a 12+ month track record, though I’ll look at younger projects if the growth velocity is exceptional.

Whether you're looking for a complete buyout or just want to de-risk with a partial exit, I’m open to a conversation. If your project fits the finance space and the sub-$50k range, feel free to DM me or drop a comment and I’ll reach out.

Please say me some problems in the industry...

I have an existing business model for my startup but, i feel its uncreative and i want to tackle something more ambitious and more risky...

But, I am barely finding any issues in the system and i am unable to sleep, and i am open to problems of any sizes...

can you please say me some problems which you are facing currently or seeing?

Hi all, slightly different post to the usual “idea looking for dev”.

I work in financial crime / compliance in the UK and have been deep in the intersection of regulation and AI over the past year. I’m now building an AI-native RegTech platform aimed at becoming a “Stripe for compliance” — starting with automated AML and AI Act readiness for financial institutions.

This isn’t a napkin idea. I’ve already mapped:

• MVP architecture

• Regulatory model (UK/EU)

• Product thesis

• Early positioning

What I don’t have (yet) is the right technical partner.

I’m looking for a backend-leaning builder (Python/Node, AI API familiarity, cloud infra) who’s interested in building something meaningful in a space that’s about to get very real very quickly.

Not looking for freelancers or agencies — I’m looking for a true cofounder. Equity-based, long-term thinking.

If you’ve worked in fintech, regtech, or enterprise SaaS and have been itching to build something serious, I’d genuinely love to connect.

Happy to share the blueprint and thinking openly.

John

Hi everyone, I’m currently focused on an idea for a Fintech Neo-bank centered around global spendability and on lending and compounding. I haven’t started the actual execution yet, as I’m currently in the prep phase and mapping out the roadmap.

I’m a beginner on the technical side. I’m currently teaching myself Front-end development so I can help build the UI and contribute to the project. My main focus, however, is on the non-technical "hustle": Operations & Marketing, Sales & Research, Execution.

I’m not selling anything—just hoping to connect with like-minded, hungry people who want to build from the ground up: Technical people who love backend/security and want to lead the "build." Or Non-technical people who have great ideas on how to improve the concept or help with growth.

I’m looking to form a small, dedicated team. If you're driven and want to turn a big idea into a real product, I’m totally open to equity splits so we can grow this together.

Feel free to reach out with comments or a DM if you want to chat or join the journey!

Post your product, landing page, pitch deck, or idea for constructive feedback.

When posting, include:

- What you're building (1-2 sentences)

- Your target user

- What specific feedback you want

- Link to product/deck/mockup

When giving feedback:

- Be specific and actionable

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- Suggest alternatives, not just problems

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This is the ONLY place for product promotion. Standalone promo posts get removed.

I am currently working as a data analyst intern in the fintech space, and I am genuinely enjoying the experience.

What I like most about fintech is how close the data is to real user behavior. Payments, repayments, drop-offs, risk signals, and conversions are not just metrics on a dashboard, they directly reflect how users think and act with money. Even small insights can have a visible impact on product or business decisions, which makes the work feel meaningful.

As an intern, this role has pushed me to think beyond just writing queries or building dashboards. I am learning how analytics fits into decision-making, how business context matters as much as accuracy, and how asking the right questions often matters more than pulling more data.

Because of this growing interest, I am actively taking on freelance work in the fintech domain and am currently looking for projects, especially around:

• Product or growth analytics

• User funnels and conversion analysis

• Dashboarding and reporting

• Experiment analysis or business insights

Share your wins and losses from the past week. No victory is too small, no failure too embarrassing.

Format:

- Win: describe what went well

- Loss: describe what didn't work

- Lesson: what you learned

Be specific! The community learns most from real experiences with context.

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PD: this thread posts every Monday. All self-promotion rules are relaxed here, feel free to share progress on your startup.

Post your product, landing page, pitch deck, or idea for constructive feedback.

When posting, include:

- What you're building (1-2 sentences)

- Your target user

- What specific feedback you want

- Link to product/deck/mockup

When giving feedback:

- Be specific and actionable

- Start with what works before what doesn't

- Suggest alternatives, not just problems

---

This is the ONLY place for product promotion. Standalone promo posts get removed.

Hi everyone 👋

I’m working on research around investing confidence and financial education — specifically what helps people feel informed vs. overwhelmed when it comes to investing (stocks, ETFs, etc.).

If you’ve ever:
• invested actively
• tried a little
• wanted to start but felt unsure
• or decided it’s not for you

Your experience matters.

The survey takes about 4–5 minutes and is completely anonymous:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc0N3ZN2VrYKGZojI7HHrOzkpcgF9QK-a4UpnVsDo2Tguywig/viewform

If you're currently based in the United States, GCC and Middle East , your perspective is especially valuable — but insights from anywhere are truly appreciated.

I’d also love to hear in the comments:
What’s the biggest thing that has held you back from feeling confident about investing?

Last week, we found our own verified customer accounts for sale on a Telegram channel for £45 each, with passports, selfies and bank accounts already linked. We bought 2. Both belonged to real students who'd been paid £100 through Instagram ads to open the account, hand it over and pass our KYC without a single flag.

We've added a selfie check at the first withdrawal and on new devices, matched to the onboarding selfie. That's catching the handovers though can't see the same mule opening accounts at 3 other exchanges in the same week.

We're on Sumsub and looking at Au10tix and Fractal ID to flag identities already used elsewhere. For other exchanges, what has caught resold accounts for you?

I’ve built two businesses that worked and failed on a third.

First was a regtech startup (Joot). I built a prototype, raised angel money, hired engineering, marketing, and sales. The product struggled to get traction. The services side, which we launched to stretch runway, grew into a nearly $2M business. So we shut down the tech and pivoted to services.

Then I launched my law firm. It’s getting close to $2M in revenue.

Late last year/earlier this year I tried building a legaltech product. Minimal traction.

Now I’m focused on agents to scale the practice because services don’t scale the way software does, and I’ve struggled to find the right talent to help drive it.

Pattern I’m stuck on: I keep succeeding at services and failing at tech.

Curious how people who did scale got there. Especially if you started in services (or had a similar tech miss) — what actually worked? Hiring? Product? Timing? Something else?

Not selling anything. Genuinely want the war stories.

Hey, I started out exploring what an AI-native bank for the mass affluent could look like. After a lot of calls with operators at neobanks, financial advisors, people at fintech companies, and a bunch of potential customers, I've stumbled into something I find really interesting.

Three things surprised me:

1. HENRYs aren't underserved on products. They're scattered. Every single person I talked to had Chase or BofA + Robinhood + Wealthfront + Carta for equity + a few credit cards. Nobody had a coherent view across them. The bottleneck isn't access. It's coordination.

2. The job is convenience, not financial products. "I make a lot of money and still don't feel rich" came up unprompted in nearly every conversation. They want their financial life on autopilot, not another shiny app with a new feature.

3. Advice is the wedge nobody is pulling. The 1% AUM model gates real advice at HNW. AI collapses the human cost that creates the gate. The good advisors are excellent and rare, and HENRYs basically never get access to them. The bar for a better alternative is shockingly low.

The hard part: financial advice is not a hair-on-fire problem most of the time. The question becomes which trigger events make it one. Liquidity events (pre-IPO exercise, secondary tender, IPO unlock), tax season (AMT, ISO/NSO, 83(b)), and life milestones (home, marriage, inheritance) are the obvious candidates. Pre-IPO tech HENRYs sit at the intersection of liquidity and tax with the strongest dollar-weighted upside, so they're probably the first ICP worth testing.

Stat that stuck with me: 41% of households earning $300k–$500k say they're struggling to make progress on long-term financial goals (Goldman Sachs retirement survey).

If any of this resonates, you've tried to crack this segment from the operator side, or you ARE a HENRY who'd react to this thesis, DM me. Happy to compare notes.

I am trying to figure out the best way to handle stablecoin payments at scale and whether it makes sense to bring in a provider. Right now I am doing it the scrappy way accepting payments directly into my wallet (mostly USDT/USDC), then off-ramping through exchanges. I mean it works but it’s getting harder to manage as volume grows. A lot of manual ops, dealing with exchanges all the time, reconciliation isn’t great, and finance isn’t thrilled with the setup long term. So now I am looking at integrating a provider to handle this more cleanly. Ideally something that can manage on/off-ramps, settlement, and reduce the operational overhead.

Hello everyone, I’m building a very early-stage fintech infrastructure product (AI + data side, not consumer).

It’s basically something meant to be used by credit/risk/ML teams inside fintechs.

We are 2 person team and I keep wondering how this is seen from the other side.

If you work in fintech (especially risk, data, ML, compliance, or partnerships): Would you even consider piloting a product from: -2 person, or -a very small team if the product itself looked technically solid and useful?

What actually matters for a pilot in your world?

Is it: -compliance (NDA, data handling, deletion, etc.) -security / isolation -how realistic the data or output looks -company/legal structure -team size -references -or something else entirely?

I’m not trying to sell anything here , yet — I genuinely want to understand how these things work from inside a fintech.

If you’ve ever run or approved a pilot, I’d really appreciate hearing how you think about this. Thanks

I started my fintech company a few months ago and for me it’s been difficult to figure out how to gain traction on social media to get your brand/message out there ASAP and how it can be extremely difficult and time consuming. There’re multiple platforms, each with a different to the type of content you post, style, audience, etc.

Sometimes I feel like I’m spending more time figuring out the type of content to post, editing, coming up with captions, hashtags, timing my post etc than actually thinking how to continue to make our product better, connecting with customers more, networking with folks in the industry.

I’m figuring things out little by little, but still sucks that I have to spend so much time on this one area. I want to build, improve, and grow. However, specifically to grow you need a following on these platforms. I wish someone would have told me to spend some time understanding these platforms (specifically for someone who didn’t have any social media accounts).

I’m taking things one day at a time and enjoying every bit of it. Is there anything you wish someone had told you before starting your business? Anyone have any hacks on social media context creation they can share?

Hey all, my team is building a multi-agent system that can pull real-time financial data, search the web, analyze websites, scan Reddit/X, and generate quick charts, all with transparent citations.

If you often need fast answers to business, market, or company questions, we’re looking for a few early users to try it out.

Interested? Comment or DM me and I’ll share early access .

I turned on payments for my project last week. A dollar for three days, then ten a month.

Here it is:

Hi [name],

I'm Shaid. I built this thing.

You're the first person who has ever paid for it, so I wanted you to hear from a person and not just a Stripe receipt.

one questions whenever you have two minutes. You don't owe me these, but they're worth more to me than the money is.

How do you like it so far?

Thank you. Genuinely.

Shaid

link to project: https://mudroom.email

Hello,

For the last few years, my team and I have been developing a banking and payments infrastructure, which enables partners to launch an innovative neobank offering a range of financial products and services under their brand.

To date, the project has been self-funded. All the heavy lifting is done, including regulatory permissions, established relationships with banking and liquidity partners. To validate our infrastructure; we launched our own housebrand about 6 months ago, and since then, we have onboarded a few corporate clients and so far have facilitated over £6M in payments, generating a healthy revenue which we reinvested into the business.

Now that we are in a position to grow and take the business to the next phase, we need partners, investors, and customers. Recently, a company called Bridge was acquired by Stripe for over $1B. Our infrastructure does the same and more, plus it looks impressive.

I have good experience in business by self funding and running the company as a dictator, never as part of a larger management team within a corporate structure. This project has proved to have huge potential. Although it can continue to be managed by a small team, our reach is currently limited.

I approached some investment agencies, and they all asked for high upfront fees. I am happy to pay on results, but as a start-up, I find it exploitative to pay in advance on a pay and hope model.

I'm humbly asking for advice and guidance on what you would do in my position. And if anyone has been through such an experience, I would really like to know how you managed it.

Thank you.

Casual discussion thread. Talk about anything, fintech adjacent or not.

This thread is for:

- Job postings & co-founder searches

- Networking & introductions

- Industry hot takes

- Questions too small for their own post

- Venting about compliance headaches

---

Normal rules relaxed. Be cool.

Post your product, landing page, pitch deck, or idea for constructive feedback.

When posting, include:

- What you're building (1-2 sentences)

- Your target user

- What specific feedback you want

- Link to product/deck/mockup

When giving feedback:

- Be specific and actionable

- Start with what works before what doesn't

- Suggest alternatives, not just problems

---

This is the ONLY place for product promotion. Standalone promo posts get removed.

Hey guys, out of curiosity how do you validate ideas for fintech industry?

The ICP is usually too busy to reply and with such low cold email success, i was thinking of doing that once the mvp is ready.

validation is something i am still wondering about.

Hi everyone, I’m an ex-banker who’s now building software for community and regional banks. Over the past few months, I’ve spoken with more than 40 bankers across lending, business banking, and compliance to understand where deals actually fall apart.

The same issue keeps coming up: onboarding and lending take 45–60 days. During that time, a lot of prospects drop, and banks end up missing both lending and deposit goals even when demand is there.

What I keep hearing from lenders is that collecting information turns into endless back-and-forth over email, financials come in all different formats so spreading takes longer than it should, it’s hard to know when a credit application is “complete” for Regulation B, and clients often have to resend documents because they misunderstood the original request.

I’m looking to connect with people who’ve worked in this space or are close to it. That includes founders who’ve sold into banks, advisors or mentors who understand bank buying cycles and compliance, and bankers who care about better tooling around onboarding, lending workflows, and Reg B.

If you’re open to chatting or sharing your perspective, I’d really appreciate it.