9 ms·

Ready for Zero (YC S10) wants to help Americans get out of debt.

81 points by ithayer 16y ago

keyle 16y ago
That's really good! I'd like an app that will help repay my mortgage quicker, coming with plans etc. Also I can't help but notice that techcrunch is basically an advertising platform for pretty much anything YC funded. It's like if you get funded, you get something that floats, boom, you're on techcrunch. I'd even say that a feature article on TC would help more than the original funding...
- jackowayed 16y ago
  You might be able to argue that it's worth more than the ~$17k, but there's no way it's worth more than the advice, the ridiculous productivity because you have to tell everyone what you've gotten done every Tuesday, the intros to investors, etc.
  - keyle 16y ago
    yeah from outside, I have no idea about all these things. I'm sure you can't put a price on experience. I'd love to be a part of it but I guess it's not in my path :)
- albahk 16y ago
  I've heard ex-YC'ers claim that the money is the least significant part of the whole YC process with contacts, mentoring and the guaranteed Techcrunch coverage obviously being much more useful than the $20k.
city41 16y ago
I'm all for any ideas that can help America get out of debt. It's also great to see someone step in and fill in the hole that MS Money left (it had a fantastic debt wizard/planner, I was sad when MS announced they are killing it, despite how buggy the app always was). I do wonder if this site can really reach the market it's after. In my anecdotal experience, the people that are in massive debt don't really have the discipline or organization to get out of it, even with a great tool to help them. If they did, they probably wouldn't be in as much debt to begin with.
- jsankey 16y ago
  I do wonder if this site can really reach the market it's after. I think this is the big question. I really love this idea, because too many people are struggling unnecessarily because they don't realise the true impact of credit card debt. Having something that clearly shows them this impact is a great idea. But I find it hard to believe they will seek something like this out, so it's going to be tricky to reach them. I was thinking about the very problem yesterday, and wondered if it would be worthwhile requiring information like this to appear on all credit card statements. Instead of just highlighting a minimum payment, what if the statements also had to outline the impact of higher payments somehow? It could be the only reliable way to get the information to the people that could benefit most.
  - martin 16y ago
    Something like this is required as part of the recently enacted CARD act (in the US): "Credit card issuers must disclose to cardholders the consequences of making only minimum payments each month, namely how long it would take to pay off the entire balance if users only made the minimum monthly payment. Issuers must also provide information on how much users must pay each month if they want to pay off their balances in 36 months, including the amount of interest." (http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/help/what-the-new-credit-card-rules-mean-6000.php http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/help/what-the-ne...)
ergo98 16y ago
Sorry, but this one is going to fail miserably.
- sorbus 16y ago
  Why do you think so?
  - ergo98 16y ago
    There is almost nothing there, in an industry absolutely saturated with loads of people with a lot of something. The business plan right now appears to be "a simple Google Spreadsheet with a lot of annoying maintenance and superficial value-add surrounding it". The pie-in-the-sky fantasy land of future low interest credit card leads [which is the exact opposite of the sort of offers such a site would get. The best would be predatory, secured credit-card type offers] and automatic...something...it just has the aroma of failure. It could as easily be a "lose weight today" website where you enter your desired weight and it tells you to eat less daily. Which...if such a site existed...I think we would all laugh at.
    - jacquesm 16y ago
      For someone with a hole in their hand getting a handle on their expenses can be a first step towards actually doing something about it. I would not rule this out as a failure quite so easily. They'll have to make it super easy to use though.
      - hugh3 16y ago
        Another issue: the target customers don't have any money.
        brianlash 16y ago
        Kinda true but credit card debt =/ 0 buying power. A lot of these folks are carrying non-zero balances but using the cards anyway. The trouble is credibly collecting payments which will almost certainly come from users' credit. As an aside, while this demographic has less total buying power than that of responsible consumers, it's also a hell of a lot more likely to buy stuff. Possible net positive?
jeromec 16y ago
I'm really glad to see this. I'd say it could count as a public service as well. What I hope the site will also offer is counseling on developing better spending habits in addition to the tracking/organizing of repayments. The crowd that visits HN is probably already pretty wary of the credit card game/trap, but too many Americans get pulled underneath unmanageable debt burdens before they really know what's happening. I had a neighbor who had simple, yet fantastic advice: if you can't afford to pay for it cash, don't buy it. This guy was your average American, with a middle class job, but during his retirement years I noticed he bought a new porsche and humongous RV. I have to wonder if he bought those cash too, but I wouldn't be surprised. He had rental property, all his debts paid off I'm pretty sure, and all because of simple yet powerful financial common sense. It actually angers me to see some of the interest rate schemes and fees banks deliberately put in place to take advantage of unsuspecting debtors. A site like ReadyForZero is timely in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. If 70% of our economy is based on consumer spending, it make sense to strive to keep Americans in a position to spend comfortably.
- jacquesm 16y ago
  Debt is a huge trap. And consumer debt is being rammed down peoples throat in a way that should be illegal.
  - mrkurt 16y ago
    This is one of the areas where education in the US is really horrible. This stuff isn't rocket science, but people really have no clue what it means to get a car loan or carry a balance on a credit card, or even understand mortgages. It's depressing.
    - jacquesm 16y ago
      An ex employee of mine had a student loan that they were sure was 'interest free'. Right. After looking over the documentation I found the clause they were referring to, it was 'no obligation to pay interest for the first 5 years'. The debt had increased to about 30% more than it was initially (4 years had already passed). So much for it being 'interest free'.
jacquesm 16y ago
The site is still invitation only. Here's a little plan I came up with for someone, not quite 100% applicable but it worked pretty good: (1) cut up your cards Tough ? Yes, absolutely, very tough. But step one of getting out of a hole is to stop digging, so stop spending money that you don't have. (2) cancel: cable, newspapers, any and all subscriptions, internet and cell phone included if you don't need them for your job. If you do need internet see if you can make a deal with a neighbour, especially easy if you have a laptop with wifi. These are not essentials in your life, you can do without them until you can afford them. (3) stop smoking, stop drinking Besides making you unhealthy this stuff is habit forming and costs you a bundle, even if you don't really notice because it's only a few bucks at the time. (4) if you've bought stuff that you don't actually need, sell it. Liquidate it, set a price on what you realistically think it is worth and try to raise that money by selling it for cash. (5) stop eating and drinking outdoors. Restaurants and coffee shops make a profit, that means that you can cook for yourself and make your own beverages cheaper. Sure, it may not be that luxury latte that you've come to depend on but it adds up. (6) pursue ways in which you can earn more than you do today (this can be hard, it did not work out for my friend, maybe you have more luck) (7) list each and every expense you make, look at the list at the end of the week and be critical, could you have saved on any of them? If you could do not repeat that spending in the next week! All these steps together should give you a bit of money on a repetitive basis that should go towards paying off your debt. That's cumulative, any money that you spend over and beyond the required interest payments will come back the next month as a further reduction in interest to be paid. So next month you can pay back more on the principal and so on. Do not fall back in to old habits, be strong and look at your debt decreasing as a motivator. -- I'm really happy that the 'readyforzero' people built this. That's one of the nicest start-ups ever to come out of YC, in terms of the 'change the world' attitude.
- innovate 16y ago
  we're actually letting people through to register as well but have throttled initial registrations so many will get an invite page. thanks for the support and feedback.
  - jacquesm 16y ago
kirpekar 16y ago
Dave Ramsey would like something like this.
nopassrecover 16y ago
How are they dealing with the "we're not financial planners so this isn't financial advice" thing? (or is that not an issue in the US?)
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]

81 points by ithayer 16y ago

keyle 16y ago

That's really good! I'd like an app that will help repay my mortgage quicker, coming with plans etc. Also I can't help but notice that techcrunch is basically an advertising platform for pretty much anything YC funded. It's like if you get funded, you get something that floats, boom, you're on techcrunch. I'd even say that a feature article on TC would help more than the original funding...

jackowayed 16y ago
You might be able to argue that it's worth more than the ~$17k, but there's no way it's worth more than the advice, the ridiculous productivity because you have to tell everyone what you've gotten done every Tuesday, the intros to investors, etc.
- keyle 16y ago
  yeah from outside, I have no idea about all these things. I'm sure you can't put a price on experience. I'd love to be a part of it but I guess it's not in my path :)
albahk 16y ago
I've heard ex-YC'ers claim that the money is the least significant part of the whole YC process with contacts, mentoring and the guaranteed Techcrunch coverage obviously being much more useful than the $20k.

city41 16y ago

I'm all for any ideas that can help America get out of debt. It's also great to see someone step in and fill in the hole that MS Money left (it had a fantastic debt wizard/planner, I was sad when MS announced they are killing it, despite how buggy the app always was). I do wonder if this site can really reach the market it's after. In my anecdotal experience, the people that are in massive debt don't really have the discipline or organization to get out of it, even with a great tool to help them. If they did, they probably wouldn't be in as much debt to begin with.

jsankey 16y ago
I do wonder if this site can really reach the market it's after. I think this is the big question. I really love this idea, because too many people are struggling unnecessarily because they don't realise the true impact of credit card debt. Having something that clearly shows them this impact is a great idea. But I find it hard to believe they will seek something like this out, so it's going to be tricky to reach them. I was thinking about the very problem yesterday, and wondered if it would be worthwhile requiring information like this to appear on all credit card statements. Instead of just highlighting a minimum payment, what if the statements also had to outline the impact of higher payments somehow? It could be the only reliable way to get the information to the people that could benefit most.
- martin 16y ago
  Something like this is required as part of the recently enacted CARD act (in the US): "Credit card issuers must disclose to cardholders the consequences of making only minimum payments each month, namely how long it would take to pay off the entire balance if users only made the minimum monthly payment. Issuers must also provide information on how much users must pay each month if they want to pay off their balances in 36 months, including the amount of interest." (http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/help/what-the-new-credit-card-rules-mean-6000.php http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/help/what-the-ne...)

ergo98 16y ago

Sorry, but this one is going to fail miserably.

sorbus 16y ago
Why do you think so?
- ergo98 16y ago
  There is almost nothing there, in an industry absolutely saturated with loads of people with a lot of something. The business plan right now appears to be "a simple Google Spreadsheet with a lot of annoying maintenance and superficial value-add surrounding it". The pie-in-the-sky fantasy land of future low interest credit card leads [which is the exact opposite of the sort of offers such a site would get. The best would be predatory, secured credit-card type offers] and automatic...something...it just has the aroma of failure. It could as easily be a "lose weight today" website where you enter your desired weight and it tells you to eat less daily. Which...if such a site existed...I think we would all laugh at.
  - jacquesm 16y ago
    For someone with a hole in their hand getting a handle on their expenses can be a first step towards actually doing something about it. I would not rule this out as a failure quite so easily. They'll have to make it super easy to use though.
    - hugh3 16y ago
      Another issue: the target customers don't have any money.
      - brianlash 16y ago
        Kinda true but credit card debt =/ 0 buying power. A lot of these folks are carrying non-zero balances but using the cards anyway. The trouble is credibly collecting payments which will almost certainly come from users' credit. As an aside, while this demographic has less total buying power than that of responsible consumers, it's also a hell of a lot more likely to buy stuff. Possible net positive?

jeromec 16y ago

I'm really glad to see this. I'd say it could count as a public service as well. What I hope the site will also offer is counseling on developing better spending habits in addition to the tracking/organizing of repayments. The crowd that visits HN is probably already pretty wary of the credit card game/trap, but too many Americans get pulled underneath unmanageable debt burdens before they really know what's happening. I had a neighbor who had simple, yet fantastic advice: if you can't afford to pay for it cash, don't buy it. This guy was your average American, with a middle class job, but during his retirement years I noticed he bought a new porsche and humongous RV. I have to wonder if he bought those cash too, but I wouldn't be surprised. He had rental property, all his debts paid off I'm pretty sure, and all because of simple yet powerful financial common sense. It actually angers me to see some of the interest rate schemes and fees banks deliberately put in place to take advantage of unsuspecting debtors. A site like ReadyForZero is timely in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. If 70% of our economy is based on consumer spending, it make sense to strive to keep Americans in a position to spend comfortably.

jacquesm 16y ago
Debt is a huge trap. And consumer debt is being rammed down peoples throat in a way that should be illegal.
- mrkurt 16y ago
  This is one of the areas where education in the US is really horrible. This stuff isn't rocket science, but people really have no clue what it means to get a car loan or carry a balance on a credit card, or even understand mortgages. It's depressing.
  - jacquesm 16y ago
    An ex employee of mine had a student loan that they were sure was 'interest free'. Right. After looking over the documentation I found the clause they were referring to, it was 'no obligation to pay interest for the first 5 years'. The debt had increased to about 30% more than it was initially (4 years had already passed). So much for it being 'interest free'.

jacquesm 16y ago

The site is still invitation only. Here's a little plan I came up with for someone, not quite 100% applicable but it worked pretty good: (1) cut up your cards Tough ? Yes, absolutely, very tough. But step one of getting out of a hole is to stop digging, so stop spending money that you don't have. (2) cancel: cable, newspapers, any and all subscriptions, internet and cell phone included if you don't need them for your job. If you do need internet see if you can make a deal with a neighbour, especially easy if you have a laptop with wifi. These are not essentials in your life, you can do without them until you can afford them. (3) stop smoking, stop drinking Besides making you unhealthy this stuff is habit forming and costs you a bundle, even if you don't really notice because it's only a few bucks at the time. (4) if you've bought stuff that you don't actually need, sell it. Liquidate it, set a price on what you realistically think it is worth and try to raise that money by selling it for cash. (5) stop eating and drinking outdoors. Restaurants and coffee shops make a profit, that means that you can cook for yourself and make your own beverages cheaper. Sure, it may not be that luxury latte that you've come to depend on but it adds up. (6) pursue ways in which you can earn more than you do today (this can be hard, it did not work out for my friend, maybe you have more luck) (7) list each and every expense you make, look at the list at the end of the week and be critical, could you have saved on any of them? If you could do not repeat that spending in the next week! All these steps together should give you a bit of money on a repetitive basis that should go towards paying off your debt. That's cumulative, any money that you spend over and beyond the required interest payments will come back the next month as a further reduction in interest to be paid. So next month you can pay back more on the principal and so on. Do not fall back in to old habits, be strong and look at your debt decreasing as a motivator. -- I'm really happy that the 'readyforzero' people built this. That's one of the nicest start-ups ever to come out of YC, in terms of the 'change the world' attitude.

innovate 16y ago
we're actually letting people through to register as well but have throttled initial registrations so many will get an invite page. thanks for the support and feedback.
- jacquesm 16y ago

kirpekar 16y ago

Dave Ramsey would like something like this.

nopassrecover 16y ago

How are they dealing with the "we're not financial planners so this isn't financial advice" thing? (or is that not an issue in the US?)

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]