7 ms·

Rate my startup: SwipeGood - Roundup every purchase you make & donate the change

25 points by SteliE 16y ago

SteliE 16y ago
Hey HNers! :) We just launched this first basic version of SwipeGood so we can get some user feedback before we move forward. Right now we haven't got Yodlee implemented so we can't do the monthly transactional data but have to ask the users to estimate the amount of transactions they make on a monthly basis. The idea is all about making change simple, affordable and effortless so more people can be part of it. Any and every feedback is welcome!!
- espadagroup 16y ago
  Love the idea, I was about to sign up when I realized that it isn't done automatically, that's kind of a deal breaker for me. When you get the Yodlee integration send an email out :)
  - SteliE 16y ago
    Thx! Will do! We just didn't want to wait and already start collecting feedback :)
  - bound008 16y ago
    The problem is that Yodlee is very expensive to get started with financially, (not technically). The point is to get people excited about the project and to sign up now, to convince someone to foot the cost of yodlee and keep all the money flowing to charity.
    - gabelerner 16y ago
      I just posted about my project at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1783823 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1783823. If you're interested please contact me.
    - arfrank 16y ago
      It would be nice if banks offered a simple API to tap into in order to get access to ones account details. I know the BankSimple guys are planning on having Oauth support in able to allow people to build services around their service and now have to go through Yodlee necessarily.
siruva07 16y ago
Love the idea -- i used to do this by hand in a restaurant, but that sometimes meant the server wouldn't get a round tip. Will you support the ability for me to save a portion of the money? Put it in my piggy bank for rewards (that you negotiate) so when I have enough money saved up I can buy something cool from you. Plus, you can also make good money if you properly short-term invest the float.
kno 16y ago
It would be nice to have a how it works page, you must give me a compelling reason for me to signup my credit card, at least I will like to know how it work.
- SteliE 16y ago
  Good point. We need to improve the landing page plus signup page. Any ideas? :)
daok 16y ago
How much money you take from the roundup money?
- SteliE 16y ago
  Right now zero. We will send 100% minus the transaction fees from authorize.net to DonorsChoose.org. To be honest we're still looking at all the numbers to see what will be the best way to go about it and what % we need to take to make SwipeGood sustainable in the long term.
- covercash 16y ago
  I feel like this idea would hold more weight as a non profit.
  - SteliE 16y ago
    We thought about it long and decided that the ultimate goal is to have the maximum impact and make SwipeGood sustainable without any grants and gov support. We believe that it doesn't matter what form the org has but how much positive change we can make in the long term...and we believe we can be more creative as a company and more agile in making change happen :)
Diana 16y ago
I signed up and donated! Wonderful idea!!!
zach 16y ago
So does this avoid B of A's infamous Keep The Change patent?
- anemitz 16y ago
  We are confident our method does not violate any current and enforceable patents.
vgurgov 16y ago
Call me paranoid, but I am not brave enough to pass step1 in your registration, sorry! Although I even know one of the founders :)
- SteliE 16y ago
  Yeah fair enough :) We need to build way more trust on step1 - any ideas?
- gawker 16y ago
  Yeah me too. The thing that put me off was Facebook. I can't trust putting my credit card alongside my Facebook account.
gojomo 16y ago
I know that these round-up programs are quite popular -- but it reflects a sloppy-with-money mindset I just don't have. Let's say you're a super-heavy card user -- 5 times a day. And charges are random in the cents value -- so on average a charge yields a $0.50 allocation. Why not just donate (30 days * 5 transactions/day * $0.50/transaction =) $75/month to your chosen purposes (be they personal savings as with BoFA or a charity as here)? Sure, you cold use transaction volume as an initial indicator of ability-to-pay or a socially-normed anchor-value. But, there really ought to be more consideration of personal circumstances than that. (What's your overall savings/debt? What are your other obligations?) And, this only requires an occasional look-back at prior volume to set a benchmark level -- not a constant function of every transaction. Sure, putting allocations on autopilot improves compliance to a stated plan... but that can be done without the 'round-up' transaction gimmick. (Lots of systems for auto-charging donations or savings on weekly/monthly/paycheckly/etc. schedules already exist.) And why $0.50 per transaction? If trying to achieve an optimal savings rate, it's unlikely that's the right ratio for anyone.
- jerf 16y ago
  "but it reflects a sloppy-with-money mindset I just don't have." It redirects the sloppy-with-money behavior into something that benefits you instead of harming you. A surprising amount of self-control ultimately boils down to that, differing only in the exact level on which they are applied. It is way easier to fool your bad habits or false ideations than actually eradicate them, and you've only got so much self-control to spend, as recent psychology research is demonstrating.
zts 16y ago
The idea sounds like it might be interesting, but I can't imagine how this works and neither your website nor the facebook page linked at the bottom tell me anything about it. I might suspect that if I signed up with Facebook Connect that there might be more information, but it's not clear whether that's the case - and I wouldn't try it on the off chance. I would suggest that there needs to be more up-front information to explain what happens if I use Facebook Connect to login. How does giving you my credit card work? On the face of it, that sounds like a scam. Is this service for everyone, or only people in the USA? After signing up, how easily can I opt out? etc etc. But I'm curious to know more.
- SteliE 16y ago
  thanks zts - u have some really good points! we might need to rethink the fb connect signup (since we heard the same feedback from multiple sources) also need to put more info on the page ( just for you, its only USA since Yodlee which is the service we're going to use later on is only operating in the states) Opt Out is super easy (at this time actually we can't do the automatic donation every month so its fully opt in for each donation) Will improve the site based on the feedback and keep you up to date Thanks again for taking time to share your experience with us!
- twymer 16y ago
  I agree with zts. Having a giant "login with facebook!" button immediately followed by a prompt to give my credit card information does not make me feel comfortable.
faust1 16y ago
indeed a nice idea ,,, consider changing the swipegood logo and by making it more apparent... how will that work, i dont know, but its a nice thing that people will surely appreciate....
edanm 16y ago
I really like this idea, I've thought of it in the past and am happy to see it being implemented. I don't know if you're planning on this, but I suggest making each donation as public as possible. For example, tweeting/Facebooking every time I make a donation or every month. This will help spread the site, and help give social proof to people to show that donating to this charity is indeed a good (and popular) thing.
- SteliE 16y ago
  We want to be as transparent as possible and thought of the same idea :) Automatically tweeting/fbing every donation you do and showing people how much change all their friends are making per month! Thx for the support!
- AlexC04 16y ago
  "optionally" of course. There are places in Christian literature that charity donations should be made generously but completely anonymously. According to some, it's "Not Christian" to make donations and publicly declare that you've made a donation.
  - edanm 16y ago
    I agree it should be optional. But I think the idea that donations shouldn't be public is a terrible thing. Social proof is a great motivator to get people to do things. The fact that most people are "shy" about letting the world know about their donations goes directly against the social proof.
AlexC04 16y ago
Seems a nice Idea. Though not for me. I don't like the lack of control of my funds. I don't think I'd be happy signing up for something like this because it seems like something haphazard that can quickly. I think I'm too cautious with money for this to appeal to me (so obviously not your target market) Incidentally, my gut response was: Who gets the tax receipt?
barrydahlberg 16y ago
My thoughts went like this: Enroll your credit/debit card today. OK yeah this is going to take some trust. It only takes a moment to sign up with Facebook. Oh wow I don't want them anywhere near my credit card.
- SteliE 16y ago
  Good point. We heard this before. Prob will have to change the signup process! Thx for the feedback :)
  - barrydahlberg 16y ago
    I'm not opposed to Facebook in general, they just haven't done much to build a trusting relationship lately.
chrbaine 16y ago
great idea -- just looking forward to seeing transaction data, being able to include mins and maxes for donations, as well as split my donations to different causes!

25 points by SteliE 16y ago

Hey HNers! :) We just launched this first basic version of SwipeGood so we can get some user feedback before we move forward. Right now we haven't got Yodlee implemented so we can't do the monthly transactional data but have to ask the users to estimate the amount of transactions they make on a monthly basis. The idea is all about making change simple, affordable and effortless so more people can be part of it. Any and every feedback is welcome!!

espadagroup 16y ago
Love the idea, I was about to sign up when I realized that it isn't done automatically, that's kind of a deal breaker for me. When you get the Yodlee integration send an email out :)
- SteliE 16y ago
  Thx! Will do! We just didn't want to wait and already start collecting feedback :)
- bound008 16y ago
  The problem is that Yodlee is very expensive to get started with financially, (not technically). The point is to get people excited about the project and to sign up now, to convince someone to foot the cost of yodlee and keep all the money flowing to charity.
  - gabelerner 16y ago
    I just posted about my project at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1783823 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1783823. If you're interested please contact me.
  - arfrank 16y ago
    It would be nice if banks offered a simple API to tap into in order to get access to ones account details. I know the BankSimple guys are planning on having Oauth support in able to allow people to build services around their service and now have to go through Yodlee necessarily.

siruva07 16y ago

Love the idea -- i used to do this by hand in a restaurant, but that sometimes meant the server wouldn't get a round tip. Will you support the ability for me to save a portion of the money? Put it in my piggy bank for rewards (that you negotiate) so when I have enough money saved up I can buy something cool from you. Plus, you can also make good money if you properly short-term invest the float.

kno 16y ago

It would be nice to have a how it works page, you must give me a compelling reason for me to signup my credit card, at least I will like to know how it work.

SteliE 16y ago
Good point. We need to improve the landing page plus signup page. Any ideas? :)

daok 16y ago

How much money you take from the roundup money?

SteliE 16y ago
Right now zero. We will send 100% minus the transaction fees from authorize.net to DonorsChoose.org. To be honest we're still looking at all the numbers to see what will be the best way to go about it and what % we need to take to make SwipeGood sustainable in the long term.
covercash 16y ago
I feel like this idea would hold more weight as a non profit.
- SteliE 16y ago
  We thought about it long and decided that the ultimate goal is to have the maximum impact and make SwipeGood sustainable without any grants and gov support. We believe that it doesn't matter what form the org has but how much positive change we can make in the long term...and we believe we can be more creative as a company and more agile in making change happen :)

Diana 16y ago

I signed up and donated! Wonderful idea!!!

zach 16y ago

So does this avoid B of A's infamous Keep The Change patent?

anemitz 16y ago
We are confident our method does not violate any current and enforceable patents.

vgurgov 16y ago

Call me paranoid, but I am not brave enough to pass step1 in your registration, sorry! Although I even know one of the founders :)

SteliE 16y ago
Yeah fair enough :) We need to build way more trust on step1 - any ideas?
gawker 16y ago
Yeah me too. The thing that put me off was Facebook. I can't trust putting my credit card alongside my Facebook account.

gojomo 16y ago

I know that these round-up programs are quite popular -- but it reflects a sloppy-with-money mindset I just don't have. Let's say you're a super-heavy card user -- 5 times a day. And charges are random in the cents value -- so on average a charge yields a $0.50 allocation. Why not just donate (30 days * 5 transactions/day * $0.50/transaction =) $75/month to your chosen purposes (be they personal savings as with BoFA or a charity as here)? Sure, you cold use transaction volume as an initial indicator of ability-to-pay or a socially-normed anchor-value. But, there really ought to be more consideration of personal circumstances than that. (What's your overall savings/debt? What are your other obligations?) And, this only requires an occasional look-back at prior volume to set a benchmark level -- not a constant function of every transaction. Sure, putting allocations on autopilot improves compliance to a stated plan... but that can be done without the 'round-up' transaction gimmick. (Lots of systems for auto-charging donations or savings on weekly/monthly/paycheckly/etc. schedules already exist.) And why $0.50 per transaction? If trying to achieve an optimal savings rate, it's unlikely that's the right ratio for anyone.

jerf 16y ago
"but it reflects a sloppy-with-money mindset I just don't have." It redirects the sloppy-with-money behavior into something that benefits you instead of harming you. A surprising amount of self-control ultimately boils down to that, differing only in the exact level on which they are applied. It is way easier to fool your bad habits or false ideations than actually eradicate them, and you've only got so much self-control to spend, as recent psychology research is demonstrating.

zts 16y ago

The idea sounds like it might be interesting, but I can't imagine how this works and neither your website nor the facebook page linked at the bottom tell me anything about it. I might suspect that if I signed up with Facebook Connect that there might be more information, but it's not clear whether that's the case - and I wouldn't try it on the off chance. I would suggest that there needs to be more up-front information to explain what happens if I use Facebook Connect to login. How does giving you my credit card work? On the face of it, that sounds like a scam. Is this service for everyone, or only people in the USA? After signing up, how easily can I opt out? etc etc. But I'm curious to know more.

SteliE 16y ago
thanks zts - u have some really good points! we might need to rethink the fb connect signup (since we heard the same feedback from multiple sources) also need to put more info on the page ( just for you, its only USA since Yodlee which is the service we're going to use later on is only operating in the states) Opt Out is super easy (at this time actually we can't do the automatic donation every month so its fully opt in for each donation) Will improve the site based on the feedback and keep you up to date Thanks again for taking time to share your experience with us!
twymer 16y ago
I agree with zts. Having a giant "login with facebook!" button immediately followed by a prompt to give my credit card information does not make me feel comfortable.

faust1 16y ago

indeed a nice idea ,,, consider changing the swipegood logo and by making it more apparent... how will that work, i dont know, but its a nice thing that people will surely appreciate....

edanm 16y ago

I really like this idea, I've thought of it in the past and am happy to see it being implemented. I don't know if you're planning on this, but I suggest making each donation as public as possible. For example, tweeting/Facebooking every time I make a donation or every month. This will help spread the site, and help give social proof to people to show that donating to this charity is indeed a good (and popular) thing.

SteliE 16y ago
We want to be as transparent as possible and thought of the same idea :) Automatically tweeting/fbing every donation you do and showing people how much change all their friends are making per month! Thx for the support!
AlexC04 16y ago
"optionally" of course. There are places in Christian literature that charity donations should be made generously but completely anonymously. According to some, it's "Not Christian" to make donations and publicly declare that you've made a donation.
- edanm 16y ago
  I agree it should be optional. But I think the idea that donations shouldn't be public is a terrible thing. Social proof is a great motivator to get people to do things. The fact that most people are "shy" about letting the world know about their donations goes directly against the social proof.

AlexC04 16y ago

Seems a nice Idea. Though not for me. I don't like the lack of control of my funds. I don't think I'd be happy signing up for something like this because it seems like something haphazard that can quickly. I think I'm too cautious with money for this to appeal to me (so obviously not your target market) Incidentally, my gut response was: Who gets the tax receipt?

barrydahlberg 16y ago

My thoughts went like this: Enroll your credit/debit card today. OK yeah this is going to take some trust. It only takes a moment to sign up with Facebook. Oh wow I don't want them anywhere near my credit card.

SteliE 16y ago
Good point. We heard this before. Prob will have to change the signup process! Thx for the feedback :)
- barrydahlberg 16y ago
  I'm not opposed to Facebook in general, they just haven't done much to build a trusting relationship lately.

chrbaine 16y ago

great idea -- just looking forward to seeing transaction data, being able to include mins and maxes for donations, as well as split my donations to different causes!