I'm sorry to say that I hope that such a product fails for lack of a market.
I dislike the idea that it is of any relevance the net worth of a person to any means. I would rather prefer to live in a world where the worth of a person is determined on the basis of his/her actions, words, and intellectual capabilities.
- What's the business model of this site (how does it make money)?
- Who do you expect will find it useful? Businesses who want to know whether I'm creditworthy will run a conventional credit check on me. Who else needs to know about my net worth?
- I don't see any information on the site about terms of service (privacy, etc.). Why should anyone trust you with sensitive financial information such as their net worth?
Also, many peoples' major positive contributor to their net worth is their real estate, and a major negative contributor to their net worth is debt such as student loans. Someone who has $100K in the bank but $200K in debt has a net worth of -$100K. How can you accurately compute such peoples' net worth by just using the Plaid API?
Business Model/Market:
As of today, we monetize by selling QR code hats which when scanned lead to your profile page showing how much money you have. This is because this first version is really a status symbol, b2c product, we want to get traction by connecting with influencers. In other words, what you see now is the "Influencer Tier".
In the future we plan to build a premium tier which enables you to directly show a history of your networth over months and weeks. This is useful for internet ecommerce gurus who need financial credibility in order to sell their product. These additional features which offer more transparency form what will call the "Guru Tier".
TOS/Privacy:
Great call out. We need to add more transparency about ourselves as the founders as well. We need an about page. This trust is something we are going to earn over time by being open about who we are, and how this works (including how we plan to make money).
Real Estate/Debt:
As of today, we don't support verification of real estate. But if these is a recurring request, then its a feature we could work towards in the future. As for debt, you aren't required to add a financial account, so people could just omit their debt. This is a legitimate gap that I don't know how to solve yet.
I am imagining it is a status thing. 90% of my worth is in commercial businesses with no liquidity. You can't verify that well without months and months of audits and accounting if my last sale is any gauge.
Yes, especially for this v0.1 its a status thing. It's really focused on relatively liquid assets. But of course, once we master these easy asset categories and build a product that people want to use, we can work towards these more complex asset categories.
So I am high net worth. One issue is that 1) why would
I want people to know. 2) How won't this make me more of a target. The biggest issue since getting money is family/friends knowing. Why would I use this?
1.1) You are on a pseudonymous website e.g. hackernews or reddit (or 4chan). You make some claim on the internet of being high net worth. I, a stranger on the internet, do not believe you. You want to win your argument, so you post a link to your net worth page.
1.2) You are an instagram influencer who wants to provide evidence that those fancy cars aren't just a 1-day rental, and that house isn't just an airbnb premium. So you add a post to your instagram story with a link to your net worth page. Heck maybe you even add it to your Tinder/Hinge/League profile.
2) You have complete control over what you put on your profile, you don't have to put your real name or your real picture. The only thing guaranteed to be real on that page is the total net worth.
Not the author or related in any form. Maybe if this thing would be accepted as the verified proof it could back your claim when investing. Speed up the process a bit as you have immediate proof you have some form of worth.
Problem is of course a single net worth number says nothing about liquidity or any of the zillion other aspects that you would be required to prove in such a scenario. Unless the app business model diverts and becomes a tool investors can use for exactly that issue. I.e. It isn't a net worth tool anymore but a full investor guarantee/check thing. Not sure how that would work but for sure many investments end up in nightmares because it turns out the investor didn't have the actual money they claimed to have to invest.
So very recently there was an article about an SAAS provider baremetrics having to do a ton of due diligence for a buy that never happened. I own parts of a few properties that aren't publicly traded. Find my net worth(a real estimate without lawyers and months).
Not sure if you meant this sarcastically, I guess you do. However, if such a tool would exist, taking away the hassle of due diligence or at least beforehand (before starting due diligence) prove you are a credible investor it could save a ton of work. If you had some way of knowing that your due diligence work and accompanying costs would not go to waste because of the opposing party not checking out, that would be value. Note it doesn't need to give an accurate, to the dollar net worth as long as it flags you as credible investor.
Not saying anything about the complexity of building such a tool.
Kinda my point. If he has this tool it is a potential game changer. If not, why publicize a dumb tool that scavenges my bank account and posts that publicly? Where would I derive value from that? I basically think the product is shit, and degrading and worthless at best, but am trying to provide direction.
Good thinking, but the app is not mature enough to validate someone's legitimacy as an investor. This is really focused on the social media crowd right now.
Sure, got that. Yet, all businesses pivot at the start to find the right market ;).
Regarding instagram crowd, you could consider adding tiers without showing the actual net worth in numbers. E-peen of having a golden instagram profile picture or whatever (with link to actual profile to proof you didn't photos op it). Might be interesting to more people who want their actual value to stay hidden.
So, I am ideal consumer. High value. I would pay. Why would I use your service? I own ~$10k dollars USD. I have >2Million <8Billion in stock. How will you present me?
Liquid cash is the measure, because that's what we can easily measure today. Liquid cash also aligns well with the type of assets that people usually brag about. The complexity will grow with time.
Love the energy, I'd be super down to have like a 10 minute vchat with you about this. The fun thing about this service is that it really is just hiding in plain sight, its obvious but also oddly taboo in western society. People want to know how much money other people have, but don't want to share how much they themselves have.
So I am willing mainly as a form of social currency, a lot of women ask about money early on. I own a lot of unusual investments and some more conventional ones. I exist on my more conventional interests, and I would be silly to say no woman has wanted to know all I own.
To me, that would be a signal to break off the relationship. If someone is only interested in me if my net worth is above a certain number, I'm not interested in them.
Maybe they're high net-worth ladies themselves who want to make sure you won't just be mooching off from them all the time. And they aren't going to tell you that upfront, either.
I dislike the idea that it is of any relevance the net worth of a person to any means. I would rather prefer to live in a world where the worth of a person is determined on the basis of his/her actions, words, and intellectual capabilities.