[misterbwong]

As an avid miles & points enthusiast, this does sound like an interesting tool to make CC rewards easier to digest.

Couple questions/concerns:

1. BIG red flag: You sidestep the monetization question in your FAQ. Monetization in this space is generally some combination of: spending data repackaging/selling, card affiliate links, subscriptions (least likely?). You should be up front as each one of these methods has privacy and or agency concerns.

2. You should help the user understand what they are getting into when signing up for credit cards. CC rewards to save money is a great thing but not when the user doesn't understand the consequences of doing so and the overhead of management (e.g. lowering scores while you're prepping for a refi would cost you $$$$).

3. The site generally needs more information. If I'm going to trust a site with read access to everything I buy every day, I need to trust you.

4. Doesn't look your tool takes into account issuer limits on card signups or current portfolio? Could cause issues where you are recommending cards but the user is unable to sign up due some issuer constraint

5. Is googling NerdWallet really the pain point you're addressing?

[saurabhsharan]

1. Right now, we're not monetizing this at all. The current plan (which we haven't implemented yet) is card affiliate revenue. I can definitively rule out repackaging/selling spending data - we would never do that. Subscriptions would likely be the next best option if affiliate deals don't pan out.

2. Great idea!

3. Totally understand - we know it's a big ask to request your transaction history. Out of curiosity, what information could we provide would help you trust us more?

4. We do not.

5. Yes, this is the pain point we've heard repeatedly from our users. Since you mention you are a "miles & points enthusiast", I can see why the value prop of Trove might not be as compelling. Our goal is to help people get most of the same rewards as a credit card enthusiast would, without having to become an expert on this stuff.

[misterbwong]

1. Cool-that would be a good thing to put on your site somewhere. Since you're thinking affiliate fees, how you will avoid the agency problem? e.g. A ton of businesses push the premium cards (Amex Plat, CSR, etc) with high commissions but almost no one pushes cards that have small affiliate fees but that would generally be great for the majority of people. Think Citi Double Cash and the various limited 3x cards.

3. Personally, a blurb about your data deletion policy, putting it in your TOS that you will never sell transaction history/personally identifying info, and making Plaid (or VISA) more front and center moves the needle. I trust Plaid more than I trust some random entity with "bank level encryption." Not sure if I'm the right one to ask about this one as I'm not your target.

5. Cool. Didn't realize CC signup decisions were weighed so heavily by people. IME people just generally went with the marketing (think store cards and/or cards with big marketing budgets like Cap1). Maybe I'm desensitized after doing this stuff for so long.....

[saurabhsharan]

1. There isn't an easy answer for this, and I think part of it will be slowly building up a reputation as a trustworthy brand. The other part is improving our UI to be much more transparent about why we made certain recommendations and adding ways for users to customize what type of recommendations they see. (These are all features we're working on.)

3. Yup, making Plaid more visible is a great idea!