Startup Snapshot
Startup name: Atrevi
Industry: Fintech & Edtech
Business Model: B2C
Founder: Elías Huarte
Operations: Mexico
HQ Location: Guadalajara
Team Size: 6
Founded: 2020
Stage: Pre-seed
Investors: CONDUSEF & Unreasonable Grants
Accelerators: EmpreLATAM, Cube Ventures, Unreasonable & Tec de Monterrey
Website: https://atrevi.mx/
What does Atrevi do?
Atrevi is a platform that teaches young people how to save and invest their money to create a better future.
In LATAM, only 40% of people have savings, and most have their savings in the bank. (CAF, 2021).
What's your backstory?
In August 2020, Elías devised the idea for Atrevi while paying a toll. He realized that when paying tolls, or other minor payments, you would hand someone a bill and typically receive your change in coins, which would go to waste. He wanted to find a way for young people to save their coins instead of wasting them. Thus, he thought of creating a savings box. However, they eventually transitioned to an app that uses a card instead of cash, which is more convenient for young people. Although they didn't create a complete investment savings service, they succeeded in providing financial education, which built a community and allowed them to identify a real need that users are willing to pay for.
90% of Mexicans will not have a dignified retirement. (El economista 2022)
Through trial and error, they have refined their advisory service, providing over 300 consultations, helping 80 individuals invest more than 1 million pesos, and generating $1,000 in revenue in October and $30,000 in March. They have discovered that a common issue for their users is dealing with "money surprises," such as receiving a savings fund or holiday bonus. To address this, they are exploring a potential product that uses technology to understand a user's finances and provide an ideal investment strategy based on that information. In essence, Atrevi aims to help young people save and invest their money wisely.
How did you acquire your first customers?
In September 2021, after a year of development, the first version of an app was launched to help users set savings goals. The trial was limited to 50 people, of whom only 8% registered and used the app. The developers spoke with these users and gained valuable insights. They released a second version with interactive features that 200 people downloaded. Although this version did not allow for investments, they provided group advisory through WhatsApp and rewarded consistent savers. Over MXN 200,000 in savings were registered during this time, and the usage rate skyrocketed to 50%.
After the co-founders lost faith in the project and withdrew, Elías formed a new team of six programmers from Tec de Monterrey Campus Guadalajara. They launched a third version that was visually appealing and focused on investment cultivation. This experience taught Elías that a large team was unnecessary to build an MVP (Minimum Viable Product). A leaner team was more productive, as it reduced bugs and made acceptance in app stores easier.
Elías also took courses in personal finance and improved his expertise in investments. When the third version was launched, the team began taking jobs at companies like Google and Facebook. Although Elías found himself alone again, his capability to provide advisory services allowed him to offer those services, and the business started growing month by month. Initially, the first clients were friends and family, but they gained traction through word of mouth over time.
People spend 15 hours a month worrying about their finances (Invested, 2022)
What's your motivation?
Elías has always been intrigued by the potential of technology to enhance people's lives. He is driven to participate in projects that make a difference and shift paradigms. In the three years since becoming an entrepreneur, he has grown immeasurably. Entrepreneurship demands that you understand yourself, deal with your emotions, demonstrate resilience, have faith in yourself, and cultivate relationships, among other things. Elías founded Atrevi because he was curious about the concept, but he has since aligned its mission with his own goals and principles. After three years of exploring the issue and deepening his understanding, he is convinced that sound financial management is critical to living with dignity. He is passionate about making finance more accessible so that more people can improve their lives.
Over 60% of our users start investing after receiving advice from Atrevi.
What's next for your startup?
Short-term: The advisory service currently offered by Atrevi is designed for young people who are graduating and starting to work. This product aimed to structure your finances, cultivate the habit of investing, and set your first goals. They are redesigning these four advisory sessions to cater to other types of users. They plan to redesign the advisory service for this new segment and then experiment with different use cases to identify the segment that best aligns with the service to grow with them.
Medium-term: Launch the Atrevi RoboAdvisor and transition from human advisory to automated advisory.
Long-term: The plan is to move towards automated investments.
Tips for other founders:
Before starting a startup, thoroughly understand your target users' pain and ensure a real demand for your product or service.
Don't fall in love with the solution. Understand the problem well and solve it how the customer would like it, not how you would prefer to solve it.
If you're starting a startup, solve a problem you're passionate about that aligns with your purpose and values. This is the only way to overcome challenges and remain resilient.
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Founder's Wisdom
Being a founder is the world’s worst job. But it is the world’s best calling, and the difference between a job and a calling is that you can’t imagine yourself doing anything else with your life.
Steve Blank, American Entrepreneur and father of the Lean Startup movement.
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