Good luck and godspeed. I spent a couple years on the Motley Fool forums giving out advice to people for credit card issues. (I have quirky hobbies, what can I say.) Many of them would have benefited from something which automatically addressed their poor organizational skills. (And, sadly, many of them are far beyond the point where any amount of technology will solve their problem. If you're committed to living a $5,000 a month lifestyle on a $4,000 a month income... no, the evil credit card company charging you $500 minimum payments is <i>not</i> your problem.)
Brilliant: "Y Combinator is about 3 months long (June through August). 18 hours a day * 3 months = 1620 hours. Incidentally, that means my weight increased about 4.5 grams per non-sleep hour of YC. This is roughly equivalent to 1 paul gram."
It seems a little ironic that, in an attempt to encourage financial responsibility in the area of debt management, they are effectively asking people to hand their financial information to an unknown party. I got a letter the other day claiming that I'd won the Spanish lottery that (if it were not a classic scam, if it were not postmarked from Texas, and if not for the YC stamp on ReadyForZero) would have been only a little less credible. I mean, they're even hosting the McAfee, TRUSTe, and VeriSign stamps on their server.<p>Let me be clear: I do not think this is a scam. I just think there are some mixed signals here. You should be very up front about exactly what's done with the user's information and how it's secured, and give them a reason to think you're for real. An endorsement from someone well-known would do wonders.<p>Some of your potential customers are likely in debt because they've fallen for scams in the past. Don't let them be scared off.
A noble goal. I wish you guys well; this is an issue that's pretty close to me.<p>For a data point, I am roughly $72k in debt from undergrad. This is due to a few factors, but largely because I saw a huge raise in price for the duration that I was in school. I also paid for 5 years, and room and board for my first two. Who knows when I'll ever end up paying it all back...<p>I've seen a few other situations where debt has really crippled people close to me. The emotional issues you talk about are certainly real, and can cause lots of problems paying stuff back...<p>This is one YC company where I'm _really_ interested to see how they make money. :)
Not sure exactly what you guys are building, but I hope it makes a fat dent in how credit bureaus work. I went through my first credit report from the 3 credit bureaus. Not only was the process archaic, but along the way I was bombarded by all kinds of predatory offers to sign up for paid credit monitoring services. After I retrieved my reports, I find inaccurate information, along with an account that I've never seen before labeled as an "adverse account". On top of that, I see misreported addresses and dates as well. From there, I had to do 3 separate dispute claims (all of them slightly different in process, but equally filled with spam). While on the phone with an Indian call center with Equifax, I was cut short every time I asked a question or tried to clarify, and at the end of the call I get yet another pitch to sign up for their paid credit monitoring service.<p>Please tear down and rebuild these sloppy and fat credit bureaus. At the very least, I hope you guys provide some solid competition for them to shape themselves up.
Not sure you are aware, but the FTC recently wiped out the whole debt settlement industry by making it such that you can't charge upfront fees for debt settlement programs. Before that, debt settlement was one of the most lucrative verticals on the Internet.
This blows me away: <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/10/27/investopedia47863.DTL" rel="nofollow">http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/10/27/...</a> "The average American ... carries $5,100 in credit card debt". No math education? Don't care? Peer pressure to buy crap? Or is that money really going to groceries and rent? I guess I live in an entitled bubble, but I really can't wrap my head around how people get in that state.<p>Is it relatively easy to get access to a user's credit card statements, or do you need to negotiate with each provider? Or do you just get their passwords and scrape?
I'm usually the last to 'get' some of these things, but in my experience, people are usually not in debt because they don't know how to get out.<p>I would not have thought you could make billions of dollars from selling coffee either, so all i can do is wish you guys luck.
As much as I admire these guys.. The same reasons that people got themselves into unmanageable credit card debt are the same reasons why using a service like this wouldn't work. The main way people get out of debt is to declare bankruptcy and work out better deals. Its easy and fast, and they never cared about their credit in the first place. Best of luck.
<i>ReadyForZero connects with people and empowers them with the right information</i>...<p>"Empowers them"?? When Obama said to Jon Stewart that Larry Summers had done "a heck of a job" fixing the economy, Jon laughed and responded: "dude, you don't want to use that phrase". (Obama then said "pun intended", but still).<p>Same here. If you're going after credit card companies and big corporations, please don't try to "empower" anyone, because by now people have learned what it's like to be "empowered" (hint: it hurts).<p>Also:<p>- most of their data seems to be from 2006 -- that was a long time ago<p>- many problems listed, not many solutions<p>- it seems highly improbable that people are drowning in debt because they don't know better; people have debts because they can, because they enjoy it -- they enjoy the goods the debts help buy, and the debt, they forget about it.
I tried looking for more details about how exactly the company helps eliminate debt. Certainly even more cautious at the idea of linking up my CC to a website.<p>If there were more details explaining the process, I think more cautious people (like me) would be willing to try it.
Good luck guys! We need this kind of tools to stop this debt mess.
Shameless plug: We have recently developed a simple app that calculates your affordability based on your financial data. You can use it as a quick check to make sure all your bases are covered before making any purchases.
We appreciate any feedback, including from Rod and Ignacio. Thanks.
<a href="http://caniafforditnow.com" rel="nofollow">http://caniafforditnow.com</a>
Great cause. Looking forward to learning how they attack the problem.<p>From a personal stand point, I can't tell you now much relief/satisfaction I get since eliminating debt (outside of a mortgage) or how much stress I get when the occasional short term debt comes about (which motivates me to eliminate it).<p>They mention debt as a 'hair on fire' problem. What are some others?
I love it when new companies put up a "Why we started our company" posts/story.<p>I look for it often when thinking of using a company/service/product.<p>It's also wonderful for new employees to read when they join your company.
Let's make getting out of debt cool and fun to do ;)<p>I think personally that the biggest part is education. Here in Brazil a lot of people would benefit from such a service as well. If you need help at some point internationalizing it, please get in touch :).
It's pretty straightforward, actually:<p><a href="http://www.hulu.com/watch/1389/saturday-night-live-dont-buy-stuff" rel="nofollow">http://www.hulu.com/watch/1389/saturday-night-live-dont-buy-...</a><p>Seriously though (on second thought, that was pretty serious), about 5 or 6 years ago this offline app helped us become completely debt-free (and saved us a bundle on interest fees in the process):<p><a href="http://www.zilchworks.com/zilchstandard.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.zilchworks.com/zilchstandard.html</a><p>If ReadyForZero offers users similar functionality and the pricing is fair, it will more than pay for itself.
Wonderful cause. I'd love to read about the tensions between your goal and the various business models that suggest themselves. You will succeed at your mission precisely to the extent that your users reduce their spending relative to their income. How will you create a mechanism that flows money to you and your users at the same time? Who pays (net) and why?
I am in US only for few years (4) and it is hard for me to believe that someone can have such a huge debt. How can you have such huge credit card debt.