Wrapping Up with Nirali Zaveri, Co-Founder & CEO of Friz
We are fortunate to speak today with Nirali Zaveri and discuss what she's been working on. Nirali Zaveri is the CEO and Co-Founder of Friz and a fintech entrepreneur based in Singapore. Fascinated by innovation in the world of fintech, Nirali started off her career at Mastercard before making her entry into entrepreneurship. At Mastercard, she held roles in product management and business development, with a focus towards digital payments. Upon seeing that there was a lack of financial services and support dedicated to freelancers, Nirali and her colleagues decided to address this need directly.
Pain Points:
There's a lack of tailored banking services for freelancers and creators since they fall into this unique space between personal banking and business banking. Unfortunately, at the end of the day, there isn't a single player who are solving for their needs. In the current system, if freelancers were to open a checking or savings account and receive a debit card, they would only get better rates if they debited their salaries to their account on a recurring basis. The problem is even as something as basic as opening a savings account can become difficult since freelancers typically earn on a project basis.
In terms of debit cards, they don't get any tailored benefits on their debit spend. There are SME debit cards that have benefits for small businesses; however, for freelancers, spending looks different. They would spend on Google and Facebook ads, performance-enhancing SaaS tools, and networking platforms. There's currently a lack of debit cards with those benefits. You have personal debit cards that have generic benefits but nothing that's tailored. These are two pain points at the base of the pyramid.
There will be other pain points that will need to be addressed including the lack of access to cashflows and cash flow products. Remember, a freelancer is a business him or herself. The banking experience needs to change to merge both personal and business banking in the right way.
Market Size:
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the number of white-collar freelancers in Asia has been increasing 20% month-on-month. There are around 35 million freelancers in Southeast Asia and 50 million in South Asia.
We are currently live in Singapore because we wanted to go-to-market quickly in an area where there's solid card issuance infrastructure and lending. There are around 350,000 freelancers in Singapore, in which half of their income is from freelancing. The next country on our roadmap is the Philippines. It has the most mature freelancing economy, and, on average, freelancers have been earning thrice the average national income. There are 4.1 million freelancers in the Philippines and it's the fastest growing in terms of freelancer talent in SEA. The second crucial market is Thailand, where a third of its economy is involved in freelancing or project-based work. Thailand has roughly 10 million freelancers, similar to that of Indonesia.
Product:
Friz is a financial tool for freelancers and project-based workers, that is completely tailored for their needs. We provide them with a debit card with tailored benefits, an invoicing solution with advance payments and a credit line that doesn't require monthly pay slips or documents from freelancers.
Team:
When I started Friz, I didn't have a co-founder. I've been on the search, speaking with CTOs and engineers working within the fintech space, until I met Ash Rhazaly. Ash was someone who instantly understood the vision. The pain point was personal for him as his brother-in-law was a freelancer himself. We decided to pursue Friz together amid the pandemic, building out the MVP, speaking with users and creating a waitlist.
Things fell into place from there on and it's been an exhilarating journey to build this co-founder relationship and grow the company together. We currently have 7 full-time staff, but we work a lot with freelancers on the UI/UX and customer acquisition.
Latest Breakthrough:
We launched a neobank in <5 months, which is something we're proud of. Although receiving funding is a success, we find it validating to see organic traction from our customers. We're currently growing 75% MoM in terms of signups and user acquisition. On a personal note, fintech is a space where you rarely find female founders. It's been humbling so far, being able to build my startup in this space and gain backing from large investors who believe in our vision. It gives you motivation and drive, and it helps me inspire other women who wish to pursue this path.
Recent Shortcomings:
Like many during the pandemic, we were faced with the challenge of building and motivating a team in a virtual setting. From recruitment to product building, we've been completely remote since the beginning of this journey. It's crazy to think but we have never been in a place where all our employees were together. Although it's been a challenge, it taught us a few things including: 1) how to prioritize product builds while hiring, 2) how to communicate effectively to create a cohesive product, and 3) how to build the right frameworks and company culture to boost morale.
Founder Wisdom:
As an entrepreneur, you need to be willing to take the chance and be ready to fail. A lot of our major successes stem from perseverance. There are moments where people don't try things because they assume it might not work or they receive negative feedback and internalize conflicting opinions before they even attempt to give it a try. For example, for us, getting into YC negated this notion that our idea was too farfetched. Many companies told us off, claiming that we were too early in the journey and that because we were pre-revenue, we wouldn't get accepted into YC. They always ask, 'why bother applying or putting in this effort?' But we pushed through and believed that the process itself was going to teach us something. We believed that something as good as landing an interview would be a success as it would already motivate our team to push for targets.
We applied for YC during the last week before the application deadline. We got called for an interview, and the whole process took place within the span of 20 days. Next thing you know, we were in the program.
When faced with uncertainty, trust yourself and don't be afraid to give things a shot.
What 3 founders should we know about?
Tammie Siew, Co-Founder @ Revery: Revery is using game thinking to revolutionize wellness and is on a mission of making wellness affordable and accessible to anyone with a mobile phone.
Mohandass Kalaichelvan, CEO and Founder @ Spenmo: Spenmo is a spend management platform for businesses that automates expense reports and simplifies spending.
Dayana Yermolayeya, Co-Founder @ JiPay: JiPay is on a mission to bring domestic work into the cashless economy and is launching the first dedicated prepaid expense management card for helpers.
Freelancing Pulse 🌎
Recap in the West
Experts say TikTok resumes can ‘open the doors’ to discrimination. A look into YouTube’s $100m Shorts Fund. LinkedIn is jump-roping its way into the creator economy and making the necessary hires. Lumanu wants to simplify the business of the creator economy. Meet Mediflash, where freelancing meets caregiving. Freelance marketplace Toptal sues freelance marketplace Andela for trying to re-create Toptal. Norby wants to be your all-in-one creator marketing platform. Worksome is working to connect high-skill freelancers with employers.
Recap in the East
Shoutout to Friz for being selected for Iterative’s Summer 2021 cohort! What will the future of the influencer economy hold in Southeast Asia? Nas Academy, an EdTech company catered to creators, hopes to decentralize education. INKR draws in funding to make comics accessible worldwide. Partipost brings influencer marketing into Vietnam. Southeast Asia’s hyper-realistic virtual influencer Rae debuts her first NFT series. Meet sudoHero, a SaaS platform and freelance marketplace that plugs in engineering resources for companies.
What Else We're Following 👀
Why is TikTok hard to replicate? A look into its relevance in the cultural zeitgeist and the network effects of creativity (Eugene Wei)
Navigating the creator economy gold rush (Vogue Business)
What will emerge as the next big creator economy company? Here’s a database of startups serving creators and influencers (The Information)
Another database of resources on startups and people to follow in the creator economy (Starting with the Creator Economy)
Patreon CEO Jack Conte on the next phase of the creator economy (The Information)
What the “creator economy” promises, and what it actually does (The New Yorker)
Who’s Hiring 👩🏽💼
For this week’s job postings (internships & full-time), please check out our Notion page here!
Hi! 👋 This issue was written by Nick Palermo, and Jeffrey Dong. If you have any feedback or inquiries, feel free to email at jeffrey.dong@insead.edu or comment below.
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