Date
Feb 16, 2021
My Roles
Head of Design & Co-Founder
Team
Matt Grigsby: Co-Founder
Tools
Slack, Figma, Google Slides, everything
Co-founding Bankroll was an incredible experience that taught me so much about building a product from scratch and the power of a small, passionate team. Bankroll is a mobile app designed to help teenagers develop good spending habits, and we were fortunate enough to see the app grow organically through word of mouth—achieving over a 50% success rate simply by delighting our users.
As Chief Design Officer, I was hands-on from day one, working with our small but talented team to create a user experience that teenagers actually loved. From wireframes to prototypes, I made sure every design decision reflected the needs of our users. Conducting extensive user research and testing was key in shaping the app, and it was exciting to see how those insights contributed to our growth.
Some highlights from the journey:
We graduated from YCombinator’s SUS Program, which was a huge milestone and gave us invaluable mentorship.
Bankroll was ranked in the top 15 out of 300 companies on the Pioneer accelerator program, which really validated the potential we saw in the product.
I also played a big role in fundraising, pitching to investors and successfully raising a pre-seed round from ex-YC founders. That support gave us the resources we needed to take the app to the next level.
As a co-founder, I wore many hats—helping with product development, leading design, and even overseeing hiring to build the right team. Running Bankroll was a true startup experience, filled with challenges and wins, and it definitely taught me a lot about teamwork, resilience, and building something that can have a real impact.
