Friendsvow: - The Internet Bank Connecting People With Financial Credit one friend at a Time

Products
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Hello to the number 1 code community of Africa, am surprised this is the 2nd time i am coming back here, i missed out a lot, well i’m not to much of a social media person, but right now am spreading the gospel of The bank of financial credit , am hoping i make it worth your while.

When i decided i wanted to build products, my focus was to do something that will positively affect people that might be having the same challenges i am passing through and one of these is the lack of access to financial credit, the banking model is rigged against us, primarily as a savings platform, not as a credit platform, that is why they always tell you to run your account for 6 months before you can access credit, it is archaic, especially that it is against people who are just getting started in the food chain, it’s like a dwarf who is 2 foot tall and being told to jump a hoops of 10 feet before he can be tall and stand as man or woman, so i wanted to build a staircase for the little people, so they don’t have to jump through that wicked hoops.

www.Friendsvow.com is The Internet bank for Financial credit, we are connecting people with credit as easy as having a phone, a bank account and a friend or some friends, We want to democratise access to financial credit in a simple, secure and empathic way, so that all you need is to make a Vow of credit with your friends, family, colleagues, classmates, anyone you share an affinity with offline, you can also join a group that meets your comfort level and make a vow with them, we perfected this process with probability theory, to such an extent that no member of any group can default on repayment of a vow, everybody in a group can access the same amount that they vow throughout the duration, all we need to do is to make sure that they keep to that Vow, not through any force or threats but through a system that has been perfected over a century in our community, most of us here knows this system offline, but now we have put a technolgy ring around this form of financial credit, it’s enabling people to save in other to give and receive Financial credit either from friends or from any group they choose to join, which we have labeled the brand as Friendsvow — THE INTERNET BANK OF FINANCIAL CREDIT.

So guys please go check it out and help spread the word, we are looking at starting with 1000 thousand people in beta with that number we can finalise any loop holes and master the system and process before full roll out hopefully before the end of may.

So if there is any bank out there that will like to be our receiving bank, please holla

Any payment system out there that will like to process payment for us, instead of us to build our payment from scratch, we will like to collaborate with you.

Any visionary investor looking to making life easier for everyday Nigerians and make good money of it, dont be shy, we need you you need us, lets build to make life a little more easier for everybody.

Cheers guys, one love, one people

connect with us on social media

twitter.com/friendsvow

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Wooow i am catching feelings here, am feeling i wish i was the one that created this product, this is amazing, i need money ooo, i have just signed up, this is osusu now, if you can do this and nobody can default on paying back, man this is a unicorn project oo, i have no complain with the design and everything is what i will want to do if i was you, keep it up man i am rooting for you, i vote this project, Endorsed by the Healthcare Technolgy enthusiast, you all should vote for this, lets inspire products like this, so a little question, how can you really make sure that everybody pays back?

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Thanks for signing up, now that you have signed up you will be among those that will have exclusive access to the app and how our system makes sure that everyone maintains their vow.

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Am surprised that 60 people have seen this product and only one comment, is that how it works? i believe we should grow each each other right, even if you dont like what is there i still need to know what you think, silence is not nice, on product hunt at least in the last 3 hours we have got 3 upvotes, here nather, common coders, we build this for Nigerians and Africans, we need your thoughts, hit me.

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OK. Sometimes one sees a product, and it’s quite difficult to comment on it. Most times, because of the presentation.

I checked it out. I think it’s a sound idea many persons may relate with it. But be more direct next time, you really do not want to tell anyone about the Rothschild. You aren’t exactly appealing rightly. We get it, no history lessons.

Product wise, it doesn’t seem you’re ready. Like really not. And your value proposition isn’t clear, and obvious. All things still clumsy. Even though I didn’t sign up. I’m judging merely from the UI and everything else. It is so far from finishing, and I believe that’s why most folks that have seen it just pass. And since you are new, perhaps they don’t want to hit you hard. I think for now, it sucks, quite frankly. But you can kill it.

Tip: Get an actual product manager in tech. Or sack the current one.

Your domain name-friendsvow, it does sound like a social network than a Fintech product. Vow to me, is marriage not money. It may be better for you to use a random, even meaningless word that sticks than convey the wrong meaning with domain name.

Good luck.

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You are asking for it.

Excerpt from your site;

If any member ever loses payment, or a credit is delayed, we will payout $1000 USD to anyone that successfully gets away without paying his VOW, this is how confident we are of our system and process

Correct me if am wrong so you’ll also be helping the guy on the run with the group money with $1000 in escape stash.

Another excerpt.

…if there is any delay as a result of a member not completing payment, we will reward the member succeeds bypassing our firewall and reimburse the member that was delayed.

Why? And how? That statement is unclear and non-binding. And perhaps the most important aspect of then project.

Bottomline is how secure is the social saving scheme? Which is the first thing that come to mind for anyone interested. Offline, Osusu is built on explicit trust. How is that replicated by your system. Besides taunting our resident Agebro @tola with $1000 prize to crack your infrastructure together with the group savings.

When we get passed that I have other questions.

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Thanks for that, the thing is we are going to b mobile app based, so the vow with your friends is with you constantly and also its the model uber used to bring a difficult offline proposition online.
it works, so the site is to introduce and download the product, the what, the, when, the who, and in the future the social aspect and basically by research Fin Tech is more engaging on mobile, its happening real time, yes you are right on the finished product.
we have finished in terms of system and process, just fine turning it, but we need to signup with a receiving bank and a payment system, so the plan is before we get one thousand sigups we would have done those bits, so its going to be simultaneous.

  1. As for the domain name we are going to have a social media component to it, people Are going to create their groups from facebook,especially people who are coming with the intention of joining an existing group.
    This is so that we can utilize existing infrastructures for brand strenght and security, that is the vow, you are making a vow with your group not to dissapoint,

we are just to ensure that everyone keeps to their vow, The Value we are proposing is that you can have access to financial credit using your existing network of friends and family who might be scared that you might not pay back if they give you the funds based on trust,
we are the neutral umpire in the middle making sure everyone sticks to its vow in a simple, secure and transparent manner. On Rothchild ok since its a source of offense, will update the post on that, thanks, thank you once again.

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Hi, your story is too long. Try make it shorter.

Also, as @akindolu has said, your site is just confusing and the UI needs a lot of work. You’re targetting Nigerians, all we need to see is Ajo or Osusu/Isusu and we will get the idea.

SmartAjo tried to do this in 2014, they won Lagos Startup weekend that year and haven’t tweeted since. Their code is on github I think.

Anyway, I don’t know If ajo is still so popular today or if it will be popular among Internet banking users. What I know for sure is that people need money. I think P2P lending is a much better model because there is actual money to be made for lenders. Or better still something like branch.co or aella. It’s just not easy to get the kind of traction you’re looking for in Nigeria and ajo is not that enticing.

In any case, I wish you luck.

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Hi Thanks for that, so we put up the challenge, because we are confident of the process that we have, its simple, you save, you give, then you receive, we mastered the 3 process so everybody must have save and the process do not overlap, the group will always have funds to pay the receiver each duration no matter what.

I am deliberately making a general statement, this is our IP, so we need not release it just yet, also because we need 1000 people to kickstart the system with 1000, there is security and comfort in numbers, try and signup so you can get the app with exclusive access.

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Yes bro, you know nigerians copy, copy anything without understanding the research or how a product came to be.

I was incubating with some of the smart Ajo guys in 2014 and I was already working on this project since 2011, some of the guys in our class went to pitch my project at idea hub, as smart ajo and claimed they won an award, meanwhile this was the same project that got me into the incubator, you can see they have stop along the way, why? Even with idea hub behind them, I was actually waiting for them so I can use the IP abuse money to start my own.

if I have anyone with me then, by now we would be talking other countries, anyway i pause the fin tech project to focus on entertainment to raise funds, and they are still stuck, after I paused it, because nothing to copy again, but now you will see them struggling to come out of shadows, but IP and copyright is alive.

Fin tech is beautiful because IP is IP you cannot copy and hide the lie that i was in the bathroom, inside my mama belle, (Iyalaya anybody) everyone has a niche, maintain your niche, its not a licence, or ecommerce to sell phones, its an idea, 1000 people can have the same idea but 2 of those people can never have the same output.

The name is friendsvow so its goin to be friendsvow, most people like it very few dont same with all products, as for popularity Money is still very popular, but thanks for your comment. I have come this far and am still standing, lets talk again by Gods grace, one year from today. Cheers.

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Don’t pose the question if the answer can’t change your mind

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You are sounding like you have read so much Peter Thiel, Elon Musk lately without much boot on the ground in Nigeria.

Chill…let’s your execution do the talking…

The initial story was too long for me to read, aint nobody got time for that. Intro to a new product/service should be succinct and on point to sell to the reader…first fail, bro!

Go ahead, execute your IP and earn a bragging right…for now…you are still a hustler…let your hustle pay first.

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Lol thanks man, me likey, if I was commenting I will copy ur style, yeah am learning how this works very fast, I wish I can rewrite that, anyway appreciate you man.

Yeah execution is the key not just the product, when we can start to succesfully make a group do the credit for one month, that will be a good day for us, we are working hard to make that happen

cheers

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Ok bro, but we did an A/B test on both names, I registered osusu and friendsvow, strange thing is the users, investors, like friendsvow, developers or anyone with a tech background like osusu, cant explain why,

I think even you will find it difficult to change a name, and its not because of not accepting advice, Its like asking a parent to change the name of the child and give the child a native name because people say so, its that kind of situation, thanks bro

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Well said, however, the word ‘friends’ in ‘friendsvow’ will inadvertently tell on conversion later on.
In this sort of scenario, the brand name should go beyond what is beautiful to the ears but rather what is favorable in terms of the public having a more curled idea of what the service entails.

Since the idea behind reconciling the loans is based on ‘VOWS’ then ‘www.loanvow.com’ wouldn’t be far fetched. Even a hilarious Slogan such as ‘We fund your vows’ would have people picking interest in what you might offer.

Investors of Vir2o.com thought investing N20,000,000+ was key to having a Numero Uno Social Network in Nigeria. Go dig up what happened to them. The beginning of their failure was in the name. That 2 gave them the first blow.

A well curled name is very vital. This are all advice, I’m not saying your choosen tradename will make the business fail. I simply feel you can do better.

Stay Winning.

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Mr Sulaiman, i think your have a very cerebral mind, i hope you have not trademark that Tag line “We fund your Vows” i just used it on a video i was preparing, and on a pitch deck, it so rare to see a nigerian sharing great nuggets like this, its so catchy, i wish i have guys with your mindset around us, this Radar cabal i believe have the best minds in Nigeria.

The Minister of petroleum should give guys here a hack to solve fuel scarcity, and am sure that will be thrashed within a week, the stuff i have learned here since i came over has been of great value.

yes bro i went to that site great concept, good product, undone by that name http://vir2o.com/ am sure if they have someone like you on that team even that name will fly, i think a visionary matters in a team, its not just technical and financial every team needs a thinker, that is as valued and respected like the money man.

We settle for a generic name because it tells our story and it is easy to remember not excluding the fact that its not just a Nigerian and African market we are going for, hopefully if we pull it of here we can pull it of anywhere, it will be difficult to change now, we have gone too far inside the rabbit hole, its either we find the gold and diamonds inside that hole or we find the sh**t and p*ss we just need to find something sha, cos we are not like coming out on our own, its serious like that. dude if you are having a meet up anywhere in the island, you need a cool team to shoot the breeze and talk about products and opportunities, am game man.
cheers.

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If you hit 1000, I’ld love to help you with an intro to a payment platform and a bank…

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If he hits 1000, they’ll introduce themselves.

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If he hits 10000, he’ll be turning down introductions.

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Osusu and Ajo a.k.a Cooperatives are built on serious fear of Juju and the fact that everyone knows where your Mama dey live not “explicit trust”. Goodluck replicating the fear of Sango online. By the way $1000 is not worth the efforts, let the dude start clocking over $1M, then me and my goons will go to work.

Unfortunately, this idea is just a variation of P2P lending in which we take it in turns to borrow each other money in the group. There are well known pitfalls and methods of gaming the system. I hope you have a good lawyer as Zenith Bank and GTB will be waiting for you down the road to report you to CBN especially when you start scaling seriously.

However, there is no harm in trying and I do wish you all the best. As for me, I have started recruiting guys that I will give 50,000 Naira to come and open an account with you so that we can game the system and smile to the bank :smiley:

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