Idea
Human-in-the-loop opportunity: replace people who move cash
Dave points to cash logistics as an unsolved human-in-the-loop opportunity. In the age of Venmo, PayPal, and Apple Pay, companies still make $100M/year with a 'cash' line of business where people risk their lives moving paper money around.
“There are still companies that make $100 million a year and they have a line of business called cash. In the age of Venmo and in the age of PayPal and in the age of Apple Money and Facebook Money and every type of virtual currency in the world, there's still people getting paid money to put their lives in danger to go move pieces of paper around.”
Fact
Europe is a decade ahead on real-time bank-to-bank payments
Von Tobel says Europe runs on real-time payment rails and is roughly a full decade ahead of the US, where you don't even need a Venmo equivalent because money moves bank to bank instantly.
“Europe is miles ahead of us. They're on real-time payments rails, and you can actually, uh, they like let— they're, they're like a full decade ahead of us in terms of you don't even need Venmo because you can just pop money into each other's bank accounts, bank to bank.”
Idea
Digital tithing: Venmo for churches
Shaan pitches a fintech app that lets congregants donate to their church via app/QR instead of passing the hat. Comp: Pushpay processes $4.2B/yr in church donations and took $98M; Tithe.ly is another. Churches have a strong incentive to distribute it because their survival depends on donations.
“He goes, tithing. Wow. So he goes, digital tithing. So basically, let's give it an analogy, Venmo for churches. So he goes, there's this company called Pushpay that is currently processing $4 billion a year of digital donations inside a church. So instead of passing the hat around, they pass, I don't know, the QR code around or whatever it is.”
Steal thisDistribute a church-donations app through churches themselves, who are highly motivated to grow giving.
Framework
Pay-to-lose-weight: stake $800, earn $25/day back for staying in range
Justin Mayer ran a 30-day weight-loss experiment: participants Venmo $800 upfront, get a blood-glucose monitor, and are refunded $25 each day they keep glucose inside the prescribed range. Miss the range, he keeps the money — a loss-aversion accountability mechanism.
“If you stay in that range for the day, he Venmos you back $25 for the day. And if you don't, he keeps your money.”
Steal thisBuild accountability products on loss aversion: take a refundable cash stake upfront and pay it back daily only when the user hits the goal.