❓ Introduction: What is Sumio? 🔗
Hi Lukáš, thank you for your time. Let's talk about your app Sumio; can you introduce it to our readers?
Sumio can answer some of the key questions regarding personal finance – what is my net worth, how does it change over time, how are my assets and liabilities allocated. We intend to provide users with a clear picture of their finances.
The app is private and secure by default – we do not collect personal information, we do not track users, all entered user data stay on the user device. The app automatically converts values in different currencies to the chosen default currency based on current foreign exchange rates and automatically provides market values for stocks and crypto-assets.
We want Sumio to be an easy-to-use and comfortable app for "DIY" financial planning. That is why we developed it with a focus on privacy and automation.
Who are your users? Who can benefit from Sumio?
️I believe anyone who wants to take care of their money. Anyone who doesn't want to rely on banks or financial advisors for financial planning. I think users who do or have already tried to do some financial planning and track their net worth, assets, and liabilities can benefit from using the app right now.
When I started to design the app, I was thinking about people who have financial goals and are looking for a way to achieve them, and Sumio is an app primarily for them.
What is your product's vision?
We are currently in the beta stage of the first version of the app, and I must say it is a first humble step toward our vision for the app as the "DIY" Financial Planner. There is so much more I want to implement in the app. Starting with more data to help users automatically get market values for different kinds of assets, financial calculators, and educational content.
That's ambitious, and we wish you success. Could you tell us how your product is funded?
We are currently running on our savings from previous ventures. Our business model is based on premium subscription, and we will use the income for further development of the app.
We will also consider presenting Sumio to potential investors when we feel it is the right time. But first, I think it is essential to undergo this "baptism by fire" – get users, collect feedback, get the experience with running the app for some time in different markets.
What is Sumio's unique value proposition that sets it apart from its competitors? In which fields are you innovating?
Sumio is like a health app for finance. We want to provide users with a private and easy-to-use tool to organize and plan their finances. Independent from banks and other financial institutions or advisors.
As I said, the app is privacy-focused, with no tracking, no ads, no personal data sharing. We want to be innovative in financial analysis and planning and provide independent market data and educational content to help our users manage their money.
What are the next steps and future plans for Sumio?
We will launch the first version of the app in selected markets and get users' feedback. We then plan to continuously add new features to fulfill its mission to become a comprehensive tool for DIY financial planning. Our future plan is to get collaborators worldwide who help us with content for different markets.
What type of content do you have in mind? Financial advice, market analyses, and such?
We want to publish content that would explain different approaches to money management, savings, and investing. I think the financial industry is pretty much focused on selling products, and it is not easy to get unbiased advice or help regarding money. I believe this is an opportunity for us and other FinTech companies.
🛋️ Talking about business 🔗
What does success look like for your company?
We are self-sufficient, constantly developing our product and delivering value to our users.
I know it sounds pretty general, but this is how I see it. Having a few hundred users who would pay for our premium subscription would mean we are on a good path to make it.
Could you tell us more about your other/previous projects?
I've been working as a project manager and helping companies with the execution of their strategies. I have experience working primarily for banks and software companies as an employee, freelancer, or a company (LukyLab).
But I also dedicated quite a lot of my time to non-profit projects and science communication. My business partner is an attorney at law and runs a successful law office. We have known each other for more than a decade. We both have previous experience with startups and have been helping clients with establishing their businesses and developing their products.
What are the most significant risks & challenges for your company?
I think the biggest challenge for us is to find the balance in terms of the complexity of the app – its features, value for the user, and usability at the same time. I guess the most challenging job for any startup is to find the "market fit."
And regarding the risks, well, we will distribute the app through app stores which means we rely on Apple and Google and their policies toward developers like us.
Do you think the drive for entrepreneurship is something people are born with or not, or is it something that can be taught?
I think anyone can learn the basic principles of business. You don't have to be born with some special drive for entrepreneurship to start your own venture, create and build "stuff."
What is the primary driver that motivates you to keep taking on your business ventures? And: Did your motives change over the years?
I have ideas and visions of how "things" around me could work, and I like the process of creating and building. I also have some personal beliefs and preferences about life and work. So far, the only way to achieve at least some of that was to become an entrepreneur. I think my motives have not changed much over the years.
What do you think – how will your industry look like in about ten years from now?
I think working remotely in "virtual" companies consisting of team members from all around the world will become a standard in the tech industry and startups in general.
We can fully agree with this, as the Localazy team is entirely remote, and we only meet in person occasionally 😄. Anyway, if you could start again with Sumio, what would you do differently from today's perspective?
I would focus on better planning of development and more user testing of the prototypes.
🕹️ Helpful services and tools 🔗
Would you like to highlight some services or products you really like to use for development of Sumio?
We decided to use Flutter to develop the app, as it enables us to have Sumio both for iOS and Android from the same codebase. It is great we can use ready-made packages and plugins and save coding time. I just wish there would be some plugin for Flutter in Figma to generate widgets right from the designs in Figma.
Try the Localazy Figma plugin to translate your content already in the design phase. For more information, see the documentation.
We use Codemagic for CI/CD, and it simplified the releases of new versions of the app to app stores.
We also integrated the app with RevenueCat for the management of subscriptions since that can be tricky. RevenueCat provides excellent analytics for the subscription business model and works in a private mode, which is a must for our app.
And of course, we use Localazy, which enables us to make the app multilingual. And well, I can't imagine doing translations now without Localazy. 🤩
Find out why developers 😍 love Localazy!
The Localazy workflow is straightforward to learn, and I appreciate that I can use the tool to manage collaborators. There are currently three contributors, and I plan to add more. With Localazy, I feel confident adding more collaborators since it makes it easy for me to supervise the translations and control the whole translations process.
Learn how to manage contributors and review translations in Localazy
What is your motivation for localization? Why did you choose Localazy?
The plan is to make Sumio a global product – make it available in major markets in the local languages, so it is accessible to a broad audience. We are trying to automate work as much as possible, and with Localazy, it was a swift and easy decision. I got a personal reference, the integration was easy, and I was able to set up the workflow and start with translations quickly.
What languages are you considering to support when you launch?
We will start with English and Czech languages, and we plan to launch Sumio in just a few markets first. We have already begun with translations into French, German, Spanish, Polish, and others, but we will add these later.
⚠️ Don't have time to translate your projects on your own? Order translations in the Localazy Marketplace and allow our Continuous Localization Team to translate your project automatically and proactively.
Well, I think this was a comprehensive interview, and we covered everything. Thank you very much and good luck on your path!
✔️ Useful Links 🔗
Connect with Lukáš on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukassoukup/
Download Sumio Beta for free: https://sumio.app/en/beta/
Fiduciary Labs website: https://www.fiduciarylabs.com/
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