We almost built a bank. Here's why we built Jars instead.

We launched the brand-new Jelli this week (here's the press release), and I wanted to share the story behind it.

I've spent about 25 years in finance: CFO work, forecasting, budgets for companies big and small. Budgets are literally my day job. And yet when my co-founders Ben Harper, Tom Curitore and I started Jelli, we didn't set out to build a budgeting app. We set out to build a bank.

Then we listened. People loved the idea, but almost nobody wanted to switch banks. Moving your direct deposit, your autopays and your cards is a big ask. That was a hard moment, because we'd put a lot into that plan. But it taught us the most important thing about our customer: they didn't need a new place to keep their money. They needed a clearer way to see it. If you want the longer version, we told the story of that pivot in the first issue of INSART's Signals Magazine.

The real problem is one number. Your bank shows a single balance, but part of it is already spoken for: rent, the phone bill, the card statement, the trip you've been saving for. So everyone does quiet mental math, guesses wrong, and feels stressed about money they actually have.

So we built Jelli around Jars. Your money stays in your own bank, and Jelli breaks that one balance into colorful Jars, one for each purpose, so you can see what's actually free to spend. Link your bank and Jelli drafts a starting budget from your real spending, so there's no blank spreadsheet. You stay in control: Jelli connects read-only and can't move a dollar.

This version took us back to the drawing board. We rebuilt Jelli from the ground up. It's now on iPhone, iPad, Android and the web, in 27 languages, with shared budgets so couples and roommates can budget together.

We started Jelli in 2017. Since then we've pivoted once, rebuilt the app from scratch, and learned more from people who said "no thanks" than from anyone who said yes. Now someone can download Jelli on their phone, link their bank, and see a budget built from their own spending in a few minutes.

🫙 https://www.jelli.us