Stripe.js and Bank and Debit Integrations

This week we completed the swap over to Custom Stripe Connect account, including the Stripe.js Debit and Bank account integrations. We collect the bank ABA and account number in UI in javascript and pass it to Stripe for tokenization and association with their downpayment.gift account. Similarly, we use Stripe’s embedded JS UI to collect and validate the debit card and tokenize and store at Stripe.

The cardholder data never touches our server, our database.

The user flow and will need a fresh look and edge cases where users want to change or add a second account. Right now it’s either a bank account or a debit. One only.

Delay days

Moved the withdrawl delay to 3 weeks, 21 days to start. I had it at 28 days and moved the default to 21 days. This should give us a buffer on investigating fraud cases.

Live test transactions

Tested live transactions with live keys and not test keys, using personal info. Need to look at more failure cases on Identity and Deposit Accounts and how we react from the output from Stripe’s API.

Onboardflow API calls to support the product led growth monitoring

Last year, I started using a tool for SaaS trial monitoring called Onboardflow. We integrated via javascript and Stripe. …but the Stripe integration was not always perfect and did not work well with an external cart where the cart comes AFTER the login and account creation. If we create a Stripe customer ID in-app, it’s not going to match the one creted by, and for, the external cart.

Long story, short. I added a few API calls and callbacks to get this working happier where the dashboard would show Trial to Paid conversions. I need more data and more than test users to very customize the dashboard views and get more from the reports. More work to go here.

Hopefully, Onboardflow, Getgist (chat app), Thrivecart, and Google Analytics will provide enough data. May implement Customerlabs for client side usage and data gathering. Trying to avoid costly subscriptions like Mixpanel, Intercom, etc. in this category.

Webinar popups

Added back webinar signup popups on New Partner Signup Page. Using convertbox and demio here.

Pledge Gifts at signup

Did a rough implementation of a pledge_gift_code and actually fulfilling and setting the pledge contribution on the registry. Added a popup for new users, new client, promising a $50 pledge gift for signups.

Long term we will have contests, giveaways, spinner, scratch offs and other clever was to make it fun and interesting, for now, we just flat give everyone a $50 pledge gift. If they bail on the registry campaign, we don’t have to fulfill the $50. It they move forward, we spend the $50. Eventually we might need to up this or provide extreme giveaway contests with… say… $1,000 or $5,000 or more for the winner of the giveaway. These might also be partner funded for lead generation.

We are looking to test this assumptions that giveaways and pledge gifts will drive signups and that funds are better spent here and promoting the shareability vs. paid social campaigns without the funds. I would rather give a home buyer $50 then Facebook. Ultimately, Facebook ads might be needed to kickstart the flywheel.

We need to setup processes around these pledge gifts to avoid abuse.

Fixed Bugs

Fixed a bug related to the in-app upgrade link and how it worked outside non-home Views. Basic oversight in the first implementation. Work fine now. Eventually expect to pull subscriptions in-app instead of an external cart. However, the cart gives us some ease of use from a SaaS perspective and connecting to third-party marketing apps.

Record Videos and Webinars

Recording webinars, videos and editing, publishing them… this is the main activity I need to be focused on in June. Last week I did record an investor pitch and a sales/content webinar pitch. I’m working to edit these videos for social media and future invites. The content and product webinar was almost 2 hours. Yikes.

Our goto market is content webinars weekly (if not daily), driving signups and paid upgrades. My goal for the start of 2021 was 500 webinars in the year. I have a ton of work to do to make that 500 even possible. It’s not impossible…. and if I hold 500 webinars in the next 7 months, it would be a game changer for downpayment.gift. This is more than 2 webinars per day at this point. grimace for June I’m going to set the goal of 42 webinars. This is a challege. I do worry that customer traction will make it impossible to keep up the cadence of webinars.

Cold outbound email and paid social. I make the decision to delay the paid social, FB ads, for now. In June, hopefully I can get a process build for outbound emails. I don’t have the cash for paid social, especially if the paid per lead is higher than expected. Figuring out cold email will be the bigger win.

I also did 4 videos for weekly updates in May for this blog, DownPaymentProject, and a handful of update or op-ed commentary, face to video - screencap type videos for social.

Early Access Partner Feedback form

Hoping for honest feedback and other ideas. This is linked in-app and from Roadmap screens. Link from emails and socials.

We are also using Userback widget in app to gather in application feedback, screenshots and other stuff.

Diving into Clubhouse

I spent a little time this week diving into Clubhouse and looking for how Lenders are using this platform.

It’s kinda time suck for the investor and pitch room type content. There are entertaining and academic talks…. but discovery is a mess. I probably followed too many clubs and I need to pull that back so that I don’t get so many notifications.

I hopped on one Room that was Fintech integration focused that was great. It was put on by the Mercury Bank guys. A+. I hope one recurring room on Proptech that was cool to see.

The amount of pitch rooms trying to be the Shark Tank of Clubhouse is a bit mind numbing.

There is a fair amount of sub-par advice from recurring panelists in the Pitch and Hustle rooms. If you look at some of the names, it would appear that they don’t get any work done… they just sit on Clubhouse all day?

Real Estate rooms are filled with Agents and people talking big game about commercial real estate investment.

There is some interesting possibilities to source angel investor leads and fintech friendly investors from the Bio’s. Web based searching tools are not great, but in-app, it appears we can keyword match on invididuals. A manually outreach process might be helpful. I have bookmarked maybe 6 or 12 investors that sounded like a possible fit.

On the sales side… the mortgage loan officers that are active on Clubhouse would be early adopters and good prospects for downpayment.gift.

Microconf Mastermind and the other

The mastermind group that formed from the Stanford BUS248 class is dying out. Our guy from New Zealand that got investment from Daniel Gross at Pioneer is busy and have skipped the last 2 calls. Our guy from China that was a UIUC alum as well… working on streaming video and investment content… he is MIA on the group. The other student from the course has pivoted and now focused on crypto (at the possible end of the recent bull cycle).

On the other mastermind group… the Microconf organized one. We restarted meeting, minus one original member. That went really well and I expect this to work out better. Unfortunately, one member was a bit toxic to the mix.