Since as I understand you are expanding to LatAm, as someone having worked in Colombia for the last 5 years on b2b and b2c tech products for people on the low to mid side of the socio-economic spectrum, some top of mind thoughts. Hope it helps.
- Living paycheck to paycheck is a problem, but the underlying cause is more often than not having a job month by month. Even more so since the pandemic. The majority of people work in informality, only have contractor contracts or work for temp agencies with the outlook to eventually get hired into the client company.
- There is very little trust within society. People are very skeptical, justifiably so, to get screwed over by new financial products. Also employers have very little trust in their employees. At least from an European perspective it is ridiculous what hoops people have to jump trough to get basic jobs. Background checks, lie detector, medical exams, etc. Which means it can easily take 1 month+ from first interview to starting work.
- Economic gap is massive. The decision makers you are going to sell your product to often live and have lived their entire lives in completely different universes than the potential users. So you are going to have mixed experience how empathetic they are to the cause. Some certainly are and want to make a change.
- Many people don't have bank accounts where you could transfer the money to. As far as I know this has changed quite a bit during pandemic but cash and cheques are still very common.
- The very small amounts ($50-70) you mention are quite a bit of money here. Minimum salary is $260. A small amount here would be more like <=$5. Don't have in my head what the fees and taxes on bank transactions are.
- The users are going to have a ~$50 android phone laden with ISP nonsense, outdated OS, pre-paid expensive data plans and flakey internet connections where they live. So the app needs not just be shiny, but efficient.
Within the group we also launched products in Mexico and Peru, where some things are different but haven't been involved much in that. Happy to chat about if you are interested.
- Living paycheck to paycheck is a problem, but the underlying cause is more often than not having a job month by month. Even more so since the pandemic. The majority of people work in informality, only have contractor contracts or work for temp agencies with the outlook to eventually get hired into the client company.
- There is very little trust within society. People are very skeptical, justifiably so, to get screwed over by new financial products. Also employers have very little trust in their employees. At least from an European perspective it is ridiculous what hoops people have to jump trough to get basic jobs. Background checks, lie detector, medical exams, etc. Which means it can easily take 1 month+ from first interview to starting work.
- Economic gap is massive. The decision makers you are going to sell your product to often live and have lived their entire lives in completely different universes than the potential users. So you are going to have mixed experience how empathetic they are to the cause. Some certainly are and want to make a change.
- Many people don't have bank accounts where you could transfer the money to. As far as I know this has changed quite a bit during pandemic but cash and cheques are still very common.
- The very small amounts ($50-70) you mention are quite a bit of money here. Minimum salary is $260. A small amount here would be more like <=$5. Don't have in my head what the fees and taxes on bank transactions are.
- The users are going to have a ~$50 android phone laden with ISP nonsense, outdated OS, pre-paid expensive data plans and flakey internet connections where they live. So the app needs not just be shiny, but efficient.
Within the group we also launched products in Mexico and Peru, where some things are different but haven't been involved much in that. Happy to chat about if you are interested.