If you didn’t get the joke in the title, I recommend watching the Robots movie—it’s a real childhood highlight for me. The title feels fitting for everything that’s happened this week. As usual, I’ll split the updates into sections: product/tech, marketing/brand, and business. But first, let’s give an overall view of how things are progressing.

In last week’s post, I mentioned a few key developments: the strategic pivot from a shadow test to an MVP, the nearing completion of our brand mascot, and the tough decision on choosing a bank data aggregator partner. I’m happy to say that all of these have moved along nicely, but the most important thing is how good I feel about the switch to an MVP-focused strategy. Time (and results) will tell if it was the right decision, but in the meantime, it’s crucial to stay motivated and passionate about what we do. Otherwise, it’s just not worth it. When we’re unmotivated, we move slower, dragging our feet, and the results suffer because it’s harder to get into a creative flow. But enough talk, let’s dive into the UPGRADES!

On the Product Side

We’ve gone from having little of real value—just a welcome message upon registration and login—to a fully functioning table where you can input and save tenant information via forms. This also includes one lease contract per tenant. While this may not seem revolutionary (someone with an Excel spreadsheet and cloud storage could do the same), our approach is simpler and more user-friendly. That’s one of the core principles we want Reboard to embody: being so simple and intuitive that little to no training is required to get started.

Though it looks simple, a lot of work went into making this happen over the past week. We had to design the database structure, integrate with a cloud database provider (Firestore by Google), run security tests, and ensure the user interface (UI) was responsive. For example, when a user presses a button or takes an action, the app mustn't freeze while waiting for a response from the database, as this creates a poor user experience. Moreover, the UI must always remain consistent with the data in the database. This is still an area we’re refining, but if it feels like magic to the customer, then we’re doing it right. Of course, it’s not easy to make things seem easy.

The UI isn’t perfect yet, but it’s an MVP—it’s functional and good enough for now. We need to keep pushing forward. Next week, we’ll be working on a profile settings page where users can update their data and delete their accounts if necessary. This will lay the groundwork for the next big step: integrating Stripe to handle payments.

On the Marketing Side

The mascot design is finished! I’m really excited to show it in this post... but I’ll hold off a little longer. Right now, it’s in a T-pose, which is the standard pose for 3D character design, but it’s not exactly appealing for public display. I’ve asked a designer to articulate the 3D model and create several poses. Once that’s done, you’ll see it everywhere—on the landing page and, of course, in the weekly blog.

On the Business Side

We’ve decided to partner with GoCardless for bank data aggregation. Their solution seems easy to integrate, and more importantly, they offer a free tier with a set number of free bank connections before any charges kick in. This is a huge advantage for startups like ours, as the time between launching an MVP and landing your first customers can be long, making fixed-price alternatives harder to justify. We already have a few early adopters in mind, but they’ll be testing a product that’s still in development. Charging them for helping us improve the product wouldn’t make sense. The free tier will allow us to refine the product without the pressure of burning money. The one drawback is that GoCardless only covers Europe and a few major banks in each country, so as we grow, we may need to explore other providers. But that’s a problem for future Reboard.

All in all, this week was full of good progress. We’ve taken big steps towards our short-term goals. Let’s keep the momentum going! 🚀