Hey HN, I'm Jason Brown, co-founder and CEO of Tally. We just closed $15M to tackle some of the hardest problems in FinTech. We've got multiple opportunities on our Platform, Data, and Design teams (https://www.meettally.com/careers).
ENG:
->Senior Platform Engineer - You'll build a scalable architecture that simultaneously supports a seamless consumer experience and Tally's core financial systems. Our technology uses Scala-at-large to build discreet services and servers to make credit card automation look simple. Functional programming experience a plus (Scala, F#, Java 8 lambda functions, Frege, Haskell, Clojure, OCaml, Erlang, Lisp, Elixir).
https://jobs.lever.co/tally/4f6b044f-9110-4d2e-bbb5-ba7cea27...
->Platform Engineer - You'll embrace functional-programming as you strive to write clean, testable code that is effective and secure. You will write new internal and external facing API’s, as well as consume external services.
https://jobs.lever.co/tally/dce2f97c-7957-4cd2-b179-09bd3c81...
If you're up for a quick chat to learn more, shoot me a note at jason.brown@meettally.com or apply through the listed job postings (I'll respond personally either way). Please include any relevant links (resume optional). We unfortunately can't sponsor new visas (H1B transfers ok).
Scala Backend Engineer | Tally | San Francisco, CA | Salary range: $135K - $178K + equity | On-site - Full-time | No resume needed | www.meettally.com
Hey HN, I'm Jason Brown, co-founder and CEO of Tally. We just closed $15M to tackle some of the hardest problems in FinTech and we're looking for an experienced backend software engineer to act as the glue between a very complex backend and a gorgeous front-end. We embrace and enjoy functional programming on the JVM using Scala and use modern technologies that are fun to work with.
If you're up for a quick chat to learn more, shoot me a note at jason.brown@meettally.com. Please include a description of your functional programming experience and any relevant links (resume optional).
Tally is more like a self driving car for your credit cards. It helps optimizes all your payments, balances, stops late fees, and helps you avoid obscure penalties.
Even if you never carry a balance, Tally is the easiest ways to manage your credit cards.
You raise a really good question. Credit cards are confusing by design. Many people don't have the time to optimize how they pay their cards.
The Tally algorithm absorbs all this complexity and recommends whatever is in your best interest.
1. With the fact pattern you've provided, there are situations where Tally would only pay the Statement Balance (the smaller amount you mention) so that you can take advantage of your card's grace period.
But if you are not in grace with a card (meaning you haven't paid 100% of your Statement Balances for the previous 2 consecutive statement periods), Tally will suggest paying more/all of the Statement Balance to minimize your interest charges.
Bottom line: Tally is really smart and mathematically suggests whatever is in your best interest.
2. To see if Tally makes sense for you, its a soft pull and then a hard pull to actually open a Tally account.
Ironically, by doing a hard pull, you're hurting my credit slightly, which is against your stated mission.
Some of the appeal of the new FinTech startups are that they don't measure customers based off traditional models of risk eval (FICO, etc.) but that they are able to factor in both past and future based on many more data points. I'll keep monitoring Tally and hope in the future you can arrive to this same point.
BTW, I hope you look into marketing to credit card churners. I think they would love your product.
Good question on introductory rates and fees. Tally does NOT offer introductory or "teaser" rates. Your Tally APR is your Tally APR.
And Tally does NOT charge ANY fees of ANY kind. Here's a cut and paste from our FAQ: "There’s no annual fee, no origination fee, no prepayment fee, no balance transfer fee, no late fee, no overlimit fee, nada. Like you, we hate hidden fees."
Tally makes money by charging interest on the amount you borrow from us. We only make money if we can save you money. But that’s it.
Jason here again. Tally is like a self driving car for your credit cards. Here's how it might have played out for you if you had had Tally before, during, and after carrying a balance.
1. Before you carried a balance ($0 Balance)
-Tally is free to use and pays all your cards for you every month. This means that instead of keeping track of multiple payments and due dates, you make just one payment to Tally. No more late fee anxiety. Easily manage all your cards in a single app.
2. During balance building (building up to your $15K balance)
-Since you lost your job, you no longer choose to pay 100% of what you spend every month. Instead, you just pay pay your Tally minimum and your Tally balance grows.
-Instead of paying 13% APR to your credit cards, your balance is held with Tally at a lower APR. I obviously don't know your credit score, so I can't say what your Tally APR would be, but for me my best credit card APR is 13.24% and my Tally APR is 8.90%. So assuming you qualify for the same Tally APR as I do, you'd save $500-$600 in interest.
3. During balance paydown (paying down your $15K balance)
-Since you now have a job, you start paying more than the Tally minimum.
-Tally continues to pay your cards on-time for you, and you just make one payment to Tally.
-Eventually you pay your Tally balance down to $0.
4. After balance paydown ($0 balance)
-Tally continues to pay and optimize your credit cards. Tally is free to use, protects you from late fees, and is the easiest way to manage all your cards.
Ah ok. Makes sense. I remember searching for a low interest loan because I knew I would be able to pay it back and thought 13% was ridiculous for such a credit worthy individual (credit score 760). Thanks for taking the time to answer, it is definitely a cool product!
Jason (Tally co-founder) here again. Its a common misconception that people who carry a balance are irresponsible. 78% of people who do carry a balance have good credit (Prime & Super Prime). We surveyed 581 of our friends on FB who all have good credit. Most of them have college or graduate degrees and work in tech. 45% carry a balance and 29% paid a late fee in the last year.
Bottom line: credit cards are the most profitable bank lending business (4x more profitable), so there is a lot of room to save people money and earn a profit as a company.
Hey, great question. This is Jason (Tally co-founder). Credit card APRs are massively inflated. Here are two points to consider:
A. There is a 500% difference in the likelihood of someone paying back a loan with a 760 FICO score vs someone with a 660 FICO score, but only an 8% difference in APR.
B. "the credit card business continues to be the most profitable bank lending business, with returns more than four times higher than the average return on assets." - Richard Cordray, Director of the CFPB (December 2015)
The bottom line is that banks are significantly overcharging consumers AND have high fixed costs. Because of the technology Tally has built, our cost structure is an order of magnitude lower than banks. This means we can save customers money and be profitable as a business.
Do you guys fear that if big banks start to feel threatened, they will start lobbying to keep the field uneven to their favor?
Leaves me wondering how much inroad is possible to make going against such big (and dirty-playing) actors.
I mean, obviously if you get to that point you must be doing something right, and shaking the big entrenched businesses can sometimes (most of the times? always?) bring good things, so good luck!
Big banks are powerful and we don't take that risk lightly. However, regulators like the relatively new CFPB, are generally on the side of consumers. So as long as we always do right by consumers and don't lend irresponsibly, we have a very good chance of being on the right side of history. That said, we'll take any and all luck you can send our way
500% sounds like a deliberate play with numbers, if the default rates were 2% and 10% respectively, I could choose to call that a 500% difference, or more reasonably, an 8% difference.
