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Ask HN: Do you hate all personal finance software? Want to make a better one?

8 points by keithwarren ↗ HN
I never liked Microsoft Money though I used it. Then Redmond killed off the product and suggested I switch to Quicken. So I did, and I HATE IT. I think it is terrible. It tries to do 4,000 things and does none of them well. My wife asked my today if I had paid the Macy's bill, I pulled it up, found the search and entered 'Macy' - pretty straight forward use case...alas, no luck.

I am thinking of attacking the problem. Creating something that has the best of the desktop world and the value of the internet world while staying ultra-paranoid secure. Something wholly extensible where hackers can embrace and extend and offer their wares to the rest of the community through an extension market as part of the system.

I look at the position of Intuit in the market, their competitors and feel like they are ripe for a 37signals, do less better type of sniper hit.

Anyone interested in helping?

8 comments

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albertsun
Mint is the new standard to beat.
keithwarren
Mint was bought by Intuit.
count
Mint also forces me to give them my account info. I don't even let my Quicken copy talk to the web (disconnected VM), let alone give all my account info to a 3rd party for storage and use. I'm sure I'm just being irrational, but that terrifies me.
marknutter
It's a very crowded space, even for the whole 37signals style apps. I suggest you do more research into all the other startups and smaller, simpler solutions that exist out there and determine if there's really an opportunity.
clyfe
I have this same idea for a long time. One thing I thought (to gain market) of was to restrict the clients for the app to a single country (personalized by local laws etc.) but in my country there is already a competitor, and making for other countries seems a bit over my hand.