Dunedin startup PocketSmith to launch public beta next month

PocketSmith, a Dunedin based startup offering a financial planning application, will launch its public beta version next month.

The company which started last year has now grown to four people and they plan to have a feature complete product in two months including cashflow forecasting and new features, debt management and savings.

A free version will offer basic features of the budgeting tool and there are plans to offer a premium service on a monthly or yearly basis but no word on pricing.

They will also offer a white label product to banks which can plug into their existing online systems and be branded separately.

Francois Bondiguel, one of the three founders, said their development cycle was led by their 850 users.

They have grown their user base using the levarage of social marketing through Facebook, Twitter and attending web events around New Zealand and have spent no money on advertising.

They also launched a complementary web project called Financial Confessions, www.financialconfessions.net, where people can anonymously confess their financial sins. You can hug or slap any of the confessors and is designed as a bit of fun.

PocketSmith.com has been developed with open source software Ruby on Rails and is hosted in the clouds by Slicehost.