Empower Your Financial Future

Company Summary

Helo is a fintech Banking as a Service (BaaS) platform that automates payments and savings. Helo teaches disciplined behavior through AI and financial literacy. Our core technology has already made over 7 million payments, paid off over $1.5 Billion in loans, and helped over 300k clients. There is no product in the market that compares to Helo.

Customer Problem
 

70% of Americans are stressed about their finances. Despite household income growing over time, lifestyle creep and ‘Insta-perfect’ envy are resulting in 58% of Americans living paycheck to paycheck. Non-housing debt is skyrocketing breaching the tens of trillions. This unmanageable personal debt leaves many individuals feeling overwhelmed and stressed. Since 2020, employees are five times more worried about their finances than they are about their mental, physical or social health. Countless Americans grapple with financial uncertainty and struggle to make ends meet.

Companies lack social responsibility, bombarding consumers with ads and enabling easy spending through micro-financing. Our banking industry lacks stability, and our national debt is over $33.17 Trillion due to bailouts, forgiveness programs, foreign aid, stimulus check programs, social programs, and poor management.  

Target Market

For the launch of Helo, we are targeting 15 densely populated and popular cities across the US and targeting 25-35 year old women. These tech-savvy women are looking for a digital solution to streamline and simplify their lives. They also have several life-changing events during these years such as graduating college, buying a car, buying a home, getting married, starting a family, or a business. Women are also 4 times as likely to refer products over men.

Competitors

Helo is not just another budgeting tool. It recognizes that while budgets diagnose financial problems, individuals often lack the discipline to change their habits independently. Helo sets itself apart by remaining product agnostic and never selling users' data to financial institutions or bombarding them with product ads. Helo prioritizes user interests, simplicity, and our integrity.
 

Sales/Marketing Strategy

Our multifaceted marketing strategy includes selling Helo as a corporate wellness benefit to medium and large corporations, financial influencer affiliate sales, professional referrals, and targeted ads through Google, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Our Unfair Advantage

Our partnership with Hank Payments gives us a competitive edge. By leveraging their existing user base of 42,000 clients and targeting the previous 300,000 users who have already successfully paid off their loans with Hank, we can efficiently introduce Helo as an upsell. These clients already know, like, and trust the platform, and by offering Helo, we can capitalize on their familiarity and loyalty. With hundreds of thousands of users already using the Hank payment chassis over the past seven years, we have confidence in the success of Helo. Additionally, the upcoming sunset of Mint, which has three million users seeking alternatives, presents a significant opportunity for us.

Revenue Model

Helo has four sources of revenue: 

1. $30/month/subscription (+ implementation fees for corporate contracts) 

2. Referral fees from our professional partnerships (CPAs, Advisors, Attorneys, etc.) 

3. BPS on every dollar in the banking ecosystem (62.5 bps right now) 

4. Interest on a convertible note (then profit sharing) off of Hank Payments equity

What is the Raise for?

Our first round of funding is to finish our sandbox version of Helo and launch a campaign for that, then finish the full product based on those user's feedback, coinciding with the development of our website and A/B ad testing of our campaign launch ads.

Our Name

Helo comes from the Greek word chelóna which means tortoise. We chose this name because our platform tells the story of the tortoise and the hare and how good discipline over a long period of time yields better results. We also wanted to pick a word with a Latin or Greek root so that when we expand globally it would have a decent chance of easily translating across many languages (unlike the Chevy Nova).

Who is our Founder?

Ariel Dangelo, our passionate founder, brings over a decade of invaluable experience within the financial services sector to the table. Her extensive background as a financial advisor, directly engaging with clients, has equipped her with a profound understanding of the common financial challenges people face. Ariel's commitment to financial education and her drive to steer our economy towards a healthier direction are both genuine and deeply rooted. She is a Profit First Certified advisor, has successfully started an independent financial planning firm, and has been accepted into an MBA program for entrepreneurs starting this Spring, all factors in this startup’s leg up towards success.

Ariel didn't grow up with a silver spoon and from the young age of seven started to learn the value of hard work when she began mucking stalls to earn riding lessons her family couldn't afford. Growing up with a single dad and four other siblings there were three rules: get straight A's, plat a sport every season and chores had to be done by Thursday. Ariel went on to put herself through her undergrad and worked in Corporate Banking at State Street before starting her own firm in 2020. Ariel's journey includes a remarkable recovery from a traumatic spinal cord injury, proving her resilience and determination—she's unstoppable when she sets her sights on a goal. For Ariel, Helo is more than a business venture; it's a mission to transform the financial wellbeing of families across America. 

One Last Thing...

If you contribute to our raise, YOU are going to be making a significant difference in the world. Helo is going to shake up the financial services industry. Our platform directly goes against what most FinTech and finance companies are trying to get people to do - buy products (insurance, annuities, securities, and funds) and getting people to spend, spend, spend, regardless of what that does to people's overall financial wellness. We are more than just another budgeting tool, or bill pay app, Helo will help families achieve financial independence, stability, and most importantly peace of mind. That will have a positive effect on our communities as much as our economy.