From The Founder: March Recap

March Overview of BudgetBro

Mad March, that’s what I have to say. It’s been that mad we even ended up renaming one of our companions after my Dad (Mad Mike).

We started the month at the ITB festival in Berlin and, as a first timer, I was blown away by it. I was also naive. I thought everything would just figure itself out while we were there, but I was wrong. The ITB app turned out to be essential for actually navigating and making the most of the three days.

That said, we learned quickly. We met some great people and made a few strong connections that should help the company moving forward.

After Berlin, me and Samar flew back to the UK while Nathan headed back to Asia to prepare for Beta. That didn’t last long though, as me and Samar ended up spontaneously flying out to Asia at the end of March to kick off the Beta campaign ourselves.

Beta Launch

It’s mad to say, but Beta is officially live. For most businesses that probably doesn’t mean much, but for us and everyone involved in BudgetBro, it’s easily been the hardest milestone to reach so far.

Can I confidently say we were ready? No, we weren’t. We launched because our runway doesn’t allow us to keep perfecting things behind the scenes, it’s as simple as that. The app still has issues, there are things we know need improving, and parts that just aren’t where we want them yet.

At the same time, plenty of companies launch far earlier with far less, so it’s a bit of a double-edged sword. We’ve built a lot, but that also makes it harder to let go and just put it out there. All my eggs are in this one basket, so yeah, I want people to love it, but we’ve reached the point where real feedback matters more than trying to get everything perfect in private.

Big lesson learned here. We dragged things out trying to get it right, when we probably should’ve shipped earlier and figured things out with users instead.

Josh & Samar Walking Around Asia

Not literally 24/7, but close enough. As part of the Beta campaign, we’re out in Asia to properly push BudgetBro. The focus is onboarding users, speaking to travellers, and talking to potential ad customers.

We’ve started in Phuket, and the plan is to move through the main backpacker hubs across Thailand before heading into Vietnam. The idea is simple, keep costs as low as possible while getting the app into as many people’s hands as we can.

It’ll be interesting to see in April’s recap how this actually plays out.

User Interface & User Experience

There have been some changes. Nothing major, but early feedback has helped us fix smaller UI and UX issues, tweak the homepage layout, and improve the overall flow.

We’ve also introduced the Explore Page. This came forward earlier than planned. After speaking to companies at ITB, it became clear that if we’re not involved in how users discover or choose places, they’re just not that interested in working with us.

Originally this was something for later, but based on that feedback and the needs of potential partners, we decided to build it now. It’s early, and it’ll take time before it’s genuinely useful at scale, but it’s a big step towards showing the “full ecosystem” we’re trying to build. The next few months should tell us whether it holds real value.

Investment

We’ve been putting a lot of work into this, but nothing concrete to share just yet. That’s not because things aren’t moving, it’s just that this part takes time.

The pitch deck is built, and we’re now focused on gathering the right data to strengthen it. Once we’re in a position where that data properly backs up the story, we’ll start reaching out to investors.

Alongside that, we’re applying for SEIS / EIS through HMRC, which should open us up to a much wider pool of investors once it’s in place.

Final thoughts

It’s fair to say we’ve made solid progress this month. It’s also fair to say we weren’t fully ready for Beta, but opening it up was still the right decision. We needed to get it out there.

There’s still a long way to go and a lot to figure out, but we’re moving now. Properly moving. The hill’s still there, but at least we’ve started climbing it.