“I think I can honestly say we’ve created the most sophisticated personal finance software on the market.”

This interview was made possible by our friends at DomainNameSales.com:

 

The marketplace for domain names.

Founded in early 2011 by two brothers in Boulder, Colorado, the concept behind Budgetable arose after realizing that nobody has quite gotten budget software right. Since then, they’ve devoted their energy towards developing the most innovative and intuitive personal finance software on the market. You can sign up to try for free at: Budgetable .

Ryan Bales is the founder and CEO of Budgetable. In addition to setting the company’s overall direction, Ryan is responsible for implementing key technical aspects of Budgetable.

MO: How did you and your brother come up with the idea behind Budgetable?

Ryan: It started about a year ago. I was looking around online for a tool to help me manage a budget, thinking that surely someone had created a great budgeting tool, but surprised to find that there wasn’t very much out there. I thought, “I bet I’m not the only one frustrated with budgeting. I can solve this problem.” I called up my brother (and co-founder of Budgetable), Kyle and told him about the idea and he thought it was great. We started planning Budgetable in my kitchen the next day.

MO: How have your shared backgrounds and experience contributed to the development of the company?

Ryan: I started my career in software development and have been building apps for the past 10 years. I have worked mostly at startups and always loved the excitement of creating and launching new products. Kyle has a strong background in business and has really turned our idea into a viable and sustainable company. I think the success we’ve seen so far is ultimately the result of our complimenting skills and contributions.

MO: What are some recent innovations you’ve made in personal finance software?

Ryan: I think I can honestly say we’ve created the most sophisticated personal finance software on the market. The innovation we’re most proud of is our wasteful spending functionality. After Budgetable is linked to your bank, it looks at your transactions and (with pinpoint accuracy) determines which transactions are wasteful. Budgetable starts to understand your spending patterns and show you where you can improve. In addition, you are assigned what we call a Budget Score. Your Budget Score is a reflection of how well you manage your finances. It’s a great way to monitor your spending habits and provides you with motivation to improve them.

MO: What inspires your development process and how do you bring those ideas to life?

Ryan: We build tools that we want to use ourselves. We are deeply passionate about the software we build, and we truly put our hearts into our work. It’s difficult to even refer to Budgetable as “work” –that’s how much we love this stuff! We have a great team with some extremely smart and creative people. They bring this all to life.

MO: Can you tell us what you think some of the shortcomings of traditional budgeting methods are?

Ryan: Traditional budgeting is terrible. Nobody sticks to budgeting –it’s like going to the gym, right? I think there are several reasons for this, but mainly because budgeting is so time consuming. Who wants to track every penny they spend and log it in a spreadsheet? To make it worse, if you exceed your budget at the end of the month, you feel bad about yourself. This results in eventually causing you to give up the entire process. Budgetable solves all of this by making budgeting dead easy –even fun.

MO: What professional accomplishment are you most proud of so far?

Ryan: I’m really proud of the product we’ve built. I believe it’s truly amazing in that it brings budgeting to life. Budgeting will become part of your daily life and you’ll enjoy watching your progress as you become a more efficient spender. I really think it’s going to help a lot of people. I’m truly proud to be a part of this.