Kyle was following the financial independence movement and wanted a clearer, more detailed picture of his own long-term finances than any existing app or his own spreadsheet could give him, so he built the tool for himself first.

“I looked around, but couldn’t find a good tool with a modern UI where you can build detailed long-term financial plans and that’s actually fun to use”

After a few low-key Reddit shares went nowhere, Kyle posted the tool to Hacker News without much expectation; the post unexpectedly reached the front page within the hour and brought in the first wave of users.

“I posted the link to HN just for kicks, but didn't bother checking back in... then an hour later I found my email inbox blowing up”

The first paying customer ("first internet dollar") came out of the same Hacker News post that produced the first users, in May 2021.

“First internet dollar!”