What makes Vitra different?

[patrice58]

What features does VitraCash have which differentiates itself from any competitors? As a new user that hasn’t had the chance to use it yet I’m just wondering.

Thanks.

[Kastello]

The biggest difference is that VitraCash is building an algorithm which chooses the best card for you. So for example if you have Card A with 2% cashback and card B has 3% cashback, the algorithm will choose the card with 3% cashback.

[patrice58]

So if the wrong card is selected by the algorithm is there a way of fixing that?

[Kastello]

As far as I know, there isn’t any way maybe @Ryan could clarify that

But keep in mind, it’s beta at the moment

[patrice58]

Yeah no problem, let’s see what’s said.

[Steve]

@Ryan @Zulfia @Koray @Florian

[Zulfia]

So many things are coming there will be the possibility „to change the transaction from one card to another“ ASAP, yes.

There are actually no direct competitors. You mean Curve? There are also Apple Pay and google pay …I would worry more about those

Even now, in the very very very first beta tester stage we have some unique features, which you can’t really find in competitors. Like the algorithm and and virtual cards.

I guess the main difference to the „competitors“ is the ambition. VitraCash is not going to stop right here, it will be something absolutely different from „competitors“ in some years from now …

Even in one year you wouldn’t really be able to compare VitraCash to anything at all as we are going to implement some things as balance, easy drag and drop transfers and many many other exciting features.

[Mark]

I also had some thoughts on the algorithm here and was promised a response by the developers explaining how the AI works.

Might be interesting since it’s currently vitra‘s biggest USP

@Zulfia

So many things are coming there will be the possibility „to change the transaction from one card to another“ ASAP, yes.

There are actually no direct competitors. You mean Curve? There are also Apple Pay and google pay …I would worry more about those

Even now, in the very very very first beta tester stage we have some unique features, which you can’t really find in competitors. Like the algorithm and and virtual cards.

I guess the main difference to the „competitors“ is the ambition. VitraCash is not going to stop right here, it will be something absolutely different from „competitors“ in some years from now …

Even in one year you wouldn’t really be able to compare VitraCash to anything at all as we are going to implement some things as balance, easy drag and drop transfers and many many other exciting features.

Damn Zulfia, what a post…now you made me curious

Atm I totally see curve as a competitor. But apple and google pay? I don’t quite get how they are a competitor to vitra as their value add is providing a secure and legal way of using your phone instead of the actual card and storing your card information in a separate secure element within your phone. Is Vitra planning wearables (like the Amex wristband) so I don’t need a phone or my vitro-card? Do tell! The idea of vitra being a direct competitor to phone payments never crossed my mind…but I have to admit it’s incredibly exciting!

Is the algorithm already doing its thing? As my cards still show up as “generic DE visa” I was assuming in its current beta state there’s no AI decision making yet. Is there any way to tell if the AI has correctly recognized my cards and its benefits?

[patrice58]

@Zulfia

There are actually no direct competitors. You mean Curve?

Yes as they are the only other company doing anything remotely similar.

@Zulfia

Even in one year you wouldn’t really be able to compare VitraCash to anything at all as we are going to implement some things as balance, easy drag and drop transfers and many many other exciting features.

Now that sounds exciting.

[Ryan]

@Mark

promised a response by the developers explaining how the AI works

Hey Mark - I did say a member of the team would get back to you, but didn’t state a time frame. We are focussing on the apps right now to get them into a working state.

Someone will answer from the AI side when they can.

@Mark

Atm I totally see curve as a competitor.

@patrice58

Yes as they are the only other company doing anything remotely similar.

Curve is only a competitor in the sense of consolidating cards into one. They don’t have any other technology like a smart AI, which is why we class them as a ‘minor competitor’.

@Mark

But apple and google pay?

Again, these are a sort of way of consolidating cards for quick use. They don’t currently have any other tech either.

@Mark

Is Vitra planning wearables

@patrice58

Now that sounds exciting.

The future is not fully written yet. But we may one day look at something like this. As Zulfia mentioned, we have lots of things we would like to do, but these will stay internal until such point we know we can do them.

We don’t want to give out things we’re not 100% sure we’ll be able to implement, to avoid disappointing users.

@Mark

Is the algorithm already doing its thing? As my cards still show up as “generic DE visa” I was assuming in its current beta state there’s no AI decision making yet. Is there any way to tell if the AI has correctly recognized my cards and its benefits?

The AI has been working since before the beta. The card name is a bug in the app & nothing to do with the AI side of things. It will still work correctly.

There is no way currently to see if the AI did it correctly, apart from seeing which card it used - but if you’re aware of one of your cards would have been better for a transaction, you should report this so we can better the AI.

Cheers,

Ryan

[patrice58]

@Ryan

The AI has been working since before the beta. The card name is a bug in the app & nothing to do with the AI side of things. It will still work correctly.

A go back in time feature needs to implemented for the edge cases where a transaction should be charged to another card but you’ve already said you as a company are working on such a feature so it’s all good.

[Ryan]

@patrice58

A go back in time feature needs to implemented for the edge cases where a transaction should be charged to another card but you’ve already said you as a company are working on such a feature so it’s all good.

Zulfia already confirmed this feature, it should be live by the time we go public, or shortly after.

@Zulfia

there will be the possibility „to change the transaction from one card to another“

[Zulfia]

Interestingly our larger investors always considered apple and google pay as competitors. Not curve. I was surprised at first, but it makes sense for me now.

Think about it ? Curve is amazing! But … let’s be honest… we are going in a different direction and they do not really have „all the market“,so they are not a threat to VitraCash in my opinion. They also consider themselves as „not a bank“, trying to make their main idea perfect without implementing „too many“ new features. That’s a legit strategy, but it also means we would not be comparable to them in the near future.

Apple Pay on the other hand has its own physical card in America , so it might be coming to Europe soon. And if Apple Pay decided to implement something similar to our algorithm (or at least the „curve“ feature), it could be a problem for VitraCash. Not even our patent would help in any way.

Actually if you reinstall the app, delete the cards and put them again….they won’t be “generic DE”, but you would have a bank name instead (IOS, not sure about Android )

The algorithm does its thing, but I am afraid of the algorithm being “smarter than me”, so I prefer to choose the main card myself for now.

I really appreciate the virtual card though…

[patrice58]

@Zulfia

Think about it ? Curve is amazing! But … let’s be honest… we are going in a different direction and they do not really have „all the market“,so they are not a threat to VitraCash in my opinion. They also consider themselves as „not a bank“, trying to make their main idea perfect without implementing „too many“ new features. That’s a legit strategy, but it also means we would not be comparable to them in the near future.

True Curve has it’s own strengths and weaknesses. The one thing it does have is brand identity and awareness as well as 1st mover advantage. That could be a bad or a good thing as another company could have learnt from their mistakes and possibly improving on it or differentiating completely from them.

It’s an incredibly interesting place to be.

[Zulfia]

Absolutely! Don’t get me wrong! I would never say, that Curve’s strategy is somehow worse…It works. It’s cool. It’s legit. It’s targeted. They also make cool Tiktoks I love them

I just personally don’t see us going to the same direction for now.

I don’t see them as competitors not because it is not being strong enough. It’s just their vision is different.

[patrice58]

@Zulfia

Absolutely! Don’t get me wrong! I would never say, that Curve’s strategy is somehow worse…It works. It’s cool. It’s legit. It’s targeted. They also make cool Tiktoks I love them

I just personally don’t see us going to the same direction for now.

I don’t see them as competitors not because I consider it not being strong enough. It’s just their vision is different.

No no no I’m not thinking that you’ve said that and even if you was I don’t care, I’m a user of their service not their CEO.

[Martin]

I don’t see Curve as a direct competitor to Vitra but it is probably the “closest competitor”. Vitra fulfils some of the most obvious holes in the Curve proposition. IMHO, Curve’s product development has been painfully and consequently several opportunities have been (or are likely to be) missed. What’s more, some of Curve’s revenue streams are based on features incompatible with Vitra, e.g. FX arbitrage.

The Vitra team are highly engaged with their stakeholders so I would hope they would not make similar mistakes.

[patrice58]

@Martin

The Vitra team are highly engaged with their stakeholders so I would hope they would not make similar mistakes.

As a Curve shareholder they are absolutely abysmal in that regard.

I own a whole 1 share don’t get too excited people.

[Zulfia]

Mmm … I moved to London some months ago and was able to talk to a couple of Revolut employees already.

And all of them are so sure, that Revolut is the best product on the earth and the best place to work. And this fascinates me SO MUCH. Incredible culture ! ( I didn’t not talk to regular employees though, but rather to people, who have leading positions)

But still …I have never had such a culture and such a love .

I know some google employees in London …who just want to change their jobs lol

A little off topic. Just inspired by your post

[patrice58]

@Zulfia

A little off topic. Just inspired by your post

Please don’t apologise and go ahead, this is what all good conversations are all about and I love it.

Revolut have improved as I’ve heard that a few years ago they were a horrible place to work. So much so that the newspapers ran a story on how bad it was.

They said they would improve and it looks like that did. Fair play to them.