Holdings workspace
Final design · interactive version in Solution
Problem
Customer acquisition for banking was expensive and slow, and we couldn’t scale it. Banking was too big a commitment to move customers over quickly without a sales process.
Accounting was already built into the banking product. We wanted to pull it out as a stand-alone product and add invoicing, which customers were requesting. We also had customers who had completed full KYC and KYB and were on the banking platform only to use accounting.
Hypothesis
We wanted accounting, invoicing and free tools that worked with any bank to act as lower-hurdle products: loss leaders that brought customers in, so we could convert them to banking.
Entry point. Bring your own bank: connect existing accounts to categorize and report.
→ Invoicing · → BankingEntry point. Send invoices and get paid into whichever bank you already use.
→ Accounting · → BankingConversion goal. Customers already using the stack were offered a Holdings account inside the workspace.
Discovery
We launched a stand-alone accounting tool and ran Google Ads to test interest.
We spoke with small business owners to see if they would want accounting or invoicing on their own.
The in-person conversations were promising, so we built it.
The ads
Accounting KetchupTo test demand for stand-alone accounting we launched a set of social ads. Each one put a bottle of ketchup into a different era of bookkeeping, under one line of copy.
Brief
We needed a new platform where customers could sign in and sign up for banking, accounting or invoicing separately, with KYC run separately for each. Banking requires significantly more KYC and KYB, and we wanted an easy entry point to our products.
Competitive analysis
At the time, no other product on the market combined banking, accounting and invoicing.
Design options
We designed the options in Claude Design and built the final version in Vercel.
Solution
We created a financial workspace that sat in front of banking and acted as a dashboard. Customers could see a summary of banking, accounting and invoicing, sign up for any of the three, and access the free tools we had built as acquisition products.
Good evening, hayley
Final design · hover the sidebar to expand it · scroll inside for Actions and FAQs
Outcomes
After launch, June 2026Conclusion
The workspace worked as a distribution wedge, but conversion to banking was still slow.
It needed more time. Whether customers who came in through the workspace would eventually convert to banking, the core of the hypothesis, remains unknown.