Travel Expense Manager - Interview with the developer of a fantastic app

Did you have any prior development or coding experience?

I am not a programmer although I am learning JavaScript and Python. My task in Travel Expense Manager, and other projects is the development of the business and product, so I have experience in what is behind the application and the software.

What was the most challenging aspect of developing mobile app?

My favorite applications are Twitter, Whatsapp, and Tinder, because of the level of addiction they generate, their business model, the simplicity of their usability, and the look and feel. They are really large-scale global applications. I also like UltimateRugby, an app with all the information about my favorite sport, rugby.

_{Richard Heurtley}

Business development at Pitchableme.com, Founder of SpotyMe and Travel Expense Manager.
Entrepreneur and journalist. Partner and founder in Back To The Podcast SL where we incubate Spotyme. Developing digital businesses at www.pitchableme.com from #Barcelona. I collaborate in the supplements of the newspaper El Cronista. Director (of license) of Radio Gen 107.5 FM of Córdoba. Once I organized #HacksMediaLabs. Cabildear.org Project 1st Prize 2015 Hackathón FOPEA. LOT-FOPEA Scholarship. CONNECTAS-ICFJ Scholarship. I'm part of the team that won the 2017 Fopea Digital Research Award for Checkered.com. Member of Open Data Córdoba. Member of ConnectasHUB. When I have time I develop websites and blogs. Learning to program: javascript and python.

Name a few of your favorite apps and reason you love them.

My favorite applications are Twitter, Whatsapp, and Tinder, because of the level of addiction they generate, their business model, the simplicity of their usability, and the look and feel. They are really large-scale global applications. I also like UltimateRugby, an app with all the information about my favorite sport, rugby.

How long have you been working on this app?

We started with Travel Expense Manager at the end of 2017 and published it in 2018. In principle, it was an MVP to test and validate usability, it is developed in Java for Android, and now we see that it is already used by more than 1200 fixed users per month achieving a peak of 6100 downloads. We will now seek to break this entry barrier by applying an active digital marketing strategy. We have also published it on Flippa to see if we find a buyer and / or partner who wants to help us leverage.

What need of the user did you have in mind when developing this app?

We had the main need first when on different trips we had to accumulate purchase invoices, not having control of expenses and the lack of a tool that allows us to compare expenses from one city to another and from one place of purchase to another.

In what way do you think your app is better than similar apps on the market? Please describe in detail what innovation you think you bring and what you are proud of in your app.

The main advantage of the Travel Expense Manager has is that it is simple and easy to use. And it is also free; we only charge to remove the advertising that, for now, is our only source of income; although we have not yet developed as we want. Also, another advantage is that you can capture photos of all purchase invoices, products, and expenses and save them in the app or download later with a CSV of the expenses generated and proof of those expenses. Another advantage is that we have the app in all languages.

What are your future plans and expected features of the coming new versions of this app?

We are working on some changes to improve the download of documents, which are in .pdf and .xls format, and we will also focus more on travelers and business sellers with their own control panel to be able to track business expenses.

Assuming new users of your app are reading this page. What do you want to ask them to do (contact you about X, Share the app, etc.)?

We would love to leave your opinions, comments, feedbacks, and ideas. Also that they share it with as many contacts as possible to be able to grow more, we need to reach 100,000 users to be able to apply to private financing funds and improve the app, go out for Apple as well. You can write to the email [email protected] which is the agency that created the app. We have other apps in development linked to tourism.