2019 Wharton graduate Yuval Shuminer is the founder of the new personal finance app Piere (Photo courtesy of Yuval Shuminer).
2019 Wharton graduate Yuval Shuminer launches new personal finance app PeterIt launched its public beta in September.
Piere combines shared expenses, budgeting, and artificial intelligence to make personal budgeting easier for its users. The app uses machine learning to analyze the user’s income, expenses, and spending habits.
The Daily Pennsylvanian spoke with Shuminer, who currently serves as Piere’s CEO, about the new app and its capabilities.
Shuminer said Piere’s goal is to create “an incredibly personalized experience” that looks at your profile, how much money you make, and your life goals; It then provides “best financial decisions” that users can feel confident in.
Shuminer said he wanted a platform that could provide precise visibility into where his money was going and how much he spent.
After graduating from Penn in 2019, Shuminer began working at Boston Consulting Group. After working at BCG for a few years, he decided to shift his focus to Piere, which later became a startup.
“I was looking for a platform that could give me clarity that would give me confidence in the financial decisions I make,” Shuminer said.
Shuminer founded Piere to help users realize ways they can use their finances to improve their quality of life, rather than letting their budgets limit them from experiences.
“I didn’t want to restrict my life,” he said. “I wanted to do more: travel, eat out with friends. I was so excited about everything I could do, and so I was really looking for this financial platform that would help me strengthen my life rather than restrict it.”
Shuminer took issue with how other personal budgeting apps failed to recognize group payments and compensation.
Shuminer gave the example of a group of people depositing a card to pay for a $300 meal. After leaving the restaurant, the rest of the group continues to repay the payer. But according to other financial budgeting practices, this person still paid $300, even though he later received compensation.
Shuminer again emphasized the value of Piere not restricting its users’ spending, saying Piere has the technology to automatically recognize these payments and not deduct them from the user’s disposable income.
Shuminer also explained the app’s “pools” feature. This feature allows people to set their budget by activity or the amount they need to collect, which allows people to contribute to the pool.
“Everything is automatically tracked,” Shuminer said. “All you have to do is create a pool that they will automatically track and let you know who is contributing and who is paying.”
On October 24, Piere introduced new advanced budgeting and net worth tracking features.
“We built functionality that looks at your income and spending history and then suggests what the best budget would be for you,” Shuminer said of the new budgeting feature. The incredibly manual and cumbersome are now so easy. You have a budget in two clicks.”
According to Shuminer, the new advanced budgeting feature means Piere will create a budget with unique spending goals based on the user’s financial history. The net worth tracking feature allows the user to link Piere to all aspects of their finances, including credit cards, loans, and investment accounts.
College student Noah Katz is currently an intern at Piere, and his primary focus is on market strategy and how to best roll out the app across the Penn campus. He also downloaded the app for his personal use.
“It’s been a truly educational experience,” Katz said. “I joined the team very early on, maybe two weeks after the app was released on the app store, so it’s really cool to see a business really take off from day one.”
Shuminer said the journey to launch Piere was motivated by the identification of unmet opportunities.
“Focus on where you see the greatest opportunities to guide your decision to become an entrepreneur,” Shuminer said. “To become an entrepreneur, not just be an entrepreneur, but understand where in your life you see opportunities to make things better.”
