About a week ago right after launch, I started to do something every Founder should be able to do:
Explain their company in one sentence, so that a variety of people can understand it.
In order for me to find this one sentence for CHUMP, and like everything I’ve shipped thus far, it’s been an iterative process.
Every day on LinkedIn and X, for the past week, I’ve posted the same thought: "I built CHUMP, because…" and then filled in the second half of the sentence, as an exercise to get every idea floating in my head down to a single, concise line. Sharing it publicly is also a real-time way to see feedback and understand what does and doesn’t resonate.
This ideation of simplicity, for a lack of a better term, is a something I practiced often while creating crypto and Bitcoin media for 5+ years, because if I can’t explain the thing, whether it’s Bitcoin or CHUMP, in one sentence to different people then do I even truly understand it?
This week, I finally landed on the perfect explanation of what CHUMP is for the tech crowd.
CHUMP is your personal money API.
Now, if you’re not a techie then this may sound like CHUMP is some weird internet STD, but don’t worry it’s not contagious.
If you spend any time on the internet, you're using APIs constantly, you just might not know it. When you open Uber, it pulls from the Google Maps API. When you pay for something online, there's a good chance the Stripe API runs the transaction. Your social feeds, your weather app, your delivery tracking are all leveraging APIs. Most of the time you're on the internet, you're talking to an API even if you don’t realize it.
So, what’s an API?
The other day I asked Claude to explain what an API is to a five-year-old and it gave me the classic answer:
“Imagine you're at a restaurant and you want cookies, but you can't go into the kitchen, so you ask the waiter. The waiter can go in the kitchen, so he goes, grabs the cookies, and brings them back. You don't need to know how the kitchen works. You don't need to know where the cookies are. You just ask, and the snack shows up.”
An API is the waiter.
And, you see, that's exactly what CHUMP does, except the kitchen is your bank account(s). Right now, there's no easy way to open your phone, text a number, and ask, "How much is in my Bank of America checking? What do I owe on my Chase card? What's in my Wells Fargo savings?" You can find all of it, but you have to log into three different banks, click through three 2FAs, three different apps, and stitch the picture together yourself. It takes exponentially longer to get a less clear picture of your money than just texting CHUMP.
Because, for $9.99 a month, you can just text CHUMP. "Yo, what'd I spend yesterday? How much do I owe on my credit card?", and CHUMP goes to the kitchen (your bank accounts), where you can't easily get into, and brings back the cookies (the answers). That's it. A personal API for your money.
When you text CHUMP, it just feels like you're talking to CHUMP. Just like how your weather app is quietly pulling from weather.com’s API, but you never feel like you're talking to weather.com — you feel like you're talking to your weather app. That seamlessness is the whole beauty of an API and the whole beauty of CHUMP.
For a while I've described what CHUMP gives you as "money clarity." I still believe that. But say "money clarity" to most people and it lands like jargon not a clear picture. Say "CHUMP is your personal money API" to anyone who knows tech, and it clicks instantly.
So, with CHUMP launched and users talking to their money daily, I’ve been spending time refining CHUMP’s messaging before the marketing and media push I've got planned for September. Because, building the product was only like 3% of the work. The real work is maintaining momentum, improving it constantly, and telling the world, via paid and organic media, why they should at the very least try CHUMP’s 7-day FREE trial.
CHUMP is your personal money API and today you can get a month FREE on me when you use the discount code NEWSLETTER at check out. Code expires on 9/4, so don’t wait.
As always – nothing replaces action.
See you next Tuesday.