Good with

Mobile app supporting young people on personal finance.

An EPIC project

Good With app - illustration showing pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.

With debt among the top two stressors affecting mental health, finding effective ways to manage your money isn’t just a lifestyle tip, it’s essential for healthy living. EPIC teamed up with Good With to help them develop their mobile app supporting and educating young people on personal finance. The app uses conversational AI, gamification, and peer-to-peer support to create a compelling user experience and flags those in need of in-person mental health intervention to charity partners.

Designed to ease stress and improve mental health outcomes for young adults who struggle to understand personal finance, Good With fits with EPIC’s core values of helping vulnerable communities in the South West and strengthening support networks for this target demographic. As Good With expands, it is also providing valuable employment opportunities in Cornwall.

Background

What’s worse than struggling to live on a limited budget? Trying to make ends meet during a global pandemic; a study by the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute found that more than 40% of 18-24s lost work due to furloughing or job loss resulting in decreased income and adding significantly to their stress load. The low-wage economy in Cornwall, seasonal nature of many dominant employment sectors, and low savings levels among average low-income households placed many people at increased risk of debt and financial insecurity. Additional market research highlighted an unmet need among the target demographic:

84% of 18-24-year-olds think financial management important, yet few (14%) know of any tool that is relevant to them.
18-24s are interested in money management (55% ranked it above having an enjoyable job and keeping healthy).
48% report their life would improve with good money management, but information is poor (85% not taught enough at school) (Moneymatters 2020).
73% young people think self-control is more important than information.

The most vulnerable and affected include young people, those in lower socio-economic groups, and black, Asian, and minority ethnic (BAME) people.

Good With approached EPIC early in 2021 with the hope of achieving the first two-stage phase of their project: to conduct stakeholder interviews to understand attitudes and behaviours around finances and how these might translate to conversational AI, and to use end-user research to define the strategy and scope of the prototype for their app.

How has EPIC helped Good With?

Good With was awarded a £10,000 Challenge Fund grant (with £4,000 in match funding) to complete the first phase of their project. EPIC researcher Daniela Austin initially supported the company by providing academic literature on personal finance apps and advising on methodologies for measuring financial and mental wellbeing.

“We relied on the support of Daniela Austin who identified and accessed the relevant departments, who provided us with methodologies and frameworks that we could adapt to our research in order to validate the mental health impact we could have, she was very instrumental in guiding us and accessing support within the university.”
said CEO Gabriela Isas.

As Good With already have an academic on their team (lead data scientist, Ellie Kallis), the focus of EPIC’s support has primarily been on signposting the company to relevant organisations and events that can help them move forward in their prototype development and secure additional funding.

In November 2022, EPIC facilitated and funded Good With’s attendance at the Slush start-up event in Helsinki, where they made valuable introductions with potential investors. The company has also been granted a full accessibility audit through disability advocacy group Purple to ensure that their digital products are fully accessible for all users.

What’s next for Good With?

Good With are still in the early stages of development, but their results are promising: an early pilot study with test users shows self-reported anxiety levels are reduced following an interaction with a dummy chatbot who specifically discussed topics relating to finances. The company now has a working prototype of their app and are currently recruiting paid beta testers with funding won from the 2022 Health Equity Innovation Challenge held by South West Academic Health Science Network (SWAHSN) to evaluate its effectiveness.

This will involve psychometric testing of users at the beginning of the evaluation, every two weeks while they are using the app, and at the end of the 3-month trial period. Daniela will assist with this process once the ethics application has been approved. The company hopes that robust user data will validate their product and help them secure additional funding. One of their long-term goals is to be recognised by ORCHA as an accredited intervention for anxiety, and EPIC have referred them to the organisation.