Joining forces with RoamHR's founder and CEO, we embarked on a mission to revolutionize financial management for independent professionals and freelancers, creating a comprehensive platform that simplified banking, tax management, and expense tracking. Roam's success in the Gig suite space lead to its successful acquisition.

Mobile App Design + User Research

15 Months

RoamHR

Project Objective:

The freelance economy was experiencing unprecedented growth, with over 50 million Americans engaging in freelance work. However, this growing workforce faced significant challenges in managing their finances. When I joined forces with the founder and CEO, RoamHR was facing the challenge of creating a comprehensive banking solution specifically designed for freelancers and independent contractors. The existing financial infrastructure wasn't adequately serving the growing gig economy workforce.

Freelancers needed a solution that could handle their banking needs, invoicing, milage tracking, and tax obligations in one seamless platform, while ensuring the highest level of security and compliance.

Discovering the Pain Points:

We began with extensive user research, conducting interviews with 15+ freelancers across different industries. This research revealed critical insights about financial pain points and desired features.

Lack of automated tax withholding systems, resulting in unexpected tax burdens

Process Highlights:

Wireframes to define structure.

High-fidelity mockups emphasizing user engagement.

Usability testing to ensure smooth interaction.

Follow-up during and after development

The Solution:

By combining essential freelancer needs into one platform that focused on financial literacy, security, and tax savings we were able to eliminate frustration, increase tax savings by educating users on quarterly tax payment benefits, and The platform's success led to multiple strategic partnerships with leading financial institutions and ultimately resulted in a successful acquisition. The solution we built became a cornerstone for freelancer financial management.

The dramatic growth from 14 to over 650 active users demonstrated the strong product-market fit and the essential nature of the solution for the freelancer community.

Positive Impacts:

"RoamHR completely transformed how I manage my freelance finances. The tax savings alone paid for the service multiple times over. The educational aspects helped me understand my finances better than ever."

Michael || Independent Contractor

"The platform saved me countless hours by consolidating all my financial tools into one. The quarterly tax management feature helped me avoid a huge tax bill at the end of the year."

What I Learned + Next Steps:

Working with roamHR taught me the importance and power of consolidating multiple platform offerings into one. Traditional methods of financial planning do not typically account for the freelancer and all of the extra work that goes into managing their time and business efficiently. By combining the features of a traditional checking account, a tax savings account, mileage tracking, and invoicing into one RoamHR was able to better serve the gig economy. Through gamified learning opportunities we were also able to help users increase their financial literacy and empower freelancers to take charge of how and when they manage their financial obligations. The acquisition of RoamHR was a pivotal point in my career because it signified my ability to come into an entirely bootstrapped startup environment and not only help them secure funding but to contribute all the way through to the acquisition. I see my time at Roam as an immense success because it taught me to adapt to new ideas, new technology, and to always be ready to pivot at any time in order to survive and reach the next phase.

View Prototype || View Figma