Pyra — Co-founder & CEO
A consumer neobank for people pursuing financial independence. Pyra let users keep their paychecks invested in assets while using credit for everyday spending.
From Pyra
Auto-scrollWhat it was
Pyra was built around a simple idea: invest before you spend. Instead of selling assets to cover daily expenses, users could keep their capital invested and spend against a Pyra credit line.
What we built
We built and launched a mobile neobank with bank deposits and a Pyra credit card. The product connected users' deposits and investments to a credit experience designed for everyday life.
I iterated on the initial product and owned product features, customer service and communication, go-to-market, marketing, and fundraising. The team grew to five: my co-founder and CTO Iarla, a lead engineer, a backend engineer, and a marketer.
How it ended
Pyra was affected by the Drift Protocol exploit, which impacted the venue we used for credit. Users lost around $500K in TVL. We kept communication open and transparent with affected users, rebuilt the product, and relaunched within five weeks.
We ultimately shut Pyra down after running out of money and facing the need to rebuild the product from the ground up.
What I learned
I'm proudest of how quickly we iterated toward a product users found extremely sticky, and of being among the first to build a credit-based DeFi card on Solana. I'm also proud of how we handled a difficult moment: staying transparent, rebuilding, and continuing to talk with the people affected.
The experience taught me to start with the end user I actually want to win, build repeatable marketing channels, and treat distribution partners as a core part of the product strategy.