For people of color in America, feeling left out and unsupported by the financial systems in place is a common emotion. OfColor set out to create a financial wellness app to support that community, by offering its platform as a benefit through their employers. Greater crafted its brand and partnered with OfColor since 2020, designing its app and generating content that speaks to their ideal user.

OfColor's work ultimately asks the market to consider and care about something it neglected for its entire existence. They believe the future of work benefits is inclusion and belonging. Their purpose to uplift minority communities is a platform in realizing that future.

The Problem

Back in the middle of the pandemic, Yemi, the founder of OfColor reached out to us, igniting a long-term partnership. He believed that the financial systems in America were not designed to support people of color and that navigating these systems required time, resources, and knowledge.

He had an idea on how he wanted to close the gap so collaboratively, we got to work.

Here’s the background

Investopedia defines the Racial Wealth Gap as:

… The disparity in assets of typical households across race and ethnicity.

The Federal Reserve notes that

In the United states, the average Black and Hispanic or Latino households earn about half as much as the average White household and own only about 15 to 20 percent as much net wealth.

The gap is recognized, real, and massive. It wouldn’t be an easy or simple problem to solve… something we probably won’t be able to do in our lifetime. But, how can we work towards it?

The founding idea

Yemi’s focus for his company was the workplace. He believed that by encouraging employers to sponsor financial wellness benefits, BIPOC employees would be able to raise their wealth because they’d have access to the necessary resources and knowledge. This in turn would increase productivity and retention for the company.

The product questions

• Understanding the BIPOC employee
• Who are these users?
• What do these users need?
• What is a typical day for these users?
• How should this new product work? What should it offer?
• How does brand come into play?

The Solution

There are many fintech apps and platforms in the world today. It seems every week a new one is being funded. How does OfColor differentiate itself?

Focusing on the brand

We started this product by building the brand. We wanted to produce an identity that was authentic, unapologetic, and bold.

Looking at the user

This product required a unique strategy because it was being sold to enterprises. The decision makers and the end users had to be considered separately. How do you build an argument for the business leaders that may or may not be in the target demographic, while also building something that is useful to the end user?

Deprioritizing personal finance management tools (PFM)

When looking at the market, the most popular form a fintech app takes is PFM. From Mint to Truebill to even the Chase app, the existing tools focus on things like budgeting, subscription management, and transaction viewing. In a way, PFM is not a point of differentiation, but a baseline. From a user acquisition standpoint, adoption becomes challenging if we had to convert a user only on these sort of tools.

So we decided to focus on other aspects of the user’s financial development that allowed them to start where they needed. We prioritized a content, community, and coaching experience that encouraged users to learn and interact with relevant content and community members, while working with a financial coach.

The Results

OfColor was able to successfully close contracts with enterprise companies and growing startups. We continue to work closely with the team to further optimize and launch new features within the application.