Gripd: Hustle Tracker

The brief

Almost everyone I know has more than one hustle. A 9–5, a small business on Instagram, some freelance work on the side. Ask them how much the side hustle actually made last month and you get the same answer: "I'll calculate it later." They never do. I wanted to build the thing that makes "later" unnecessary, and that meant the brand had to feel like a friend who's good with money, not a bank.

How I got there

1. 1

   A name you can say in one breath

   Gripd comes from "get a grip on your money". Short, a little cheeky, easy to type, and the .ng domain was free. The bag icon is a wallet and a shopping bag at the same time: money coming in, money going out.

2. 2

   Orange, on purpose

   Almost every finance app in Nigeria is blue or green. I went warm orange so Gripd looks like nothing else on a home screen, and so the marketing can be loud without feeling aggressive.

3. 3

   Talk the way users talk

   The campaign lines are things my friends actually say. "How much did I spend on my hustle this month? I'll calculate it later." "Truth is, you won't." It's a gentle call-out, and people share call-outs.

4. 4

   Design it, then ship it

   The interface is deliberately calm. When people open a money app they're usually already a little stressed. Then I built and launched it on the web and Google Play, with separate landing pages for users abroad and a blog for search.