KATRIN KAUROV & ALEKSANDRA MEDINA OF FRICH
“In six months to a year, you can learn any new skill. But startups are always going to have those moments where everything feels like it's burning and crushing, and you’ve got to have the resourcefulness and grit to come out of that. Be ready to take on the challenge. ”— Katrin Kaurov
Katrin Kaurov is the Co-founder and CEO of Frich. She worked as a model from the age of 15 which allowed her to live in 20+ countries by the time she was 21. She started her first company at the age of 19 and after that created an app called Modelclub which was a social app for models & influencers - it definitely has many similarities with Frich. She took Modelclub from the initial idea to being one of the most used apps within the fashion industry within 2 years. Inspired by that, she left the fashion industry, went to graduate school at Harvard and worked at a late-stage fin-tech company as a VP of Partnerships focusing on strategic growth before starting Frich.
Aleksandra Medina is the Co-founder and CPO of Frich. After completing an Interactive Media Design degree at NYU that equipped her with technical and design skills, she chose to develop an expertise in design and brand strategy working across Europe, Asia and the US building global brands with McCann. She worked with brands such as Audi and Warner Music focusing specifically on the Gen Z customer. Currently, she is in charge of the full lifecycle of product at Frich.
Can you talk about your journeys up until founding Frich?
Katrin: I had a bit of an odd beginning to my journey to Frich. I traveled a lot around the world, working as a model. I noticed that wherever I lived, people were desperately trying to keep up with their friends’ social lives even if it was way out of their budget. That’s one thing that inspired me to get involved in Modelclub, a social app for models and influencers that helped them save money. This was my first step into the tech world. When I started working in fintech in New York, I really liked the industry. However, the company where I worked was very focused on the top one percent, high-end clientele. On the other hand, there were people like Aleksandra and I who were just trying not to get their debit cards declined in front of their friends, or who were constantly in the cycle of overspending and being anxious about not having any money in their accounts. It was a very natural transition into starting Frich— we wanted to solve the problem that many of us struggle with.
Aleksandra: Katrin and I met in Abu Dhabi, but before starting Frich, she moved to New York. I lived and worked in so many different places. Whether you're in Asia or Europe, everyone struggles with the same thing. I had a more conventional way of getting into fintech. My degree was pretty technical—I like to describe it as a combination of creative coding and preparation for being able to launch a product. Half of it entailed learning how to code while the other half of it was ensuring your product was impactful and worth bringing into the world. Afterward, I worked with McCann where I developed brands for other companies that were focused on Gen Z customers. It always frustrated me that whoever hired us already came in with this predefined notion of who the Gen Z customer was. They thought it was just an extension of the millennial subgroup—obviously, that's not true. The way Gen Z grew up is so different. I often wasn’t taken seriously because I was only 18 years old. When the clients didn’t listen to me, their products didn't do that well. But when they would actually listen to a Gen Z-er explaining how to market towards Gen Z, their efforts succeeded. Eventually, I got really tired of building other people's brands. I wanted to build something by myself, solving a problem that I, together with Katrin, had.
What inspired you both to found Frich & could you tell us more about Frich?
Katrin: During COVID, Aleksandra and I were very sick of our own bad spending habits. Living in big cities, people struggle a lot more with spending, whether it's dinners out, Ubers back home, buying coffee, grabbing lunch, or ordering Seamless. People are always busy, so it's very convenient to keep spending money. Even more, when you’re new to a city, you focus a lot on building up a new friend group. For incoming freshmen in college, you're very worried if you're going to fit in socially. Spending money, whether you like it or not, plays a big part in fitting into a social group. So Aleksandra and I really wanted to find a solution for that. There were a lot of budgeting apps out there, and we tried a lot of them. However, few understood how a Gen Z customer thinks, which I think is the key distinguisher of Frich. Many of the apps we initially explored were a little serious, intimidating, and not something that a college kid would be looking for. They all missed an essential part of money management, which is that money is social. Your friends are going to affect your spending so much more than anyone else, more than even probably yourself. Aleksandra and I were inspired by fitness apps which incorporated a social component, enabling friends to hold each other accountable to workouts, meals, or weight. We added the same social aspect to personal finances and just turned personal financing into social finances. As a Frich user, you can set goals together with friends and keep each other accountable. Examples include challenging each other to spend less money on Ubers, spend less money on drinks, or not ordering a Seamless every day. And the best part is you can actually get rewarded for sticking to your goals. The app gives you Starbucks, Uber, or Amazon coupons if you manage to meet the goals together with your friends.
What is your vision for Frich 5 years from now?
Katrin: We're really focused on making Frich the go-to app for anything finance-related for Gen Z. Since we have a strategic partnership with MasterCard, we want to launch a Gen Z friendly debit card that will really understand what a Gen Z person wants. It would include cool perks such as free drinks, free coffee, and 20 percent off on food. A college kid doesn't want to collect miles and fly once in first-class in five years. We want something that we can get now. We hope to also incorporate micro-investing. And as Gen Z starts to grow older, we want to get in there early and support them throughout their lives. Maybe at some point, a Gen Z-er wants to buy a house or start a family and manage money as a couple. I think the social element can really transform throughout the years from being a fun spending app with your buddies in college to managing your family's finances. That's the long-term vision for us.
What is it like being Co-founders and what have you found most rewarding embarking on your founding journey together?
Aleksandra: I honestly don't know how people do it without having a co-founder. You really, really need that one person that you can be 100 percent honest with. There is nothing harder and more unpredictable than founding a company. If you don't have someone you fully trust, it will be very hard on your mental health, so definitely choose your co-founder very, very wisely. Be sure that all of your conversations eventually will be about the company you founded together, and also realize that you'll probably spend around 16 hours every day talking to this person. And then they'll show up in your dreams and in your nightmares… so again, choose wisely… Katrin and I have been very lucky to have each other as co-founders because we have so much trust. Fully trusting your co-founder is the most important thing because you're taking on a very tricky journey together.
Katrin: Another really important part about being co-founders is that we have different skills. Although we speak 16 hours a day, Aleksandra and I are in charge of different parts of the company. She's really great with product and managing the product team of designers and developers, and I deal more with the business development side. Having that distinction— different skills with everyone being in charge of their part— is the key to getting along and making sure the company runs smoothly. For anyone who's planning to build a start-up, I would suggest picking a co-founder who is professionally different from you. Going back to what Aleksandra said, I think we’re very lucky to have built immense trust by being best friends for so many years. And again, I just don't know how a solo founder would ever, ever do that. I just need that one person who, at the end of the day, I can go to and discuss how things really are going.
What skills are vital to starting a business in finance & investment?
Aleksandra: I just have one honestly good one, and I think it's resourcefulness!
Katrin: In six months to a year, you can learn any new skill. But startups are always going to have those moments where everything feels like it's burning and crushing, and you’ve got to have the resourcefulness and grit to come out of that. You need to be able to find the solution to anything that comes up, not only as founders but for anyone in the company. We wanted the team to be resourceful and able to hustle through whatever problem comes. A startup is very different from having a corporate job, which I've never had, but I assume it's way more organized and everyone has specific roles. For us right now, our head of marketing heads branding, manages TikTok and Instagram, and deals with angry DMs. You’re holding so many roles at once, and you've just got to be able to deal with that. As founders, we want people coming to us with solutions, not with problems. And that's the approach we try to take for our business and ourselves as well.
What advice do you have for college-aged women interested in entrepreneurship? What do you wish you had known?
Aleksandra: That's a tough one. I feel like I wish I knew everything. I don't think I was in any way, shape, or form prepared for what was going to happen. I was just very passionate about the problem I was solving, and I was ready to learn how to solve it. I think the only advice I would take is: if you're in college, you're 21 or 22, and you really don't have too much to lose, even if you mess up. If it goes terribly, it's one of your first jobs. No one's going to ever remember this unless you do super, super well, which can set your life up for success. But don't be afraid of failing. I honestly think there's no better way to learn 5,000 new skills than to try and start a company because, like Katrin said, you will have every single imaginable role that the company can have. Your title literally doesn't mean anything, especially in the beginning, because you're just doing everything all the time. Be ready to take on the challenge. You're so young, and you have so few responsibilities, so you should just see this as an experiment. Whatever happens, happens.
Katrin: And I would add on top of that one more skill: connecting and networking with people. It’s sometimes the most random people who somehow end up being the most helpful along the journey. When I was in college, I never thought that I would be into tech, and I only really connected with people who were involved with what I was interested in at the time. But I think being connected to as many people as possible and building up that network early on is really, really important and helpful for doing something else later on. I also think, in terms of failing and not being afraid to fail, it's important to fail fast. If you figure out something isn't working, it's better to fail in three months and then move on to something else and acknowledge what you learned from that experience rather than dragging something along throughout the years. You either go in all the way and hustle and grind 24/7 or you don't start anything at all. I think you have to pick.
Quick Take One: Name one act of self-care you practice each day.
Aleksandra: Go on long walks!
Katrin: I also love long walks, I also love a cup of coffee and good music while I'm doing my walk.
Quick Take Two: Who is a woman you look up to?
Aleksandra: My co-founder!
Katrin: Same! I'm so amazed every day by Aleksandra. I'm so happy to get to work together.
Quick Take Three: Recommend a few books, podcasts, newsletters or blogs that you've enjoyed and would recommend to the website readers.
Katrin: I would go with Y Combinator videos. When we were just starting, we were binge-watching all Y Combinator YouTube videos. They cover pretty much every topic in the startup world, so that's pretty great. I'm quite a big fan of different books about startups, so I think Zero to One is a really great one and Lean Startup would be a second book suggestion. For a podcast, to be honest, I'm still on the lookout for something really great, so I would love suggestions over here as well.
Aleksandra: Because Frich eventually boils down to trying to change people's habits and make their spending habits a little bit healthier and better, I really enjoyed the book Tiny Habits by B.J. Fogg. It's just, in a very digestible way, a little bit more about human behavior. Honestly, you don't have to even build a company that revolves around that idea. Even if you want to make some changes in your own behavior, I think it's very digestible and actually gives some actionable advice. But if you're looking for literature or some books to read when you're unwinding, I think one of my forever favorite books is Glass Castles. I think it's a really, really great book.