Early Access Update #4

Will Reeves -

Happy new year!

Demand for the Fold Card has absolutely skyrocketed and I couldn’t be more excited to continue evolving the product with our Early Access group. We are getting closer to mass rollout and it will be because of you all that it’s successful.

We broke nearly every record last month. The app is being used millions of times per month, we’re trending towards a quarter million on the waitlist, millions of dollars in spend volume, tens of thousands of users use it daily, and we have a 94% satisfaction rate with card.

In the meantime, however, there is no shortage of bugs and features that need to be added to get us to the ideal experience. Here’s an update on what we’ve seen and what we’re doing about it.

A few major updates to call out:

- Missed Spins: Missed spins can happen for a variety of reasons: a charge that comes through overnight, a dead phone, wrangling kids at the grocery store and bugs in the app. We’ve got three things we’re doing about it:

  • Free Spins: We’re launching a feature that will allow you to accumulate ‘Free Spins’ which can be used to recover a missed spin or respin when you want to try to get a different prize. ETA: mid-late January.
  • Spin Timer: We’re going to increase the spin timer for Premium Users from 5 minutes to 1 hour. ETA: mid January
  • Minimum Prize: We want to make sure that you are guaranteed to stack sats on every purchase. While we cannot offer a flat rate, we will be making sure that you stack at least 25 sats at minimum on every purchase. ETA: mid-late January

- New Funding Options: Getting funds onto the card is our highest priority and source of most user issues. Here’s what we’re doing about it:

  • In-App ACH funding via Plaid is being tested in production with a select cohort of users and the Fold team. ETA: mid January.
  • Instant Debit Funding. ETA: late January.

- Physical Card: We’ve seen two issues surrounding the card.

  • Card Weight: Premium members all received their Early Access Version card, however they will get the opportunity to get the final Premium Card once manufacturing is ready. ETA: February
  • Delivery: We had a small batch of cards delayed due to the holidays, however all affected users will be contacted soon with an update. ETA: Imminent.

- ACH Rewards: ACH rewards are still being developed and will rollout after funding and extra spin fixes. ETA: Late January to Early February.

- Spin Wheel Rewards: Our special holiday wheel was a hit! However our current rewards wheel has received very positive feedback as well. Look out for more special wheels dropping in the future and share ideas for prizes you’d like to see added (follow wheel updates here on Medium, on Twitter, and on our Discord Server)

- KYC Review: We’ve had a backlog of people stuck in KYC and are working with our partner to expedite their review.

- Bugs and Performance Issues: We’ve been building a lot, fast. This led to a build that we shipped with significant performance issues for some users. We’re focusing on addressing some of the technical debt before moving to new features so that we can ensure a smooth experience for all.

- Gift Cards: As you may have noticed we’ve had a shortage of gift cards. Over the holidays a perfect storm formed: massive surge in demand, limited bank and merchant holidays and a series of failed fund transfers. All cards will begin to return back to normal inventory this week and next.

When will we begin onboarding more users?

- Early Access: We’re going to finish the rollout to users on the waitlist when we ship in-app ach funding.

- General Release: We’re going to open the floodgates when Instant Debit Funding and Extra Spins and expedited KYC are enabled.

Things to remember

- Remember the early access code of conduct. We are all in this together.

- While the Fold Team is small, we’ve got your back. If a support issue comes up, please refer to our FAQs and guides on support.foldapp.com or submit a ticket there if you need additional help.

- Give us ideas for what kinds of prizes you want to see on the wheel. The wheel will change frequently. What do you want to win?

- Please respond to our survey that is on your Fold Card tab in the app. We want to hear from you!