In the Stellar Dev Diaries series, we’re following the journey of a dev team building on the Stellar Network as they go from hackathon idea to funded startup, testing their product in the real world and adapting as they go.
🎥 Check out Episode 3: User Feedback & The Pivot That Saved The Project
📺 [Watch on YouTube]
Missed the earlier episodes?
👉 Episode 1: How a Hackathon Project Became a Web3 Startup
👉 Episode 2: How the Freelii Team Raised $70k+ In Funding
What’s It All About?
In this series, we go behind the scenes with the team at Freelii as they build and launch a new product on the Stellar Network. You’ll get a raw, unfiltered look at the process—ideation, feedback, failure, and pivots—all while working with the cutting-edge tools Web3 has to offer.
Each episode explores the team’s journey from prototype to product, sharing not only technical insights and code walkthroughs, but also the hard lessons learned when your ideas meet the real world.
Episode 3
Episode 3 is all about the pivot—and the power of listening.
After developing an early version of their chatbot-based remittance product, José and Joseph took it to the Philippines to test in one of the world’s largest remittance markets. The feedback was humbling. Users didn’t trust messaging apps for handling money. The team’s assumptions didn’t hold up, and it forced a tough but necessary shift in direction.
Instead of sticking to the original plan, the team listened. And that led them to a better opportunity: automating business payouts.
💡 “We stopped trying to get individuals to change their behaviour and started solving a real, painful problem for businesses.”
This episode covers:
- Field-testing a Web3 prototype in the real world
- Gathering user feedback in one of the world’s top remittance markets
- Why cultural insights matter when designing fintech tools
- Learning that trust and compliance are more important than tech novelty
- Discovering a new use case by talking to business owners
- Pivoting from a consumer remittance app to a B2B payout automation platform
This pivot plays directly to Stellar’s strengths—fast, low-cost transactions and seamless crypto-to-cash conversion—while giving the team a much clearer go-to-market strategy.
The Takeaway?
If you're building in Web3: talk to your users early and often.
Innovation means nothing if it doesn’t solve a real problem.
Freelii’s journey is a masterclass in adaptability—proof that the best ideas are often uncovered after launch, not before.
Next Up
In Episode 4, we dive into the technical side of the new payout system—how it works, what’s under the hood, and the Stellar features that power it.
Stay tuned.
🛠 Want to start building on Stellar? Check out the dev docs here:
https://developers.stellar.org/docs
🔐 Learn more about passkeys here:
https://jamesbachini.com/webauthn-passkey-smart-wallets/
👀 Catch up on the full series so far:
📺 Episode 1: How a Hackathon Project Became a Web3 Startup
📺 Episode 2: How the Freelii Team Raised $70k+ In Funding
📺 Episode 3: User Feedback & The Pivot That Saved The Project
Follow the journey. Learn by building.
Top comments (0)