A year after launching his receipt-tracking app, aptly titled I Hate Receipts, Ryan Greene has secured $1.4 million in funding and signed partnerships with major point-of-sale systems as part of his move to help customers rid their wallets of paper receipts.
Greene said some users describe the app, which allows them to upload receipts, keep track of spending habits, search previous purchases and share product links as “Venmo for receipts”. I Hate Receipts also makes tracking expenses easier by letting users categorize and tag items.
“In our view, consumers have no window into the past,” the Baton Rouge native said. “We’re always thinking about what to buy next, but we don’t have a good way to look at our past purchases. Our app gives consumers that rear-view window.”
The app has been available for free for Apple and Android users since late 2020.
Baton Rouge man launches new app to help people keep track of receipts
I Hate Receipts’ free features include tagging, exporting, sharing, email forwarding and editing. Greene offers a pro version of the app for $9.99 annually and a team plan for $40 annually or $5 per month.
The pro plan allows users to link their Walmart, Amazon and Target accounts, review their spending habits and separate their receipts into two separate vaults. Team features are optimized for work expense tracking, like connected vaults, expense reports and unlimited storage.
He said the app received some of its funding from a technology pitch competition in Austin, Texas in July 2020. He’s also developed partnerships with Shopify and Pax Payment Terminals.
Shopify handles 10% of online purchases, and Pax Payment Terminals works with Home Depot, Best Buy and Chick-fil-A. Greene’s partnerships with these two companies gives vendors the opportunity to send receipts straight to customers’ I Hate Receipts vault, complete with an itemized list and pictures of products purchased.
Right now, users must upload email or print receipts to the app, but Greene said he wants to eliminate the need for those receipts altogether.
“In the world we’re creating, receipts would be tied to your credit or debit card,” Greene said. “When you check out, you’d be asked if you want to add your receipt to the app instead of getting an email or paper receipt.”
Heather Bush, an I Hate Receipts user, said she has given Greene feedback since he released the beta version of the app. Bush said both she and her college-age children had trouble keeping track of receipts, but the app saves them time and makes finding receipts for returns less frustrating.
“The app stores a picture of the original receipt, so when I have to make a return, the app makes it easy for me to search up an item and pull up the receipt for it,” she said. “I don’t have to search through my box of receipts anymore.”
Greene said his app differentiates itself from competitors like Expensify and Slip, two receipt-tracking apps, by connecting consumers directly with his service at a point-of-sales system and providing product details like warranties and return policies.
In the three years since Greene started developing the app, his company has grown to a $10 million valuation. The process hasn’t been easy.
“If you know someone with an idea for an app,” he said, “Tell them to call me. We’ll drink some bourbon while I tell them all the reasons they shouldn’t. It’s a crazy process…I’ve pitched this idea to upwards of 200 people.”
Greene said he thinks his attitude of perseverance is genetic. His grandfather was one of the first people to strike oil in West Texas.
“I have this ‘just keep drilling’ mentality from him,” he said. “It’s about envisioning a world that doesn’t exist yet, and I’m going to keep digging until I make that world a reality. It’s in my DNA.”
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