I spent months building FLOW (vestelonflow.com) — a tool that analyzes bank statement PDFs and finds forgotten subscriptions, hidden fees, and recurring charges.
Here's what I learned building it in 8 languages.
The Problem
Most personal finance apps require you to connect your bank account. For many people (especially in Europe), that's a dealbreaker. GDPR concerns, privacy fears, and simply not trusting third-party apps with banking credentials.
My insight: the data people need is already in their PDF bank statements. Every bank generates them. Most people never look past the total.
