Freelee pivoted from a Telegram chatbot remittance app to a B2B payout management system after user research in the Philippines revealed that businesses, not individuals, had the real pain point. The team now uses Stellar's fast, low-cost transactions to help companies automate payouts to freelancers and gig workers.
In this Dev Diaries episode, the Freelee team shares how user validation led them to abandon their initial Telegram chatbot remittance concept and pivot to a B2B payout management platform. After visiting the Philippines and conducting extensive user interviews, they discovered that individual users were reluctant to use crypto for remittances and preferred existing solutions like GCash. However, they found a real problem among business owners managing payouts to multiple stakeholders, such as content creators and freelancers. The new approach leverages Stellar's blockchain for instant, cost-effective global transactions with fiat on-off ramps through anchors. Freely now targets businesses with larger user bases rather than marketing to thousands of individuals, creating a more scalable go-to-market strategy. The team emphasizes the importance of customer conversations over building in isolation, and how listening to feedback shaped their product direction while maintaining conviction in the underlying technology.
