The Beginning: A Belief in Voice + AI
I've always been fascinated by the intersection of voice technology and AI. There's something incredibly natural about speaking your thoughts instead of typing them out. This belief led me to build Speech to Note back in late 2023 and early 2024—a transcription and summarization tool that has since grown to over 10,000 users.
That experience taught me something important: people want tools that get out of their way. They want to capture information quickly, naturally, and move on with their lives.
The Personal Problem
Here's the thing about building products—the best ones often come from scratching your own itch.
I travel a lot. And when you're traveling, expenses pile up quickly. A coffee here, a taxi there, lunch at a new place, maybe a museum ticket or two. By the end of the trip, I'd have a mess of receipts, random notes in my phone, and absolutely no clear picture of where my money went.
I tried existing expense trackers. Most of them required too much manual input. Open the app, tap through multiple screens, enter the amount, pick a category, maybe add a note. By the time you're done, you've already forgotten about the other two things you bought.
I thought: What if I could just say "spent 15 dollars on coffee" and be done with it?
Building on Experience
My journey with Speech to Note gave me confidence that this could work. I learned how to build voice-first experiences, how to process natural language, and most importantly—how to keep things simple for users.
I've kept that journey completely bootstrapped, and I believe in building and supporting community as long as I can. No venture capital pressure, no growth-at-all-costs mentality. Just building something useful and sustainable.
What eqva money Is About
eqva money is built on a few core principles:
1. Voice-First, But Not Voice-Only
Yes, you can speak your expenses. But if you prefer typing, that works too. The goal is flexibility, not forcing you into one way of doing things.
2. Privacy by Default
Your financial data stays on your device. We're not building a business model around your spending habits. You own your data.
3. Multi-Currency for Real Life
Because life doesn't happen in just one currency. Whether you're traveling or managing expenses across different countries, eqva money handles it.
4. No Ads, Ever
Even on the free plan. I believe that ad-supported models create misaligned incentives. Your attention is valuable, and I'm not going to sell it.
The Road Ahead
I have a lot of ideas for where this could go:
- Family expense features — Share and manage expenses with family members
- Split expenses — An ad-free alternative to tools like Splitwise
- Community-driven development — After launch, I want to build a community where we shape the product together
The split feature is particularly exciting to me. I've seen so many people frustrated with existing solutions that are either cluttered with ads or require premium subscriptions for basic features. What if splitting expenses could just... work? Simply and freely?
Building With You
After the initial launch, I'm planning to create a community where I'll take feedback from all of you in a transparent and open way. No hidden roadmaps or surprise pivots. Just honest conversations about what you need and how we can build it together.
This is how I built Speech to Note, and it's how I plan to build eqva money. The best products aren't built in isolation—they're built in conversation with the people who use them.
Why "eqva"?
The name comes from "equa"—as in equal, equitable, balanced. It represents what I want this tool to help you achieve: a balanced, clear picture of your finances without the complexity.
If you're reading this, thank you for being here at the beginning. Whether you're dealing with the same expense tracking frustrations I had, or you're just curious about voice-first tools, I hope eqva money becomes something genuinely useful in your life.
Let's build this together.
— Abhishek
Founder, eqva money