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Braid<\/span><\/a>, a four-year-old startup <\/span>that aimed to make shared wallets more mainstream among consumers, has shut down.<\/span><\/p>\n Founded in January 2019 by Amanda Peyton and Todd Berman (who left in 2020), San Francisco-based Braid <\/span>set out to offer friends and family an FDIC-insured, multi-user account that was designed to make it easy \u201cto pool, manage and spend money together.\u201d Users could create a cash pool toward a collective goal of, say, saving for a trip to Europe and then spend it on airfare or lodging using a branded debit card.<\/span><\/p>\n Braid <\/span>raised a total of $10 million in funding \u201cover multiple rounds\u201d from Index Ventures, Accel and others, according to Peyton\u2019s LinkedIn <\/span>page<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n In <\/span>a blog post<\/span><\/a>, Peyton said that Braid closed its doors in September and outlined her experiences in building the company, ultimately realizing that it wasn\u2019t going to be a viable business venture. In the post, <\/span>Peyton took responsibility for Braid\u2019s demise, but stressed her belief that it was important to share her story of what happened.<\/p>\n \u201cI have no regrets,\u201d Peyton said in an interview with TechCrunch. \u201cWe did it the right way: Every customer dollar was cashed out; every employee was treated with care. There is magic in failure too, if you squint a bit. We were given the opportunity to take a big swing and it\u2019s important to recognize how rarely that happens in life.\u201d<\/p>\n She added of the shutdown: \u201cIt was terrible, it totally sucks\u2026But it\u2019s part of the life cycle. I think<\/span> it\u2019s<\/span> just<\/span> part<\/span> of<\/span> what<\/span> you<\/span> sign<\/span> up<\/span> for.<\/span> And<\/span> it\u2019s<\/span> part<\/span> of<\/span> why<\/span> we<\/span> do<\/span> this\u2026I did YC in 2010 and that is one of those things that sticks with you forever. Part of their whole thing is there just needs to be more startups \u2014 we just need to do more. There needs to be more than more people starting startups. There needs to be more opportunities\u2026But [failure] \u2014 it\u2019s this part of that cycle. And I think it\u2019s the part that people don\u2019t talk about a lot, but it\u2019s just as important as the seed round or the launch.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Also in her blog post, Peyton described the struggles that Braid faced after having issues with a sponsor bank that led to the company <\/span>\u201ceffectively [being] in a coma from July 2022 to January 2023.\u201d Without a sponsor bank, the company was in limbo.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt was bleak \u2014 we were a payments company processing $0 in payment volume,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n Despite finding a new sponsor bank, Braid continued to struggle. One of the biggest takeaways from her experience, Peyton said, was that leveraging third-party software would not necessarily help the company move faster and focus on its core offering.<\/span><\/p>\n She wrote: \u201cWhat we found, instead, was every additional partner had the potential to break big, important parts of our stack. Building a multiplayer offering meant we had to be as close to the metal as possible, because a lot of our UX didn\u2019t really exist off-the-shelf. After several painful migrations, our distaste for contractual and technical lock-in grew dramatically. By the end, if there was something we could build ourselves in Retool, we did. In addition, building mostly in-house was the only way our unit economics worked. There\u2019s a lot of great fintech software out there, but if that software eats your entire margin, you\u2019ll end up dead regardless.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Looking ahead, Peyton noted that she, post shutdown, purchased the intellectual property for Braid in an auction.<\/p>\n \u201cI I<\/span>ove<\/span> fintech,\u201d she told TechCrunch.<\/span> \u201cI<\/span> love<\/span> payments.<\/span> I think<\/span> there\u2019s<\/span> enormous, <\/span>humongous<\/span> opportunity<\/span> here.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Prior to co-founding Braid, Peyton worked at Google and Etsy. She also started another company called Grand St., a marketplace for creative and indie technology products that was <\/span>acquired by Etsy<\/a> in April of 2014 for an undisclosed amount. <\/span><\/p>\n Peyton also started another e-commerce company that wasn\u2019t venture-backed, as well as a mobile messaging company that went through a YC cohort and that the founder noted also \u201cfailed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Want more fintech news in your inbox? Sign up for The Interchange <\/span><\/i>here<\/span><\/i><\/a>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n