2022 letter to our stakeholders

To our Stakeholders:

In the face of today’s fierce global economy, our perspective remains the same: Keep building, focus on the long term, and maintain an unconditional love of customers.

Our business increased 49% over last year while maintaining profitability. We are incredibly grateful to everyone who made that happen. It is tempting for us to get comfortable, but that is not our way. We keep asking the unsettling question, “What else can we do for the customer?” We double down.

The long-term perspective keeps us constantly moving past our comfort zone. It forces us to do new things we never imagined we were capable of. This approach challenges us to persevere through failed experiments while taking on fresh pursuits, learning new skills, and forging our own path along the way.

Running after quick gains often results in companies finding themselves in a stalemate with competitors doing something quite similar. Long-term focus interacts well with unconditional love of customers. Once we identify a customer need and develop the conviction that it is here to stay, our perspective allows us to work patiently for years to build a solution.

Building for customer needs is different than building from a company’s strengths. Building from company strengths is about extracting more value out of the same thing the company already does. If that’s all the company does, they will never be challenged to expand their skills. Eventually, others will follow, and those strengths will become unexceptional. When the focus is on the customer’s needs, oftentimes that requires us to develop new capabilities, regardless of how uncomfortable or out of reach it feels at first.

1-Time Card & The Evolution of Fluz.

Our new 1-time card product is a good example of this fundamental approach. More than four years ago, we began with a long-term vision: help people maximize their money. No matter how much money you start with, Fluz helps you earn more.

We started by offering cashback at 400 national merchants using store gift cards. Two years in, we knew we needed a way for our customers to earn cashback at even more stores. We figured out a way to make it happen using a single-use Visa or Mastercard. The customer experience we envisioned didn’t allow for any hard barriers between the core gift card product and 1-time cards—the two had to blend together seamlessly.

Fluz had never designed or built a debit, credit, or prepaid card. But rather than change the vision to accommodate our then-existing skills, we hired talented people, brought on world-class partners, and made it happen. We had to develop new skills to better serve the customer.

On November 2, we began to give early access to select customers. We’re grateful and excited that 1-time card initial transaction volume has exceeded our most optimistic expectations. We’ve received countless feedback emails, texts, chats, and calls from customers asking to join the pilot program. The instant success came only after multiple iterations and years of building.

A Window of Opportunity.

We have a window of opportunity as larger players deploy capital to pursue digital payments and as customers, new to mobile payments, begin to form first-time relationships. The competitive landscape has continued to progress rapidly. Our goal is to move quickly to establish our current position while we begin to pursue opportunities in adjacent financial services.

We see large potential in the markets we are targeting. This strategy is not without risk: It requires significant long-term investment coupled with remarkable execution against established leaders.

We have strong conviction that customers value high rewards, considerable functionality, and a fast, convenient, intuitive experience. Our belief in the importance of these values is what gives us the confidence to continue investing and strengthening them. We know that the energy we put in now will continue to pay dividends well into the future.

Project Butterfly & The Community.

After two years of development, this year we launched Project Butterfly. Staying true to the mission of helping people maximize their money, we now enable customers to:

• Earn 1.5% anywhere using a 1-time card
• Pay anyone in the Fluz network
• Hold money in a digital wallet
• Earn more together through Fluz Parties

Project Butterfly would not have been complete without the community behind it. Our community is our most valuable asset. We will nourish it with innovation and continued involvement.

We are committed to them, and in turn, they are committed to us. They have stayed with us throughout our journey, helping more than we could have imagined at each step. The community is how Fluz wins. They are the money movement.

The People Behind Fluz.

I am honored to work alongside a team of talented and driven individuals. Our team has grown. It is great to see our culture of high standards spread to newer members.

This year, our team showed the courage to take on a whole new set of challenges outside their comfort zone. They were confident enough to believe in their own abilities. In the face of the unknown, they had the conviction and resourcefulness to make it happen.

Looking Back & Moving Forward.

In every annual letter (including this one), I attach a copy of our original 2018 letter to stakeholders to help us determine if we have remained true to our original goals and values. I think we have.

As we kick off 2023, I am happy to report that I am as enthusiastic as ever about this business. There is more innovation ahead of us than behind us. I get to work with this amazing Fluz family all over the world. I am lucky and grateful.

We thank you for your support, your encouragement, and for joining us on this adventure.