Welcome to the Proof of Usefulness Hackathon spotlight, curated by HackerNoon’s editors to showcase noteworthy tech solutions to real-world problems. Whether you’re a solopreneur, part of an early-stage startup, or a developer building something that truly matters, the Proof of Usefulness Hackathon is your chance to test your product’s utility, get featured on HackerNoon, and compete for $150k+ in prizes. Submit your project to get started! Welcome to the Proof of Usefulness Hackathon spotlight, curated by HackerNoon’s editors to showcase noteworthy tech solutions to real-world problems. Whether you’re a solopreneur, part of an early-stage startup, or a developer building something that truly matters, the Proof of Usefulness Hackathon is your chance to test your product’s utility, get featured on HackerNoon, and compete for $150k+ in prizes. Submit your project to get started! Proof of Usefulness Hackathon spotlight Proof of Usefulness Hackathon spotlight Proof of Usefulness Hackathon Proof of Usefulness Hackathon $150k+ Submit your project to get started Submit your project to get started In this interview, we talk to Olagunju Daniel Yemi about FinSight, an AI-powered financial tracking system designed to simplify accounting for small businesses. We discuss how the platform helps freelancers and entrepreneurs—particularly in Africa—gain financial visibility without the need for complex spreadsheets or accounting backgrounds. FinSight What does FinSight do? And why is now the time for it to exist? FinSight is an AI-powered finance system that helps small businesses automatically track income, expenses, and cashflow using plain language. It removes accounting complexity and gives business owners clear, real-time financial visibility to make better decisions. Now’s a good time for FinSight to exist because small business owners need immediate, accessible tools to navigate economic uncertainty without being burdened by the steep learning curve of traditional accounting software. What is your traction to date? How many people does FinSight reach? FinSight is built for small business owners, startup founders, freelancers, and solo entrepreneurs who need clear financial visibility but do not have accounting backgrounds. It is especially valuable for African businesses where bookkeeping is often manual, accounting tools feel complex, and financial decisions are frequently made without real-time data. Users gain value by recording everyday transactions in plain language and instantly understanding cashflow, expenses, profitability, and business health — without spreadsheets or accounting stress. We have been able to onboard 50+ clients over a 60-day period so far Who does your FinSight serve? What’s exciting about your users and customers? FinSight is built for small business owners, startup founders, freelancers, and solo entrepreneurs who need clear financial visibility but do not have accounting backgrounds. It is especially valuable for African businesses where bookkeeping is often manual, accounting tools feel complex, and financial decisions are frequently made without real-time data. Users gain value by recording everyday transactions in plain language and instantly understanding cashflow, expenses, profitability, and business health — without spreadsheets or accounting stress What technologies were used in the making of FinSight? And why did you choose ones most essential to your techstack? While the specific technology stack is proprietary, FinSight leverages Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to interpret plain language inputs into structured financial data. This choice is essential to the platform's mission, as it removes the barrier of technical accounting interfaces, allowing users to interact with their finances as naturally as sending a message. What is traction to date for FinSight? Around the web, who’s been noticing? FinSight is currently in its early stages, focusing intensely on the depth of usage and repeat interaction among its initial cohort. With a verified website and login portal now active, the project has successfully onboarded over 50 clients within a 60-day window, demonstrating a strong initial demand for simplified financial tools in its target market. FinSight scored a 55 proof of usefulness score (proofofusefulness.com/finsight-report) - how do you feel about that? Needs reassessed or just right? proofofusefulness.com/finsight-report I think the score is fair for where FinSight currently is, and I’m actually encouraged by it. A 55 reflects that the product is real, useful, and already in use, while also acknowledging that we’re still early in our journey. Proof of Usefulness isn’t about perfection; it’s about momentum and real-world impact. What excites me is that the foundations are already strong, and as adoption deepens, retention improves, and more real usage data becomes visible, that score should naturally increase. So I see it less as a judgment and more as a baseline we’re committed to improving upon. What excites you about this FinSight's potential usefulness? What excites us most about FinSight’s potential usefulness is its ability to remove financial blindness for millions of small businesses that operate without clarity. Most small business owners don’t lack effort - they lack understanding. FinSight turns everyday business activity into insight, without requiring accounting knowledge, spreadsheets, or complex tools. By meeting business owners where they already are (including WhatsApp) and translating data into understanding, FinSight makes financial clarity accessible, practical, and habitual. The long-term usefulness lies in helping businesses make fewer blind decisions, avoid preventable failures, and grow sustainably - not through hype, but through consistent, understandable insight. Being a startup founder, I understand the pain of working without adequate data because I'm trying to operate a lean system. Walk us through your most concrete evidence of usefulness. Not vanity metrics or projections - what's the one data point that proves people genuinely need what you've built? I think the score is fair for where FinSight currently is, and I’m actually encouraged by it. A 55 reflects that the product is real, useful, and already in use, while also acknowledging that we’re still early in our journey. Proof of Usefulness isn’t about perfection; it’s about momentum and real-world impact. What excites me is that the foundations are already strong, and as adoption deepens, retention improves, and more real usage data becomes visible, that score should naturally increase. So I see it less as a judgment and more as a baseline we’re committed to improving upon. How do you measure genuine user adoption versus "tourists" who sign up but never return? What's your retention story? We measure adoption by behavior, not sign-ups. A genuine user is someone who records multiple transactions over time, revisits dashboards, and engages with insights. Early on, we’ve focused on minimizing friction so users can form habits quickly. Our retention story is still developing, but what we’re seeing so far is that once a user records real transactions and sees their numbers clearly for the first time, they’re far more likely to return. That “aha” moment is what converts curiosity into consistency. If we re-score your project in 12 months, which criterion will show the biggest improvement, and what are you doing right now to make that happen? Human adoption will show the biggest improvement. Right now, we’re focused on simplifying workflows even further, and expanding channels like WhatsApp where users already spend time. We’re also actively listening to early users and refining features based on how they actually use the product, not how we assume they should. These efforts are aimed at making FinSight more habitual and indispensable in everyday business operations. How Did You Hear About HackerNoon? Share With Us About Your Experience With HackerNoon. Head about it from a friend when discussing about FinSight - Shared with me and I was hooked. It stands out because it prioritizes substance over hype. Discovering Proof of Usefulness through HackerNoon felt natural, because the philosophy aligns strongly with how we think about FinSight - real products solving real problems, measured by actual usage. You mentioned onboarding over 50 clients in a 60-day period. What has been the primary channel for acquiring these early adopters, and what feedback have they provided regarding the "plain language" feature? Most of our early adopters came through direct outreach, referrals, and communities where business owners already discuss operational challenges. The strongest feedback we’ve received about the plain-language feature is relief. Users often tell us it’s the first time they’ve interacted with a financial system without feeling intimidated. Being able to say things like “customer paid ₦120,000” instead of dealing with accounting terms lowers the barrier significantly and encourages consistent usage. Given the focus on African businesses where bookkeeping is often manual, how do you plan to scale user education to ensure business owners trust an AI to handle their financial records? Most of our early adopters came through direct outreach, referrals, and communities where business owners already discuss operational challenges. The strongest feedback we’ve received about the plain-language feature is relief. Users often tell us it’s the first time they’ve interacted with a financial system without feeling intimidated. Being able to say things like “customer paid ₦120,000” instead of dealing with accounting terms lowers the barrier significantly and encourages consistent usage. We are also leveraging on platforms both online and offline like communities, founders associations, events, meetups - any avenue to meet with our target audience and preach the Gospel of FinSight and what we are solving. The joy is that the problem is real and not just imagined, and moreso, the solution we're proffering "works". FinSight aims to help users avoid "blind decisions." Can you share a specific example or use case where a user utilized your platform's real-time visibility to pivot or make a crucial financial decision they otherwise might have missed? One of our early-users; a fashion designer didn't realize how much his operational expense was actually affecting his business - fuel purchase was running him dry in disguise. when onboarded on FinSight, after some time he reached out to complain about the platform not being accurate - according to him, he had lots of client that month so it's not possible that the system is saying his profit is running in negative. We had a session and went through his transactions and confirmed every entry only to discover that his spend on fuel was extremely off the roof. FinSight uncovered that and there was a turn-around. The question now is: How long has this been going on?? Meet our sponsors Meet our sponsors Meet our sponsors Bright Data: Bright Data is the leading web data infrastructure company, empowering over 20,000 organizations with ethical, scalable access to real-time public web information. From startups to industry leaders, we deliver the datasets that fuel AI innovation and real-world impact. Ready to unlock the web? Learn more at brightdata.com. Bright Data: Bright Data is the leading web data infrastructure company, empowering over 20,000 organizations with ethical, scalable access to real-time public web information. From startups to industry leaders, we deliver the datasets that fuel AI innovation and real-world impact. Ready to unlock the web? Learn more at brightdata.com. Bright Data: brightdata.com Neo4j: GraphRAG combines retrieval-augmented generation with graph-native context, allowing LLMs to reason over structured relationships instead of just documents. With Neo4j, you can build GraphRAG pipelines that connect your data and surface clearer insights. Learn more. Neo4j: GraphRAG combines retrieval-augmented generation with graph-native context, allowing LLMs to reason over structured relationships instead of just documents. With Neo4j, you can build GraphRAG pipelines that connect your data and surface clearer insights. Learn more. Neo4j: more Storyblok: Storyblok is a headless CMS built for developers who want clean architecture and full control. Structure your content once, connect it anywhere, and keep your front end truly independent. API-first. AI-ready. Framework-agnostic. Future-proof. Start for free. Storyblok: Storyblok is a headless CMS built for developers who want clean architecture and full control. Structure your content once, connect it anywhere, and keep your front end truly independent. API-first. AI-ready. Framework-agnostic. Future-proof. Start for free. Storyblok: Start for free Algolia: Algolia provides a managed retrieval layer that lets developers quickly build web search and intelligent AI agents. Learn more. Algolia: Algolia provides a managed retrieval layer that lets developers quickly build web search and intelligent AI agents. Learn more. Algolia: Learn more
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