Share Your Start-Up Story – BillHive
BillHive is a digital platform that automatically stores all your receipts in one place at the time of purchase.
Simone Fattouche, 27, discovered BillHive when she was denied a cash refund by a high street store because she had lost her purchase receipt.
More About BillHive?
BillHive is an app, which ensures you never lose a paper receipt again. It allows users to store their receipts directly into their phone at the moment of purchase.
This removes the need to take a picture of the paper receipt or dig through your e-mails, or more likely junk mail, for the proof of the purchases you’ve made.
Through the ‘Hive’, which acts as the central repository for receipts, customers can access all of their receipts and share them with employers, friends and family. Therefore, aiding the uphill battle with expense reports, while receiving up to date analytics on their spending habits.
BillHive was the brainchild of myself and my partner, Paulo Favinha. We started BillHive last year and since then, we’ve been working hard to create something sweet.
We’re just about to launch our online platform on Shopify in the next few weeks, which means retailers will be able to adopt our platform for free.
How did you discover your idea?
I came up with the idea for BillHive after wanting to return a jacket that I purchased from a high street store, only to find that I’d lost the receipt.
I was told that my only option was a store credit but as a student I wanted cash – Store credit won’t pay my bills.
I thought there must be a better way so I came up with the general concept and was then able to test it out at the 3 Day Startup event held at my university ‘Queen Mary‘. From there the idea evolved.
Your Entrepreneurship Inspiration?
I think, to a certain extent, I was inspired by my dad who was an entrepreneur growing up. However, I’ve never actually considered it until my last year at Queen Mary University when I signed up for the 3 Day Startup event.
Although I had worked at a startup previously it was really at that event that I thought this is actually quite cool.
I was selected into the runner-up category for the ‘Most Entrepreneurial Student’ and it was a great honour to reach that level. This definitely empowered me to want to continue my pursuit with BillHive.
I liked the ability to take an idea, or a concept and actually develop it into a product. It’s really about solving problems and thinking about what people really want.
The Future of BillHive?
BillHive will continue to grow and further innovate. We hope to provide people with the tools to better organise their finances, and retailers with the tools to better understand their customers.