HardBacon ⎯ Helping Canadians Regain Control of Their Finances

Written by Caitlin Wood

HardBacon ⎯ Helping Canadians Regain Control of Their Finances

Hardbacon is a financial technology company.  What was your main goal or mission when you launched? 

Hardbacon’s mission is to help everyone make better financial decisions that will make them richer and help reach their financial goals. We were all self-directed investors and we wanted to build software that would make it easier for Canadians to manage their own financial portfolios. However, the company evolved and we now can help our users with all sorts of financial decisions. But the goal remains the same: to help them become richer. 

Where did the idea for Hardbacon come from? How did you come up with the name?

Have you ever heard the expression “Bring home the bacon”? If so, you know that bacon is slang for money. My first idea for the company’s name was “Hardcash”; I thought it represented our no bullshit attitude as well as the fact we wanted to help people make the most of their hard-earned money. However, buying the domain Hardcash.com would have cost us thousands of dollars, while Hardbacon.com was available for $9.99. I’m happy about it though because our name is really distinct. 

Can you give us a rundown of the products and services Hardbacon offers to help consumers gain control of their finances?

Hardbacon is a mobile app that syncs with your bank and investment accounts so you can better manage your finances. It helps you budget, invest, and overall create a financial portfolio that helps you meet your financial goals. If you want to keep an eye on your progress, you can also monitor your budget and investments in real-time. On our website, we also compare Canadian online brokerages, robo-advisors, bank accounts and other financial services so you can choose the product that best fits your needs. 

With your mobile app, the goal is to help users better manage their personal finances in three easy steps. Can you explain what these steps are?

The steps our users take to manage their personal finances can be different from user to user. But the most common steps our users take are the following: 

First, you create one or more goals in the app, such as buying a house with a pool in the backyard. At the end of the day, people want to be richer so they can achieve their goals, so the first step is figuring out what you want. Once you know your goal, you’ll know how much you need to save each month to achieve it. In most cases, you probably have to make some adjustments to your spending habits, which brings us to our next step. 

The second step is to make a budget and set limits accordingly to each category available in our app. By setting and monitoring these limits, Hardbacon will be able to help you save money and bring you closer to achieving your goals.

Lastly, you want to get a good return on the money you save so you can reach your goals faster. Hardbacon helps its users monitor their investments and helps them understand what they need to do to reduce risk, fees and increase overall return. 

You have a premium version of your mobile app. What are the differences between the free version and the premium version? When should users consider upgrading?

If you’re using Hardbacon for budgeting only, you probably don’t need to upgrade to the premium version. The free version gives you access to one linked account and one financial goal. If you have multiple accounts and many goals, you might want to upgrade the premium version. As for our investing features, which include financial data, return calculation and portfolio analysis, they are reserved for our premium subscribers. So, if you want to use Hardbacon to make better investment decisions, you definitely should upgrade to Hardbacon Premium. 

How is Hardbacon’s mobile app different from other budgeting and investing apps on the market?

Hardbacon is better on many levels in comparison to other apps. The main thing we have going for us is that we are the only app making all aspects of our users’ personal finances connect. For example, we compete with Mint on the budgeting side, and I could write a long post about why our budgeting engine is better, but that’s not the point. Mint doesn’t help its users make sense of their investment accounts and does not allow its users to build a plan based on their financial goals. And those things are totally interlinked! If you want to save for a downpayment on a home, you might need to cut into your budget, but you also might want to be safer with your investments that are going towards the down payment. 

What type of consumers would benefit most from choosing Hardbacon to help them create a healthier financial future?

Any Canadian that has some sort of income or capital can benefit from Hardbacon. From part-time students who want to manage their budgets better to 40-year-old accountants who manage their own investments. 

Do you have any future plans for Hardbacon or new features you’d like to share? 

We have a lot of really interesting projects. But the one I can tell you about is our recommendation engine, which will help you save money on financial products and other services. For example, if you pay a high fee for your chequing account, your online brokerage or your insurance coverage, we’ll tell you, and push to you an exclusive offer that may help you save money.