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How Monarch Money used a Chrome extension to steal customers from Mint
Intuit announced they are shutting down the Mint budgeting app and asked users to switch to credit karma.
Mint’s competitors saw that and started trying different strategies to attract its users.
Monarch Money and Tiller did YouTube videos showing how to export data from Mint.
But Monarch Money went a step ahead.
They realized that getting users’ data out of Mint could be a pain.
Here’s a user sharing his problem:
While I do want to find my next tool before the start of 2024 (so at minimum I start with 2024 as a complete year in a new tool), I'm most concerned about options for data export and data migration for now. I just found out about the Mint shut down last night. I've been using Mint since 2008, so I have my whole adult life's financial history on Mint.
Is there a post or article detailing the most comprehensive way to export your Mint data? I know how to download the Transactions table, but there are all sorts of other tables that make up Mint data, so I'm trying to figure out how I want to save everything. I am well-versed in PowerBI for making visuals, so if I get all the data, I could make my own charts to reference historical data.
Are there any tools out there coming to light (and this might take a bit of time) that are offering to also help people bring their Mint data in to the new platform for historical data continuity?
So, their team scrambled and built a Chrome extension to automate exporting data from Mint.
And if somebody wants to export their Mint Data, What would they search for?
Mint Data Exporter, and that's what they named their extension.
Brilliant.
And they knew where they could find a lot of Mint users.
In Mint's database. Right?
But they couldn’t access that, so they had to settle down with the next best thing.
Mintuit Subreddit - They made a post announcing the Chrome extension.
And received more than 100 upvotes and comments like this:
I'm going to wait a few days for the bugs to get shaken out, but this alone sealed the deal for which Mint replacement I'm going to choose. Monarch is far ahead of its competitors in terms of working to make Mint refugees have a viable transition path.
They knew people would be worried about their privacy, so they open-sourced the Chrome extension and received comments like this:
I’m starting to like you. Open source was a great idea.
Another brilliant move.
Side note: People are worried about privacy and are always looking for privacy-friendly options.
With its YouTube videos, Chrome Extension, Reddit Posts, and help docs, Monarch Money is currently dominating the search results.
Monarch Money’s team is making some brilliant moves, but it’s not all smooth sailing for them.
As of writing this, Their Chrome extension is having some issues:
Exporting balances results in a "Sorry, there was an error downloading your balances. Please try again." We have a fix and are waiting for Google to approve the new release
But it is still a great move to use the Chrome extension and capture users from competitors.
Well done, team Monarch.
Like some other users, I'd love to hear the "behind the scenes" story of how the Monarch team rose to the occasion, saw the amazing opportunity that presented itself, and "stole the show" from their competitors.
P.S. I know this newsletter is dedicated to Chrome, but another opportunity is to take their code and make a plug-in for Firefox. People are asking for it, and they don’t have the bandwidth to do that right now.
Update:
Idea #1
A Chrome extension that turns passive voice into active voice
Anyone knows how to make Chrome extensions ? It's for my mental sanity.
Similar Solutions:
Related:
You will find more grammar-related ideas here.
GapExt update
I want to start today by apologizing for the delay.
We got delayed because we wanted to show you a live version of Gapext but couldn’t get it in time.
If you want a refund, Please reply to this email, and I will refund you.
If not, We will deliver it by the next issue or refund everyone.
Idea #2
A Chrome extension that shows you quotes selected by you
I want a chrome extension that shows these kinds of quotes, and allows me to add/remove quotes whenever I open a new tab
does something like this already exist?
Similar Solutions:
DON'T KEEP US A SECRET
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