Glassjar, a Kiwi start-up that provides software application for its users to share bills easily among themselves, has been launched in the U.S. The company was started in 2013 by a group of University of Canterbury students when two of them personally felt the need for an easier platform to share, split and pay, especially among friends and roommates.

Glassjar is now based in Silicon Valley, in the US start-up accelerator Y Combinator. Y Combinator is known for its seed funding, offers the same amount - US$120,000 - to every start-up it invests in and encourages founders to join its bootcamps. Hence, the Glassjar team also attended one of those bootcamps earlier this year. It’s the first Zew Zealand based company to be accepted into the Y Combinator’s fraternity, which has helped develop many high profile start ups.

The start up remodelled its app and launched the new version since the team of founders – George Smith, Matt Galloway, Sebastian Petravic and Nelson Shaw participated in Y Combinator bootcamp in January this year.

Smith informed that the look and feel of the app has changed significantly since they have been in the U.S. The app broadens its options – from helping students manage their finances to others having to manage shared bills together.

"In New Zealand, a lot of young start-ups focus on getting the fundamentals of a company established - good advisers, a structure, a business plan, which is exactly what we did. In Silicon Valley, it's all about the ideas and the product. "You talk to users, and you build a product they want to use. The focus on this is relentless," he said.

The co-founder and the CEO agreed that being part of the U.S. accelerator had definitely given them a big boost. "We can plug into a network of people really quickly. Without being here I think we could have still pulled it off but with it, the app will grow much faster and be much better," he said.

Burning the midnight oil paid off

In an exclusive interview late last year, Glassjar’s co-founder and CEO said, “establishing the team and getting the right culture requires a bit of work but once it's there it's awesome and the journey becomes much, much easier.” Follow the complete interview here.

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