Avneesh, a solo founder with a background in building consumer products at companies such as Instagram, Microsoft, Foursquare, and Dropbox, created Savewise, a platform designed to help users optimise their online shopping by combining cashback, credit card offers, and rewards points into a single, streamlined experience. The product currently generates approximately $25,000 in monthly revenue, with the majority of this income coming from lifetime membership purchases rather than recurring subscriptions.
I’d check many different shopping portals to see which had the best rate, then try to remember if I had an offer on my several credit cards for the same store. Exhausting. So I started building Savewise to scratch my own itch.
Avneesh Kohli
A Personal Frustration That Turned Into a Business
The concept for Savewise originated from Avneesh’s own shopping habits. Each time he made a purchase online, he would manually check multiple cashback portals like Rakuten to see which one offered the best deal. At the same time, he would also look through his credit card offers from issuers like Amex and Chase to see if there was an additional opportunity to earn rewards or cashback. This process, while effective, was time-consuming and repetitive.
Although some websites existed that allowed users to search for deals from either shopping portals or credit card offers, none of them provided a combined view that allowed consumers to see all potential savings opportunities in one place. Recognising this inefficiency, and equipped with experience in building high-quality digital products, Avneesh decided to create a tool that would automate this process.
Savewise was designed not only to solve a personal frustration but also to meet the needs of a much larger community. Avneesh had observed that online groups and content creators focused on travel hacking and deal stacking already had large audiences. These creators spent a great deal of time manually identifying and sharing deals with their followers. The core idea behind Savewise was to take this workflow and automate it with software that could be integrated into the everyday shopping experience.
Launching the Product and Finding Early Traction
The first version of Savewise was launched through Reddit posts, Facebook group discussions, and direct messages to influencers in the travel rewards and personal finance communities. The initial response, however, was limited. At that time, Savewise only supported three cashback portals, which was not enough to make it a compelling tool for users.
As the product expanded to include ten, and eventually fifteen shopping portals along with integration for two major credit card issuers, the value proposition became clearer and adoption began to increase. Another key learning during this phase was related to audience targeting. While the tool worked well for anyone interested in saving money, it resonated far more with users who were actively involved in travel hacking, as they were more motivated to stack deals and optimise their spending for rewards.
At the start, there was no formal business model. Avneesh focused on building something useful and assumed that monetisation could be figured out later. Around eight months after launch, several power users started asking for advanced features and indicated that they would be willing to pay for them. This led to the creation of a “Pro” version, which users began purchasing.
Growth Strategies That Delivered Results
The growth of Savewise was driven by targeted outreach and community-focused marketing. On Reddit, Avneesh set up keyword alerts for terms such as “shopping portals,” “cashback,” and “stacking offers,” allowing him to participate in conversations as they happened and share Savewise in a natural context. For niche subreddits dedicated to travel rewards or credit card points, he reached out to moderators and requested permission to share the product, explaining its relevance to the audience.
On Facebook, he identified groups focused specifically on topics like Rakuten stacking and shared curated lists of stackable deals through public Google Sheets. These documents, which were powered by Savewise data, included a link back to the platform and were often allowed by group admins because they provided genuine value to members.
In addition to these organic efforts, Avneesh cold messaged numerous creators in the travel hacking space. Initially, this outreach was met with little response, but over time, as the product improved, he began offering free Pro memberships as a way for creators to try it for themselves. This helped establish credibility and led to broader adoption.
Eventually, major blogs and influencers in the travel rewards space, such as Frequent Miler, began reviewing Savewise and sharing it with their audiences. These endorsements provided a strong boost in visibility and credibility.
Lessons Learned Through Building and Scaling
Throughout the process of building Savewise, Avneesh encountered several important lessons. For instance, he initially purchased a .xyz domain for the product in order to minimise upfront costs, but later discovered that many email and ad platforms treated such domains as spam by default. This issue went unnoticed for two months and likely hindered early growth.
Another early misstep involved focusing on budget-conscious savers rather than the more niche but highly engaged travel hacking audience. While both segments could benefit from the product, travel hackers were far more likely to engage deeply and convert into paying users.
A significant milestone came when Savewise went viral on Reddit’s r/Amex subreddit during the Black Friday shopping period. The site could not handle the traffic spike and crashed under the load. Avneesh spent five consecutive days working nearly around the clock to stabilise the platform, a reminder of the importance of anticipating peak traffic and building resilient infrastructure.
One surprising insight was that users strongly preferred a one-time payment model over recurring subscriptions. After launching a Pro subscription tier, Avneesh received multiple requests for a “lifetime deal” and decided to offer it. Today, the vast majority of Savewise revenue comes from users who have opted to pay up front for long-term access.
Despite many efforts to optimise for search engines, the site struggled to rank on Google. Rather than continuing to invest time and effort in a single channel, Avneesh diversified his acquisition strategies and leaned into channels that were delivering results, such as community engagement, partnerships with creators, and curated content.
Technically, Savewise is powered by a range of cloud-based tools and services for hosting, payments, analytics, and user authentication. Developer tools like Copilot and Cursor were especially helpful for speeding up development. In addition, Avneesh made extensive use of startup credits and free-tier offerings, allowing him to run the business with minimal operational costs in its early stages.
The Role of Persistence in Building Savewise
Unlike the common narrative of overnight success, the growth of Savewise was slow and required considerable persistence. Avneesh was nearly ready to shut the project down nine months after launch due to limited progress, but decided to push forward. His continued efforts to refine the product, engage with users, and improve distribution channels eventually paid off.
Today, Savewise serves a growing user base of both power users and casual shoppers. Although the team behind it is still just one person, the product has proven its value in a space that blends e-commerce with travel rewards. Avneesh continues to work full-time on Savewise, averaging around 70 hours a week, driven not only by the desire to grow the business but also by a belief in the usefulness of the product itself.
There is just no replacement for raw hard work and persistence. I probably work 70 hours a week, and honestly, I love it.
Avneesh Kohli
