[HN Gopher] Show HN: HCB Mobile - financial app built by 17 y/o,...
___________________________________________________________________
Show HN: HCB Mobile - financial app built by 17 y/o, processing
$6M/month
Hey everyone! I just built a mobile app using Expo (React Native)
for a platform that moves $6M/month. It's a neobank used by 6,500+
nonprofit organizations across the world. One of my biggest
challenges, while juggling being a full-time student, was getting
permission from Apple/Google to use advanced native features such
as Tap to Pay (for in-person donations) and Push Provisioning (for
adding your card to your digital wallet). It was months of back-
and-forth emails, test case recordings, and also compliance checks.
Even after securing Apple/Google's permission, any minor fix
required publishing a new build, which was time-consuming. After
dealing with this for a while, I adopted the idea of "over the air
updates" using Expo's EAS update service. This allowed me to
remotely trigger updates without needing a new app build. The 250
hours I spent building this app were an INSANE learning experience,
but it was also a whole lot of fun. Give the app a try, and I'd
love any feedback you have on it! btw, back in March, we open-
sourced this nonprofit neobank on GitHub.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43519802
Author : mohamad08
Score : 82 points
Date : 2025-12-03 04:20 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (hackclub.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (hackclub.com)
| riffic wrote:
| I really wish something like Hack Club existed while growing up,
| how empowering! great work.
| constantcrying wrote:
| It is clear that you put a lot of effort into this, but I do not
| believe that a 17 year old is capable to realize what he is
| sacrificing for this or what his responsibilities are.
|
| I do actually believe that zero teenagers should make banking
| apps or run non-profits.
| E-Reverance wrote:
| > I do actually believe that zero teenagers should make banking
| apps or run non-profits.
|
| That sounds like a lot of fun and should be a pretty social
| experience.
|
| Also I'm going to assume his parents are proud, which should
| put his family at ease.
| simonw wrote:
| The parent non-profit organization Hack Club isn't run by
| teenagers. https://hackclub.com/team/
| webdevver wrote:
| oh my goodness, ofcourse they flag the op. holy reddit! so
| incredibly lame.
|
| its the controvertial takes that bring readership...
| lagniappe wrote:
| There is a vouching system for comments that are flagged.
|
| Click the date on the post, and if you have a button saying
| "vouch", click that.
| brailsafe wrote:
| It's the lowest cost time to take risks like that, and it's a
| hell of a lot more constructive than fighting in a world war
| like 17 y.o men of the past.
| miroljub wrote:
| Why does it matter how old is the author?
|
| We should judge software by the quality, not by authors age.
| pinkmuffinere wrote:
| HN isn't a judge of software; it's a place to learn and be
| curious. So people are often interested in projects that do a
| novel thing in a normal way, or a normal thing in a novel way.
| Eg, stories fascinate us because something was built by a very
| lean team, or a group with no money, or somebody who is an
| industry outsider, or a parapalegic, etc. Overcoming these
| limitations is a sort of 'hacking'.
| trollbridge wrote:
| There is a new trend in Silicon Valley of bragging about how
| young founders are, etc. along with the rather bizarre trend of
| bragging about dropping out of high school to "found a
| startup".
| rvz wrote:
| Always has been.
|
| It is a deliberate advertisement to VCs to find "the next
| Mark Zuckerberg" which the entire point is that there is only
| one.
|
| For every 1,000+ startups there is exactly only *one*
| exceptional founder.
| Cyao wrote:
| Totally agree. Even if I'm a teen myself I never post my age
| unless someone asks explicitly. Saying your age is just trying
| to find excuses to justify a sub-par software imo (Not saying
| this project is sub-par)
| skylurk wrote:
| I am surprised you managed to get those entitlements at all!
|
| Did it help to be a non-profit?
| sailfast wrote:
| The OP built the React Native mobile app - not the entire
| platform / company. Some folks commenting like they built the
| company. Just a point of clarification.
|
| Great work! Keep building OP!
| indigodaddy wrote:
| The OP title seems a bit misleading notwithstanding this
| caveat.
| rahimnathwani wrote:
| This is great!
|
| I'm curious whether you were able to build the app using backend
| APIs that were already built, or whether building this app
| created new requirements for those APIs?
| LoganDark wrote:
| > I adopted the idea of "over the air updates" using Expo's EAS
| update service.
|
| Be careful with this. If Apple finds out for instance, your app
| will still be taken down.
| rahimnathwani wrote:
| Many developers do this, and it's explicitly allowed under
| Apple's Developer Agreement (section 3.3.1).
| Interpreted code may be downloaded to an Application but only
| so long as such code: (a) does not change the primary purpose
| of the Application by providing features or functionality that
| are inconsistent with the intended and advertised purpose of
| the Application (b) does not bypass signing, sandbox, or other
| security features of the OS; and (c) for Applications
| distributed on the App Store, does not create a store or
| storefront for other Applications.
|
| The app store review guidelines (section 2.5.1) seem more
| narrow, but I think the above is what's enforced.
| daredoes wrote:
| Was just looking at this the other day for personal reasons.
| Great work!
| mrb wrote:
| That's awesome, and impressive you were able to build that. As an
| angel investor, my first question would be: how do you deal with
| financial fraud? Like users exploiting your app for money
| laundering via donations then spending... Any system that lets
| money get in and out is eventually used as a channel by
| launderers.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2025-12-05 23:00 UTC)