Reimagining mobile for start-up founders at Rho

The challenge: Misaligned target persona

Rho is a robust business banking and treasury platform built for high-growth companies. However, its mobile application suffered from severe operational misalignment: it was historically built for entry-level employees to snap photos of receipts and access virtual cards.

Meanwhile, Rho’s overarching business strategy shifted to target a younger, hyper-mobile demographic: the on-the-go Gen-Z startup founder. This segment treats their business finances with consumer-grade expectations; they demand absolute mobility without needing to pull out a laptop.

When I audited the legacy application, I found massive design debt:

• Hidden core utility: High-value banking information was buried at the tail end of the navigation menu.
• Fragmented to-do lists: Admins were forced to navigate two entirely separate, disconnected tabs for "Tasks" and "Approvals".
• Information overload: The home screen prioritized administrative chores over macro financial health, forcing founders to manually scroll just to check their company balances.

Update 1: New admin command center

I completely flipped the core hierarchy of the home page to satisfy the "Gut Check" mental model. I elevated the core company balance to the absolute top of the page—completely above the fold—and integrated real-time spending data visualizations. Directly beneath this macro financial state, I placed prominent, immediate quick-action CTAs ("Deposit," "Transfer," "Pay"), turning a passive dashboard into a highly functional tool with zero scroll friction.

Update 2: Unlocking deposits

Historically, the mobile app restricted capital inflow to traditional checks and wires. Recognizing that founders expect frictionless money movement just like on the web, I designed an end-to-end mobile funding flow integrated with Plaid. I mapped custom interface validation states for successful links, processing delays, and technical errors. Since launch, this single mobile optimization has driven over $7M in monthly deposit volume.

Update 3: Dynamic team card control

To streamline employee spend management for founders, I utilized Claude Code to rapidly prototype and ideate interaction models, accelerating our mid-fidelity testing timelines. These designs were then brought back to our original user testing cohort. They highlighted the need for both high-level insights and the ability to drill into individual cards.

I designed a credit utilization widget that sits at the top of the page, allowing admins to monitor team spending at a glance. Then below, admins can see cards by user, with themselves at the top. I also included a search bar, which we architected to let users search by cardholder, card name, or a card's number. When an admin clicks into a card, I re-architected the detail page, elevating the most frequent actions: editing credit limits and locking cards instantly. They were now immediate, top-level interactions.

Update 4: New mobile design system

As Rho began rolling out a reimagined visual identity, I leveraged the card interface as a place to emphasize the new brand and a moment of delight. The cards were not only redesigned, but I added animation based on the user's gyroscope and inject delight in the rather clinical fintech space. With the help of Claude Code I engineered a custom gyroscope-driven card animation that I was able to easily hand-off to engineers. In production, the virtual card physically shimmers and catches light as the founder moves their phone, transforming a standard corporate credit card into a piece of digital craftsmanship.