About
It began with helping my youngest son buy his first used car without turning repayment into a monthly conversation neither of us wanted. The more I sat with that problem, the more it felt familiar: parents, friends, roommates, and families all run into moments where support is easy to offer but much harder to keep clear over time.
I built Repaya because I wanted a better option than a spreadsheet I knew I would maintain alone. I wanted something both of us would actually use. It also gave me the chance to get back to building something from scratch around a real problem that felt worth solving.
- Kevin, founder of Repaya
The founder story
The first moment
My youngest son was about to get his license and was looking for his first used car. He had about $500 in cash. I assumed I could take out a small bank loan in my name and let him pay it back over time, but that plan fell apart once I learned banks usually do not finance cars that old.
The real decision
I agreed to loan him the $5,000 for the car. My first thought was a spreadsheet, but that already felt like something I would maintain and he would mostly ignore. What I wanted instead was something simple I could share directly so we could both look at the same loan without chasing each other for updates.
The older lesson
Years earlier, my father helped me with a small part of a house down payment. He drew up a simple contract so we both knew what I was agreeing to pay back. That stuck with me: the strain usually comes from unclear expectations, not just from the money itself.
Why build it
A lot of people I know would rather avoid lending money altogether because they have seen what it can do to a relationship. Others decide that if they help at all, it has to become a gift. I understand that instinct, but I do not think every meaningful expense should quietly become free just because follow-up feels uncomfortable.
What matters to me
At least for my own kids, I do not want support to teach that everything simply gets handed over. I want help to feel generous without losing the lesson that money matters, plans matter, and paying something back can be part of growing up without turning every bump in the road into a bigger problem.
Where the product shows up
The original use case was a first car. The larger lesson was that support feels better when both people can see the same plan without turning every check-in into a relationship problem.
One person fronts the expense, and both people need the same shared understanding of what happens next. Repaya is built for that kind of practical, relationship-based follow-through.
Friends helping friends run into the same issue: the help is easy in the moment, but following up later can feel personal fast. A shared record can take some of that pressure off both people.
Product principles
If it takes too much setup or too much explaining, people will fall back to texts, memory, or avoiding the conversation altogether.
Nobody likes feeling nagged. The product should make follow-up feel more factual and less like one person is chasing the other every month.
Help should not have to become a gift by default just because tracking it feels uncomfortable. Repaya should make it easier to help someone and still keep the plan visible.
Join early
If you have ever wanted to help someone without letting the loan become the relationship, the waitlist is the best way to stay close as Repaya grows from this first use case into more real-world scenarios.