How long does it take to get from the idea for a new loan product to the first real customer? For many financial companies the answer is months, because every change needs custom development. SmartIT built SmartCheck to shorten that path. The story is useful well beyond finance, because it touches on a common problem: how to test an idea quickly instead of putting it off.
What we know about the platform
- It was built to help companies launch new lending products without a long wait for bespoke development.
- It serves more than one million end customers.
- Loans worth more than EUR 760 million have been issued through it.
- It is used by more than 14 lending and card businesses on two continents, under different regulatory and market conditions.
A full description of the technology isn't publicly available, so we won't speculate about the architecture.
The "test fast" principle outside fintech
The idea behind platforms like this is that value comes from the speed of validation. The sooner you see how the market reacts, the fewer resources you waste heading in the wrong direction. In digital marketing and web development there are a few simple ways to apply the same idea:
A landing page instead of a whole new website
If you're not sure a new service will find demand, one well-built page with a clear call to action and tracked enquiries will give you an answer within weeks.
A form that collects the right information
A multi-step form with a handful of questions shows exactly what customers are looking for, without overwhelming them.
Measurement from day one
GA4 events, goals and traffic sources. Without them, a test is just an opinion.
When speed does harm
With regulated products and personal data, speed must never come at the expense of compliance. Good platforms allow fast change precisely because the rules and checks are built into them. The same goes for websites: forms with clear privacy information, spam protection and secure storage.
If you want to test a new service with a dedicated page, see how we approach websites and landing pages.
Source: Digitalk: SmartCheck, the platform that tests ideas fast (in Bulgarian). This article is an independent analysis by Penkov Studio.
