Introducing Dispute Panda

The credit repair market has remained static for the last 10+ years until the industry disruptor, Dispute Panda, launched in November 2022. This SaaS platform created a ripple in the credit repair industry utilizing the power of AI. Now all of their competitors are racing to replicate this innovation.

In this case study, we talk about the ideation, development, and impact of Dispute Panda. Although this SaaS platform is not a Phase One Ventures portfolio company, it gave birth to the company’s venture studio business model. Read on to learn how this platform confirmed our business model and how our team contributed to building an 8 figure platform within 8 months.

Phase One

Phase One Ventures’ founder, Jonathan Diaz, previously owned a marketing agency that built 250+ websites for other companies within the credit repair industry. Although he always had an inkling towards software and technology, he found it difficult to break into the industry due to costs and a lack of case studies. Diaz had an idea to build a platform that would revolutionize the credit repair market but needed a partner(s) to help take on the challenge.

After months of researching and interviewing contenders that would become Diaz’s partner(s) for Dispute Panda. Diaz found the perfect candidate who was passionate about what he did and enjoyed helping others succeed. With the right entrepreneur now established, they could focus on the development of the platform.

Phase Two

In this phase, there’s lots of research and problem solving that takes place. Some of the questions that inform the UI/UX design and branding include:

What issue are we trying to solve?
What pain points will this platform solve for the audience?
What emotion do you want people to feel when they think about Dispute Panda?
How can we make our platform stand apart from our competitors?
How can we make our platform more effective yet easy to use?

Branding

The majority of B2B credit repair companies lack strong and interesting branding; they are mundane, lackluster, and average. On the other hand, Dispute Panda’s branding is personable, fun, and engaging. The panda mascot gives the brand visual identity which helps viewers associate the mascot to the brand through repeated exposure. The panda mascot also transforms an intimidating and complex process into a user-friendly and simple experience.

At the most basic level, Dispute Panda solves the #1 pain point which was a lack of results due to ineffective and overused templates. Dispute Panda can serve everyone in the credit repair space from senior level execs to new entrepreneurs by helping their businesses deliver better results. What sets Dispute Panda apart from their competitors is the integration of AI that produces 100% original, unique letters catered to every consumer. Customers see results up to 70% faster than traditional credit repair businesses. The engine generates up to dozens of letters in seconds.

MVP’s Key Features

Some of Dispute Panda’s MVP key features include:

Importing clients from multiple sources
Filtering negative accounts
Generating unique letters
Mailing letters internally from Dispute Panda
Metro 2 disruptor
Factual disputing
Accepting several kinds of credit monitoring reports

Open Project Website →

Development

Building these features required the work of our talented developers. Some of whom were tasked with building the engine that powers the letters. The backend of the engine sends a request for a letter with information like the name, address, and dispute item to generate a PDF. To incorporate GPT-3 into this process, it first had to be coded into the engine and trained well. Diazs’ partner(s) was responsible for training the AI by providing in-depth market research and expert industry knowledge. Our custom LLM paired with our partners’ research allows us to produce 100% unique Metro 2 and factual disputing letters.

There are three different kinds of disputing: the traditional method, Metro 2, or factual disputing. The traditional method requires an employee from the credit bureaus to process the letter. Metro 2 uses an e-OSCAR which is a machine system that scans code to identify and process the contents of the documents. This technology eliminates the human bias associated with the traditional method. Factual disputing is a third option that allows credit repair businesses to dispute inaccurate information based on the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Dispute Panda supports the Metro 2 and factual disputing methods which move away from partiality.

Key Challenges

Managing and perfecting the integration of AI was one of the main challenges our team faced. In the beginning, we noticed problems arising from GPT-3. For example, the outputs were unreliable and never 100% accurate. Sometimes it would produce aggressive, insulting, nonsensical, short, or repetitive text. For quality control, we sifted through these results to select the appropriate outputs. Now that there’s been updates with GPT-4 and OpenAI functions, we are able to train our engine better to produce more reliable results.

Phase Three

MVP Launch

The MVP of Dispute Panda was launched in November 2022 and saw tremendous success early on.

In this MVP launch, credit repair companies could add clients from their businesses or import them from other sources. Their clients had access to a portal where they could each enter and interact with the credit repair company from within Dispute Panda. Companies could generate and mail letters with the panda-themed attacks they selected such as the Nerve Attack, Pinwheel Attack, Punch of Fury, Round Kick, Paralyzing Touch Point, or a regular static letter.

Although Dispute Panda is not one of Phase One Ventures’ portfolio companies, it was monumental in our growth. Dispute Panda affirmed the company’s transition into a venture studio. Diaz accounts that experience in the development of his company saying,

“At the time, I didn’t know it was going to be a test for a venture studio; I didn’t even know we were going to be a venture studio. I simply knew I’m good at building products and branding them, I have the team, and I know how to build software. I looked for a partner(s) who really understood the business side. It works out great because we both get to focus on what we love doing.”

Phase Four

After 7 days of Dispute Panda’s launch, the platform hit a 6 figure MRR and our company received a return on our initial investment. After 90 days, it was acquiring 3,000 new users each month completely through word of mouth. After 180 days, it had cleared a $40m valuation.

Six months later, the credit repair industry was once again rocked by Dispute Panda Pro, the paid membership version. After the first month of the Pro launch, there were 10,000 users. Along with this immense success and traction also came growing pains and challenges for the advancing platform.

New features have been added that are all driven by data and informed by feedback from users. When clients upgrade to Dispute Panda Pro, they receive access to these features designed to make their work and process more efficient:

Client Portal
Super Admin Dashboard
Billing, Payment Forms
1-Click Imports
Zapier Integration
Track mail
Search function in dashboard
Priority Support
Shareable Reports

As a Pro user, the first difference you would notice is the super admin dashboard. This dashboard organizes the home page in tabs labeled clients, letters, inbox, reports, subscriptions, training, and contact support. It also showcases a history of your reports, rounds, and a to-do list so you can easily stay on track.

With the subscription feature, companies can now onboard, bill and process their clients.. Pro users get an overall account report from the past week, month or year. They can share notable results with branded graphics directly with their leads or on their social media. The inbox feature allows companies to stay updated with the latest status on their accounts and message their clients using the inbox which they will receive via the Safe Client Portal and email.

There are even more helpful features coming soon like the DIY mobile app, audit reports, and community awards.

The Crash

About the first month after the Dispute Panda Pro launch, the platform started to experience problems. The launch of Dispute Panda Pro opened the floodgates for a stream of new users leading to issues in scalability.

This flood of new users took our server’s usage from 30% to 100%. The servers kept going down and the database was getting locked up resulting in a frustrating user experience. These kinds of issues are difficult to locate and fix since it is a blackbook. This is challenging for the developers to decipher what failed, when it failed, or what data made it fail.

This problem required a solution outside of the box. They solved this issue by optimizing all the servers and making all files smaller. Additionally, they optimized the database since search results were taking too long. To do this, our team went through each table and indexed the database.

This infrastructure reboot was the first obstacle along the way. Just when the developers were resolving this issue, they were met with another challenge, Dispute Panda’s first cyber attack.

Open Project Website →

Phase Five

Business Setback

One last challenge that led to the eventual betterment of the company is when Dispute Panda split ties with their mailing partner. This left Dispute Panda in a tricky spot where they had to quickly restrategize. They intend to create their own mailing center to send out letters in-house. This will increase profit and provide better quality control. In-house production will start slowly and gradually build as the mailing center becomes acclimated to the flow. While this setback was inconvenient, it inspired and challenged Dispute Panda to vertically integrate. After complete vertical integration, mailing costs will drop by 65%.

The Sky’s the Limit

There is more exciting news and innovative ventures ahead, but this is the story of how Dispute Panda grew into an 8 figure company in 8 months thanks to Phase One Ventures’ team and the contributions of Diaz’s partner(s).

Based on the direction and track record of success, Dispute Panda is heading for a $5 billion exit within the next 5 to 6 years.

Despite challenges from infrastructure scalability and cyberattacks, Dispute Panda has prospered. Competitors and clients are noticing that Dispute Panda is truly a disruptor in the credit repair industry.

This is just one of the market-leading platforms that Phase One Ventures has built, read our other case studies to learn more about our process and successes.

If you are interested in building your own 8 figure SaaS business, schedule your discovery call with our business owner, Jonathan Diaz. → https://meet.phaseoneventures.com/jon.