VIDA was something I (Benji) dreamt up during my time travelling. It was based around the concept of a digital travel journal that is curated from your natural actions i.e. paying for things, taking photos or videos, sending messages, etc. 

Each day when I travelling there is this weird psychological fight where the last thing you want to do is sit down for an hour and write in your journal, but at the same time you know that you want to have the memories when they’re freshest, and it will be worth it in the long run. You really don’t realise though at the time how important, life defining, unique and special those memories really are. 

On the inside page I wrote that there would be a $1 million reward for finding, in truth it’s more than that. It’s priceless. 

If you asked me the question “what is the first thing you would take if your house were on fire”. It would be that book. 

So why the name VIDA? 
VIDA means life in latin. And that’s what this product was about, it wasn’t ‘travelling’ or holidays, it was about life and experience. 

I’m not going to go as far to say I ‘found myself’ whilst travelling, but I would say that the outlook I have on the world was defined there. 

VIDA was a long uphill battle to launch. Just to get to market, we needed partnerships with a: card management company, card printer, card payment network (MasterCard), card BIN sponsor, customer help desk and an FX provider. 

As well as building the website, marketing, social media, finance, reconciliation, operations, etc. 

But in the summer of 2013 we launched our website and prepaid card.

With it going on to be: 

- Nominated for Prepaid Card of the Year 2014
- Recommended Product on 4 out of 10 comparison sites
- Number 1 on MoneySupermarket