Hardware Podcasts

LearnVest: Alexa von Tobel

How I Built This · 18 Dec 2017 · 39m

What this episode covers

Alexa von Tobel, founder of LearnVest, explains how the unexpected death of her father when she was 14 left her mother struggling with family finances, inspiring her to build a tool that simplifies financial planning for young people. She details leaving Morgan Stanley and Harvard Business School in 2008 to launch LearnVest, raising $11 million in seed funding by hustling to meet investors despite the financial crisis. The company grew to serve millions of users with a software platform that aggregates finances and provides affordable planning advice, eventually leading to its acquisition by Northwestern Mutual for a rumored $250 million. In a postscript, Dillon Hill discusses co-founding Gamers Gift, a nonprofit that provides VR headsets and video games to bed-bound and disabled patients in hospitals and assisted living facilities.

Most relevant to

early-stage companies

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Northwestern Mutual, Morgan Stanley, U.S. Bank
Products
LearnVest, Gamers Gift

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