Improving Financial Security for Women with Julie Rasmussen, Founder & CEO of Shebanks

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:00:00

think about the fact that women use financial

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:00:02

products and as a, at a rate of about 60% men, yet they control more than

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:00:08

75% of consumer spending, yet they make less and they're they're paid less.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:00:45

Julie, welcome to the show.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:00:47

Thanks for having me, Ted.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:00:49

It's great to be here.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:00:50

She banks is a women's

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:00:52

personal personal finance.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:00:54

Solution that plans close that gap in personal financial products

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:01:01

for women that is reported to be anywhere between 300 and 700 billion.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:01:07

Dollars.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:01:09

With your of experience in global business, you've built a hundred

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:01:13

million dollar international company.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:01:16

You were personally mentored by Mary Kay Ash, the founder of Mary Kay cosmetics.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:01:21

And scaled up Mary Kay's business Russia.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:01:24

at the grand old age of 27, and , you've with many other different businesses,

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:01:31

skincare products, rental card companies, leasing, food service, real estate.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:01:36

The just goes on and on with such a background.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:01:42

Tell me, how did you fall into FinTech and start she Banks?

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:01:47

This is a great question because if

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:01:49

I'm honest with you, years I don't think I'd ever really heard the word FinTech.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:01:55

So I had, uh, My two sons were born late in life for me after I'd had really a

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:02:02

very illustrious international career.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:02:06

And of them was born with a lot of health problems.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:02:08

So I had to leave my corporate career, uh, to take care of him.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:02:12

And I'd been doing a lot of consulting work and sitting on boards, but my two

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:02:17

sons will get ready to go to college next year, I do I one more big startup in me?

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:02:23

I thought, well, I do, it has to be one that can really

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:02:26

have a major social I impact.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:02:29

It has to be one that is really going to be doing.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:02:32

It has to be massively scalable and you know, what could it be?

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:02:38

So I decided to go back to school.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:02:40

I went to Oxford in the of 2019 do an mba and so I have spent the last three years.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:02:47

Studying FinTech and learning everything about finTech, and I knew that it

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:02:51

was an issue for women because I have worked with tens of thousands

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:02:55

of women micro entrepreneurs my career, and I always knew that family

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:03:00

finances were a challenge for them.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:03:04

And in Russia particularly, I went at the height of.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:03:09

Tremendous socioeconomic upheaval.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:03:12

It was the dissolution of the Soviet Union, had been in

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:03:15

existence for more than 70 years.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:03:17

and the average male life expectancy in those years dropped to 52 years.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:03:23

Oh, wow.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:03:24

Which shocking for a developed country.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:03:26

Why?

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:03:27

Because all of there was 1200 percent inflation.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:03:32

All rubal savings been destroyed.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:03:34

the Soviet state enterprises had dissolved.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:03:36

There were no jobs.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:03:37

And I literally had hundreds of women come through my offices on a weekly,

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:03:42

monthly basis, you know, with tears in their eyes, what am I gonna do?

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:03:47

I have no money.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:03:48

We have no.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:03:48

Savings, my husband is himself to death.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:03:51

I've gotta put food on the table.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:03:53

I have to buy shoes for my kids.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:03:55

And so we were actually able to offer.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:03:59

Training and business training and teaching training of how to teach women

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:04:04

to use skincare products and cosmetics.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:04:07

And the distributors provide a service in an economy where there

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:04:11

were no distribution networks, there were no networks, there

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:04:14

were no debit card networks,

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:04:16

There was really pretty much nothing.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:04:18

And so that's really what drove me and my team to go to work every day

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:04:23

is that we are helping women get through through this time period.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:04:28

But until I really started looking into it, I did not realize how

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:04:32

massive this problem was on a scale.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:04:36

Women's World Banking, which is an expert in this says that globally,

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:04:40

worldwide, there are over a billion women who are underserved by

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:04:45

existing financial institutions.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:04:47

And they're, and and they, along with Oliver Wyman, they're the ones who

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:04:50

say, . If men and women were to use financial products and services at

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:04:53

similar rates, you know, you'd another to 700 billion of assets under management.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:05:00

So then I looked into the United States.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:05:03

and there are countries in Europe, uh, in Germany and the Netherlands specifically,

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:05:07

where women's financial literacy and use of services, financial services, is

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:05:12

really actually much more par with men.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:05:15

Surprisingly or not, the United States is not one of those countries.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:05:19

if we look at the fact that we over a hundred million women in the United

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:05:22

States between the age of 20, 74.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:05:26

this is a massive untapped market.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:05:28

And so when I realized the, the breadth of this and how large this

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:05:34

white space was, which is the gap between the world of finances and

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:05:38

the gap between communities of women,

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:05:41

I just realized not only is this a massive business opportunity and with

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:05:46

FinTech you can now you have the tools to massively scale software as a.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:05:51

Uh, we can have a, a massive impact on, on socioeconomic issues.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:05:56

So that's kind of came up with the idea.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:05:59

When you look at the overarching

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:06:03

mission of she banks, how would you simply describe it and what motivated.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:06:14

you to drive towards that mission

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:06:17

Very, very simply, our mission is to

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:06:20

improve financial security for women.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:06:23

Now, this may not sound sexy, this may not sound exciting.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:06:26

clear though.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:06:27

But it's very clear and it's very simple.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:06:30

You go on.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:06:31

The idea that keep it simple.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:06:33

And so when we look at how women are socialized, when we look at the history

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:06:38

of women, we look language used by the financial industry versus the language

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:06:43

that's used by communities of women, and remember, I'm a linguist by background.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:06:48

So I'm focused on language.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:06:50

You know, it's, it's really no surprise that there is a massive

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:06:54

disconnect these two worlds.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:06:58

And so if we lower the barriers to entry into the world of financial

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:07:02

products and services by using language that women relate to, it's

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:07:07

not that understand can't understand.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:07:10

Cer, Roy Roe, you know, what's your money?

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:07:12

Multiple, et cetera.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:07:14

It's just, this not really their native.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:07:18

Language.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:07:18

And so if you, again, Russia and wanted to be successful in

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:07:22

business, why was I successful?

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:07:24

spoke the language, right?

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:07:26

So you can much more easily build trust and a relationship when you speak

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:07:30

community's language and you understand their culture, which I intimately

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:07:34

do, feel comfortable both worlds.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:07:37

So again, I started off as an interpreter translator, and that's.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:07:41

If we make the world of financial products and services more accessible,

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:07:44

more women will enter into it.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:07:47

But we also don't stop there because you're familiar with personal

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:07:51

financial management apps like Mint or you need a Budget, these are great

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:07:56

apps and great tools, but in, in my experience, they, they stop too soon.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:08:01

And if ;you know Alex Johnson, he writes a lot about FinTech and he.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:08:06

Basically found that penetration for personal finance apps stops at

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:08:11

about 15% of your target market.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:08:13

Why?

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:08:14

Well, I've used these products and so it's to a badge or little ding, Hey,

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:08:18

you met your budget goal, but honestly, does this give me same dopamine hit

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:08:23

that I get if I go to Neiman Marcus and get the latest, you know, manolo bbl.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:08:28

No, and it's boring and it is.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:08:31

fun.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:08:31

And I mean, I'm pretty serious.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:08:33

I have an MBA in finance and

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:08:35

My dad's is a phD economics, but I always reference the Cindy Lauper song.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:08:39

You know, girls just wanna have fun, you know?

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:08:41

I just wanna have fun.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:08:42

This has to fun.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:08:44

And I look at the kay or or tupperware system of CU Customer Acquisition

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:08:49

and Engagement, these companies are experts at building communities.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:08:53

Among women, you know, a lot of people denigrate these industries

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:08:56

because they say, you get into these opportunities, you know, most of

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:09:00

of the people don't make any money.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:09:02

is true, but this is not the main reason women will join a community like Mary Kay.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:09:08

Mary is very, very not to promise that you're going to make a lot of money.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:09:13

Now you you can make a lot of money, is very hard.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:09:15

have to work very hard.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:09:17

My mother was in the top 1% of all Mary Kay.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:09:20

Uh, independent Salesforce representatives, a 40 year career

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:09:24

there and she make a lot money, but you joined because you are joining a

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:09:29

community that enriches your life so, If we will use customer acquisition and

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:09:35

engagement system like you know, devised by Mary Kay, becomes a self-perpetuating

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:09:42

community that grows by word of mouth and viral marketing and network effects.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:09:47

I'm not talking about multi-level marketing, I'm talking purely about

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:09:51

the system of engagement and community.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:09:54

And

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:09:55

if you'll look at a business like Nerd wallet, you know Tim

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:09:58

Chen is the of Nerd Wallet.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:10:00

He iPOed at 1.2 billion last year.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:10:02

Fantastic success story, however, they spend 50 to 70% of revenue on

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:10:11

a single channel marketing channel, which is content generation, and

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:10:16

sometimes you'll see sponsored ads.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:10:19

This for me is shocking who comes from a consumer marketing background

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:10:24

because can spend 35 to 40% of revenue by giving back your membership

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:10:29

community, and then you'll be

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:10:31

be creating a self growing.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:10:34

Community.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:10:35

Mm-hmm.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:10:35

,that reduces customer acquisition costs, increases engagement,

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:10:39

which increases customer value.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:10:41

So that, that is I see a phenomenal, uh, way to enter into this white space

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:10:48

that nobody is really dominating in the way that we wish to, to dominate it

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:10:55

with being relatively new to FinTech.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:10:59

Um, What would you say is the most important thing

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:11:03

that you have learned so far?

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:11:06

In that journey?

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:11:07

Well, what really surprised me was I did a

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:11:10

research paper while I was at Oxford on, on the FinTech revolution, and there

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:11:15

was a report, I believe put out by Ernst and Young in 2018 about global FinTech.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:11:21

What are the top, what were the top three countries in FinTech

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:11:24

utilization in 2018 globally?

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:11:27

I wasn't shocked to learn that China was number one,

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:11:30

India's number two, and in third place was Russia.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:11:34

That did shock me.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:11:36

then I started thinking about it, and if you think about it, you have

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:11:39

a vast country with 11 time zones.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:11:42

It's the largest by geographical land mass in the world.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:11:46

Russia is, and if about how big that country is, and how backwards it was

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:11:52

after 70 years of pseudo communism.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:11:56

are you ever gonna lay, you know, wires?

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:11:59

you ever gonna lay fiber optic?

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:12:01

No.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:12:02

You just go straight to 5g.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:12:04

Yeah.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:12:05

so you have all this vast territory and the only way to communicate,

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:12:09

you know, adoption of of smartphones in that market like 93.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:12:15

you're also n you don't have any legacy banking systems, don't have any legacy

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:12:19

technology systems, and one of the first most successful banks is out of Russia,

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:12:25

Tinkoff Bank invested in by Goldman Sachs.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:12:28

So I.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:12:29

I own property in land in Russia, and know, just go down to local

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:12:33

corner bank, an old Soviet Bank of Vanish Bank, which is Vtb Bank.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:12:39

an account, and tell you the Vtb Bank app my favorite banking app in the world.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:12:44

can do I want to instantly and securely from in the world on

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:12:49

my phone using the Vtb bank.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:12:52

so, um, that was really shocking and surprising to me.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:12:56

I came back to the United States after being abroad for so long, and then

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:13:01

I just started trying to move money.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:13:03

I name any names, know, through my legacy banks.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:13:05

banks.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:13:06

Oh, I just wanted to tear my hair out.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:13:08

You know, it's, it's friction.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:13:11

Full.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:13:12

It's aggravating, it's slow.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:13:15

It's just tremendously time consuming and annoying.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:13:18

And

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:13:19

I thought, wow, huh, this, this is be a lot better soon and

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:13:23

I can help make this better.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:13:24

I could actually participate in, in what I, you know, is the, is the

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:13:29

FinTech revolution in America today?

ff, Host Fintech Confidential: 00:13:31

One of the the things that has always stuck

ff, Host Fintech Confidential: 00:13:33

out to me is the level of licensing, um, that in the US that you have to have,

ff, Host Fintech Confidential: 00:13:40

um, compared to places like Europe, um, across the entire European Union, you need

ff, Host Fintech Confidential: 00:13:46

license and you can transmit money across borders, around, through, in and out.

ff, Host Fintech Confidential: 00:13:52

And once you have that license, you can truly control that

ff, Host Fintech Confidential: 00:13:55

money movement in near real.

ff, Host Fintech Confidential: 00:13:58

In the us.

ff, Host Fintech Confidential: 00:13:59

other hand, you have your federal level.

ff, Host Fintech Confidential: 00:14:01

Then each one of the states has their own rules.

ff, Host Fintech Confidential: 00:14:04

And last time that ran a client through that money transmitter licensing process,

ff, Host Fintech Confidential: 00:14:10

we spent about 13 million to go through the process getting them licensed and.

ff, Host Fintech Confidential: 00:14:15

All the states in the country that required licensing.

ff, Host Fintech Confidential: 00:14:18

Some don't licensing, some just require you to register.

ff, Host Fintech Confidential: 00:14:20

But that are required you to register require you to have a ton of insurance and

ff, Host Fintech Confidential: 00:14:24

bonds and everything behind So at expense, then in order to keep all of that up,

ff, Host Fintech Confidential: 00:14:29

you're looking at anywhere from three to 10 million a year just to maintain that.

ff, Host Fintech Confidential: 00:14:34

So the overarching expense, just to get into the business of being a money

ff, Host Fintech Confidential: 00:14:38

service business its truest core is way more complicated and way more expensive.

ff, Host Fintech Confidential: 00:14:45

It's been a while since I did an e-money license in Europe.

ff, Host Fintech Confidential: 00:14:47

I think the last time

ff, Host Fintech Confidential: 00:14:48

I it, it was right around 300,000 Euros.

ff, Host Fintech Confidential: 00:14:51

to get the license.

ff, Host Fintech Confidential: 00:14:52

Yeah.

ff, Host Fintech Confidential: 00:14:52

Sponsored by financial institution.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:14:54

Yeah, yeah.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:14:55

the barriers are high, really high hurdle, right.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:14:57

Unbelievably high

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:14:58

to get into this, you know, industry.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:15:01

and good reason, you know, secure.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:15:03

They need to be like Fort Knox.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:15:05

inherently conservative business.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:15:08

So, you know, I do have a lot of empathy for banks.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:15:11

I really do.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:15:11

And again, why was Russia able to, to become, you know, on the cutting edge of,

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:15:16

of the adoption of financial technology?

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:15:18

Because there was nothing there.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:15:19

So it's a greenfield site, so to deal with all that legacy, uh,

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:15:24

infrastructure rules and I mean, they're good and bad things about that.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:15:28

Right.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:15:29

Yeah.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:15:29

But Russia did go through a period of consolidation where, you know, there

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:15:32

weren't enough rules and regulations.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:15:34

probably like 7,000 banks, and they did fix that, and they got it

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:15:37

down to probably 1500 and then 800.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:15:40

And their central banker, by the way, one of the most talented, uh, and

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:15:44

resourceful central bankers in the world.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:15:46

I've.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:15:46

Elvira and I, she's just absolutely brilliant.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:15:50

So,

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:15:51

when at the way she banks is approaching

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:15:54

financial services, the financial services gap, what do you see as the opportunities

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:16:01

over the course of the next five years for she banks and, and their customers?

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:16:05

she, banks can easily scale to be a billion dollar.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:16:08

Because the va, the market size is just so vast,and the disconnect is so great.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:16:15

A lot of innovation comes from brilliant new

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:16:19

ideas.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:16:20

You know, I'm no Albert Einstein.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:16:21

He had truly brilliant new ideas, but a lot of innovation today comes

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:16:26

from combining existing ideas.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:16:28

in a new way.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:16:30

So if we look at the She Bank's model, it's based on three business

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:16:34

models that, in own right are all tremendously successful.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:16:38

So if you look at a tool like Mint, or you need budget, this is a

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:16:43

personal financial management app.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:16:45

Then you at the NERD WA Wallet business model, which is a two-sided

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:16:49

marketplace of financial products and services, also tremendously successful,

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:16:54

but none of them take it to the third level, which is based on the network

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:16:59

gamification and community building model used by companies like companies

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:17:05

like Avon, Tupperware, and Mary Kay.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:17:07

So she banks.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:17:08

really will take all three of these business models and combine them using a

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:17:13

personal financial management app, not as an end in itself, but simply as a tool.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:17:18

It's like a ladder that you can lower down into an ocean, a blue ocean

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:17:23

marketplace with hundreds of millions.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:17:26

of customers that are not in the system.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:17:29

So I need to get customers away from Mint or Yab Orner Wallet because I guarantee

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:17:35

you, if we stand in the lot a Walmart or a Target in August, back to school and the

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:17:41

we interviewed a hundred women coming out of there with their carts piled high with.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:17:45

School supplies, you know, maybe with three kids in tow..

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:17:48

And we're like, how's your 401k doing?

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:17:51

Have you checked, you know, YNAB lately to see what you're, you're

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:17:54

on track for, for your 401k?

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:17:57

much did you spend last month, you know, on X, Y, Z?

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:18:00

And have ever heard Nerd Wallet?

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:18:02

98% them will no.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:18:03

have no idea what you're talking about.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:18:05

So that's the very nature a ocean market space.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:18:09

Your success does not depend upon people from existing products they use.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:18:14

You're simply taking a new product people who have never been exposed to So I think

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:18:18

is really the opportunity for She banks.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:18:21

So talked something and, what I'm

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:18:25

that your perspective, everything's like disconnected, disjointed, just.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:18:31

not, well aligned and people want to see how they use their money.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:18:40

They want to track their money, they want to grow their money.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:18:47

What is the the vision for She Banks to deliver on those desires?

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:18:53

So we will know we are successful

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:18:56

when we see women decreasing.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:19:00

Increasing savings investing.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:19:03

The holy grail here to get more women to invest because this

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:19:08

is how the top 1%, unless own a company like Amazon or Tesla, okay.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:19:13

Or PayPal, you know, how do the top 1%.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:19:17

grow their wealth?

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:19:18

And we saw through the pandemic how the wealth of the top,

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:19:22

you know, decile massively.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:19:24

Why?

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:19:25

Because they're invested in the stock market.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:19:28

And so we women self report, they lack confidence in investing.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:19:32

They don't know what's right them.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:19:33

They don't know where to begin.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:19:34

They don't trust existing financial industry and in

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:19:37

many cases for a good reason.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:19:38

So it's very simple message.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:19:41

you wanna build wealth, wealth, you must.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:19:44

In America, invest in the s and p 500, invest in the Dow Jones,

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:19:50

it's so easy to do this today.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:19:53

You can buy an ETF you buy a spider or standard and poor 500 etf.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:19:58

Historically, the compound annual growth return of s p 500 is

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:20:02

around 8% for the last 50 years.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:20:05

It's a buy and hold strategy.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:20:07

Now you do need to have your cash cushion.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:20:10

in case something goes wrong, you don't wanna be selling at the of the market.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:20:13

That's one you should be buying.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:20:14

So do call cost averaging.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:20:15

This is really simple, we don't have have this competitive language of Yeah.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:20:20

Beat the market.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:20:21

know, get on the latest crypto meme trade, or whatever it is.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:20:24

Yeah.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:20:24

If you gamble in Las Vegas, you set aside thousand bucks.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:20:28

You can lose the whole thing.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:20:29

By Bitcoin, right?

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:20:31

that is not going to be your long-term retirement strategy to build wealth.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:20:34

It shouldn't be, should not be your main strategy for that.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:20:38

So, as we see women's financial health improve, that's when we, we see them

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:20:45

increasing their level of investing.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:20:46

That's how we'll know we're successful.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:20:49

How are you positioned to be that leader?

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:20:52

Okay.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:20:52

To give those experiences that are better than what's out in the marketplace today?

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:20:57

Basically, the way we position ourselves is, you

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:20:59

know, we are the community of trust women where we are not gonna try to sell

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:21:03

you a product that you don't need that doesn't your personal circumstances.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:21:09

So our app, which is being provided by MX Technologies has very capabilities,

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:21:17

very powerful analytics capabilities that gives us insight into our members' data.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:21:22

Now, we never sell data and we only look at data that our

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:21:26

members give permission to see.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:21:29

The but when, and we don't even need to know their name or connect their data

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:21:34

to them because using the capabilities of the app, we can simply look at

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:21:40

spending habits and data then target people who have certain spending

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:21:45

habits or data with suggestions and products that fit their circumstances.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:21:51

So lemme give you a use case.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:21:52

Let's say I have hundred thousand members using my app.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:21:56

I can query members paying a mortgage.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:22:00

I can see if they have a home warranty policy, for example.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:22:04

Then without knowing their names or anything else about them, I

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:22:07

can simply send them an offer.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:22:10

, uh, you deal on a home policy.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:22:13

And then on my website I can have information and education about

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:22:18

why home warranty policy can help you avoid unexpected large expense.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:22:24

have a major system in your house, down the refrigerator, breaks,

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:22:27

the oven, breaks, whatever it is, having warning policy, this will

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:22:32

protect you from having a large.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:22:34

Unexpected expense of 800 to multiple thousands of of dollars.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:22:42

is the to take it a step further also and say, by doing this, this

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:22:47

is how it'll impact your budget, and this is where you're going to

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:22:51

have to reallocate funds in protect yourself from this catastrophic event.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:22:58

Well, the statistics are very, very clear.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:23:01

It's something like 50% of the population, you doesn't have $500

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:23:06

to meet an unexpected expense.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:23:08

This Often can tip people into bankruptcy un you know, being

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:23:14

under the, the poverty line.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:23:15

So this is just.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:23:17

, you know, this keeps me awake at night.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:23:19

This is just so frightening so terrifying.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:23:21

And of course, if this situation, the anxiety and the the stress

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:23:26

it causes is phenomenal.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:23:28

We just heard you know, that more than 76% of people say financial worries their

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:23:34

biggest worry, and especially in today's climate, with the uncertainty we have

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:23:37

inflation going on, you recession looming.

ff, Host Fintech Confidential: 00:23:40

I tried my best not to use those words today

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:23:42

Yes, yes.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:23:43

So,

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:23:44

I, I appreciate the

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:23:45

it, but

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:23:45

perspective.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:23:45

this is more needed than ever,

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:23:47

and especially for women,

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:23:49

because women feel more than 76% of part-time

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:23:52

They're more likely to take time out from a career for childbearing

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:23:55

elder care, caring for a spouse.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:23:57

Mm-hmm.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:23:58

, they retire earlier, they live longer, they they earn less at every they are

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:24:03

more apt to live in poverty at every age.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:24:06

this is I talk, this is what I mean when I'm talking about

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:24:08

massive socioeconomic problem.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:24:11

even if you're not really concerned with women, Situation per se.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:24:16

If you have mothers, wives, daughters, sisters, all right,

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:24:19

they're being affected by this.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:24:21

Mm-hmm.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:24:21

. Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:24:23

factors, pay taxes in America, you should be concerned about this.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:24:27

Because when women don't have money, can't make choices.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:24:30

They can't retrain for higher paying jobs, have to rely on social program.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:24:36

More when they have less money.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:24:38

we can get them have more money and have a cushion, it has an all around

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:24:43

beneficial reala and everybody, their children, their spouses,

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:24:46

their communities, their families, entire society in which they live.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:24:51

So this is why this is really just a massively urgent issue in my my opinion.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:24:57

We are here at mXS 2022 at a beautiful

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:25:01

resort here Snowbird in During the where the leaves are starting

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:25:06

to change, what do you hope the attendees from this event take away?

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:25:13

And even more specifically from your session around changing the norm around

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:25:20

finance and the biases that we have,

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:25:23

when I look at my experience in international

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:25:26

markets, when I went the nineties, I came from Manhattan, and you can use the

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:25:34

development in lesser developed countries.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:25:36

You can use the progress that has been made in developed economies as a ball.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:25:42

To look into what's going to happen in developing and emerging markets.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:25:46

They will develop in 98% of the cases.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:25:49

as developed countries have have developed.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:25:53

So everything that I had in manhattan, you know, dry cleaning, being delivered

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:25:56

to your house, you know, restaurant take a, being delivered to your door

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:26:00

cleaning services that you can book online and come to your apartment.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:26:03

that exists now today in Moss.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:26:06

Which exist there 10, 15, 20 years ago.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:26:09

By same token, if we see that the FinTech by populations in Russia,

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:26:14

China, and India are at 97% and the United States is at 47%.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:26:19

You know, it doesn't take a genius to figure out.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:26:22

Which way, which direction United States is going.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:26:25

And think, uh, one the major takeaways that I had from the sessions this

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:26:29

morning, especially, uh, Simon Taylor's presentation, is we all the tools

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:26:34

and technology available to us now.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:26:37

the United States today.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:26:39

So it's just a question of how fast we can adopt them and use them.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:26:44

So it, to my mind, it's absolutely inevitable that we will adopt and

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:26:50

use those tools and the institutions that don't adopt and use those tools

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:26:55

simply won't be able to keep up.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:26:57

They won't be competitive.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:26:59

Do you think that gap is.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:27:00

Is more education of of the the need or the importance or.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:27:08

Or even that they're even available.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:27:11

I, I really think this is something that

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:27:13

is going to be driven by consumers.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:27:15

Consumers will gravitate those companies and fintechs that

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:27:18

offer them better experiences.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:27:21

can see financial institutions like JP Morgan that are, are really striving

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:27:27

to innovate and become more innovative and adopt these new technologies.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:27:31

But again, many banks.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:27:34

Even if they want to be innovative, they're st.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:27:37

They're saddled with legacy systems and they are subject to these rules

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:27:41

and regulations make it very hard for them to innovate and quickly adapt.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:27:46

And not because don't want to.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:27:49

It's difficult.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:27:51

So I think that this will be a consumer-led and consumer-driven

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:27:54

revolution and you will see, um, Continuing mergers and partnerships

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:28:01

between existing financial institutions and legacy systems and fintechs.

ff, Host Fintech Confidential: 00:28:07

So we're towards the end of our conversation.

ff, Host Fintech Confidential: 00:28:10

I've enjoyed every last minute of it, so I appreciate it.

ff, Host Fintech Confidential: 00:28:14

I've got two specific questions and one general question left for you.

ff, Host Fintech Confidential: 00:28:19

The specific question is, if you were to give FinTech founders

ff, Host Fintech Confidential: 00:28:23

that one piece of advice, as they build out their technologies,

ff, Host Fintech Confidential: 00:28:27

they build out their company.

ff, Host Fintech Confidential: 00:28:30

What would that be?

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:28:31

Don't do it.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:28:33

You have to be crazy to be a founder.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:28:36

No, really, honestly.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:28:37

Um, I say that facetiously, it, it's incredibly difficult.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:28:42

It's very exciting.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:28:44

You really have to have an appetite for risk.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:28:47

You really have to kind of like to live the edge.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:28:50

The opportunity cost is hugely high.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:28:53

Not to mention the financial cost.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:28:55

So my, my main of advice is, uh, you need be really, really

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:29:01

driven to do this if wanna do it.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:29:04

And I'm not really trying to discourage you, I'm saying be ready.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:29:09

There was a speaker at the Moov devcon conference in Denver a few

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:29:13

weeks ago talking about his first startup and how, you know, it's for to

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:29:17

work 16 hours a He's really into it.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:29:19

And then he woke up one day and he realized, he is exhausted.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:29:22

Couldn't focus, concentrate, You know, what was, what, what was happening.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:29:26

he he wasn't so much in love with the mission of his company

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:29:30

as he was in love with just, know, kind of idea of a startup.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:29:34

So, I think need to be mission driven and that mission has be something

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:29:40

you feel so strongly about that you know, you'll basically pay and

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:29:45

you will crawl across a desert no water try to achieve this mission.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:29:49

You'll wake in the middle of about it, you know, I achieve mission?

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:29:53

You really have be incredibly to just driven by wanting to see this happen.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:30:00

otherwise think it's gonna be really tough psychologically to sustain

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:30:03

yourself through the difficulties that.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:30:06

Startups.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:30:07

A lot of the companies

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:30:08

that are coming out now.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:30:10

Shebanks is a perfect example.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:30:12

That it is purpose driven, mission driven, and purpose drives and

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:30:17

the mission the pur purpose.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:30:19

And that that cyclical it, creates almost an energy machine

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:30:24

once you those two aligned.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:30:26

And I totally understand how, how that founder about, Lost that sense of purpose.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:30:32

Yeah.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:30:33

then he went do another startup where he, he, he, he went mission first.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:30:38

And very successful startup he's very happy and has been very successful.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:30:43

Right.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:30:44

And you know, don't fail forward fast.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:30:46

Mm-hmm.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:30:47

, Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: you do.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:30:48

I'm not really an advocate of go fast and and break things.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:30:51

I'm really like, go fast and build things.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:30:54

Right.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:30:54

So build fast.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:30:56

Um, but don't don't get so into some idea you have fast.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:31:02

When you need to adapt fast, be flexible.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:31:05

So, uh, fail forward fast and build something.

ff, Host Fintech Confidential: 00:31:09

That me, and I cannot remember who the quote

ff, Host Fintech Confidential: 00:31:12

is from, so I'm not even gonna try and quote on it, but it was the idea of make

ff, Host Fintech Confidential: 00:31:17

decisions quickly and change them slowly.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:31:19

Yes, yes.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:31:20

try you know, I'll team members come to me and I'll be like, okay,

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:31:25

what are the risks if do this?

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:31:27

those are acceptable.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:31:28

Do it.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:31:28

See if works.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:31:29

Come back to me a week, two weeks, But wait too long.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:31:33

If it's not working, then stop doing it.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks: 00:31:34

Let's do something else.

ff, Host Fintech Confidential: 00:31:36

Tell me what working with MX has really meant

ff, Host Fintech Confidential: 00:31:40

to you personally as well as she banks.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:31:43

I really, uh, love

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:31:45

MX Technologies.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:31:46

It's just a fantastic company.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:31:49

I spent about 18 months interviewing development shops

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:31:52

and we were whether build or buy.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:31:56

since, my minimum viable product, this financial management is a tool.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:32:03

It's not an end in myself, it's in itself.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:32:05

It's just tool that I'm to use to help us get where we wanna be.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:32:09

So the idea of having to spend months and months building something that is not

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:32:14

even our.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:32:16

Product or goal just seemed really, um, path and

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:32:22

I'm glad I didn't go down that path because then we were

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:32:25

connected with MX one year ago.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:32:27

Today SheBanks branded App is on the app store.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:32:30

incredibly powerful tool.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:32:31

It's super fast, it has data analytics and insights and marketing capabilities.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:32:38

It has a unique in-app generated score, wellness score called Fin

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:32:44

Strong, not related to your credit score, but you know, based on your

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:32:49

level of debt, savings and investment.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:32:51

So it's, it's, it's absolutely perfect for.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:32:53

And it's a fantastic solution that we were able get up and running relatively fast.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:32:59

I'm an investor, I'm investing in this company.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:33:01

I don't wanna invest my money, uh, a super, super risky

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:33:05

proposition as all startups are.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:33:07

So by having an app your MVP that already exists with all these

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:33:11

capabilities, you inherently de-risk.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:33:14

the entire proposition.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:33:16

So you can get into the market with an MVP and start getting traction building

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:33:20

your brand and building your community.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:33:22

a no-brainer.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:33:23

So I'm, I'm very grateful that that MX exists.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:33:26

And of course the ethos of the company, which I think goes to

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:33:30

Brandon dewitt, who is the founder.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:33:32

I feel it every day.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:33:33

I feel in, you know, Amber Cooley, Eric Henry, our development team

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:33:38

that is implementing this for me.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:33:40

do so much for us.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:33:42

just an absolute delight and pleasure to work with them.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:33:45

And you feel that ethos, I mean, in every interaction.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:33:49

I really can't say enough, know, positive things about them.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:33:52

It, it is really great to have a,

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:33:54

company that, that follows their mission, their values, um, through and

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:33:59

through, uh, forwards and backwards and yeah, mission is, our mission

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:34:03

very much aligned their mission.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:34:06

much so.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:34:06

And that's so important for.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:34:08

Uh, we just simply would not able to work with a company

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:34:12

there wasn't mission alignment.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:34:14

we've talked about a bunch of things.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:34:17

Everything from russian language to talking about, uh, financial app

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:34:23

and a whole bunch of stuff.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:34:24

even about skincare of all things.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:34:27

If there, is there anything additional that maybe we haven't covered that you

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:34:32

wanted to make sure that the audience.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:34:34

One other unique aspect of the She

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:34:37

Bank's business model is we will aggregate the buying power of women.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:34:42

So if you think about the fact that women use financial products and as a, at a rate

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:34:47

of about 60% men, yet they control more than 75% of consumer spending, yet they

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:34:55

make less and they're they're paid less.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:34:57

So this a big structural problem.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:35:00

you think about the buying power of all those.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:35:04

And if you can access their, their spending patterns to see they're

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:35:09

spending the most money and who they're spending that money with, can to.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:35:13

those, uh, businesses and say, look, I have 150,000 people who this much with

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:35:20

your company on a monthly, yearly basis.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:35:23

I would like to negotiate some special deals for them.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:35:27

so you help maximize buying power that your member community has so that

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:35:32

the money they do make goes further and brings them a lot more value.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:35:38

So th this is critical to our mission.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:35:41

need to help women maximize money they have and make their spending

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:35:46

power work harder for them.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:35:48

And this is a critical element of the Shebanks model.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:35:51

So for those people that want to

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:35:52

learn more the She Banks model, all great things that you're doing,

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:35:57

what is the best way for them to reach to you and the rest of the She Banks team?

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:36:02

you can contact me

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:36:03

directly@julieshebanks.com, U L I E.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:36:08

You can also to our website, www.shebanks.com.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:36:12

You can find me on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:36:14

Um, just.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:36:16

Get in touch.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:36:17

Fantastic.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:36:18

We'll go ahead and add all of that information into the show notes as well as

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:36:21

all the links and everything so everybody doesn't have to go searching for it.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:36:24

So we'll have that down there.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:36:26

So click on the links and it'll take you there.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:36:28

Julie, thank you so much for your time today.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:36:30

I.

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:36:32

Thoroughly enjoyed our conversation, and I know we could probably talk

Tedd Huff, Host Fintech Confidential:

: 00:36:35

for many, many, many, many, many more hours, uh, around these topics.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:36:40

you so much for your time.

Julie Rassmusen, CEO Shebanks:

: 00:36:42

It's been a fantastic opportunity and there's nothing I'll like more than