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Peter, Thank you for your questions! Team: I'm a solo-founder that is working full-time on this and have been since September first. (I have an advisor and

by wj 11y ago

Peter, Thank you for your questions! Team: I'm a solo-founder that is working full-time on this and have been since September first. (I have an advisor and have used a contractor for a small amount of help.) Stage: The first version of the software is built and I'm getting feedback from users. I've been having some discussions with advisors (and have a huge list to still reach out to) and hope to have the first paying client soon. Why: I've been in the 401(k) industry for fourteen years and there has not been a lot of technological innovation until very recently. And the startups that are tackling the space are doing so by becoming advisors which is a lot of compliance (SEC, ERISA, DOL) headaches in an industry where fees are shrinking. And while I admire their dedication to providing a better employer experience, I think by focusing on the employee experience we will be able to make a larger difference. I came up with the idea as I saw that 401(k) plan sponsors (companies) are asking advisors to provide more services (specifically financial wellness) for less. An advisor can't do that by adding more bodies, they're going to have to start leveraging technology. Also, my former firm needs this type of software and failed at creating it.

buss 11y ago
> Also, my former firm needs this type of software and failed at creating it. Can you say more about this? Why did they fail? How will you avoid the same problems?
- wj 11y ago
  Many reasons tje failed but I would say the main ones are: * Lack of a clear project leader (the project had been mandated from up high so many people wanted the feather in their cap. I was an observer at a few meetings and they were a mess.) and nobody attached had software development experience. * No dedicated resources and the two programmers that were putting any time towards it didn't know the 401(k) industry and couldn't translate the feature requests into technical specifications. * Management mandated building it on Salesforce before any of this happened even though no department used it at all. They spent hundreds of thousands on licenses before even making a list of features. * There was no verbalized vision for the project and never a conversation about why a user would want to use it. * Banks are, in general, not the best and consumer facing technology. I wasn't part of that project but watching that happen was painful. I hope that my experience will help me avoid those issues.

by wj 11y ago

buss 11y ago

> Also, my former firm needs this type of software and failed at creating it. Can you say more about this? Why did they fail? How will you avoid the same problems?

wj 11y ago
Many reasons tje failed but I would say the main ones are: * Lack of a clear project leader (the project had been mandated from up high so many people wanted the feather in their cap. I was an observer at a few meetings and they were a mess.) and nobody attached had software development experience. * No dedicated resources and the two programmers that were putting any time towards it didn't know the 401(k) industry and couldn't translate the feature requests into technical specifications. * Management mandated building it on Salesforce before any of this happened even though no department used it at all. They spent hundreds of thousands on licenses before even making a list of features. * There was no verbalized vision for the project and never a conversation about why a user would want to use it. * Banks are, in general, not the best and consumer facing technology. I wasn't part of that project but watching that happen was painful. I hope that my experience will help me avoid those issues.