The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 33 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Stein: Betterment's Tax Management Saves Clients More Than Platform Fees
“We tax manage for you to save you more than you even pay us in fees. In taxes, we give you net positive returns on your investment with us”
Jon Stein: I do not want to leave my children an inheritance
“They'll probably someday accuse me of wrongdoing for saying this, but I don't want them to have an inheritance. I don't want to set them up where they don't have to work, because I think work is part of happiness.”
Stein: Managing Personal Investments Is Nearly Impossible for Everyday Savers
“If it was that hard for me, ah, someone who's had all the benefits of, you know, ah, business school, and a degree in economics, and a CFA, and all of these, like, and working in the industry, wow, it must be impossible for the average person to manage their m…”
Stein: Banks and Brokers Earn Bad Reputations by Pushing Manufactured Products
“I didn't want to be a bank. I didn't want to be A broker. I didn't want to be any of those things, because I think they all have bad reputations for a reason. They're manufacturing product and selling product.”
Stein: Financial Advisor Discovery Still Runs on Referrals, Not Data
“Today, financial advisor discovery
Still runs on referrals, not data.”
Founders Should Master One Growth Channel at a Time Before Expanding
“I've seen firsthand at Betterment and at other companies that I've advised over the years, how too many simultaneous growth paths can dilute focus, even if they're all promising and maybe they're all things you want to do in the long run. I think that you can …”
Craft Businesses Must Target 80% Profit Margins to Safely Fund Expansion
“A general rule of thumb that I'd love to see is, is 80% might be profit. 20% might be cost of goods, right? So if you think about what you'd have to do to your prices to get there, then you would have room to rent space and hire people and expand confidently.”
B2B Sales Provide Repeatable Scaling When D2C Marketing Efficiency Caps Out
“Focus doesn't mean exclusivity. So we still market direct to consumer at Betterment. That's a lot of the brand origin story. That's where we came from. It's, and we built around that customer. But our marketing dollars, there's only so many dollars we can spen…”
Stein: Only 2% more Betterment users withdrew funds in March 2020
“Among all of our customers, only two percent more customers withdrew in March than did in a normal month for us, and by far more customers were depositing the withdrawing”
Stein: 26% more Betterment users made ad hoc deposits during crash
“26% more of our total customer base was depositing ad hoc, not just auto deposit, but actually actively putting more money in than pulling money out.”
Stein: 37% more millennial Betterment users deposited than withdrew
“For millennials, the most interesting thing is that for millennials, it was 37% more were putting ad hoc money in than withdrawing.”
Stein: Older Betterment investors were more likely to panic-withdraw than youth
“For investors who are closer to retirement, we're recommending more conservative portfolios. We're putting them into more cash. We're putting them into more bonds that are less volatile in times like these. And nevertheless, they're more likely to withdraw tha…”
Stein: Vanguard offered great funds in the mid-2000s but had terrible UI
“Then I looked at investing, and I had a Vanguard account, and another company I have tremendous respect for I had you know, some great Vanguard mutual funds, but the interface was terrible. The experience was just not keeping up”
Stein: Betterment's Target Customer Makes Over $100,000
“We think of our target customer as being someone who's making over a 100,000 dollars. That means they're a professional.”
Stein: Robo-advisors founded after 2008–2009 stayed tiny or were acquired
“There were a couple other competitors that started at that time that still exist. Everyone who started since is either really tiny or has been acquired or this or that.”
Stein: Never Fully Script a Pitch or Major Speech
“I've written and scripted the entire thing, which I would never do again and would not recommend. Never script a speech like this”
Stein: Early Betterment employees took salary cuts and contributed capital for payroll
“And by the way, in that time, we're asking our employees to reduce their salaries and even contribute capital. To buy more equity, to pay themselves. So we were buying time as best we could until we could raise some capital.”
Stein: Betterment co-founders agreed to reduce their initial equal 33% equity stakes
“I had to come back to them and say, I don't think we did this right, and I want to renegotiate our split here. And that was tough, but you know, ultimately they were they agreed that that, that they should take smaller shares.”
Stein: Betterment clients hold Vanguard funds, making Vanguard a partner
“Anyone who's invested with us is also getting some Vanguard funds. So in a sense, we're partners with them.”
Betterment Manages Over $60 Billion for More Than One Million Americans
“That's right. Even, even more than that today. And we manage money for over a million Americans.”
Harden Furniture Went Bankrupt Due to Debt and Foreign Competition
“The company doesn't exist anymore. My family furniture company, partly because they took on debt and partly it was due to foreign competition. But ultimately, you know, went, went under they couldn't service the debt payments.”
Rising Import Costs Will Allow Custom Woodworkers to Profitably Raise Prices
“The prices of goods from abroad are going up. So I'm optimistic that Mike's going to be able to raise his prices and find a path.”
Betterment survey: 33% of Gen Z lost jobs to COVID vs 8% Boomers
“In our survey of millennials, I think it was 33% of Gen Z lost jobs in our survey due to COVID versus only about eight percent of the baby boomers had lost jobs.”
Stein: 40% of Betterment users invested stimulus checks; only 15% spent them
“We're seeing another 40% put it into long-term retirement savings, things like an IRA, Or a four Oh one K and actually the smallest minority, maybe it's maybe it's 15% is putting putting that money toward say an immediate spending need.”
Stein: People Will Not Make Rational Decisions Left to Their Own Devices
“Despite our best intentions, we're highly likely to make mistakes. We let our emotions get in the way. And in fact, we will not make rational decisions if left to our own devices.”
Stein: Finance Initially Seemed Unexciting Because It Just Helps the Rich
“Finance was just like, ah, you know, it's like helping rich people get richer. That doesn't seem that exciting to me.”
Stein: Banking consultants spent six months developing products without customer input
“I found many times that we were working on projects and we could go six months on a product development and never talk to a customer.”
Stein: Betterment reached $1M AUM within days of TechCrunch launch
“300 that day, right? Wow. 350. They were just, and we were amazed. We think this is incredible. And they were small deposits at first, right? Nobody put in more than, you know, 10 K or so. But all of a sudden, by, within a few days, we had a million dollars un…”
Stein: Bessemer offered Betterment $3M when the startup sought $1M
“The first meeting that he set up was with Bessemer Ventures, and we went out and we pitched Rob Stavis, and it was love at first pitch. We said, we're building this Company that is going to help people make the most of their money. And Rob said, this is fascin…”
Stein: Betterment expected $18B to $20B in AUM by late 2018
“Yeah, we expect to be in the ballpark of 18 to twenty billion by the end of 2018.”
Stein: Founders should create early co-founder buyout provisions
“One thing that we did right was in the early days we created provisions around buyouts, and I'm so happy we did that, and when people ask for advice, I always tell them to do this”