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Swiping Your Way to Financial Wellness with Brightfin’s Christine Devane
10 Plays23 days ago
Curtis sits down with Christine Devane, CEO and founder of Brightfin, to talk about her path from English major and pie maker to fintech entrepreneur. Christine shares how her own money lessons shaped Brightfin’s simple, swipe-based budgeting app, why features like “Debt Crusher” and “YOLO” resonate with users, and how employers can play a bigger role in supporting financial wellness. She also reflects on leadership lessons around listening, vision-setting, and building strong teams.
About Christine:
Christine Devane is the CEO and founder of Brightfin, a fintech company dedicated to making money management simple and accessible. With a background spanning writing, marketing, and product management, Christine brings a unique perspective to building financial tools that resonate with everyday users. Her entrepreneurial journey began with launching a pie business, but it was her firsthand experience with the financial challenges of running that venture that inspired her to create Brightfin. Founded around the 10th anniversary of the financial crisis, Brightfin reflects Christine’s mission to equip people with practical, easy-to-use tools that help them take control of their finances and build lasting financial wellness.
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Mustard Hub Voices Behind the Build'
00:00:06
Speaker
Hey everyone, welcome back to Mustard Hub Voices Behind the Build. In these fireside chats, I sit down with the people building, backing, and running better workplaces. I'm your host, Curtis Forbes.
Christine Devan's Journey from English to Finance
00:00:18
Speaker
My guest today is Christine Devan, CEO and founder of Brightfin. Christine's a recovering English major, new to the finance world. She has an interesting career path, first writing, then marketing, then on to product marketing before ending up in product management.
00:00:36
Speaker
With the longstanding entrepreneurial bent, the first company Christine launched was a pie business. And later, around the 10th anniversary of the financial crisis, Brightfin was launched because regular people needed financial tools.
00:00:53
Speaker
Thank you so much for joining us today, Christine. Thanks, Curtis. It's great to be here. So, pies. can yeah talk a little Can we talk a little bit about pies?
00:01:05
Speaker
Pies to finance. How did we start with pies?
The Pie Business and Financial Realization
00:01:10
Speaker
People love to talk about pies, and I don't blame them. I don't make them professionally anymore, but I do still like to eat them. So I actually just made one last week. Blueberry peach is delicious.
00:01:23
Speaker
ah So the pie business was called Wedge Pies. I'm based in Chicago, so it was here. we never had a storefront business. um but just delivered, baked in a commercial kitchen and hand delivered pies um around the Chicagoland area.
00:01:39
Speaker
Yes. And when I say we, it's not just a royal we. My mom helped me, my two sisters helped, and we had um another very gracious helper as well. as well um So I had some help with the pie business.
00:01:57
Speaker
One of the things that I realized while doing the pie business, and so this this does segue to finance in its own way. One of the things that I realized while doing the pie business was that I wasn't very good at managing the accounting.
00:02:11
Speaker
um I was committed to making it work. I wanted to have the best product. I wanted to source the best ingredients. And so I went into a a little bit of credit card debt um working on wedge pies. I had a full-time job the whole time, so I was able to pay that off. It was not a huge deal, but I had that moment where I realized, oh, we've we've gone over, we're not profitable. I knew we were not profitable, but I didn't realize how much of, that we weren't even really breaking even.
00:02:42
Speaker
So I started to think, okay, i have a good amount of education and experience in life, and I still think this is difficult. I wonder if other people are finding finances difficult.
00:02:55
Speaker
And no surprise, indeed they were.
00:03:00
Speaker
Yeah, that's ah no surprise at all. So, you know, i'm out of curiosity, you know, English major, pies, I kind of understand how it sort of drew you into this idea of how you might be able to solve that problem. But what drew you tech, right? Founding of a fintech platform was probably not,
00:03:24
Speaker
your goal, right? When you started off as as an English major? No, not on my graduation bingo card. So why sure why FinTech and and more specifically, why Brightfin? So who what brought you here? I'd
Founding Brightfin During Financial Crisis
00:03:39
Speaker
love to learn. So we had the problems and then bring me up to like today. What was that journey like?
00:03:46
Speaker
Yes. So i as I said, had a full-time job while I was working on the pie business. I had a whole corporate career that brought me from marketing to product marketing to product management. In the course of that, I got some experience on mobile software development and and really from the product side, I'm not a developer, but building mobile applications.
00:04:14
Speaker
And then I went to grad school at Northwestern. And similar to, in a way, the pies where I was looking at sort of a gap thinking it's hard to get good pie. When I was at Northwestern, it was the 10th anniversary of the financial crisis. And we realized it is hard to get good financial advice that is affordable for large parts of the population.
00:04:38
Speaker
So that is where Brightfin was concepted at Northwestern. um during that 10th anniversary of the financial crisis. And and fast forward to today, um we've launched an app and are out in the app store.
Brightfin's Financial Tools and Design Philosophy
00:04:53
Speaker
We're starting with very simple expense tracking, but soon moving into that dream that we want to realize, which is affordable financial advice for many, many more people.
00:05:05
Speaker
So love that. and And we sort we, so we at Mustard Hub have done, continue to do, you know, a lot of research into what, you know, kinds of things people really want from their employers in terms of benefits and perks and financial wellness benefits are a big one.
00:05:23
Speaker
I think that people are looking for. So I'm so surprised. I think that the people that seeking out financial wellness solutions, other products to kind of help them, you know, manage their finances on their own. And Brightfin is one of them.
00:05:35
Speaker
So let's talk about Brightfin. What do you do for your customers? Yes. So today the product we have, and I'll kind of maybe go back and forth between the vision that we have for the future and then the product that we have for today. Yeah, definitely. we are We are an early stage startup. So this is the reality, you know, selling something that is a big vision, hugely impactful, and then figuring out the smallest place to start. So we're kind of back and forth between both of those things.
00:06:05
Speaker
Today, the value that we provide in our application is very, very simple expense tracking. So all you have to do is swipe. Unlike some other competitors that have maybe a lot of categories, Mint had 87, just FYI.
00:06:22
Speaker
Brightfin has four, spend, splurge, save, and share. And when you've connected your accounts, transactions come up in the the middle of the screen and all you have to do is swipe to one of those four corners, spend, splurge, save and share.
00:06:37
Speaker
So it's loosely based on the 50-30-20 rule, which has been a common rule of thumb in personal finance for 20 years. When we looked for an app that could do it well, we didn't find one, so we decided to build one.
00:06:50
Speaker
That being you know about the simplest expense tracking method that there is, just high-level percentages. Yeah. But if 50, 30, 20 doesn't work for you, and it definitely doesn't work for everybody, then we have a few different options. There's a very short menu. Let's see if I can ah think of all of them off the top of my head. Because I'm an English major, we gave them titles and descriptions as well as numerical breakdowns, but the debt crusher, for example, flips the 30 and the 20.
00:07:21
Speaker
So you are saving 30% and splurging up only 20. um So the debt crusher, the YOLO is only 10% savings because Some people, young people especially want to live their lives. only live once.
00:07:37
Speaker
Literally true. Literally true. So the debt crusher, the YOLO, we have the wealth builder and the fire for people who are able to save, you know, perhaps more. Maybe they have good jobs and are living at home, for example.
00:07:51
Speaker
um We also have in this economy, which is a specific request from one of our users because Uh, things are expensive right now. So rather than 50, 30, 20, that one's 60, 30, 10.
00:08:04
Speaker
And, I think there's, there's one that I'm missing, but if it comes to me, I'll let you know. I like that. So, you know, yeah I'm curious to hear, you know, from your perspective, or maybe you've listened to a lot of your customers. Why do you think your customers are going to Brightfin versus the competitors?
00:08:25
Speaker
Is it the simplicity of those categories? Are there other things that you or that they seem to find valuable? Yeah, we have a number of early customers who struggle with ADHD.
00:08:37
Speaker
And one of the things that they have told, and that's not everybody, but when you when you build something for. a power user or a user who has a very strong need, it ends up being better for everybody.
00:08:51
Speaker
And now we'll I'll give you an example, OXO Good Grips, those kitchen tools with the black plastic or rubberized handles that are a little bit oversized, maybe compared to some of things that used to be out there.
00:09:05
Speaker
OXO, it's ah a Target, you know, that's a big brand everywhere. Those products were created by someone whose wife had arthritis. And so he realized that it was difficult for her to grasp a lot of smaller, trickier things, produce those. And it turned out everybody liked them better because they were more comfortable for everyone. So that's kind of how we think of some of the very strong use cases for a simpler expense tracker.
00:09:34
Speaker
And folks who have ADHD are certainly one of those niche markets. They struggle with some of the other competitors because there are too many categories, because they sort of have to sit down at a laptop to do it and invest some time and kind of convince themselves that it's going to be worth it.
00:09:52
Speaker
um One of the pieces of feedback that we've gotten about Brightfin is that people like that it's on the go. So you can be sitting on the bus, you know, or waiting for something, waiting at the doctor's office and just swipe a few transactions to the corners the same way you swipe through TikTok or the same way you swipe Tinder.
00:10:12
Speaker
It's a motion that people are very used to and it's very simple and you can pick it up, you can put it down. So that's something that people certainly value, the the simplicity, like you mentioned, and then the fact that um it's It's kind of on the go, available whenever you're ready to look at it.
00:10:29
Speaker
Yeah, I like that. Managing your finances on the go, you know, yeah available when when life gives you a minute. Yes. And you can have that one for free. I'm kidding.
00:10:43
Speaker
Perfect. But to pivot and into some topics that we talk about a lot here, let's talk about people, right? We talk a lot about people problems. um You know, I would i would classify the the workforce facing, you know, economic insecurity as a people problem, ah possibly. um You know, you talked about one of those categories you have in this economy. um Had a lot of recent conversations about how economic challenges are impacting, you know, negatively.
00:11:15
Speaker
The workforce, um it's hard to focus on your job and be engaged if you're worried about making ends meet. Do you see financial challenges impacting regular folks at work?
00:11:28
Speaker
Yes, certainly.
Economic Pressures and Student Loan Challenges
00:11:29
Speaker
i think the biggest one that we see is the student loan burden. So our customers are disproportionately in their 20s to early 30s.
00:11:40
Speaker
And this is this is the student loan generation. um You know, they were... told that a bachelor's degree or even master's degree was the way to go, the way to get ahead. And statistically, it still is.
00:11:56
Speaker
I don't think that that was entirely false, but I think the promise of that has somewhat diminished. It's harder to find jobs in general, and it is harder to find some of the higher paying jobs that you might have expected after getting that bachelor's degree or that master's degree.
00:12:17
Speaker
So when the even if interest rates you know are not too much higher than they were 20 years ago on a student loan, yeah the reality of inflation and the high cost of the big things like housing, rent, rent and mortgages, both of them way up, as well as ah the the total cost of that education and then inflationary pressures, plus the fact that it's harder to get a job now, this is sort of a perfect storm that is making it difficult for people.
00:12:51
Speaker
It's, um you know, the cost of that education is starting to outpace the return on the investment that you're making and getting it. I can certainly tell you that that my degree in jazz composition ah wasn't quite as valuable as I thought it might be. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I mean, to to be, i don't want to throw any shade at at the degrees that I have. I loved my education, value my education.
00:13:21
Speaker
I, as you said at the beginning, I'm a recovering English major. What does that get you? Not a clear pipeline into anything, but I definitely believe that that was incredibly valuable for me.
00:13:33
Speaker
And i stand by having done it. So I i do think higher education is is still a good idea, but running the numbers, it's not as helpful for um as many people as it used to be based on you know the realities of the economics.
00:13:50
Speaker
But hey, you're good at words. I am good at words. Yes. I had someone, i had a fellow English major tell me that the thing that you learn as an English major is how to take something that doesn't make sense and make sense of it.
00:14:07
Speaker
And you belong in government. I really like, well, yeah.
00:14:13
Speaker
Um, but I, I really liked that. And I think it has been true, just the ability to kind of synthesize things. And, yeah you know, now I have a finance app that's based on alliteration, so you have to be open to what life throws at you.
00:14:26
Speaker
Do you think that, you know, given, given all these challenges that people are facing, you know, you talk about the generation or, you know, that, um, or or or what that that dominant persona is of of users on your platform, do you think employers are doing enough to help their staff with these issues? you know What else do you feel like they could be doing?
00:14:46
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, the need is real and it's huge. So we need to tackle this from all possible angles. Brightfin is mostly a consumer product, but I think there are roles to play for nonprofits in education. You know, should we teach this more in schools? I think yes.
00:15:05
Speaker
Should employers help with it more? I think yes. I think we need to tackle this from every possible angle. I mean, U.S. s credit card debt is over a trillion dollars. That's...
00:15:16
Speaker
Something that we, you know, often blame ourselves for blame society. This is how we spend and it's not good. But I think a lot of that covers the, or maybe overshadows um the reality of, of what people are facing to make ends meet.
00:15:34
Speaker
You know, sometimes you need something, you buy it on a credit card. That's just how it goes. yeah um You know, many years ago, you couldn't do that because credit cards didn't exist. So people just didn't have those things that they needed. so Now people could sort of have the things, but they have the debt to go with it as well.
00:15:51
Speaker
Um, so that's, I don't know, just a, a, a quick trip down, you know, history or memory lane there. But, um, I think these are the realities we're dealing with. And I do think employers have a role to play in, uh, helping people with that.
00:16:07
Speaker
You know, I, think that finance, obviously financial insecurity is one, was just one people problem. Um, or can be perceived at least as as one people problem.
00:16:19
Speaker
What are some of the other pressing people problems you see in business outside of that? You know, either that you've witnessed with your customers, your own organization, some of the ones you've worked with in your, during your, your career and your journey.
00:16:33
Speaker
Yeah, I would say something that, and and maybe this is an indication that I was always destined to be an entrepreneur. So, ah take this with a grain of salt as ah a voice of one, but in my 20 year corporate career, I was always dismayed when leadership would assume that they needed to look externally for solutions, for ideas, for um you know whatever problem they faced, they they felt like they had to go hand it to somebody else.
00:17:03
Speaker
And as but kind of rank and file employees I thought we were yelling our heads off about, hey, this we see this problem. We know how you could fix this problem. Listen to us.
00:17:15
Speaker
And i think a lot of leadership could maybe exercise their listening muscles a little bit better because the people on the ground doing your work, ah the work of your company every single day,
00:17:28
Speaker
they know things better than anybody else. And they probably have ideas today that leadership is not
Leadership and Employee Insights
00:17:36
Speaker
listening to. So I guess if I could get one little bit out there on this to leadership of any company, it's it's listen to your people.
00:17:46
Speaker
I really love that. In some of the previous businesses that and I've actually owned, I mean, so my my best ideas came from the people that worked.
00:17:58
Speaker
Right. On the ground, like you said. I mean, there' there's a lot of ownership, right? in the I think ownership is is really important for workers. And I think that their feedback, right, and ideas, you know, being really heard by management, possibly even acted on, you know, gives that sense of ownership. It's a major driver for engagement, I believe.
00:18:23
Speaker
um Given that...
00:18:28
Speaker
What's the best way for leaders to begin soliciting this kind of feedback? I mean, where do they start? I mean, you have to ask and you have to then do something about it. Even if you summarize it and share it back with people, that's a start. That says, I heard you.
00:18:44
Speaker
i had I spent some time in consulting, so you know in ah in a corporate environment, I had the very weird experience of being a consultant and going into some companies and having, you know, it was the the leadership that was paying the bills, the leadership that decided to bring us in, the leadership that gave us that initial welcome.
00:19:05
Speaker
Then they'd introduce us to the team and the team would immediately say to us, here's what we've been trying to tell them. And thank goodness you're here And maybe if you say it, then it will get through. Then it will make a difference.
00:19:18
Speaker
That is a very expensive way to get feedback from the people that you're seeing and talking to every single day. yeah So i think, you know, whether it's you have some kind of anonymous way that people can give feedback if, if that can be helpful. I think if you don't have the best working culture, maybe that's a way to start because people don't feel um like they're allowed to say things or they're, they're fearful of it or whatever.
00:19:48
Speaker
so if If nothing else, maybe start there. And otherwise, if if you do have you know ah a better relationship, especially at maybe a smaller company, I mean, have a meeting, just sit down, ask people. And it doesn't have to be terribly formal, but I mean, are you having lunch with people? Are you you know having coffee in the morning and checking in with how it's going?
00:20:10
Speaker
you You have to kind of ask.
00:20:14
Speaker
I think that the you know a culture of listening transparency, you know, communication, i think it goes a long way to, to create workplace happiness.
00:20:26
Speaker
You know, asking obviously, you know, gives that sense of ownership. um Beyond leaders doing that to, to find ways to improve their organization, what can they do to build a happy,
00:20:42
Speaker
you know, thriving culture in the organization? You know, what have you seen work Have you consulted for a little bit, you know, or what have you seen not work?
00:20:51
Speaker
Yeah, it's a good question. um and i And I bring up listening because I think a lot of it does does go back to that. um But as an English major, I will also say that the communications are important and keep keeping everyone's eyes on the goal.
Vision, Team Building, and Financial Management
00:21:12
Speaker
you know um the The advice that I've heard as a startup founder is that my job is it should be three things. And I think this is not just startup founders. I think this can be true for for anybody really and in any project, any company, but three things.
00:21:30
Speaker
And if the last one doesn't apply, you're lucky. But it's set the vision, build the team, and don't run out of money. Oh, yes. I was wondering when Go Raise Money was going to work its way in there. Yes.
00:21:45
Speaker
Yes. So are you setting the vision? Do people, and and this doesn't have to be highfalutin either. I mean, you know, if if you have a sandwich shop, ah do you have, and you own it, you probably have a goal of how many sandwiches you want to sell.
00:22:02
Speaker
Let people know that, you know? um there is a there is a vision, there is a next milestone, there is a something that you want to accomplish as a business. Be sure that's communicated and and shared with everybody so that they can share in the overall success.
00:22:18
Speaker
And then building the team, ah of course, is is about camaraderie and and communication again. But I see that as ah a big part of of my job as well and a good part a big part of any leadership role.
00:22:31
Speaker
um And then if you're a small business, of course, you don't want to run out of money, you probably already know how to ah keep that tight if you're thinking about that. And if you're not the one that's responsible for the money, then you're lucky.
00:22:47
Speaker
I mean, this is this is true, right? Yeah. You know, we could probably break it up into those three buckets. there there You could also...
00:22:58
Speaker
argue there's 10 buckets, right? Or sometimes just one, make it go. yeah Yes. You know, it it all falls on your plate. um You know, when you think of of teams or organizations you admire, um you know, not, not just those that you've worked with or that you're leading now.
00:23:14
Speaker
um i'd be curious just to kind of hear from your perspective, some common traits, you know, and stand out in leaders when they, when they really kind of get it right with their people.
00:23:26
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I think you can tell a lot about a working environment when you see how free or not free people feel to voice their opinions or say things.
00:23:42
Speaker
that That tells you a lot. I mean, I definitely saw that as a consultant coming in and and saying, you know, if if there were things that couldn't be talked about with certain people in the room, that was always a red flag. Yeah.
00:23:56
Speaker
So open communication, I think, is is a huge one. and And if you've got that, you can solve a lot of other problems. Google did a study about high-performing teams.
00:24:09
Speaker
And what they found more than anything ah that was an indicator of of how well the team was working was how much everyone talked. So if you had six people on a team, if they all talked about the same mut the same amount, that was usually a pretty good team.
00:24:30
Speaker
And if you had you know two people just carrying the whole thing and then and then four not piping up at all, then ah that was often not a very good sign.
00:24:41
Speaker
So I think about as as a leader trying to make sure, sometimes you have to give people the space. People who are extroverts, you know, are introverts. And sometimes you hear more from certain people and less from others. And sometimes you need to, as I said earlier, kind of ask people, just give them the space, give them the silence to speak up.
00:25:03
Speaker
And sometimes they'll surprise you with what they say. You feel like there's a, there's a formula for nailing this, you know? I mean, sometimes people are looking for you. me Say, say, say again.
00:25:16
Speaker
I said, I don't know. I'm not a big fan of formulas. I know consulting likes formulas, but that's why I don't do that anymore. um How about this? Do you do you feel like you feel like technology play ah plays a role ah here? Do you think leaders are making the right decisions when they're, you know,
00:25:37
Speaker
looking at different ways to support building that kind of culture, whether it's a software or systems process consultants, have any recommendations there?
00:25:48
Speaker
Um, I think really at a high level, they're all just different tools yeah and any tool works as long as you use it effectively and having more tools doesn't necessarily always solve any problem. So do I think there's a role to play? Sure. But no, I don't have any particular recommendations because I think I'm kind of old school. Just ah do whatever works and keep going.
00:26:17
Speaker
but Sticking with with with tech as a topic because you are a fintech founder, um you know there's a lot of platforms out there that businesses use to spit out lots of data.
00:26:32
Speaker
And you know i think it's hard for a lot of business owners sometimes to filter noise from from signals?
00:26:44
Speaker
you think there's a disconnect sometimes between what folks are trying to to track and what actually drives results when it comes to either performance or culture or things that are often difficult to nail down with numbers?
00:26:57
Speaker
Yeah, I think you can get, i think two things. You need to know what you want to get out of it. And if you're measuring something that Sometimes when you have these conversations, you realize that what's being measured is not what's driving the results that leadership says they want.
00:27:18
Speaker
ah you know They'll be saying it's it's so important that we get XYZ done by a certain date or that we achieve this numerical milestone or whatever.
00:27:32
Speaker
And then on a day-to-day basis, they're actually looking at something else. So knowing what you want, making sure that whatever you're measuring is actually measuring what you want to see ultimately, ah that's a big part of it.
00:27:52
Speaker
And then making sure everybody knows that and and can drive at that as well. I mean, I could tie that back to your platform, right? You have these different categories for people to describe themselves and their habits, right?
00:28:07
Speaker
If they don't know what they want or what they're trying to achieve, how effective is the platform going to be, right? They have to have some understanding of what desire and outcome that they're looking for in order to be able to even define whether or not it's successful.
00:28:21
Speaker
yeah Yes, yes. And i'm I'm glad you brought it back to that, actually, because it's another differentiator in its own way. I've been ah kind of dismayed by using some competing products that begin with, tell me all your life goals.
00:28:37
Speaker
I've just downloaded an app. you know Imagine I'm 27 years old. you want how many kids are you to have? i don't know. i mean, are you serious? This is just about you know managing my expenses.
00:28:49
Speaker
So what we did instead of leading with those goals, it's important to have goals and everything, but I don't think this is maybe one area where you can take a suggestion to get you going rather than getting overwhelmed by long-term goals.
00:29:05
Speaker
So that's why we have those six targets. and why we have a certain savings target for each one every month to sort of take the pressure off of that long-term life planning and bring it forward to something more near, which is, you know, can you save 10% of your income this month?
00:29:27
Speaker
yeah Don't worry about buying a house in 15 years. that That's extremely stressful. And there's going to be a lot of that that is not under your control. Yeah. but you You know how much income you're going to make next month. Hopefully, can you figure out how to save 10% of that?
00:29:42
Speaker
Make that doable. um I grew up playing softball and baseball, and all you try to do is win every inning. And so if you if you win every month ah with ah a certain target of your expenses or savings, then...
00:29:58
Speaker
you compile that over a certain amount of time and and you've got something to show for it. And then you can think about your goals. Do you, do you have married couples yeah with like joint accounts? Is that possible?
00:30:14
Speaker
It's definitely possible. um You know, we're targeting young people. so Targeting young people. Some of them are married, but perhaps fewer them fewer of them than it would be if we were targeting, say, people in their 40s, you know.
00:30:26
Speaker
um But there is ah not not necessarily a sharing part of it, but there's still nothing to stop you from connecting multiple accounts. So let's say you had a joint account and two separate accounts you could ah connect all of those to Brightfin and manage it all together if you wanted to.
00:30:44
Speaker
Yeah. I know that, you know, relationally, right, it's often a ah difficult topic, you know, finances and things like that. And I guess my, where I was kind of going with that is just wondering how folks might reconcile one being the YOLO and the other being the debt crusher and how that seems to work itself out in the app. Yeah.
00:31:05
Speaker
Yes. Now that gets into levels of couples therapy that I will say I am not qualified to discuss, but I do know that there are a lot of in ah a lot of differences in relationships ah about money, and a lot of those have to do with different ways of being brought up and different psychologies that develop over time.
00:31:27
Speaker
I kind of have a theory that everybody's money psychology is set when they're about 12 and it doesn't really change. This is why Warren Buffett still goes to McDonald's and and doesn't buy things because he he didn't grow up with the kind of money that he has now.
00:31:43
Speaker
Yeah, that's ah that's a really good point. And um I could definitely see how that tracks. um but you know, going back to some of these, this data, some of these people signals, you know, inside organizations, you know, if you could design a dashboard to just reveal one, one key metric piece of data, a people signal, you know, inside a company, you know, if you worked with a few, what is that insight that you'd want to surface?
00:32:16
Speaker
It's a good question. i think it depends on the company. the size of the company and what you're trying to achieve.
00:32:27
Speaker
um
00:32:30
Speaker
Do you want to work together better? That could be one thing. How do you measure that? I mean, I don't know immediately, but usually people just measure revenue and don't worry about, you know, our costs. They measure the financial things in a business and don't worry about the other aspects.
00:32:50
Speaker
Uh, but I'm a firm believer that those other things can definitely affect the bottom line. So I think it's important to just keep your eyes open, um, and know what might be holding you back at any given time and then try to measure whatever that is.
00:33:06
Speaker
I suppose, again, going back to what you were just saying about sort of defining, you know, what, what those goals are, you know, um, helping you kind of understand where the bottlenecks are to get there.
00:33:18
Speaker
You know, if you rely on a highly collaborative team that isn't collaborating, well, then there' there's your people signal. correct Right. Yes. Yes.
00:33:30
Speaker
I mean, especially now as as the CEO of a startup. I know there are things that we could be doing more efficiently. I know there are things that we could be documenting better, but I also know that a lot of those don't matter right now.
00:33:47
Speaker
I mean, we're we're focused on growing our user base. that's our That's our main thing. And so if if some of our JIRA tickets are not quite organized, that's just the project management software we use, the so what a lot of software developers use. So quick shout out to JIRA. If our JIRA tickets aren't as well organized as they could be, that's okay. um We need to let that one go because we need to be focused on our our main metric, which is getting ourselves out there and and growing our user base.
00:34:18
Speaker
So, you know, to kind of kind of tie tie all this in and, in you know sort of as we as we wrap up a little bit, I'd love to think a little bit about the future. Like when you think about the future,
00:34:31
Speaker
I'm curious to hear your perspective on what you feel like business leaders could be thinking about when it comes to financial wellness for their workforce, you know, and if this ties into Brightfin at all.
00:34:45
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, when people go to work, they're still people, right? So anything that is in the the environment that we find ourselves in does work.
00:34:57
Speaker
come into the workplace. people people People bring that in. If they're worried about money and they come in every day, they're they're still worried about that. they're They're still the same people that they were at home. So I think recognizing that
Employer Support for Financial Wellness
00:35:09
Speaker
is important. And I'm making a few assumptions here that with all of the broader talk about the economy, people are more worried now than they would have been 10 years ago or whatever.
00:35:22
Speaker
um And so recognize that That's the background that people have. And and look for ways to support them in that. I mean, I think what what you guys are doing is terrific.
00:35:37
Speaker
And, you know, i I hope employers start to recognize that and it gets them thinking about their employees and their needs in a different and and more holistic way.
00:35:48
Speaker
um But I think there is a ah role to play for employers employers and consumer solutions to make the economic challenges of of today and um tomorrow, let's hope they lessen and not increase, but make those economic challenges less challenging over time.
00:36:12
Speaker
I like that. So, you know, last, ah really kind of a last topic for now is If a business leader, we'll split it up into two parts here. If a business leader came to you asking for advice on how to really kind of get it right when it comes to growing their team, right?
00:36:31
Speaker
Which would be number two in your list of three. um Or taking care of their people, right? What's the one thing if you have like two seconds, right? You're on the elevator and you're almost at the top floor and they ask for your advice. What do you tell them?
00:36:47
Speaker
Well, I would say that's sort of a two part answer because building the team involves recognizing where your gap is. um As I said earlier, I started this because I'm not great with the numbers.
00:37:01
Speaker
So I have a co-founder who is, I knew that I would need that. um So recognizing, being a little bit self-aware to recognize maybe what you're not good at. And if you have a larger company than than ours, that's just a few people.
00:37:15
Speaker
then recognize what gap you have, maybe more in in your organization or what you want to accomplish and recruit for that or ask people to kind of step in and and fill that gap. So you have to see the gap first.
00:37:29
Speaker
ah Then in terms of... building the team, you know, that, that gets into, a i would see that, I see that part of the question is kind of coalescing with the people that you already have.
00:37:42
Speaker
um And I think it gets back to some of the stuff we've already talked about, you know, making sure everybody feels comfortable to speak up um and to share things, to participate in the goals of your organization.
00:37:59
Speaker
um if people don't feel like their work is meaningful or that it's adding to what you're trying to do as a team, then they start to mentally check out. So yeah make sure everybody understands you know their their role in in moving the ship forward to wherever you're going.
00:38:15
Speaker
Love that. I do. And I'm 100% behind that. So part two, if a regular person, right, or a member of the workforce, right, comes to you and asks for some advice on how they can do it right when it comes to their personal finances, right? What's the the one main thing ah you think they should do?
Basics of Financial Management
00:38:38
Speaker
What's the advice that you'd leave them with before you hit that top floor on the elevator? and I will assume that we're kind of starting at the beginning here. Usually people that have you know, more money than I do and investments are not asking me that question.
00:38:55
Speaker
So I go back to what Brightfin does the best, which is understand your income and expenses. And there is really no other way to manage your money than to spend less than you make.
00:39:15
Speaker
There's no hacks, there's no solution that's gonna get you out of that. And that is something that applies equally no matter how much money you make. So if you don't know your monthly income and expenses, make it your job to know that right away.
00:39:32
Speaker
We've tried to make Brightfin the easiest way to find that out. There's certainly many other methods, so whatever works for you is great, but know how much you are making and spending every month, start there.
00:39:45
Speaker
First of all, that's that's good advice, not just for individuals, but also for for businesses, right? I mean, so some people will ask, you know, how do you you know build a successful business or, you know, how do you prevent, you know, your your small business or your your whatever endeavor, you know, from from going out of business? And the truth is, make sure your revenue is greater than your expenses. That's it. You know, do you just cover that.
00:40:10
Speaker
You will be in good shape. And I think that on a personal level, I think it it you know there's there's a straight line, right, connecting the two. It's kind of the same thing. Just make sure that you and you're you're keeping that stuff in check.
00:40:22
Speaker
Does that sound about right? Absolutely. And that is the one, back to the pies, that is the one that I learned the hard way. So I'm not going to make that mistake again. so you started a financial wellness app.
00:40:33
Speaker
I love that. Yes. Yes. Via pastry. Via pastry. Well, thank you so much, Christine. i appreciate you taking the time to join me today. This has been a lot of fun. Yeah. Likewise. Thank you.
00:40:46
Speaker
Thank you all for tuning in to Mustard Hub Voices Behind
Conclusion and Call to Action
00:40:50
Speaker
the Build. Please share this fireside chat. Be sure to come back for our next episode. More insights are on the way. Also, check us out at mustardhub.com to see how we help companies become destinations for workplace happiness and turn culture into a competitive edge.
00:41:07
Speaker
Until next time.