Brian Barnes is the CEO and Founder of M1 Finance, a startup making an automated investment tool that lets users put their money to work in a balanced portfolio without the hassle of actually managing it.
Just a few years after graduating from Stanford, Brian raised $9 million and moved back to Chicago to build the platform.
In This Episode You Will Learn:
- The motivation behind Brian starting M1 Finance
- How Brian went about launching a MVP in the heavily regulated finance industry
- How Brian raised $9 million pre-launch
- The benefits of robo-advisors over all ETFs
- What M1 Finance costs and how they plan to differentiate from other robo-advisors
- How Brian got his first customers
- What Brian has learned about life and business from his mom Brenda Barnes, Former CEO of Pepsi and Sara Lee?
- What the most effective marketing channels have been
- How M1 Finance's message has evolved over time
- How to communicate a relatively complicated product to consumers quickly
- The importance of design in fintech
- Why Brian moved back to Chicago after going to Stanford and whether he thinks it matters
- Why Chicago has to improve our risk appetite
Favorite Books:
- Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
- The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas père
- Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst y Robert M. Sapolsky
Sponsored By:
- Bevy: a Chicago startup delivering everything you need, but don’t want to own, for amazing experiences. Own Less. Live More.