Introducing Club Money!
3 reasons for our new rebrand
We’re excited to announce a new brand to represent our concept for group financial advice. After a good amount of research and running it by our legal and PR experts, we chose “Club Money” at the domain joinclubmoney.com. Here are three reasons why we decided to rebrand at this point in our startup journey.
1. A Pivot
Some history of the Brightfin platform. Our long-term product vision has always included three pieces that correspond to a user’s financial journey: education, budgeting, and advice.
Education serves as part of the marketing funnel, to get people playing around with our app and learning something, for free, as soon as they download it. The first education feature is the glossary currently found in the Brightfin app.
Budgeting is about practicing the habit of expense tracking, in a way that feels more like a video game. It’s the starting point for any financial plan. Expenses win budgets like defense wins championships! Budgeting is live on the App Store with the Brightfin app.
Advice focuses on optimizing savings and expenses. Many responsible, employed young people can spare a few hundred bucks a month. What’s the best way for them to use it? The entire online world, from influencers to financial institutions to retailers to gambling platforms, pays handsomely to make their own suggestions. Young people need someone they can trust, which is why we’re working with Certified Financial Planners® to provide recommendations for groups of similar people. Customized, affordable advice has always been our north star.
Between all three pieces, advice is the most differentiated and presents the strongest opportunity for our business. That’s why we built this piece first, in an alpha version that we released to a dozen users. Their feedback showed us that advice wasn’t the right starting point. We needed to build a foundation earlier in the customer journey. The alpha users also told us that they wanted a better tool for budgeting. So we created our trademarked method Spend Splurge Save Share® and got it out on the App Store.
Now it’s time to return to our big idea for group advice.
2. Ongoing Research
Every startup should learn from the companies that came before, and venture capitalists can be good sources for amalgamated wisdom. After completing a short online program offered by one prominent Silicon Valley firm, we realized our name might be holding us back. “Brightfin” is a portmanteau that evokes positivity and optimism in financial services. And we stand by that. However, it never seemed to land on the first try.
3. Networking Insight
Pitching your one-liner over and over at networking events is a familiar task for every founder. But when we talked about Brightfin, the conversation usually went something like this:
“We’re democratizing access to financial advice for the young middle class.”
“Cool, what’s it called?”
“Brightfin.”
“What’s that?” (It’s usually a bit loud at conference happy hours.)
“Brightfin!”
“Like B-R-I…”
“G-H-T-F-I-N.”
“I’ll try to remember that. Let’s connect on LinkedIn so I can go talk to someone else.”
Introducing Club Money
Conversations with users and investors alike have been going much better with a name that is short, punchy, and descriptive: Club Money. This week we’re starting a new campaign with some talented content creators who love our brand and our mission. They’re bringing the “club” to Club Money!
Our rebrand expands our potential. This is why startups pivot, why they research, and why they network. We’re excited to get our new name out there and keep building the best personal/social finance platform for the young middle class. Stay tuned.