Sallie Krawcheck didn’t want to be an entrepreneur.
The 30-year Wall Street veteran has spent her entire career leading financial institutions, learning how people deal with managing their finances and investments along the way. During her tenure as president of Global Wealth and Investment Management at Bank of America and CEO of Smith Barney and Sanford Bernstein, she saw something in company statistics and data that constantly startled her: Women were investing much less than men.
Couple that with the fact women live longer than men, are paid less than men and take more career breaks than their male counterparts, and you’ve got an issue Krawcheck said could be costing us much more than the gender pay gap itself.
“I decided to do something I never thought I’d do in my life, which is become an entrepreneur," she said. "It is not what I do, but it is what I do now.”
Krawcheck co-founded Ellevest, a digital investing platform specifically aimed toward closing that gender investing gap by offering a straightforward, goals-based approach.
The New York-based company offers its clients tailored investment portfolios, allowing women to invest toward multiple goals simultaneously — think home ownership, retirement savings and saving for a career break. The company's platform monitors customers' progress, alerting them if they fall off track for their goals.
The platform requires no minimum balance and charges a flat 0.5 percent per year of managed assets — much lower than is traditional. And as a fiduciary, the company is legally required to act in their clients' best interests — making Ellevest a safer option than other traditional services.
Ellevest launches its service in Denver this week — its latest market launch outside of New York and Austin.
Krawcheck saw Denver as a natural fit for her startup. As the Ellevest team was looking for places to begin the conversation around the financial empowerment of women and closing the gender investing gap, they looked at cities across the US and picked a few that stood out based on the vibrancy of the community, women employees and women entrepreneurs.
"Denver and Boulder tend to come up again and again as cities in which women entrepreneurs and women overall are on the move," Krawcheck said.
She cited a strong presence of community groups supporting women — such as SheSays, Women Who Startup and MergeLane — as a reason Ellevest chose Denver as their next market.
The company currently has four patents pending for the technology that makes its personalization and customer service possible, and Krawcheck insists it’s the best digital platform out there.
And like any startup, they’re constantly iterating and listening to their customers for constant feedback. Krawcheck is still reviewing every financial plan that comes through, and they’re taking things slowly to make sure they’re growing properly. And most importantly, they’re focusing on bringing more women into the gender investing gap conversation.
Following the Denver launch, Krawcheck hopes to spend time cultivating a strong user base in Denver, Austin and New York before expanding to other markets.
"We're keeping the quality high, making sure as women are coming through we’re engaging with them," she said.
And even if women aren’t investing with her, she’s happy if they’re investing at all.
“If all we do is call attention to the gender investing gap in 2016, I’ll call 2016 a good year.”
Ellevest raised $10 million in 2015 and employs 20 people in New York City.
