VWB #10 Special Report: Empowering Financial Fitness with Fisecal

Happy Tuesday!

In this week's very special TENTH VWB edition(!), we turn the spotlight on Fisecal, a US startup aiming to break the cycle of living paycheck to paycheck for millions of Americans. As we kick off 2024 and people actively pursue their New Year's resolutions, we delve into the crucial issue of financial mobility in the US. Our feature explores Fisecal's innovative approach, offering financial coaching to empower low- and moderate-income households, helping them take charge of their financial well-being.

Moving on to the second part of our edition, we revisit last week's topic and assess how Bitcoin has been performing since the SEC approved Bitcoin ETFs. Surprisingly, despite the anticipation, it appears that investors are not as interested in crypto as expected, possibly influenced by the current strong performance of the stock market. Finally, we turn our sights to an interesting development in AI.

Stay tuned as we navigate through these financial landscapes and observe how these trends shape the choices of investors…

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Startup Spotlight: Fisecal 💸

As we embark on the new year, millions of individuals have committed to resolutions aimed at saving more, planning for the future, and enhancing their financial literacy. In line with these goals, this week's spotlight is on Fisecal, a groundbreaking US startup on a mission to make financial coaching more accessible for the 60% of  Americans living paycheck-to-paycheck.

Founded in 2021 by Lou Abrams, CFP®,  Fisecal's business model is a stellar example of a SaaS product with a socially impactful mission. Lou's personal background, having grown up in a household facing financial challenges, led him to become a financial coach. His mission is to expand financial wellness among low- and moderate income households, as well as among young professionals. Recognizing the untapped potential in this sector, Lou devised a way to open up this market for financial professionals and institutions by offering them software to scale their operations efficiently and profitably.

Financial Coaching for the Many 👨‍👩‍👦

While affluent individuals have long had access to financial planning services  through banks, a majority of individuals have relied on unstructured methods for financial advice. For context, most financial planning packages offered to the general public cost between $2,000 and $6,000, rendering it inaccessible for the low- to moderate-income households in this country.

Yet, Americans need support more than ever. The rise in inflation and high living costs have put an additional strain on the average person’s finances–and credit card debt increased by almost 18% at the end of 2023. 

Despite a 3X growth in financial coaching services in the past few years, creating a financial plan still takes over 11 hours on average, with most coaches charging around $50 to $100 per session. This makes the current financial coaching model unviable, leaving the financial guidance needs of millions largely unmet.

Enter Fisecal. Created by financial planning veterans and seasoned software developers, Fisecal empowers financial coaches to automate manual processes, optimize workflows, and streamline operations during coaching sessions. By integrating bank data into the platform, Fisecal has significantly reduced the financial planning process from 11 to 1.5 hours (an astonishing 85% reduction in time). By creating a more scalable option for financial coaching, both coaches and customers are set to benefit from this software. 

Knowledge is Power

Fisecal provides personalized and actionable financial plans for customers, which helps them pay down debt, understand their spending behavior, and promote saving strategies for different milestones. Indeed, a deeper understanding of financial health can help moderate-income households break out of unhealthy debt cycles. 

The impact of these cost and time reductions is profound. Moderate-income households now have a centralized source to manage their finances, access empowerment tools, and engage with experts to create actionable plans to achieve their financial goals. On the financial coaching side, Fisecal opens up access to an untapped population, allowing coaches to save time in each session and expand their client base.

The future of financial wellness appears promising. Fisecal currently has 26 financial coaches signed to its platform, and will begin to roll out a pilot with one of the leading insurance companies in the US in early 2024. In addition, Fisecal’s future plans also include partnerships with leading financial institutions and insurance companies, leveraging their model to expand financial wellness services, a market projected to reach a significant value by 2030.

Our Translation 🕵️

Fisecal embodies the successful alignment of a profitable market opportunity with the chance to bring substantial social impact to a financially strained US population. Its innovative model positions Fisecal as the leading financial wellness solution for the paycheck-to-paycheck population, addressing existing bottlenecks in the financial planning system and bringing significant improvement to millions of homes.

Fisecal's partnerships with banks make them pioneers in enabling the widespread adoption of financial coaching and educational software, reducing friction in product adoption and plan creation. In discussions with founder and CEO Lou, we learned that Fisecal aims to evolve its financial coaching solution into a comprehensive financial wellness marketplace to provide impactful products and services that transform a person’s financial health. 

Also in the news… 🗞️

Bitcoin Bump? More Like “Bumpy”…

In last week’s edition of VWB we commented on the newly approved Bitcoin ETFs. Most analysts were bullish on the effect that the SEC approval of these securities would have on Bitcoin’s value. Well, not so fast…

As of January 22nd, 11 days since the initial listing of the 11 Bitcoin ETFs, Bitcoin fell to a seven week low, priced below $40,000 USD. It seems that these new ETFs are actually having the opposite effect on Bitcoin as investing in a more “secure” security vs the crypto asset itself seems more attractive. In addition, analysts have noted that the bull run of stocks has decreased interest in alternative assets in general. On the same day that Bitcoin reached a seven week low, the S&P 500 reached record highs.

OpenAI and ASU Join Forces: Turning ChatGPT into the Coolest Study Buddy in Town! 🚀🤖#AIinEducation

Before you ask, yes, we used ChatGPT to write that headline. 

But just like our favorite AI assistant said, OpenAI and Arizona State University have partnered to shape the future of AI in education. This collaboration is framed as an “open challenge” to faculty, staff, and researchers of ASU to ideate on how to utilize new tools such as ChatGPT to drive “student success, new avenues for research, and streamlin[e] organizational processes.” ASU faculty, staff, and researchers will have full access to ChatGPT Enterprise, which offers more data safeguards and admin controls than the core consumer ChatGPT product.

Since its launch in November of 2022, ChatGPT has been a bogeyman in education, often seen by teachers and administrators as nothing more than a tool for cheating and bypassing the learning process. Universities and schools rushed to ban the tool, but many have since reversed their initial bans, instead opting to educate their students on how to utilize AI to supplement and augment their education and learning potential. This is precisely what the collaboration between OpenAI and ASU seeks to discover, as well. According to Lev Gonick, ASU’s Chief Information Officer, “The open call to faculty, staff and researchers ensures that we can provide ongoing and meaningful support that lays the foundations for our teams to harness the true potential of these technologies to augment human learning and creativity, not replace it.”

Consider us at VWB optimistic on the potential of generative AI and other technologies to supercharge human potential.

Whether you were a VWB Day 1 or just stumbled across our young project, Paula and James would sincerely like to thank all of our readers. Without you, we would just be a couple venture nerds yelling at clouds.

We hope that you have found value in our writing. If there are specific topics or foci you would like us to discuss, feel free to respond to this email or reach us on Twitter. We love hearing from you.

With issue #10 in the books… Here is to 100 more 🥂

Many thanks,

Paula and James