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The personal finance site LearnVest -- a portmanteau of "learn," "earn" and "invest" -- launched in December 2009. Founder and CEO Alexa von Tobel, 28, graduated from Harvard College in 2006 and deferred admission to Harvard Business School so she could take a job as a Morgan Stanley analyst to gain real-world experience.
After two years as a trader, von Tobel left Wall Street for a business development position at file-sharing service Drop.io, where she learned the ropes of startup life for six months before heading to Harvard Business School in fall 2008. After her idea for a personal finance business won an Astia business plan competition, von Tobel took a leave of absence from Harvard after one semester. She had come up with the idea for LearnVest in 2006, upon realizing that she and her friends never really learned how to manage their finances, and the Astia win gave her the confidence to pursue the startup.
Von Tobel raised a $1.1 million seed round in June 2009; to date, the platform has raised nearly $25 million, which has helped von Tobel grow the team, build out the personal finance platform with budgeting tools and content and recruit financial planners for the site's premium services. She describes her business model as "Weight Watchers meets personal finance."
Though LearnVest initially launched as a product for women, today it has a user base that is 25% male, partly attributable to the fact that many couples manage finances together. After all, both men and women can afford to learn a bit more about 401(k) plans.
Von Tobel's advice to other entrepreneurs? "Learn on your feet." Check out the video above for more advice from the LearnVest founder.
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