Learning and Profiting from Black Swan Events — Val Agostino, Monarch Money

Chose a direct subscription model from day one rather than Mint's free, ad-supported model, where the real customer was the advertiser and product fought revenue over how many offers to show per session. Subscriptions reward ongoing product improvement.

Uses Productboard: a 'Feature Requests' row in the app's Settings/account menu opens the public roadmap (ideas, up next, in progress) where users submit requests, vote and comment. Productboard lets the team segment and contact voters. Votes inform but don't dictate: the team skips items when data partners can't deliver a good experience or demand doesn't justify effort, which causes some frustration.

Every feature kickoff starts from customer input (interviews, surveys, roadmap comments), written as jobs to be done ('what am I hiring this feature to do?') and stack-ranked by the team. Then specs, designs and clickable prototypes, which are run by the customers who voted for that feature, iterating before code. Example: bill due dates, requested by ex-Mint users, turned out to serve people with ADD wanting one view and people making sure cash covers upcoming bills.

When users ask for something (e.g. 'see everything in one place'), keep asking why, usually three times, to reach the root emotional or tactical need. For Monarch it was a need for control, order from chaos. Plans to align marketing messaging with it as the new marketing team is staffed.

Personal finance is relevant to everyone, from a college student wanting a free basic version to a retiree wanting wealth reporting. Defined personas, grouped jobs to be done under each, and used them to decide which personas to go after and what messaging attracts them.

Rather than a bare MVP, built multi-aggregator data quality first, then launched a private beta of a few hundred users for about a year, openly sharing where the product was and the roadmap, building it with power users of finance tools. Public beta in early 2021.

Had already built a Mint importer. When Mint posted on its support forum that it was going away (spotted on Reddit), the CEO wrote a blog post that evening as Mint's first PM: why pay for a personal finance product and why consider Monarch. Revised it when Mint officially announced the next day and published; it was picked up on many channels and by press.

With no marketing team, the founders communicated with Mint users mainly on Reddit: shared the philosophy, that they're in it for the long haul, and admitted flaky institutions and missing features ('20% into our journey'). Explained what Monarch does and what's being added.

Ignored sunk costs: put the big promised goals/planning overhaul on hold, told investors and customers plans changed, and stack-ranked from scratch. Priorities became infrastructure (database upgraded 6-7 times, capacity), supporting Mint users, and a rebuilt Chrome extension for importing, shipped in about 48 hours. The small team worked through the holidays.

After signups jumped 20-30x, grew customer support from three people to about 20 while working down a ticket backlog.

Canada wasn't planned for the next 12 months, but Canadian Mint users with no good alternatives were changing IP addresses to sign up and add Canadian institutions. Turned Canada on as a beta and offered refunds to frustrated customers; working on better Canadian institution support.

Marketing investment going specifically into content: education on concepts like how credit cards work, positioned as the missing personal finance course from high school or college. Building out that team now.

Even with venture money raised, kept the team small (13 full-time) and aimed for breakeven to control their destiny rather than constantly fundraising.

Mint was free and earned money from ads and financial offers (credit cards), pushing as many offers per session as possible while paying data aggregators heavy fees per user.

Careers page includes a general open role / future opportunities form for people excited about the mission whose skills don't match a listing.