Stash Invest's CMO Talks About The Company's Growth

Benzinga is proud to introduce the Benzinga Women's Wealth Forum, a space where women can learn how to empower themselves through financial technology and be inspired by the stories of powerful women in finance.

Ahead of the March 21 event, we're highlighting the stories of our speakers, some of the leading women in the financial services industry.

Our first installment is an interview with Stash Invest CMO Dale Sperling.

Give us the elevator pitch for your company.

Dale Sperling: Stash puts money management in the palm of your hand. Made for beginners, the app simplifies saving, investing, and retirement to help the 99 percent afford life now and in the future. Stash speaks to a young and tech-friendly audience, providing user-friendly education, personalized guidance, and mobile-first technology to help them save and invest for their goals.

What trends and ideas do you think will dominate the fintech discourse in 2018?

With the growing wealth gap, I hope to see a stronger push for inclusion. Financial opportunity should be accessible to all people, regardless of wealth status and literacy levels.

Machine learning, and overall better use of data, will definitely be more prominent as the processes continue to grow and prove more useful in predicting user behavior.

What surprised you the most in the fintech industry in 2017?

I’ve been surprised by the speed at which bigger institutions are moving. In spite of all of the data, research, and press around the massive populations in American that are underserved and underbanked, there doesn’t seem to be any urgency to help step up to the plate.

Does fintech open up new financial opportunities for women? If so, how?

Definitely. More access and education has opened up financial opportunity to women and so many other groups. Anyone with a household income under $50,000 isn’t even on the marketing radar of bigger banks. They just don’t have a clear way to monetize those customers so historically, they’ve gone largely ignored.

What about your company makes you excited to go to work?

Stash is making a huge impact for our customers - 86 percent of whom self identify as first time investors or beginners. With millions of clients, that stat is incredibly impactful. It’s exciting and humbling to go to work each day and know we’re helping a growing population attain access to financial opportunity and education, and improve their financial futures.