We’ve had a big year in 2021 getting the Lasso apps off the ground. As we start the new year, we wanted to take a moment to introduce you to our new President, Becca Long.
We are excited to have Becca bring her extensive experience in building and delivering innovative digital solutions to this role. In this Q&A, Becca shares what drew her to Lasso, where she sees the platform going, and some facts about herself that people may not know.
Tell us some of your backstory and what made you choose a career in financial services?
I am a native of the Boston area but left to go to college in New York City. In New York, I was in the epicenter of the finance world where I found myself surrounded by smart, talented people talking about finance and investing in ways that made these topics sound exciting. That was what first sparked my interest in financial services. I ended up majoring in Economics and Business Management.
I spent close to the next decade working at BlackRock – a fund management company – in a variety of positions across distribution, marketing, and digital product management. It was there that I got to see that finance is about solving complex problems in ways that help real people. It’s that combination of problem solving and impact that gets me excited about being in financial services.
What drew you to GoalBased Investors and Lasso?
The innovative concepts and the talented team behind Lasso were what drew me to the company. In particular, the way that Lasso has created a common language for talking about wealth management that could help all actors within the financial ecosystem – consumers, financial advisors, and fund managers – realize better outcomes. I think that is very game changing.
In my previous roles at BlackRock, I saw firsthand the need for such a common way of interacting around money. One that was simple enough for anyone to understand but also got to the heart of the financial problems that people face: meeting their financial goals efficiently.
Working in BlackRock’s retirement group, I saw firsthand how many people were unprepared to reach their retirement goals. And how often they didn’t even realize it. And, as I helped build digital tools to support wealth management, I heard again and again how little people understood about investing. Finally, in interacting with financial advisors, I heard their frustration on the other side of the equation around how difficult it was to communicate in a way that got their clients to act.
Chip, the founder of Lasso, was thinking about financial problems in a different way than I’d seen before. One that put the users first and focused on bringing people together to have better conversations. With Lasso, he was creating a new language and framework to understand your finances in a way that anyone could engage with. I was really drawn to the idea of bringing people together in more social ways and giving them a common language to participate in financial planning and financial wellness discussions.
What are you most excited about as you start your new role?
A big part of my role is empowering people to be able to deliver on their ideas. We have a strong team of talented people from very impressive backgrounds in the financial services and technology worlds. I’m excited about getting to tap into their expertise and support them in continuing to evolve Lasso.
How do you hope to grow Lasso?
Today, Lasso focuses on the start of the advisor-client relationship. It creates a more frictionless planning and advice discovery experience. Lasso is helping consumers and advisors more easily find each other. Then, helping them have more effective conversations together once they’ve connected.
There is an opportunity to extend the platform beyond the initial stages of this relationship and those first conversations. We want to apply the Lasso framework to the ongoing management of people’s financial plans.
Consumers and advisors will continue to partner and update plans as circumstances change. And, as plans evolve, there is a need for consumers and advisors to have a common language to discuss these modifications. Not to mention, a need for an effective way to talk about one’s full financial picture and life changes that affect multiple financial goals. These are needs that I believe Lasso can fulfill.
What is one part of the Lasso platform that you want everyone to know about?
The Community in Lasso is powerful. Money is still a taboo topic. Yet, we recognize that managing finances is a difficult thing to do entirely on your own. That’s why we built Lasso to be a community-based app that can bring people together over their finances.
Our goal is to help people create better financial outcomes. Sharing, learning and being able to have better conversations about financial topics is a big factor in achieving financial success.
A Community creates the opportunity for people to learn from one another by seeing how others are constructing plans to meet their goals. As well as to see which experts other people are seeking out for help.
The cool thing about the Lasso Community is that it’s anonymous! It protects your privacy around your financial information while still giving you the opportunity to learn from others.
Give us three words you would use to describe Lasso.
Simple.
Empowering.
Fun.
Connected.
(I cheated, that was four!)
What is something people don’t know about you?
When I was in high school, I got to sing the national anthem at Fenway Park!
When you have thirty minutes of free time, how do you spend it?
You’ll probably find me outside! I live in Houston, Texas so we are lucky to have nice weather 90% of the time. You can probably find me walking my dog, Zoe, or on a bike ride or run.
On the rare chance it’s a miserable day, I’m a big puzzler – my husband would say a competitive puzzler – and reader – my goal is to read 30 books in 2022.
Any last thoughts you would like to share?
If you are looking for help with your finances and have been frustrated with your experiences in the past, you should definitely check out Lasso! You can download it for mobile on the Apple App store.
If you’re a financial advisor who is looking to have better conversations with more potential clients, you should check out our Advisor Portal, also available for iPad on the Apple App store.