#292: Ethan Bloch, Founder and CEO of Digit, on Strategic Fundraising, Accelerated Learning, and Pioneering Algorithmic Saving to Make Financial Health Effortless for Everyone

May 17, 2021

Ethan Bloch is the Founder and CEO of Digit, on a mission to tackle the number one stressor for Americans: financial well-being. In doing so, Ethan aims to make financial health effortless for everyone. His obsession with personal finance started at age thirteen when he began day trading technology stocks with his bar mitzvah money and continued as he studied behavioral finance in college and realized that that financial health does not come naturally to most. To combat this, Ethan created Digit, the first personalized and automated savings app that helps members reach their financial goals and achieve results. One of the fastest growing financial service companies, Digit has helped members save over $5 billion and pay down over $180 million dollars of debt to date. An early adopter of social media, Ethan founded his first successful Silicon Valley venture, Flowtown, at age twenty-three. The platform, which helped small businesses connect email and social marketing, was acquired by Demandforce two years after its launch. Ethan has a degree in Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Florida. He is based in San Francisco.

Some of the Topics Covered by Ethan Bloch in this Episode

• What Digit is and how it works
• Ethan's passion for finance and how the idea for Digit developed
• The original MVP of Digit at launch in February 2015 and how it has evolved into what it is today
• Initial customer acquisition
• The importance of trust in financial services
• The role referrals play in the industry and how they developed Digit's referral program
• Referrals as one of Digit's core growth channels
• The challenge of resource allocation
• Why Ethan doesn't recommend being a solo founder
• How Ethan approached building out the Digit team
• Ethan's experience fundraising $65M in four rounds of funding
• Strategic thinking in fundraising
• The extra hurdles of creating a financial services company
• Digit's grand ambition and how they're working towards their mission
• Why Digit focused on saving as the first element of financial health
• How Digit began to move beyond saving
• How Digit's product development mirrors an individual's financial health journey
• Ethan's approach to reading and researching and his view on accelerated learning
• How Ethan prioritizes reading
• How Ethan unwinds and finds balance

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