Savology Secures $750,000 Seed Round to Democratize Financial Planning

Savology, a Utah-based fintech startup providing free financial planning, oversubscribed a $750,000 seed round of funding to make financial planning more accessible and affordable than ever before.

Several strategic investors participated in the funding round, including:

“Savology has the potential to fundamentally change the direction of personal finances in America,” says lead investor Brady Murray. “I look forward to seeing the positive impact that Savology will have on both households and the broader industry as they improve access to financial planning and other financial services.”

After creating a free financial plan, Savology users get access to a financial report card showing them
their financial strengths and areas that need improving most.

Savology boasts a considerable lineup of financial service provider partners that include the likes of MassMutual, Acorns, Lively, M1 Finance, Self, Blooom, The Zebra, Credible and many others. Savology is on track to expand the network of partners to 50 providers this year.

“We are grateful to the early investors and partners who believe in our mission and make it possible for us to elevate Savology to new levels,” says Spencer Barclay, Founder and CEO of Savology. “We know that we have an incredible amount of work ahead of us, but we are up for the challenge to help millions of households achieve financial security.”

Savology’s Founder & CEO, Spencer Barclay, shares how Savology is helping American households improve their
financial well-being to a crowd of thousands.

To date, Savology has helped nearly 10,000 households improve their personal finances with its free financial planning platform. With the current economic uncertainty and recent stock market declines, there has never been a better time to help Americans with their personal finances. Savology plans to use this funding to help 100,000 users build free financial plans this year.

For more information about Savology visit savology.com.

For media inquiries, please contact Bri Ray, Communications Specialist, at (801) 472-2124 or press@savology.com

Your financial future starts today

Savology is a free planning platform where you can build a free, unbiased, personalized financial plan in about 5 minutes. Your Savology plan will give you action items to start working on as well as an overview of your current financial situation. After you have made some progress, Savology can connect you with some of the world’s top providers to help you accomplish your financial goals.

Build your free plan today

RevRoad Collaborates with Tangible to Provide E-Commerce Education for Entrepreneurs

In a time where marketing outlets are changing rapidly, it’s important for business owners to have a current educational foundation. Tangible School specializes in e-commerce education. They provide two 5-week education tracks with classes taught in-person by industry professionals. We are excited to announce that as of today, April 16 2020, RevRoad has joined forces with Tangible to provide up-to-date education for entrepreneurs.

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5 Steps To Planning A Successful Event

Written By: Paighton Moffitt

Product launch parties, conferences, lunch & learns, employee celebrations, company retreats, networking events…SLOW DOWN.

People don’t often talk about how many events come with running a business, and it can be overwhelming. Hosting an event takes a lot of time, planning, organization, and hard work.

At this point, you might be thinking, “Where do I even begin?” 

Well, you can start right here—with the 5 steps you need to plan your next successful event. 

1. Ask Questions & Establish Goals 

First things first, there are many questions you need to address before moving forward with your planning. Sit down with the person/people helping you host the event and address a couple questions listed below. 

  • What is the purpose of this event? 
  • Who will be attending? 
  • What kind of speakers or entertainment is needed? 
  • What’s the budget? 
  • What’s the overall goal for this event? 

Oh, and if you’re an event planning team of one, that’s okay too! Walk yourself through those same questions.

 Asking these questions will help you set expectations from the beginning.

2. Create A Timeline Plan 

Now that you have expectations and goals in place, you can move forward with planning.  Create a timeline with everything that needs to be done up until the event. 

This may include:

  •  Choosing the venue
  • Creating menus
  •  Booking catering
  •  Scheduling speakers/entertainment
  • Getting day-of volunteers
  • Organizing the agenda
  • Buying decor
  • Sending out invitations
  • Getting sponsors
  • Developing a landing page 
  • Marketing your event 
  • And so much more! 

Any task that needs to be done before the event should be included in this timeline plan. I suggest creating your timeline plan in a google spreadsheet so everything can all be in one place and can easily be shared with other team members. 

3. Establish A Team & Assign Roles 

Congratulations, your plan is in place! Now it’s time to recruit a team to help you execute the plan. Don’t be afraid to ask for help and assign responsibilities to your team members.

For example, any marketing tasks should be given to the marketing team, any development tasks should be given to the development team, and so forth . 

We’ve all heard the saying, “Many hands make light work.” This couldn’t be more true when it comes to planning an event. Don’t try to do everything yourself.

Assign it out, create a checklist or spreadsheet, and begin executing.

4. Follow-Up Until The Event

Your timeline & execution plan are now in place. *Hallelujah* now you’ve arrived at the easy part.

FOLLOW UP!

Your follow up efforts from now until the event are key! Make sure you follow up with every task that has not yet been completed on the timeline plan/execution checklist. 

For example, if “Alex” is  supposed to send out the 1st email campaign on Tuesday, you will want to follow up with “Alex” to make sure everything is ready to go on Monday. Ask “Alex” if it will be ready to be sent out tomorrow and if there is anything you can do to help him. 

Following up is crucial to ensure that every task will be completed on time and everything will go smoothly the day of your event. 

You should also follow up with caterers, your venue, any rentals, speakers, audio/visual equipment operators, and entertainment a week before the event to make sure all details are clear and finalized, and arrival time/location is confirmed.

5. Execute, Enjoy, & Review 

The event is here! All that hard work has finally paid off. The most important thing is to make sure you make yourself available to answer guest questions and take the time to enjoy the event you’ve successfully executed.. 

Some things might not go as planned and that is OKAY! You did everything right to prepare for the event and now you need to relax and let your hard work show. 

After the event is over, I highly recommend doing an AAR (After Action Review) with the team involved. This review is a process for analyzing what happened, why it happened, and how it can be done better next time. 

As you can see, throwing an event takes a lot of time, planning, organization, & hard work. Hopefully these 5 steps will help as you plan and execute your next successful event!

Learn more about our Events here
Watch this highlight video of one of our company product launch events here
Learn more about RevRoad here

At-Home Learning

Companies come together to provide free school & district licenses during COVID-19 

Today, RevRoad and its portfolio companies launched the official At-Home Learning initiative. Through this initiative, they will provide students around the country with digital learning tools by offering their products to schools and districts for free during this time—no strings attached. 

There’s no question that these are difficult times. Hundreds of millions of students around the world are transitioning to at-home learning for the rest of the school year. “Educators around the world are now facing the most daunting challenge in 100 years. These programs and tools are ready to scale, and can provide valuable support for students, their families, and educators,” says RevRoad CEO, Derrin Hill. 

Educators are quickly shifting teaching and learning to digital platforms to meet the needs of each student with equitable access, standards, and engagement. RevRoad’s portfolio has a unique compilation of edtech companies with the ability to assist in smoothing over the rapid transitions currently happening within education. Said companies include the following: 

Literal

Keep students fully engaged in reading, even while at home. Literal makes books just as engaging as social media, and is temporarily offering every student and educator free & unlimited access to all of their classic books through July 2020. Easily track student progress remotely and turn reluctant readers into avid book worms.
Literal is offering schools and districts free access to the Classic subscription.

SkillStruck

Skill Struck focuses on helping today’s students prepare for tomorrow’s workforce by developing their technical skills and helping them master the concepts of Computer Science. The platform is focused on project-based learning where students learn, apply and reiterate their newfound knowledge through additional practices to cement their skills.
Skill Struck is offering schools and districts one month of free access to their flagship Voyage service.

Education Lifeskills

If we never change negative thinking, we will never change negative behavior. Education Lifeskills creates cognitive-behavioral curriculum which helps students overcome their self-defeating thoughts and behaviors and achieve higher levels academically and socially.
Education Lifeskills is offering students free access to a positive thinking course pack.

Hallo

Practice English on the Hallo app! Has the Coronavirus pandemic interfered with your preparation for the TOEFL, TOEIC or IELTS exam? Has your English class been canceled and now you are left with no one to practice with?

Fear no more! You can practice English on the Hallo app! Hallo is a live streaming community for English learners and teachers. Students can learn from native speakers through live videos 24/7 and practice speaking in seconds with people all around the world. It’s the world’s largest classroom for English learners right in the palm of your hand. And, it’s free. Let’s celebrate fluency together. It’s more fun that way.
Hallo is a free app available for iOS and Android.

To get started with At-Home Learning  for free, visit revroad.com/athomelearning.

For more information about At-Home Learning and the companies involved, click here.

Keepin’ it Clean—Why We Gave Every Employee a PhoneSoap

COVID-19 has already caused different levels of panic worldwide, and it seems things are just ramping up. There are plenty of recommendations about how to stay safe and healthy floating around the web. We agree, washing our hands, applying sanitizer, covering our mouths when coughing and sneezing, and other basic hygiene and health practices should be carried out. However, what precautions are we taking when it comes to one of the dirtiest, most touched items in almost every household? The cell phone.

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Portfolio Company Growth Series: Savology

Savology prepares fast and free personal financial plans. In just 5 minutes, a user can receive a comprehensive plan, holistic report card, and personalized recommendations to improve their short term and long term financial wellbeing.

Savology joined the RevRoad portfolio in October 2019. In a recent case study, CEO Spencer Barclay had this to say about his experience, “We were at a point where we needed either an investment or a partner that could help us get to launch. We joined RevRoad in July 2019 and in 3-4 months we had over 1,000 users.”

Hear Spencer Barclay’s full RevRoad review here.

Brand Refresh

One of the first steps the marketing team took with Savology was collaborating on a brand refresh. 

Brand Color Exploration

Finding the primary and supporting colors for a company’s brand.

  • Savology Brand Color Exploration
  • Savology Logo Color Exploration

Logo Revamp

View the before/after of the Savology logo below.

As you can see, the initial logo color was bright and disjointed. The initial font was fairly thin, spacey, and difficult to read; however, the hexagon, abstracted money sign, and simplicity behind the idea were strong.

  • Original Primary Logo
  • Revamped Primary Logo

The revamped logo highlights all of the strongest features of the initial logo, yet the slight changes help accentuate Savology’s true tone and overall brand. The rebranded logo allowed Savology to better fit within the fintech industry and target the desired audience. The font was also given a custom upgrade to make it more difficult to replicate. 

Product Design and Development

Step two was designing and developing a working product software that takes each customer through the financial plan process quickly, efficiently, and easily. With the help of both the RevRoad and Savology UI/UX teams, the full Savology software was built. The clean and clear design layout makes navigation and function simple.

Screenshot of the Savology Software

Marketing Site

Savology came to RevRoad with a simple, entry level website. In collaboration with the RevRoad marketing team, a custom marketing website was built to motivate potential clients to fill out a free financial plan.

Savology Marketing Website

Social Posts and Templates

Growing a social media presence can be helpful when establishing a company within a specific demographic. One of the hardest pieces of social media is knowing where to start. Below, you’ll see examples of some custom instagram templates RevRoad designed and delivered to help Savology maintain a clean, professional aesthetic digital platforms.

Savology Social Media Templates

Press Release and Launch

On October 24, 2019, Savology officially launched to the public. The RevRoad Marketing, PR, and Communications teams worked with Savology to make some waves. The successful launch resulted in Savology being mentioned on 80+ media outlets including Forbes, YahooFinance, Business Insider, Market Watch, MorningStar, and Entrepreneur.


Read the full press release here.

RevRoad’s Announces Annual Entrepreneur Competition

PROVO, Utah — On Saturday, March 21st , Utah County’s top entrepreneurs will all gather at RevRoad HQ for the opportunity to pitch their game-changing, scalable company to panels of Utah’s most successful.

Often, the most important moment in an entrepreneur’s life is pitching their business to an investor (techcrunch.com). RevRoad’s Annual Entrepreneur Competition helps companies learn how to pitch their business with confidence and provides an opportunity to network. 

Each participant must complete a thorough application process as well as 2 rounds of live pitches for a panel of 24 judges—gathered from top business and university leaders. Using criteria including target market, problem/solution fit, team and advisors, leadership, traction, competitive advantage, financials and more, the judges will select the top 3  as finalists. All applications for the pitch competition are due Friday, March 6, 2019 by 11:59 pm. 

The three winning finalists will receive prizes:

  • $10,000 cash for the Champion
    (Cash prizes are NOT tied to an investment or equity.)
  • $2,500 cash for 2nd Place
    (Cash prizes are NOT tied to an investment or equity.)
  • $1,000 cash for 3rd Place
    (Cash prizes are NOT tied to an investment or equity.)

This event is free and open to the public, so the community will also get the chance to award a cash prize. The company that gets the most audience votes will receive:

  •  $1,000 as the Fan Favorite
    (No conditions or terms of use are associated with this prize.)

Competition sponsors are:

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For media inquiries, interviews or additional information, please contact RevRoad CMO A.J. Rounds at aj.rounds@revroad.com or by calling  (801) 368-1823.

About RevRoad

Did you know 9 in 10 new innovations fail in the marketplace? RevRoad focuses on helping you, the entrepreneur, succeed. RevRoad accepts 3–4 companies per quarter, if chosen you work side-by-side with us for two years. Along the way, you’ll experience everything you need: a mentor, networking opportunities, and key service deliverables. The RevRoad model is a venture services model to better meet your needs.

RevRoad’s Portfolio Supports Two Companies in the Startup World Cup Regional Finals

On Thursday, January 30th, Startup World Cup held their final round for the Utah region. This highly competitive pitch-off took place on the main stage at the Silicon Slopes Tech Summit . After reviewing over 100 applicants, 10 companies were selected to advance to the final round. Among the finalists were Hallo and Savology, two outstanding companies in RevRoad’s portfolio. 

The judges panel highlighted some of Utah’s most respected including: 

Vanessa Quigley: Chatbooker-in-chief at Chatbooks.com

Karl Sun: Co-Founder and CEO at Lucid Software

Sam Stoddard: CEO at SimpleCitizen

Gavin Christensen: Founder and Managing Partner at Kickstart Seed Fund

Kat Kennedy: Chief Experience Officer (CXO) at Degreed

Each company had the chance to present a 5 minute pitch followed by a  2 minute Q&A with the judges panel. The excitement and anticipation from each participating company was evident. 

Third to present, Hallo brought energy and competition by including their organically grown audience numbers which land at 10,000 new weekly users and 400,000 total users. They continued to impress the judges by including a live product demonstration of their unique live language learning platform.  

Immediately following Hallo, Savology took the stage. Highlighting growth since their December launch, Savology outlined their  solution for the lack of financial direction among millennials and rising generations. 

“This is great representation from RevRoad. In addition to making a good showing in front of the judges, each company that participated used the event as an opportunity to meet with other investors and business leaders in the Utah entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Derrin Hill – CEO at RevRoad

Both Hallo and Savology demonstrated extreme professionalism as they delivered their polished 5 minute pitches and gave exceptional answers during the judges Q&A portion. Though neither were selected to progress to the Grand Finalé event in Silicon Valley, both received incredible feedback and exposure through their participation in the event. 

RevRoad is proud of the hard work, grit and innovative drive of the entrepreneurs in our family of companies, and we look forward to big things in the future.

Congratulations to the competition winner, Axon Optics––we wish them luck at the Grand Finalé event. A special thanks to Silicon Slopes, Startup World Cup, the judges panel, and supporting community groups for including Utah’s startup community in this competition. 

Learn more about Hallo here.

Learn more about Savology here. 

Have a startup? Learn more about how to become part of RevRoad’s portfolio here.