Get to know the team behind Best Money Moves!
This week, I’ve had the pleasure of highlighting Best Money Moves’ co-founder and President, Angus Carroll. Before founding Best Money Moves with Ilyce Glink, Carroll held executive positions in technology, marketing and business development at Fortune 500 companies (Dun & Bradstreet, Ceridian) and small technology companies (Medicus, MindLeaders). He was VP of Editorial and Production at Cengage Learning, one of the largest educational publishers in the U.S.
When not overseeing development for Best Money Moves, Carroll lives outside of Detroit with his wife Susan, their son Ian, their two cats Stormy and Marshmallow and an attic full of dinosaur fossils and rare books.
Angus, explain Best Money Moves in one sentence.
Best Money Moves helps people reclaim control of their finances by creating a budget, paying down their debt and saving for their future.
How did you get involved with Best Money Moves?
Well, BMM didn’t come out of the blue. It’s the brainchild of Ilyce Glink, a personal finance expert and consumer advocate with more than 20 years of experience helping people take control of their financial future, as seen in her best-selling book, 100 Questions every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask (now celebrating it’s 4th edition). She knows how to talk to people about their money.
I met Ilyce while we were working on a project for Medicare. We liked working together and made a great team. We knew there was more we could accomplish when it came to financial wellness, so we built a career successfully managing financial wellness projects for large companies. But, everyone we worked for was trying to use financial wellness to sell something as opposed to just helping people. There was no platform on the market that provided financial advice without a sales pitch – so we built one ourselves.
Why is Best Money Moves the best personal financial wellness platform?
Ilyce’s background as a finance expert along with my experience building online services has helped us create a best-in-class product. We believe that financial wellness is something that every employer should provide to their employee, and now they can – at an affordable price. Our content is unbiased and focused entirely on helping people make better decisions. No ads, no “special offers” – it’s all about quality content and guidance.
Are there any new features or milestones on the horizon for Best Money Moves?
Yes there are! Mid-year we’ll make it possible to choose to link your Best Money Moves account to your personal bank account and credit cards. That way, you can view a complete picture of your spending. In March, we’ll be releasing another optional feature allowing users to access their credit score – completely free – and import it to their Best Money Moves account. We are very excited about these new features and how they’ll help complete the journey towards financial wellness.
What’s most exciting about the growth of Best Money Moves to date?
The best part is seeing how engaged our users have been with the product. One of our customers has nearly 50 percent of their employees actively engaging with Best Money Moves. That’s extraordinary. This means people are getting real value from our product.
Where do you think your growth will be next year?
We’ve just hired two account executives and they’re off to an incredible start – they’ve had immediate success. I think they are going to be the key to our growth in 2018, selling into medium to large businesses.
If you weren’t building Best Money Moves, what would you be doing?
I would be digging dinosaurs! A friend of mine owns a museum and I join his team in the field whenever possible. I usually go at least once a year, for a week or so to dig with them in the badlands of Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota. A week is about all I can stand – the food is horrible in the field!
Why is now the best time for Best Money Moves?
Companies are realizing how significant of an effect that employee financial stress has on their bottom line. Financially stressed employees have higher rates of lost productivity and absenteeism and even higher healthcare costs than employees who are without financial stress. It just makes sense to provide tools to help employees lower their financial stress – and that’s exactly what Best Money Moves does.
