How was Ellevest started?

Ellevest Co-Founder and CEO Sallie Krawcheck spent decades in financial services — she led Merrill Lynch Wealth Management and Smith Barney and was CFO of Citigroup. One morning, she had an “aha moment” that stopped her in her tracks mid-mascara application. She realized that because the investing industry had been built and was primarily run by men, it had built for men. And not for women. That’s why the industry has historically kept women from fully achieving their financial goals. Sallie made it her life’s mission to unleash women’s financial power and help them take control of their financial futures. (Then she finished with the mascara.)

Then she set out to find a co-founder who could complement her skill set and help her build Ellevest. That person was Ellevest Co-Founder and President Charlie Kroll, who’d previously built his own fintech start-up, Andera, and served on board roles at Venture for America and Brown’s Entrepreneurship Program. Together, they assembled a diverse power team from product, engineering, design, marketing, and finance backgrounds — and the rest is history.