Today we’d like to introduce you to Joe Holberg.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I grew up in a financially unstable household in rural Michigan. When I applied to college, I had to ask a neighbor to borrow $40 for the application fee, that’s how broke we were. Once there, I ended up sleeping in my car during my senior year for a bit since I ran out of money and couldn’t afford a place to live. After graduating, I did Americorps and worked at a non-profit where I taught business and personal finances then I did Teach For America here in Chicago and taught middle school math on the West Side of Chicago. Afterwards, I worked at Google and built CS First (cs-first.com), a computer science education platform that has taught ~2 million 4th-8th grade students coding worldwide. It was at Google when I realized that everyone had questions about their finances. It didn’t really matter if you were white, black, purple, male, female, low-income, high-income, etc. Everyone wanted to know the essential question “am I doing it right?” I decided to leave Google and start Holberg Financial to help people answer that question.
Now, I am the Founder & CEO of the first “fin-ed-tech” company, Holberg Financial, a financial health and wellness benefit to help employees reduce financial stress. We have doubled in size in 7 months and our platform is used by over 2,000 employees. Our goal is to help millions of employees throughout the US. Holberg Financial reduces employee financial stress by 64% on average, saving companies $3,200 per employee per year. We are based out of 1871. And we work with top companies like EnergyBBDO, Noble Charter Schools, and Dark Matter Coffee. On top of this, I have written two books (Rogue Finances and A Brief Discourse on Financial Justice), given a TEDx talk on Financial Justice (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azk_ObDWkqk), and am a Chicago Scholars 35 Under 35 recipient.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Smooth… I suppose that’s relative. Some has been smooth, some not so much. The biggest thing that got Holberg Financial, specifically, to where it’s at was realizing that everyone wanted financial guidance and support, but they didn’t want to pay for it. It’s a direct outcropping of the “freemium” culture we live in where we expect everything to be free as consumers. We had to adapt to this by figuring out how to bring the same great level of financial support to people, but make it free. We now do that by bringing it to employees as one of their work benefits – now everyone is happy, including their employers who love us just as much as their employees since we’re helping build financial health for everyone.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Holberg Financial – what should we know?
I am most proud of results. We just wrapped up a case study with one of our customers and found that, on average, their employees were able to build their savings by over $3,000 and they simultaneously reduced their credit card debt by roughly the same amount. They literally are $6,000 better off, less financially stressed, feel more knowledgeable about their finances and they are on a completely different financial trajectory because of our platform and support. That’s what keeps me motivated to bring HF to millions of people.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
Besides being an endless list, we’ve had some awesome support along the way from people like Harsh Patel, Alan Durand, Matt Green, Maggie Johnson, and of course on a personal level, I have to thank my friends and family, especially my fiancée and soon-to-be-wife, Jess.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1871
222 W Merchandise Mart Plaza, Suite 1212
Chicago, IL 60654 - Website: holbergfinancial.com
- Phone: (773) 242-7111
- Email: joe@holbergfinancial.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/holbergfinancial/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/holbergfinancial/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/holbergfinance
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joeholberg/
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