Alexa von Tobel

Last updated
Alexa von Tobel
Born (1983-10-06) October 6, 1983 (age 40)
Nationality American
Alma mater Harvard College
Occupation(s)Managing Partner of Inspired Capital, Founder & CEO of LearnVest.com,
Years active2009–present

Alexa von Tobel (born October 6, 1983) is the founder and CEO of LearnVest.com, a personal finance website, and the founder and Managing Partner of Inspired Capital. [1] Von Tobel is the author of the New York Times bestseller Financially Fearless, which came out on December 31, 2013, and the author of Financially Forward, which came out on May 14, 2019. [2] [3] In April 2014, von Tobel was selected as an inaugural member of the Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship, alongside Steve Case, Reid Hoffman, Tory Burch and others. [4] Von Tobel is the host of Inc.'s The Founders Project with Alexa von Tobel podcast. [5]

Contents

Early life, education and family

Von Tobel is from Jacksonville, Florida. [6] Her mother, a nurse practitioner, Darlene Marie von Tobel and her father the late Dr. Harry M. Von Tobel, worked in a private practice specializing as a developmental pediatrician. [7] Von Tobel received a B.A. in Psychology at Harvard College. Alexa von Tobel is married to Michael Ryan Jr., they both met at Harvard. [8] The couple has three children. [9]

Career

After graduation, she worked as a trader at Morgan Stanley before leaving to be the Head of Business Development at Drop.io. [10]

Von Tobel came up with the idea for LearnVest in 2006 while working at Morgan Stanley when she realized she and most other people had never had any formal education about how to manage their personal finances. [11] In April 2009, Von Tobel closed a $4.5 million series A round of funding led by Accel Partners. [12] Learnvest raised a total of $72 million whilst a private company, from investors including Accel Partners, American Express Ventures and Northwestern Mutual Capital. [13]

On March 25, 2015, Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co., based in Milwaukee, announced it would acquire LearnVest for a reported price of $375 million. [14] LearnVest continued to operate as a separate unit under founder and Chief Executive von Tobel. [15]

In 2019, Von Tobel launched a new early stage venture capital fund, Inspired Capital, along with Penny Pritzker. [16] Inspired Capital's first fund was $200M. [17]

Awards and recognition

Von Tobel has been included in lists like Business Insider's 2010 "Silicon Alley 100," [18] Inc. Magazine's "30 under 30: The Top Young Entrepreneurs of 2010," [19] “Women to Watch” by Forbes, [20] “18 Women Changing the World” in Marie Claire, [21] and BusinessWeek's annual list of “Best Young Tech Entrepreneurs.” [22] In 2012, she was selected as a Fortune "Most Powerful Women Entrepreneur" and named a scholar at the Aspen Ideas Festival. [23]

Von Tobel has been a featured speaker at several conferences and events such as the 2012 SXSW Interactive, [24] TEDxWallStreet Event at NYSE, [25] Stern Entrepreneurs Exchange Summit 2012, [26] Ruth's Chris Steak House and Marie Claire Celebrate Female Entrepreneurs: Women in Business Speaker Series, [27] Fortune Summit: Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs, [28] The George Washington University 5th Annual Women in Business Conference, [29] and Inc.’s GrowCo Conference in 2013. [30]

Von Tobel hosted the first live event for the website, LearnVest LIVE, in October 2012, featuring lectures by fashion designer Cynthia Rowley, Top Chef judge Gail Simmons, Marie Claire editor and Project Runway mentor Joanna Coles, Gilt Groupe cofounder Alexandra Wilkis Wilson, and one of LearnVest's CFP professionals and their Director of Financial Planning, Stephany Kirkpatrick. [31]

Related Research Articles

A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship includes all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that do not intend to go public, startups are new businesses that intend to grow large beyond the solo founder. At the beginning, startups face high uncertainty and have high rates of failure, but a minority of them do go on to become successful and influential.

The Pritzker family is an American family engaged in entrepreneurship and philanthropy, and one of the wealthiest families in the United States. Its fortune arose in the 20th century, particularly through the founding and expansion of the Hyatt Hotels Corporation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jay Pritzker</span> Cofounder of Hyatt Hotels Corp

Jay Arthur Pritzker was an American entrepreneur, conglomerate organizer, and member of the Pritzker family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penny Pritzker</span> American businesswoman (born 1959)

Penny Sue Pritzker is an American billionaire heiress, businesswoman and civic leader who served as the 38th United States secretary of commerce in the Obama administration from 2013 to 2017. She was confirmed by a Senate vote of 97–1. Since September 2023, she has been working in the position of U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine's Economic Recovery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Accel (company)</span> Venture capital firm

Accel, formerly known as Accel Partners, is an American venture capital firm. Accel works with startups in seed, early and growth-stage investments. The company has offices in Palo Alto, California and San Francisco, California, with additional operating funds in London, India and China.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vi Senior Living</span> Continuing care retirement communities in the U.S.

Vi Senior Living is a high-end retirement community developer, owner, and management group based out of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Vi maintains 10 continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs) in six states, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, and South Carolina. Founded in 1987 by Penny Pritzker, the privately held company houses over 4,000 residents and employs 2,700 workers as of May 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim Breyer</span> American venture capitalist (born 1961)

James W. Breyer is an American venture capitalist, founder and chief executive officer of Breyer Capital, an investment and venture philanthropy firm, and a former managing partner at Accel Partners, a venture capital firm. Breyer has invested in over 40 companies that have gone public or completed a merger, with some of these investments, including Facebook, earning over 100 times cost and many others over 25 times cost. On the Forbes 2021 list of the 400 richest Americans, he was ranked #389, with a net worth of US$2.9 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arash Ferdowsi</span> Iranian-American businessman

Arash Ferdowsi is an Iranian-American billionaire entrepreneur. He is the co-founder of Dropbox.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sheila Lirio Marcelo</span> Filipino-American entrepreneur

Sheila Lirio Marcelo is a Filipino-American entrepreneur. She is the co-founder and CEO of Proof of Learn, an education platform. Prior to Proof of Learn, she founded Care.com, an online marketplace for childcare, senior care, special needs care, tutoring, pet care, and housekeeping, where she served as CEO and chairwoman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LearnVest</span>

LearnVest was an American financial planning company founded by CEO Alexa von Tobel. It sells personal finance software.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bud Colligan</span>

John C. "Bud" Colligan is a community activist, social entrepreneur, investor and company builder. He was appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom as his senior advisor for international affairs and trade in March, 2019. He is co-founder of the Monterey Bay Economic Partnership (MBEP), co-founder of the non-profit community-development organization Pacific Community Ventures, former partner at Accel Partners, a global venture capital firm, and former chairman and CEO of Macromedia, a multimedia software company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northwestern Mutual</span> American financial services company

Northwestern Mutual is an American financial services mutual organization based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The financial security company provides consultation on wealth and asset income protection, education planning, retirement planning, investment advisory services, Financial Planning trust and private client services, estate planning and business planning. Its products include life insurance, permanent life insurance, disability income, and long-term care insurance; annuities; investments; and investment advisory products and services. Northwestern Mutual ranked No. 90 on the 2021 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue and is in the top 30 by assets held. The firm distributes a portion of its earnings to eligible policyholders as annual dividends.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sukhinder Singh Cassidy</span> Technology Executive

Sukhinder Singh Cassidy is a technology executive and entrepreneur. Formerly the president of StubHub, she has worked at various tech and media companies including Google, Amazon and News Corp, Yodlee (YODL), and Polyvore. In 2011, she founded JOYUS, the video shopping platform for women, and served as CEO then Chairman until 2017. Singh Cassidy is also Founder of theBoardlist.

Women in venture capital or VC are investors who provide venture capital funding to startups. Women make up a small fraction of the venture capital private equity workforce. A widely used source for tracking the number of women in venture capital is the Midas List which has been published by Forbes since 2001. Research from Women in VC, a global community of women venture investors, shows that the percentage of female VC partners is just shy of 5 percent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hilary Mason (entrepreneur)</span> American entrepreneur

Hilary Mason is an American entrepreneur and data scientist. She is the co-founder of the startup Fast Forward Labs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theresia Gouw</span>

Theresia Gouw is an entrepreneur and venture capital investor in the technology sector. She worked at Bain & Company, Release Software and Accel Partners before co-founding Aspect Ventures, a female-led venture capital firm, in 2014. Gouw was named one of the 40 most influential minds in tech by Time Magazine. and has been recognized seven times on the Forbes Midas List as one of the "world's smartest tech investors". According to Forbes, Gouw is the richest female venture capitalist, with a net worth of approximately $500 million, primarily due to her involvement with Accel (company)'s early investment in Facebook.

Grovo is a New York City–based technology company that provides a SaaS microlearning platform with a built-in tool for content creation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jennifer Fonstad</span> American venture capital investor

Jennifer Fonstad is an American venture capital investor and entrepreneur. She is the managing partner and a co-founder of the Owl Capital Group, a venture firm based in Silicon Valley. Fonstad was Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) for 17 years. She is also co-founder of angel investing network Broadway Angels. Fonstad has been recognized as a top 100 tech investor on Forbes’ Midas List twice and was named 2016 Venture Capitalist of the Year by Deloitte. She is also a Founding Member of All Raise.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scripbox</span>

Scripbox is a Bengaluru-based digital wealth management service founded in 2012.

Sarah Kunst is an entrepreneur and angel fund investor, she is currently the managing director of Cleo Capital. Kunst has worked at Apple, Red Bull, Chanel & Mohr Davidow Ventures and was on the Board of Venture for America, She founded LA Dodgers backed Proday and has served as a senior advisor at Bumble where she focused on their corporate VC arm Bumble Fund and on the board of the Michigan State University Foundation endowment. She is also a contributing editor at Marie Claire Magazine.

References

  1. "Where life gets richer". LearnVest. 2010-12-06. Archived from the original on 5 July 2011. Retrieved 2011-07-03.
  2. "Best Sellers Business Books". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 May 2014.
  3. Tobel, Alexa Von (2019). Amazon: Financially Forward. ISBN   978-1984823526.
  4. "Meet the Commerce Department's All-Star Startup Team". Inc. 7 April 2014. Retrieved 7 May 2014.
  5. "Inc. Founders Project with Alexa von Tobel" . Retrieved 31 July 2023.
  6. Staff, Crushable (March 18, 2010). "Crushable questionnaire: Alexa von Tobel". Archived from the original on June 3, 2012. Retrieved June 21, 2011.
  7. "Alexa von Tobel and Michael Ryan Jr". The New York Times. 2013-03-24. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-01-19.
  8. "Alexa von Tobel and Michael Ryan Jr". The New York Times. 2013-03-24. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-01-19.
  9. "11 Female CEOs and Founders on What It's Really Like to Have a Baby While Running Your Company". Fortune. Retrieved 31 July 2023.
  10. "Alexa von Tobel: How To Be The Master Of Your Financial Future". Forbes. Retrieved 31 July 2023.
  11. "LearnVest's founder: Is Alexa von Tobel Suze Orman 2.0?". VentureBeat. July 7, 2010. Retrieved June 21, 2011.
  12. Miller, Claire Cain (April 1, 2010). "Accel Invests in Personal Finance Site for Women". The New York Times. Retrieved June 21, 2011.
  13. "Personalized Financial Planning Service LearnVest Raises $28M From Northwestern Mutual Capital". TechCrunch. Retrieved 7 May 2014.
  14. Mohan, Pavithra (2019-10-16). "LearnVest's Alexa von Tobel wants to boost NYC's VC scene with new fund". Fast Company. Retrieved 2021-04-16.
  15. Moyer, Liz (March 25, 2015). "Northwestern Mutual Is Buying Online Advice Provider LearnVest". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
  16. "Exclusive: Billionaire Penny Pritzker Joins Forces With Alexa von Tobel to Raise New $200M Fund". Fortune. Retrieved 2019-08-07.
  17. "Inspired Capital, founded by Alexa von Tobel and Penny Pritzker, just closed its debut fund with $200 million". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2021-04-16.
  18. Insider, Silicon Alley (December 8, 2010). "Silicon Alley 100". Business Insider . Archived from the original on 12 May 2011. Retrieved June 21, 2011.
  19. "30 under 30: The Top Young Entrepreneurs of 2010". 2010. Retrieved June 21, 2011.
  20. "Women to Watch". Forbes. January 5, 2011. Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved June 21, 2011.
  21. "18 Women Changing the World". September 13, 2010. Retrieved June 21, 2011.
  22. "Best Young Tech Entrepreneurs". January 5, 2011. Archived from the original on May 21, 2011. Retrieved June 21, 2011.
  23. "Personal Finance Expert Alexa von Tobel to Deliver Woman of Achievement Lecture". Meredith College. Retrieved 7 May 2014.
  24. Chang, Angie (2 March 2012). "Female Founders To Watch: 2012 SXSWi Speakers Edition". Women 2.0.
  25. Ted Talks (19 November 2012). "Alexa von Tobel: 4 TEDTalks That Impart True Insight". Mashable.
  26. Sharma, Gary (16 April 2012). "Best Tech Events This Week (4sq Day, NY Tech Day, Fashion 2.0, food+tech, SkillShare Penny Conf, General Assembly Assemled Capital)". BetaBeat.
  27. Lepore, Meredith (8 May 2012). "LearnVest CEO Alexa von Tobel Said Raising Money For A Startup is 'Most Gruesome'". The Grindstone. Archived from the original on 20 April 2013. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  28. Leahey, Colleen (27 September 2012). "10 Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs". Fortune Magazine. Archived from the original on 22 May 2013. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  29. Greenberg, Molly (1 April 2014). "GW Women in Business Event to Host a Whole Slew of Impressive Female Entrepreneurs". DC Inno.
  30. Stillman, Jessica (18 April 2013). "How to Disrupt an Industry". Women 2.0.
  31. PERSONAL FINANCE. "Announcing: LearnVest LIVE, an Inspiring Evening of Lifestyle and Money Advice". Fox Business. Archived from the original on 2013-07-10.