Not unlike its cohort LearnVest — which has raised a healthy $25 million for a platform that helps women organize their finances and learn how to become financially savvy — DailyWorth launched with the mission to become a go-to resource for tips and information on financial literacy and money management, geared towards a female audience. Yet, for differentiation purposes (LearnVest offers both content and tools, for example), DailyWorth initially placed its focus exclusively on content — specifically in the form of daily newsletter, which tends to range in subject matter from how to organize your finances to tax tips to advice on the best ways to save. (Example below.)
Behind six-time entrepreneur (and founder and CEO) Amanda Steinberg and the editorial lead of MP Dunleavey, a former personal finance columnist for the New York Times and a contributor to Money magazine, DailyWorth’s newsletter has gone on to attract over 225,000 subscribers in the U.S., and financial institutions like ING and H&R Block have joined as sponsors. And seeing as DailyWorth has been called “the Daily Candy for personal finance,” it was a sign of validation when Andrew Russell, formerly of Pilot Group and investor in email companies like Daily Candy and Thrillist, joined the startup as an independent board member in January.
Of course, when it comes to free personal finance services that offer all the essentials, like the ability to aggregate financial accounts in one place, set budgets, track goals, etc., Intuit-owned Mint.com is arguably one of the best-known names, and is arguably a service by which many in the space are compared. Many sites have been tagged the “Mint.com” of dog enthusiasts, etc etc. Niche-ifying the successful in July of last year, LearnVest launched a personal money center with a suite of personal finance options, aiming to bring the best parts of Mint to a female-only audience.
Today, DailyWorth is, in a way, following suit, except that it’s going straight to the source. To kickstart readers’ monetary momentum, the startup is partnering with Mint.com in an effort to provide a more robust online platform for personal finance tools and information — to women. Essentially, this is exactly what LearnVest has been trying to do in building its new set of tools, but in partnering with the personal finance leader, DailyWorth hopes to give itself a leg up.
The deal brings DailyWorth’s growing audience to Mint.com, and in turn the two companies are launching three new exclusive projects to give DailyWorth readers access to both content (financial advice) and the financial management tools available through Mint.com.
In online personal finance, capturing a female audience (most often the budgeting decision–makers) is a key to success for both startups and growing businesses. So, combining DailyWorth’s advice with Mint’s ability to turn that advice into action gives women a potentially powerful financial tool. “This is crucial for everyone,” says the DailyWorth CEO, “but particularly women, who still lag behind in earning power and overall lifetime savings.”
Considering Mint.com currently has nearly 8 million users and is tracking upwards of $1 trillion in transactions, this is a big play for DailyWorth, as it will now begin offering realtime demonstrations for its readers on how to take control of their financial lives. For starters, this will happen through the launch of three new DailyWorth/Mint joint programs. First is the “Emergency Savings Challenge,” a 90-day program designed to empower women to save toward their emergency funds, boosted by the ability to track their progress on Mint. Readers will also be able to enter for a chance to get their savings doubled.
Then there’s “The Money Fix,” in which DailyWorth’s proprietary editorial series pairs readers with national money experts, who will help them work toward their financial goals. Participants will be able to enact their action plan using the tools available on Mint.com.Lastly, the companies will today launch “The Mini Fix,” a series of free webinars, which aim to help readers get better acquainted with Mint’s tools and features, as well as how to best achieve their goals using the prior two programs.
Obviously, both Mint and DailyWorth are hoping that this partnership and its new programs will be a win-win for both businesses. Mint.com will now have direct access to DailyWorth’s community of 225K subscribers, a ready-made audience (of new customers) looking to better manage their finances, while DailyWorth boosts its own offerings by giving its readers direct access and education on how to use Mint’s straightforward personal finance tools.
By getting in the side door, DailyWorth saves itself from having to build its own personal finance management platform (and a potential Mint competitor), while buddying up with one of the leaders in the space. All in the name of giving women a self-identifying, like-minded community on top of an established financial service. DailyWorth has smartly positioned itself as a resource to help women earn more (and save more), not as a lifestyle magazine, which generally have a penchant for encouraging people to spend, but instead, as a branded email newsletter. It seems the best of both worlds.
What’s more, this comes on top of DailyWorth launching CreateWorth, a newsletter for female entreprneurs that focuses on the financial nuts and bolts of building and scaling a profitable business.
For more, check out DailyWorth at home here.
Source:http://techcrunch.com/2012/02/07/dailyworth-teams-up-with-mint-com-to-help-women-turn-financial-advice-into-action/
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