Morrow - July letter
Build the plane.
Fly the plane as you build it. Build the boat as you sail it. When it comes to the early days of company building, these expressions are cliché and probably overused, but not wrong. Morrow is no exception. Experiencing it is some combination of thrill, “uh-oh”, scrappiness, and faith. What does that look like though - those early day of building a company? Pretty close to something like this, which is also a friendly reminder that a dose of humor is important as you build the plane :)
Onto our updates for the month…
Company updates —
1) New advisors join Morrow
We officially add a few new faces to the Morrow boat by welcoming three standout individuals as formal advisors to Morrow. Each comes with a unique set of backgrounds and experiences that matches our strategy of constructing a broad base of resources and support that spans across business needs, today and going forward. We’re privileged and delighted to introduce:
2) Refreshed webpage
The website had a facelift done and the latest version (https://www.usemorrow.com/) looks great. Our designer, Amy Devereux, did another rockstar job in just a matter of days.
Though simple, it provides a clean face to the business and primarily functions as our sign-up channel for the Private Launch (aka Beta Program). Speaking of that…
3) Private Launch closing in on full subscription
Morrow’s Private Launch is nearly fully subscribed to our target goal of 35 participants, which have been recruited over the past month. The gears are now well in motion running users through the service. To offset a growing user base, we’ve also welcomed four additional Morrow Navigators to guide our users through the retirement transition process. As we run more and more sessions, it’s been validating to see the strong value proposition observed in the initial sessions this past spring hold true with a larger sample size.
We are collecting insights and will have more to share in due time.
Perspectives —
I was recently reminded of a piece of work produced by the Financial Health Network earlier this year. I wanted to pull out a few highlights as its findings speak directly to a growing appeal and adoption from employers to invest in financial wellness benefit solutions.
As an analog, we can look to the explosive growth in mental health benefits as demonstrated by the successes of companies like Modern Health, Ginger, and Lyra as a reflection of the growing need on the part of employers to offer more comprehensive benefit services as a means of differentiation and employee wellness. At a time when the playing field for talent has never been hotter, progressive companies will continue to create separation from the rest of the pack by prioritizing employee treatment and culture. This motion sets the table nicely for a wave of innovation adoption around financial wellness, the beginnings of which are starting to show and are evidenced by a building narrative, one example being the piece referenced, Fintech as a Solution for Employee Financial Health.
A few highlights (full report is linked above):
“The results from the exploratory studies suggest that employer-channel fintechs are in demand among employees, can be an effective method for improving employee financial health, and can improve employee retention.”
“As employees come to expect more from their employers and as fintechs become even more sophisticated in their employer integrations and products, offering effective employee benefits will become even more important”
Exactly how the financial wellness landscape will evolve is anyone’s guess, but it’s becoming clearer that technology will play a leading role and the disruption potential is large.
“In the private realm, decisions you make when choosing a job, buying a house, or proposing marriage have the same characteristics. Even if this is not your first job, house, or marriage, and despite the fact that countless people have faced these decisions before, the decision feels unique to you.” ― Daniel Kahneman, Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgement
That’s all folks! See you back next month for more updates.
— Sammy
