Building a Marketplace Startup

About The Talk

Marketplace startups, essentially liaisons between vendors and consumers, have been shifting business models across many industries. Investors and entrepreneurs see this as a promising model – but growing and scaling a marketplace startup isn’t easy and many will find themselves trying to solve the “chicken-and-egg” problem.

To learn more about what it takes to successfully launch and grow a marketplace startup, we’re excited to chat with Michael Carvin, Founder & CEO of SmartAsset, an award-winning financial technology company that helps more than 65 million people each month make smart financial decisions.

SmartAsset provides free and interactive tools to help you make smarter financial decisions, and connects you with financial advisors. If you’re a financial advisor, SmartAsset can help connect you to local clients across the U.S.

Join us as we dive into how Michael grew this marketplace aspect of SmartAsset, and his advice for entrepreneurs building marketplace startups.

Our Guest

Michael Carvin

Founder & CEO of SmartAsset

Michael Carvin is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer at SmartAsset, an award-winning financial technology company that helps more than 65 million people each month make smart financial decisions. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in New York City, SmartAsset publishes data-driven content, topical guides, reviews, personalized calculators and educational tools to help people navigate life’s big personal finance decisions. Under Carvin’s leadership, the company has raised a total of $51.4 million over six funding rounds, most recently with a Series C round of $28 million in 2018. The idea for SmartAsset came from Carvin’s own frustration by a lack of information to help him decide whether he should continue to rent or buy his home. Additionally, SmartAsset operates SmartAdvisor, which is the leading independent client acquisition platform for financial advisors in America. Today, SmartAsset serves more than 65 million consumers each month and Forbes recently named SmartAsset as one of America’s Best Startup Employers in 2020. With almost 15 years of experience in financial decision making, Carvin’s previous role was in private equity. A graduate of Princeton University, he spent four years as a Senior Associate at Altima Partners and a year as an Analyst at Leucadia National Corporation before founding SmartAsset.

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