Michelle Tran, Founder of NYC FinTech Women, is a passionate FinTech leader dedicated to gender parity in FinTech. Also, she is the SVP, Head of Enterprise Sales at Vestwell, a digital 401k provider helping millions of people save for retirement.
Michelle’s professional background includes BlackRock (San Francisco, Hong Kong, NYC), Apex Clearing, and Harness Wealth. Michelle has industry experience that provides for FinTech, WealthTech, Asset Management, Clearing/Custody, Payments, BaaS, Digital Assets, and more. As the Co-Founder of the largest fintech community (8k+ members), Michelle frequently speaks on fintech topics at leading conferences, events, and podcasts. She has been recognized as an industry leader by the Innovate Finance Powerlist (Senior Leader category 2019, 2020, 2021), #28 on the Top Women in FinTech 2021 by FinTech Magazine, and Primary Venture’s 40 NYC Leaders You Need to Know.
A pivotal moment in Michelle’s career decision
Michelle has been drawn by mission-oriented organizations, but professionally and personally. Her career has been with firms wanting to improve people’s financial lives, and this is especially true at Vestwell, where they help small businesses offer a 401k, a retirement savings plan, to their employees.
“I have firsthand experience of what workplace savings can do to put people on different financial paths. I am the first generation born in the US. My parents emigrated from Vietnam and did not have the option to save for retirement when they opened their restaurant or took other jobs. Because they put me through college and I started with a large financial services firm, I was able to be part of my company’s retirement offering and will have a nest egg in the future,” says Michelle.
How did NYC FinTech Women begin
For NYC FinTech Women, one of the biggest hurdles was trying to choose their path. For NYC FinTech Women, Michelle had been in financial services for years and was newly in FinTech, but she struggled to find the right network. The right network is essential for personal career development, professional deal-making, and partnerships.
She was going to a ton of women in tech events or fintech events, and neither had a woman in the fintech network Michelle was looking for. So, she paid $80 to meetup.com in 2017 and found a bar to host a happy hour for them. They had 16 women at a bar in the Flatiron, including her co-founder Sasha Pilch. They knew they needed to do more to empower, connect, and promote women in Fintech.
They quickly got a ton of fantastic support and people as they wanted to do more. NYC FW is a passion project, and they quickly realized they needed more people to help them build. The demand for the building was there.
“We now have over 10k members, and members are located everywhere!” says Michelle.
About Vestwell and NYC Fintech Women
Vestwell is the modern fintech engine powering savings and investment programs for small businesses and individual savers across the country. Vestwell offers small businesses modern 401k solutions.
The industry makes it hard for small businesses to provide retirement options, and Vestwell is making it easy, which benefits employers and employees alike.
“We’re also excited to partner with states like Oregon and Virginia to offer retirement options through the state. The goal is to ensure all employees have a pathway to retirement,” says Michelle.
At NYC Fintech Women, they offer extensive programming to connect, empower and promote women in fintech. From events to office hours to Inspiring FinTech Females annual awards. It’s all about how they can shout their names from the rooftops and build strong, deep networks.
“As Head of Enterprise Sales for Vestwell and Co-Founder of NYC FinTech Women, I have multiple responsibilities under different hats. I lead various teams at both organizations, am responsible for how we grow with partners at Vestwell, and then set the strategic vision for NYC FinTech Women. It’s a lot! And I love it all,” asserts Michelle.
Helping FinTechs to Accelerate Growth
Michelle started jumping into FinTech during the robo-advisor craze and seeing how fintech really opened the door for people to invest. FinTech, as a term now, refers to start-ups and big organizations like Goldman. Both are equally changing how people access and utilize their finances.
“At the heart, Vestwell and FinTech are democratizing access to financial services. FinTechs are making it easier for people to get bank accounts, send money internationally, to build generational wealth,” asserts Michelle.
Work-life balance: Michelle’s words
According to Michelle, I believe that work and life are very intertwined. I’m fully dedicated to Vestwell and NYC FinTech Women and committed to spending time with my kids and partner. The little micro ways you show up for both make significant impacts. For example, I start working with my team at Vestwell during East Coast hours (I’m on the West Coast), block off 30 mins to walk my boys to school, and then jump into NYC FW work after dinner. It all fits together, but in a well-coordinated juggle vs. entire balance.
Entrepreneurship challenges abound for women: key characteristics for all women entrepreneurs
Michelle’s two most important characteristics that every woman entrepreneur should possess are grit and integrity. Women entrepreneurs face uphill battles from the get-go. Only 2% of VC money is invested in female founders. The percentage fell in 2021 even though it was a record fundraising year, with $330B going to fintech. It’s a hard percentage to swallow. Only 15% of decision-makers are female. It takes a lot of grit and integrity to push through the challenges we have.
Michelle’s vision for the future
According to Michelle, for Vestwell, we see us empower more than 32 million small businesses to offer retirement options which means their employees will be better prepared in the long run. The goal is to understand where the next best dollar goes – is it 401k or 529 or emergency savings?
“For NYC FinTech Women, we are going national and global. We are launching chapters in San Francisco, Chicago, and Atlanta. We have interest from Singapore and London in offering similar programs. We are super excited!” asserts Michelle.
