This Industry Is Too F*cking Loud

Speaking for myself, but everything feels like a sales pitch these days

Introduction

Why Am I Doing This?

I remember this singular moment a few years ago. I got a cold DM from a guy calling himself a “financial influencer.” He had a Canva-made logo, 40,000 followers, and a pitch about helping me “unlock financial abundance.”

I clicked the link. It was a booking page for a free intro call. I didn’t book it. But for whatever reason, I didn’t delete the message either. It just sat there. Like a bad flyer taped to my mental bulletin board.

A week later, I saw a sponsored ad for a fintech company promising to “revolutionize money management.” Downloaded it. The UI looked sleek as hell. But three taps in, it asked for full account access, pushed a debit card on me, and promised “smart insights” that were basically just repackaged Mint notifications.

That same night, I got a text from a friend asking me if they should buy Tesla stock “before it splits again.” And in that moment, it clicked. This entire f*cking industry is too damn loud.

Louder than helpful. Louder than honest. Louder than human.

Which is why I’m using today’s blog post as an opportunity to share our full blown vision for Habits.

Top Content

I Can Be Confrontational…

I took my first vacation since launching Habits last week. Spent a long weekend up in Maine and it was amazing, but didn’t post a whole lot.

So I snagged another post from a couple weeks ago that still makes me laugh.

despite what you may see from this post, this VC is super kind and thoughtful

Main Story (continued):

Drowning & Starving

The problem isn’t that people don’t have access to information. The problem is we’re drowning in it…with no idea who to trust.

There are newsletters, influencers, side hustle bros, Reddit threads, and TikToks all screaming at you about what to do with your money. And yet, people still feel completely alone.

That disconnect (thet gap between information and confidence) is where most people get stuck. And it’s where I found myself, time and time again, despite working in and around finance for the better part of a decade.

I’ve seen it from all sides:

  • Working on Wall St., where information is abundant but humanity is scarce (dark but pretty accurate)

  • Collaborating with Techstars, where startups pitch “democratizing finance” but are secretly just pushing gamified products

  • Living in the content world, where influencers preach discipline but monetize chaos

  • Researching our competitors, where their “financial health quiz” is a fancy way to sell your contact information to the highest bidders

We don’t need another quiz, debit card, or flashy calculator.

The Most Powerful Resource…

Over the last few years, I’ve met with more than 2,000 individuals and families. I’ve interviewed over 1,500 financial advisors. And what I’ve learned is this: the best solutions or resources are hiding in plain sight. We’re just drowing from the available options.

It’s one of the many reasons why we launched our marketplace. Because finding the right advisor? That’s where the game gets ugly.

People don’t know the difference between a fiduciary and a salesperson. They don’t know who’s licensed, who’s legit, or who just paid $5k for a fancy certification.

And frankly, most of them don’t want to become experts just to find someone they can trust.That’s why Habits started with one simple promise: make it easy to find a real f*cking advisor.

Not one who slid into your DMs. Not one who got your number off a mailing list. One who understands your life stage, your goals, and your actual finances.

Phase 1 was about matchmaking. And it worked. But that was just the warm-up.

The DIY Expiration Date

Everybody has a DIY expiration date. That moment where the budgeting app stops helping. When the 5th Roth IRA tutorial starts sounding like white noise. When you stop wanting information and start needing guidance.

For some people, it’s having a kid. For others, it’s a big promotion, a partner, or a scary tax situation.

It’s the realization that you don’t need another YouTube explainer. You need someone who can look at your life and say, “Okay, here’s what actually matters right now.”

That’s what the best advisors do. And that’s what most people never find because the system is rigged to serve itself first.


What if we could scale wisdom instead of noise?

Where Habits Is Going Next

Most people know us today as “the place to find a financial advisor.”

Cool. But let me be very clear: that’s just a fraction of where we’re going. The real vision is way bigger. We’re building the Bloomberg Terminal for the advice economy. What Bloomberg did for institutional investors, we’re doing for real people making real-life financial decisions. Imagine this:

  • You’re 29, engaged, living in Denver, and your household income is $210k. You want to buy a home, maybe have a kid in 2 years. You log into Habits and can see what people like you are spending, saving, and planning for.

  • You’re 37, living in Brooklyn, making $125k and side-hustling another $20k. You’re anxious about falling behind—everyone’s investing in crypto, buying rental properties, or launching some weird niche ecommerce brand. You open Habits and see that 68% of people like you are just maxing their Roth IRA, saving for an emergency fund, and chilling. It calms you down. And for the first time, you actually feel like you’re on track.

  • You’re 34, single, living in Austin, and just received a $120k equity package from your new job at a Series B startup. You’re not sure if you should exercise now, wait, or just sell it all. You log into Habits and see how 200+ people in your exact situation—same income range, same career stage—handled it.

Not theoretical advice. Not national averages. Real data. Anonymized, specific, and shaped by people who look and live like you.

screenshot from our investor deck

That’s what we’re building. Because the truth is, we don’t just want to be a platform that helps people find advice. We want to be the place where advice lives.

The future of financial services isn’t calculators and charts. It’s community. It’s context. And it’s access to vetted experts.

This Is the Why

People ask me all the time, “What gets you up every morning?” Becuase let’s face it. My job every day is just to deal with what’s going wrong.

So some days it’s adrenaline. Some days it’s stress. Some days it’s just coffee and the crushing weight of my own expectations.

But the through-line? The reason I still wake up excited about Habits? It’s simple: Because this industry has forgotten who it’s supposed to be for.

It’s built for institutions, not individuals. Built for attention, not outcomes. Built for noise, not trust. And I want to build the exact opposite.

Something human. Something useful. Something that makes people feel like they’re not alone in this mess.

We’re not here to add more noise. We’re here to make the signal clearer.
Because once you find someone you trust, whether it’s an advisor, a platform, or just a voice that gets it—the entire game changes.

That’s what Habits is here to do. Not just now. But for the next decade.

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What’s Coming Next?

I got triggered this week, which prompted this edition. But I’ll follow my original plan and next week I’ll dive into how I approach fundraising, building a data room, how I source funds, angel investors, and carve the emails to make it all happen.

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