Most people don’t have an advisor…but those who do, feel the difference.
💡 64% of Americans with an advisor say they feel financially secure.
💡 75% expect to retire earlier.
💡 89% say it’s improved their family’s well-being.

Habits helps you find your own advisor in 2 minutes, no sales calls, no pressure. Just a safe and simple way to see what your options would look like.

These days, you can go through their mobile app, on your computer, or go through their instant match solution.

Probably the #1 thing I hear from young families these days is striking the balance between income and time. Especially if someone is working in corporate.

You can also watch this on TikTok.

As the year wraps up, I like to slow things down for a moment. Not to set resolutions. Not to predict the future. But to reflect.

If you’re building something, working toward something, or just trying to figure out what the hell you’re doing with your life, it’s easy to forget how much ground you’ve actually covered. Progress rarely feels linear when you’re in it.

So consider this a Habits version of Spotify Wrapped. This is for our team, our partners, our users, our investors, and everyone who has quietly rooted for us from the sidelines.

We kicked off the year by announcing our oversubscribed $1.1M pre-seed round led by Atlanta Ventures.

At the time, it felt surreal. Not because of the number, but because of what it represented. In 2024, the team and I were predominately bootstrapping. A startup jargon term to basically describe using revenue to fund business operations & growth. We eventually went out and raised $200k from platform users. That then snowballed into raising an additional $850k from funds, angels, and social media followers. The coolest part? People betting on an idea, a team, and a vision that was still very much being built in public.

From there, things moved fast. We won 1871’s FinTech Summit pitch competition out of 46 other fintech companies. We presented at Morningstar’s Investor Conference and were named Best in Show. We were featured across Newsweek, IBJ, Crain’s Chicago Business, CNBC, and Forbes.

Each moment felt like a small validation. Not that we had “made it,” but that the problem we were tackling actually mattered. And that matters more than any headline.

Momentum doesn’t come from one big win. It comes from stacking a lot of small ones.

At the start of the year, we were still manually introducing families to financial advisors. Every match was hands-on. Every intro was bespoke. Every workflow lived inside someone’s head, inbox, or spreadsheet.

Today, that couldn’t be more different. You can access Habits through your employer, CPA, attorney, or just through our mobile, web, or through our instant match feature (see more at www.usehabits.com).

Families now onboard themselves, securely connect accounts, verify their identity, and get matched with 3–5 advisors using sophisticated algorithmic matching based on occupation, tax bracket, balance sheet, location, and specific life needs.

What used to take hours now takes minutes. And what started as a scrappy experiment has turned into infrastructure.

Progress is often invisible until suddenly it isn’t.

One of the biggest surprises this year wasn’t product. It was distribution.

On average, we reached over 5 million people per month across social platforms. We had 8 posts surpass 1 million impressions, and more than 50 posts cross 250k impressions across TikTok, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Over 75% of that growth happened in Q3 and Q4 alone. But the numbers aren’t the point.

The point is that people are paying attention. They’re asking better questions. They’re more open about money. And they’re actively looking for help navigating increasingly complex lives. Content wasn’t a growth hack. It was a trust engine.

Distribution doesn’t replace substance. It amplifies it.

This year we partnered with dozens of CPA firms, estate planning attorneys, divorce attorneys, employers, coworking spaces, and community organizations.

We welcomed over 100 financial service providers across the country. Firms large and small. Independent RIAs and national platforms. Advisors who care deeply about serving real people, not just optimizing portfolios.

And most importantly, we went from helping dozens…to hundreds…to thousands of families navigating the beginning of their financial journey.

That’s the part I’ll never take lightly. Behind every dashboard metric is a person trying to make a good decision in a noisy world.

Technology matters. But people matter more.

This year reinforced a simple truth: building something meaningful takes longer than you want and moves faster than you expect.

It taught me that credibility is built through consistency, not announcements.
That clarity comes from listening, not guessing. And that the best teams aren’t the loudest, they’re the most aligned.

We’re still early. Painfully early. But we’re no longer guessing whether this matters.

We know it does.

To our team: thank you for showing up, pushing through uncertainty, and caring deeply about the work. To our partners and advisors: thank you for trusting us with your reputations. To our investors: thank you for betting early and staying patient. To the families who use Habits: thank you for letting us be part of your lives.

And to everyone who reads this newsletter each week, shares a post, sends a DM, or quietly roots for us: I don’t take that lightly.

We’re just getting started. But this year proved something important. This isn’t an idea anymore. It’s a company. And it’s heading somewhere meaningful.

Onward.

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