Emprendedora tecnológica de la generación Z habla sobre dinero y consejos para empresas emergentes

Brian Ford (00:08):

Hello and welcome to Money and Mindset With Bright and Brian, a podcast that explores how good financial habits and positive psychology can help you find more happiness and confidence. I'm Brian Ford, head of financial wellness at Truist. I'm joined by my co-host and friend, Bright Dixon, Truist's resident expert in positive psychology. Bright, it is good to see you today. What's going on? What's your mood?

Bright Dickson (00:34):

I'm in a pretty good mood today, Brian, but mainly because I know we're going to have a really great conversation with our guest today. How are you?

Brian Ford (00:41):

I am doing good as well, Bright. As an entrepreneur myself, I can relate to the experience of building a business that our guest, Aleksandra Medina, shares. And I'm confident that our listeners are going to be inspired and motivated by her story. We're going to talk about the tech business she started. It's called Frich.

Bright Dickson (00:59):

Yeah, Aleksandra and her co-founders started the company to really shake things up in the digital social space for money, the same way that other apps were doing in fitness and other areas. So we're going to talk about technology, the money mindsets of Gen Z, and also the mindsets of entrepreneurs.

Brian Ford (01:16):

And, Bright, you know I am all in on this conversation. Plus we're going to share lots of ideas and to-dos we can all use to manage our money just a little bit better. Let's get the show started and bring in Aleksandra. Welcome to Money and Mindset, Aleksandra.

Aleksandra Medina (01:40):

Hi, everyone. I'm so excited to be on this podcast with you guys.

Bright Dickson (01:43):

We are so excited to have you.

Brian Ford (01:45):

And, Aleks, I think rather than explain your background, you can tell your story from the start. So, Aleks, tell us what is Frich and how did it get started?

Aleksandra Medina (01:54):

Frich really is a reflection of me and my co-founder. We built the company for ourselves. We both met at university. We were really, really close friends before we even started the company. We never really intended to be entrepreneurs or founders, but after university we ended up having quite an unconventional career. We both moved a lot around different geographic locations. We also changed industries so much and just these experiences, being very early on in our teens and our early 20s really taught us how important it is to really, really figure out money and how important it is to figure out how to do things correctly young and how many opportunities you can unlock for yourself.

Aleksandra Medina (02:41):

And eventually we ended up in New York City, and it's one of those cities that is just unbelievably expensive and unbelievably difficult to live in. And I think just our background experience and then being in this very, very high stakes city empowered us to, or made us more comfortable just being like, what is happening? How is everyone doing this? How is everyone surviving in this city? And we just started having these very honest conversations and open conversations with ourselves, with the people around us. And that really was the genesis of Frich.

Aleksandra Medina (03:15):

Whether you like it or not, every single aspect of your life revolves around money, and there really shouldn't be any taboo around talking about money. And that's what we do every single day. We try to encourage young people to have more honest conversations about money. And today we built this community where people can anonymously benchmark themselves and see how do they compare to their peers financially, and if they feel like they have space to grow. Or we can catch parts where we're like, OK, this is a little bit of a red flag situation. We put in front of them some tips, resources, tools, just to make sure that they feel financially confident. And I feel like if you figure out these things earlier in your life, you really open up your opportunities on what your life can end up being.

Bright Dickson (04:03):

That's so cool, Aleks. And, correct me if I'm wrong, but the app is free, right?

Aleksandra Medina (04:08):

Correct. Yes, it's free.

Bright Dickson (04:10):

Awesome.

Brian Ford (04:10):

Yes, free is good. And, Aleks, as a tech company, you're always having to invest in new features and technology for your concept. How do you continue to innovate at Frich?

Aleksandra Medina (04:23):

I think one thing that really helped us, and still is very helpful, is that we really are our target audience. So as we grow, as we change, we realize how the product should change with us. And we're also very, very connected to our users. So we have very direct communication. We do regular testing with people. We have genuine conversations with people. So that's how we can source ideas and stay on top of what's really top of mind for people, currently. And one of the most recent features we actually launched a couple of weeks ago was called Frich Scoop. And the whole idea behind it was that, especially today, what you see out there on social media is always just everyone's highlights, but you don't really see the nitty-gritty, maybe the hard work that goes into building this dream life that looks so beautiful on social media or the actual huge risks or bad choices people are making to present that life that way.

Aleksandra Medina (05:23):

So with Frich Scoop, you can take screenshots of people's LinkedIn and Instagram, and obviously we're doing our best with the AI to just flag some things, but it's obviously speculative, but we just outline things for you. So if someone looks like they're living your dream life, we can be like, OK, but to be able to do this based on their LinkedIn history, they're working crazy hours. Or based on what we estimate this person could be making and what we're seeing on their social media, there's either some secret source of income there that you're just not seeing or this person is in serious debt, so maybe you should not be comparing yourself to them. So it's really about trying to shine some light and some actual truth in people's lives that they present on social media, but also just have a benchmark understanding of what it takes to live your "dream life."

Bright Dickson (06:20):

That's so interesting, Aleks, and I think so really a useful reality check for people in a way that I think is really, really helpful. What got you thinking about doing this as an app rather than something else? Why an app for you guys?

Aleksandra Medina (06:38):

Yeah, I mean, that's a good question. Why an app? I think it was a little bit of a reaction to the resources we had out there already. I think obviously, you could have this argument that, well, why do you need another finance app or why do you need more resources? Because there is already so much out there. And that's true; there are so many tools out there, there's so many blogs, there's so many videos. But what the app enables us to do is to verify people's identities in a way that unlocks the validity of what they're saying. So if I'm saying, "Oh, I just went on a crazy vacation that looks so amazingly stunning."

Aleksandra Medina (07:25):

Because I have the ability through the app to link my bank account and see my transactions, Frich can see if you actually can afford it. Frich can tell or reflect back to the community and say, "OK, well this person is going on this vacation because it's actually just 1% of their annual income and it's a rational choice. And for you it would be X." Or Frich can be like, "OK, that was a really bad decision and you really shouldn't be striving for that." And I don't think that you can have this back-and-forth communication if it's not an app. You can have, on social media or on a blog, you can have this experience where these people are speaking at you, but it can't be personalized. It can't be tailored to me, based on my ZIP code or based on my income or based on whatever else is relevant to me. So the app really allows us to do that.

Brian Ford (08:20):

Yeah, that's fascinating. Aleks, talk a little bit about your reality as a co-founder. What are some of the truths that just go beyond the headline that you raised 2.8 million in venture capital?

Aleksandra Medina (08:32):

Oh gosh, I think this is such a funny conversation. I think even today, my friends don't really understand. Because obviously, like you said, these flashy headlines make it seem like everything is so perfect. But I mean, I think there's a couple of things. One is every single piece of media, to make people click on it, is going to present this as this huge success story, overnight success. These women, they woke up and they were like, "Wow, I have this incredible idea," and it just immediately worked out. Like $3 million is fell into my lap, but it's obviously not the truth and there's no such thing as overnight success. And there's so many years before that huge announcement where no one even looks your direction and recognizes your work.

Aleksandra Medina (09:25):

Again, expectations versus reality and benchmarking yourself to the actual truth, you might expect that you're going to go out there and you're going to be like, "Oh, AI-infused business," and someone's just going to hand you $3 million. That's not the truth. The truth is that me and my co-founder were working for two years, living literally paycheck to paycheck with such small amounts of money because every single dollar that we had, we had to put it in the business or put it in the people that were working with us. But for us, we only took the amount of money that we needed to survive.

Aleksandra Medina (10:02):

So that's one, there's no overnight success. Just because a company generates a lot of money or we raised a lot of money as founders, doesn't really mean that we are super rich. I think that's something that people just assume, that we're mega wealthy. It's obviously not the truth. I think being a good founder means you obviously reward yourself for your work, but you pay to get talent that's smarter than you, more talented, more experienced than you, and you are always at the bottom of the list of priorities. And I think the third one is, which has been, I think, a tough learning, and I think it's a little bit of maybe going against what most people preach on social media as this hustle culture and wake up at 5:00 am and plunge your face in ice water and rub banana peels over your face.

Aleksandra Medina (10:54):

That's great, if you can do that, but I think the longevity of a business is also reflective of the longevity of a founder and the ability to stay sane. And I think something that was a tough learning is that, at the end of the day, we are not just founders—we're also humans. And I started Frich—when I started Frich, I was 22 years old. So I was just a kid. And I didn't really know who I was. I didn't know what I wanted in my life. I was just trying to figure out what my values are, what my personality is, trying to learn how to be a good friend, a good daughter, a good partner. So both of these things happening in parallel and you have to have this push and pull and you're not just flashy TechCrunch founder, but you're also just someone that's struggling to be a good sibling at the same time. So I think finding that balance and just being a human being can survive all this stress and pressure so you can reinvest in your company is one of the tougher battles, I would say.

Bright Dickson (12:00):

Yeah, that's really huge, and thank you for saying that because I think that a lot of founders and entrepreneurs don't, and I think that's a huge part of what you've got to keep in mind, is that you're not just a founder, you're a person who founded a company. How does the passion you have and the purpose you have for this, how does that play into this? Is it helpful? Is it sometimes you've got to tamp down the passion to just take care of your needs? How does that play in?

Aleksandra Medina (12:27):

If it wasn't for my passion, any sane person that's looking at your chances of survival and success would've been like, "I'm out. This is statistically impossible to pull off." But I feel like, just a little bit more from my background, there's a lot of things that have to happen just right and a lot of things that worked out because I had financial support or had figured out a way to financially get out of the system that I grew up in. I really, genuinely believe that every single person has so much potential and there are certain things that might be holding you back and they're not about you. It's about your circumstances, and my genuine passion for believing that young people really need to have these honest conversations, and they need to have access on how to set themselves up financially to take bigger risks in their lives so they can pay off in larger ways.

Aleksandra Medina (13:28):

I think that keeps me going. And I think also at the same time, when we were building this company, it was—still is—a reflection of us as human beings because I don't know if you guys saw this in your research on me, but neither of me or my co-founder, we didn't study finance. So we were learning about how to be functional young adults at the same time as figuring out how does the system work? And the fact that we were creating this and speaking to our audience in the same terms that made sense to us and to our friends, I think that's what made the app really resonate. And that's also what is continuously making it ebb and flow with different realities that are happening in our lives as a generation, but also as just like 20-somethings, just going through life.

Brian Ford (14:25):

Oh, Aleks, I love this conversation. I love your candidness because it's an extension of your company. You're trying to help Gen Zers be like, look, not everyone who looks super cool and rich online is, and we’ve got to get to the core of what's really true. And then as we ask you about yourself, you're doing just that. So with you, I don't know if we need Frich because you're giving it to us straight, which I absolutely love. This is a great conversation so far. In our next segment, we're going to talk more about Aleksandra's experience as an entrepreneur and what type of mindset is needed to start a company or a side hustle. Stay with us.

Bright Dickson (15:12):

My specialty and what I focus on within Money and Mindset is the mindset part, happiness and the psychology of things like resilience and grit and perseverance. And I'm curious what you see happening with Gen Z when they face challenges maybe in their careers or their personal lives about money. What are you noticing about Gen Z and how they approach the obstacles that we all face as part of life?

Aleksandra Medina (15:41):

Yeah. Gen Z is not in any way super different from any other generation. I think we're all still going to school and then we graduate and then we look for a job and then we want to fall in love, and then maybe we want to have a family, so we go still through the same motions. But I think some things that are tougher for this generation than previous is the comparison aspect. So before, you had your immediate circle of people that you compared yourself to, and maybe you had some people on TV or magazines that you compared to, but it was a very, very clear distinction of this is reality and this is something else. That's disappeared today. You're constantly, every single day, comparing yourself to hundreds and thousands and potentially millions of people, and you're only comparing yourself to the very, very best version of themselves.

Aleksandra Medina (16:36):

And then you probably usually pull up your social media because you're just having a bad moment or you're lonely or you're sad and you're just finding a moment to just forget whatever you're dealing with. So the constant comparison of your worst to their best I think is really, really very difficult for this generation. One of the main things that we're working really hard at Frich is that most people, when it comes to money, are still taught that it's not OK to talk about it. So it's hard to encourage people to talk about things that they might be embarrassed about, and they're embarrassed about it because they think they're the only ones going through this and they're only ones experiencing this tough situation. So most people think it's a personality flaw that they've ended up finding themselves in this situation. And then you end up dealing with this whatever the financial situation is, let's talk about student debt, for example.

Aleksandra Medina (17:37):

You think you're the only one that can't make ends meet and you feel so lonely. You're the only one, it's a personal failure, but the goal of Frich and the goal of the app is that if you reveal this thing about yourself, you'll see that the reality is that there's a lot of people struggling with the same thing as you are. There will be people that are doing better than you, but there will also be people that are doing worse than you. And I think when it comes to money, it's that very unique thing of your life that touches every single aspect of your life, but you only see the negative parts and it almost always associates with negative feelings. And there's almost never a moment of someone patting you on the back of being like, "Wow, that was a good financial decision. That was so good of you that you did or did not do this."

Aleksandra Medina (18:28):

And the ability to bring that out and celebrate little wins or celebrate the fact that you are not the bottom half, that's just something very, very difficult to do. It is really difficult to be part of this generation. I think we grew up seeing our parents go through the 2008 crisis, and then we went to school and COVID hit and we're like, oh, the world's going to end. That's great. And then that passed, and then everything that's going on with the environmental crisis, with politics, with everything, it's just so much every single day. And now it's harder than ever to get an entry level job because now you've gone to school, you have tens of thousands of dollars of student loan debt, and now everyone's saying, "Well, that doesn't really matter because AI is going to do your job for you." So all of these things added up, it's so intense every single day.

Brian Ford (19:25):

Yeah, I appreciate that perspective, Aleks. I think those are some really important points that we could all use.

Bright Dickson (19:31):

Yeah, I agree. And as you're talking about it, so much of what you're doing isn't just about Gen Z, which I do think Gen Z absolutely faces some unique challenges. I mean, nobody's had their jobs taken away or their job prospects taken away by artificial intelligence in the way that's happening now, and it'll be interesting to see how that works out, but it's also just part of being young. And I think some of that leads to a sense of helplessness. If I'm always thinking I'm behind and I'm never going to recover and I'm never going to pay off the student debt and I'm never going to get a job, and all of those things that are part of the way most of us are naturally inclined to think, having something that gives us more of a reality check and is transparent and clear, that can lead to hope instead of hopelessness and agency instead of helplessness.

Bright Dickson (20:32):

And when I think from a positive psychology lens, there's this thing called hope theory. And basically it's about, OK, what do you need to actually have and activate on hope? And the good news here is hope is a virtuous cycle, but you need two things. You need agency, so this belief that I can do it, almost like self-efficacy, and you need pathways, you need ways to do that. And I think it sounds like Frich is providing both of those in an organic way, in a transparent way that really speaks to people where they are right now.

Aleksandra Medina (21:07):             

Yeah. No, I love hearing you say that because that is something that we try to do. For example, if someone comes to the app and tells us, "OK, I have so much credit card debt," obviously it's not great to have credit card debt. That's objectively a bad financial situation to be in, but the truth is there's going to be people that have more credit card debt than you or that have the same background that you have, and we can show you that they got auto credit card debt. And I think seeing this can reinvigorate you and can inspire you and think like, oh, me too. I can do that as well. If this person can, I can as well. Finding these moments to, like you said, reinvigorate people, give them hope, that's very, very difficult to do. But I do think that by showing, lifting up this illusion that everyone's doing so perfectly well and showing that most people are struggling with something and they're working through something and the majority of people do figure it out, and the majority of people are similar to you, and we're all experiencing the same problems.

Aleksandra Medina (22:21):             

So having this very humble realization that you are not that special with your problems can also just make you feel more hopeful that, oh, it's not just me. I'm not a catastrophe. I actually can also figure it out. And then like you said, immediately in the moment where you have this realization, showing them these tools and tips and resources and helping you figure out what is something that can work for you is something that we're working on.

Brian Ford (22:51):

Yeah. And, Aleks, we both know, we all know that part of adulting, becoming an adult, has a lot to do with managing our money, but it can also be about our career. Can you speak specifically to our listeners that want to start a side hustle or even starting a company and attracting investors? What can you share that would be helpful for them?

Aleksandra Medina (23:13):             

That's such a good question. I mean, I can only speak from my experience. So obviously I can only speak of someone that started relatively young. I would say the hardest thing for people to get over, and that was also the truth for me, was that you just need to get over yourself. You're really not that big of a deal. And if you make a mistake, probably no one will notice and no one will care and they're going to forget. So there is nothing bad about making a mistake, and no one will remember. So I think that is something that was such a liberating realization that I've made so many mistakes and done so many pivots and most people don't remember. I'm the only one that's hung up on those. So I think that is really, really helpful to realize that just do it. The first couple of ideas are going to be so bad anyways, just get them out of your system.

Aleksandra Medina (24:08):

This one is also a really, really hard learning because obviously it's hard to do. It's easy to say, but it's hard to do. It's really important to learn not to take nos personally. It's just part of the experience you're going to get so, so many nos and one is to learn to just shrug it off and have that belief in your mission, that you can just keep going until someone says yes. But I would also say that, quite frankly, a no is never fully the last no. Unless the person's like, "Please stop reaching out. Stop, leave me alone," there's no such thing as a final no. Just to give an example, when we first started raising money, there was this one investor that was our dream investor, that checked all the boxes, was going to be the perfect partner.

Aleksandra Medina (25:02):

And when me and my co-founder pitched to them, this person on the call 10 minutes in was like, "I don't want to waste my time. I don't want to waste your time. We should just end this conversation," which is devastating. But we ended the call 10 minutes out of one hour and my co-founder and I followed up and we're like, "OK, what do you need to see from us to take a call? Because we really want to work with you." And we ended up sending this person weekly updates for months until they ended up taking another call with us, ended up being our lead investor and then investing in us yet again afterwards, and now are our biggest investors and our biggest supporters. So I think that also is a hard thing to swallow, but a no is not a no. And if they do say no, it's not a reflection on your personality. It's just like you're just not there yet. So just prove to them that you can get to the point that they need to be your partner.

Aleksandra Medina (26:04):

And it's not just about obviously investors. It can be about your end consumer or it can be about someone you want to work with, like an ideal employee or co-worker, whatever. There's so many applications of this to life. And then, I don't know, this is something that has stuck in the back of my head. Someone said it very early on to me. They said, "The harder you work, the luckier you get." I think all of us can get stuck in this loop of being like, oh, but that person, they just got lucky, or they just know the right person, or they're just so brilliant, or they just woke up and they had this idea. But you can't really be lucky if you don't work hard and put yourself out there. So you also have to make sure that you can receive this luck. On the flip side, it's so rare that something just falls into someone's lap. It really, you don't get to see the behind-the-scenes work and the nos and the nays and everything. So I think those three things would be my little piece of advice.

Bright Dickson (27:09):

That's so powerful, Aleks. Everything you said, I want to dig into. It's a real story of perseverance and what it looks like in action. You don't get the theme music behind you to show the perseverance montage, and it's hard during it, and it can still pay off. It still works if you keep going with it and if you take control of what you can control. You didn't let the no stop you. You took control of what you needed to. You asked the questions you needed to, and eventually you landed that investor. And I think that's such a good lesson to our listeners. Aleks, thank you so much for being on the show. We've loved having you.

Brian Ford (27:47):

Yes, Aleksandra, thank you. I think the purpose behind Frich is totally in line with the purpose for this podcast, which is to inspire people to use their mindset to become confident about their money.

Aleksandra Medina (28:00):             

Yeah. Thank you for having me. I love the conversations you guys have here. It's such a good match.

Brian Ford (28:06):

That's going to do it for us today. Thank you for listening to Money and Mindset With Bright and Brian. We hope you found that little bit of hope that helps you see that you aren't alone, that you aren't without tools and resources to manage your money better. You can find more free guidance at truist.com/money-mindset. If you liked today's episode, please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We are grateful for your support.

Bright Dickson (28:32):

And I want to thank, again, our guest, Aleksandra Medina. You can connect with her company, Frich, through GetFrich.com or @FrichApp on Instagram. Brian and I will be back next month with another episode. Until then, we hope you're finding happiness and confidence in your financial life. Thanks for listening.

Unknown Speaker (28:54):

This episode of Money and Mindset With Bright and Brian is brought to you by Truist.