1787fp: Working toward Financial Independence

Jean Jacques Borno, CFP^®, Founder & CEO

For many years, traditional established brokerage firms and banks have focused on clients with substantial investable assets. As a result, only relatively well-off clients and institutional investors have had access to the best advisors, money managers, and processes. Jean Jacques Borno witnessed this firsthand when he worked at Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley, two of the premier financial services firms in the world. During his days as a financial advisor at these large firms, Jean was displeased with the current situation, as rising professionals couldn’t afford high minimum investments. The reason? They didn’t have the funds for these high investment minimums imposed by many of the big brokerage firms and banks. Jean had a zeal to serve the underserved, but little did he know that his vision would turn into a reality soon enough. After obtaining his CFP license five years ago, he continued to pursue finding a way to offer middle-class and emerging investors the same systems and processes that wealthy clients and large institutions have used for years and this was how 1787fp began. Founded at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business to democratize financial planning and investments, 1787fp is one of the first digital wealth management platforms that offer their users three of the most important financial tools on one unified platform. In this interview, Jean Jacques Borno, the founder and CEO of the company, shares some insights about his fintech startup and the uniqueness of its offering.

How was 1787fp named?

I am a big fan of the history of the United States. 1787 was the year when the Constitution was formed, and I picked up on that event as it portrays independence; our goal is related to the same idea, which is working toward being financially independent. This is followed by “fp,” which stands for financial planning.

I believe applying financial planning principles and tools can help more people achieve their financial goals faster and helps customers take a disciplined approach to achieving financial independence.

What is 1787fp?

1787fp is a powerful digital wealth management platform that helps its users track their finances, build optimal investment portfolios, and monitor their credit on one unified platform.

Give us an overview of the current challenges prevailing in the fintech space, or the innovator’s dilemma.

For fintech companies, one of the advantages they have is that they are small and nimble. This allows them to narrowly focus on their users’ pain points. On the other end of the spectrum are the incumbent companies, and many use legacy technology.

1787fp is a powerful digital wealth management platform that helps its users track their finances, build optimal investment portfolios, and monitor their credit on one unified platform

Since many of these large financial firms are public companies, they have to grow their earnings, and sometimes they might be averse to risk. However, sometimes they try to embrace change, but they are not able to rapidly implement change. As a compromise, these dominant financial firms may partner with new tech startup firms, which have cutting edge technologies that will allow them to keep up with new customer demands. For fintech startups, these partnerships can be a win-win situation and help them secure customer validation.

Take us through your solutions portfolio.

At its heart, the 1787fp app helps its customers connect the financial dots. It is an avant-garde financial platform that allows our customers to take control of their finances in one place and focus on achieving their financial goals faster.

The 1787fp app includes three powerful financial tools, which simplify our clients’ finance processes and also enable them to track their finances, build optimal investment portfolios, and save more money. For instance, a lot of customers cannot afford to get financial services from the big banks and brokerage firms as they require high minimum investments. To this end, we offer 1787fp users premium financial services at a reasonable cost.

We also help customers streamline financial management with our robust budgeting tools. What our test users’ love the most is that these tools are available on a unified platform, so that they don’t need to go to different websites and apps to address various financial management concerns. The 1787fp app offers a 360-degree view of all their finances—from investments, banking accounts, insurance policies, credit cards or student loans to mortgages, investments, and retirement plans.

Elaborate the onboarding process.

Consumers will be able to download our award-winning financial planning app for FREE. They can subsequently start building up their customized investment portfolios on the robust investment platform. Some of our well-known competitors offer a sliver of these kinds of solutions, but what makes us unique is that we are going to add the bridge between financial planning, budgeting, and investing on one unified platform.

We have been fortunate to start receiving requests from financial institutions for our services. We will offer select strategic partners access to 1787fp’s APIs. These partners can also offer these cutting-edge robust platforms to their customers. To keep our customers’ information confidential, we have incorporated bank-level security protocols. Also, we have some skilled board advisors with deep technical expertise, and we will leverage their experience as we build out our technology stack.

What is the factor that steers you ahead of the competition?

We started up 1787fp with a vision to build a premier financial management services company and improve the world by advancing financial literacy, financial technology, and entrepreneurship. We have adopted a strong culture of excellence. To accomplish this, we spent a lot of time thinking how we will attract and retain skillful designers, engineers, and executives.

What is the future of 1787fp?

We are going to expand and complete our user testing, and then we are going to take our product to market. 1787fp has tasked its designers with the goal to make mobile-first software that is powerful, fun, and easy to use. Many of our competitors launched the first version of their software prior to the release of the first iPhone in 2008. Rather than cram a financial website into a mobile app, 1787fp has focused on building a cutting-edge powerful mobile platform to help users work toward financial independence by offering them direct access to their most important financial planning tools and metrics.