I joined Aspiration at seed stage as the founding editor, with little more than a few landing pages to work with, and grew into leading its content and digital marketing as the company scaled to more than a million accounts.
At a glance
Company: Aspiration, a seed-to-Series C neobank and ESG investing platform (B2C)
My role: Founding Editor, promoted to Senior Marketing Manager; reported to the Founder and CEO and led ~10 in-house staff and contractors
Focus: brand journalism, content strategy, podcast, video, paid social, email, partnerships, and compliance
Results: 89% lead growth · 1M+ account signups · a FINRA-audited content program
Why it mattered
Aspiration was asking people to do two unfamiliar things at once: trust a new kind of bank, and believe their money could do good for the planet. Before anyone opened an account, they needed to understand what Aspiration was and why it could be trusted. For a seed-stage company with almost no brand awareness, that was the whole challenge.
The challenge: building trust from zero
When I joined, Aspiration had a few landing pages and a big idea, and not much else.
No content program: nothing that explained the product or the mission in depth
No owned audience: no newsletter, podcast, or community to come back to
A trust gap: a new neobank and ESG investing were both unfamiliar ideas, and in financial services, unfamiliar means risky
A regulated industry: every piece of content had to be accurate and compliant
The approach
Instead of leading with ads, we led with education. The bet was that if people understood the problems with traditional banking and the impact their money could have, they’d come to Aspiration on their own. That became Make Change, an early example of brand journalism: a magazine that told real stories about money, values, and impact, with Aspiration as the natural next step.
What I built
Make Change magazine: launched and led the publication as founding editor, building the editorial strategy, voice, and publishing engine from the ground up.
A full-funnel marketing program: after my promotion, expanded beyond the magazine into a podcast, a YouTube channel, paid social, email campaigns, and in-person partnerships, including Coachella.
A member community: built an online community of Aspiration members, which became the brand’s first source of user-generated content.
Mission-aligned partnerships: partnered with sustainability brands and community organizations, including Mi Dinero Mi Futuro, to reach underrepresented audiences.
The first compliance program: worked with legal to create Aspiration’s first content compliance process. When FINRA audited the company, our content was recognized for its accuracy.
Playbooks and a team: built the first content playbook and templates, managed budgets across content, video, podcast, and paid, reallocated spend quarterly to the strongest channels, and hired and mentored a team whose members went on to lead creative teams, found companies, and build national media careers.
The results
Make Change grew leads 89%, and the program helped carry Aspiration from a seed-stage startup to more than a million accounts.
89% lead growth from Make Change
1M+ account signups
18% higher account signup conversion
FINRA audit passed, with content recognized for accuracy
In financial services, trust is the product before the product is. Educating people first, and making sure every claim holds up to a regulator, built the kind of credibility no ad budget can buy. It’s also where I learned to build marketing as a system: one strong engine, then every channel connected to it.
