Even before a child is born, the parents-to-be are often told to start saving for school, whether it's for private k-12, college, vocational school, or grad school. While this is solid financial advice, the process itself can be daunting, especially given today’s economic climate. And even after an education savings plan (commonly referred to as a 529) is opened, having others contribute to it is nearly impossible. Enter Hadley, a powerful but dead-simple app that makes college savings social.
Founder Yosh Miller was compelled to start Hadley after he found himself struggling to contribute to his nieces’ education plans. As a first-time non-technical entrepreneur, he knew he needed to partner with technology experts to bring this dream to fruition, especially since the path to a solution wasn’t immediately evident. He turned to Tanooki.
Says Miller: “Tanooki was able to take all my inputs, apply their own ‘best industry practices’ knowledge, and create something that aligns 1:1 in my brain. But they made it even better by proactively identifying and incorporating features that I hadn't even thought about.” Here’s how we did it.
Research & Prototyping Were Key
Our Tanooki development and design teams collaborated with Yosh from the beginning, starting first with an ideation prototype of how the app should function. The ideal end state would allow people to make 529 contributions as simply as sending a Venmo payment. Yet financial industry regulations and back-end system incompatibility made this anything but simple. So we focused on researching possible solutions to streamline a convoluted process as well as ensure all of the back-end systems communicated with each other.
Partnership Made This Possible
Collaboration was key throughout the entire engagement, and Miller agreed. He shares that the most helpful part about working with Tanooki was “having smart brains in the room to debate, explore, & build ideas. Consultative doesn't even scratch the surface of how collaborative this team is.”
Besides partnering with Yosh and the Hadley team, we enlisted trusted solutions like
Plaid,
Stripe, and
Skyflow to bring this to market. Harnessing their APIs and utilizing our design and UX expertise, we were able to craft an extremely complex back-end flow with an intuitive and streamlined user experience.
Creation of New Technology
The result? “We created a new technology that doesn't exist elsewhere,” says Miller. “We built the pipes that connect any bank account to any 529 account.” The Hadley app showcases true financial innovation with its novel payment flow that works seamlessly, is safe & secure, and is in regulatory compliance.
Hadley is also unique because it's SEC-Registered Investment Adviser, which allows them to advise people on which 529 plan would be their top-rated, lowest-cost option.
Hadley is currently in the market, and Miller is excited to see it grow and expand. “As a first-time founder, I'm grateful for my partnership with Tanooki. They make it easy to adapt to my always-changing, always-stressful needs and situations, which makes partnering with them a true delight.”
You can download Hadley for
iOS and
Android, and learn more about them at
GoHadley.com.