Case Study

Sagewell Financial

TYPE : UI / UX / PRINT

STARTUP DESIGN SERVICES

DURATION : 24 MONTHS

Sagewell Financial

Providing design services across digital, print, and beyond for a brand new neobank focused on the unique needs of retirees.

Select screens from the landing page and account creation flow. Early product explorations were under the name “Wecos.” This one focused on finding savings through past spending behaviors like Truebill / Rocket Money.

Background

We met Sam, CEO of Sagewell in late 2020 while he was just getting started. He was fresh from his last exit looking for his next big problem to solve. As the idea and team began to congeal, he tapped us to handle design needs across a number of touch-points.
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All we knew at this point was we were aiming to solve one of the many problems happening in the senior retirement crisis.

Select screens highlighting savings opportunities Wecos identified and a breakdown of savings categories.

Problem

Sam and team didn’t see one single problem to focus on right away, there was a buffet of problems in the space for us to explore. Our goal was to find a wedge in the market.
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Over the course of the next 8 months, Sam assembled a world class team and we explored a lot. We uncovered more opportunity at every turn and pivoted the product and the target user a number of times - honing it down.

A long scrolling full screen image of an initial landing page concept for the marketing site of Sagewell.

We designed landing pages for nearly every pivot. This was one of our favorites. We did the design and copy.

What Happened

In that time one thing became crystal clear. To really help this demographic, we needed a comprehensive look into their financials. To help seniors save for retirement, we needed to “own” the wallet. Wecos / Sagewell had to become a bank. Or, as we came to call it, “a bank-like substrate.”
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Around this time we also decided that the current name (and wordmark / colors we whipped up for testing purposes) were not doing the job of establishing trust. We were spending too much time explaining what “Wecos” meant. And not enough time convincing seniors to ditch their incumbent banks.
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Full Nelsen introduced trusted partners Studio Rd for rebranding purposes and Marsh & Meadow to help Wecos with a new name.

Full Nelsen introduced trusted partners Studio Rd. for rebranding purposes. If you’re interested in a new logo/brand, check them out here.

Further

Sam and team thought up several innovative retiree-focused financial service products.

As we introduced them to users and honed the checking account product, we implemented the new brand across the web, launched apps on the app stores, and began to create print collateral.

As part of our push to capture more users and build trust, we ventured into print touch-points. Full Nelsen handled collateral for the sales team, welcome packets for users, and created a quarterly magazine called the “Sagewell Journal.”

Results

Full Nelsen designed and helped ship dozens of features and tests. Investors were impressed by everything about the team and the traction we were seeing.

Sagewell closed a series A in late 2021 of 5.2M. Full Nelsen was the design partner every step of the way.

Month Engagement

5.2M

Series a

Two mobile phones displaying the Sagewell customers own experience to get directions to businesses, view checking account details, and more.

Full Nelsen designed and helped ship dozens of features and tests.

(Full Nelsen) knows what it’s like to build a company from scratch. He’s been there. He knows how things change, is willing to roll with the punches, and also knows when ‘MVP’ is being used to mean ‘poorly’ instead of ‘to validate quickly’.”

— Sam Zimmerman

CEO, Sagewell Financial

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