Escaping the Analysis Paralysis of Managing Personal Finances with Will Peng

Founder Chats

About Will Peng:

Will Peng is the CEO and Co-Founder of Northstar, a financial wellness and benefits platform. Prior to founding Northstar, Will worked in Venture Capital and his firm was an early investor in Coinbase, Guideline, Even, and Oscar. Inspired by the positive change fintech can have on people’s lives, Will set out to solve the inequality of financial guidance.

About Northstar:

Northstar’s financial wellness program helps employees make the most of their total compensation, and helps companies support their teams at scale through onboarding, open enrollment, equity events, and more.

Northstar has raised more than $10M from investors including M13, Foundation Capital, Workday Ventures, and Parade Ventures. Our employer customers include Zoom, Snap, NerdWallet, Superhuman, Virgin Orbit, and more.

Show Notes:

1:30 Will Peng’s entrepreneurial journey

9:00 starting a career as a VC analyst

14:30 demonstrating proactivity when looking to switch careers

26:00 finding the right career direction through intuition and self-driven learning

30:00 most financial advice online is too broad to be effective - personal financial advice should begin with thinking through an individual problem as a case by case

34:00 the importance of having difficult conversations

44:00 developing an interest in FinTech infrastructure as an Asian-American immigrant

45:00 combating the culture of shame around personal finances

49:00 understanding how to handle stock options and making other large financial decisions