One Year In

We may not be the typical people you’d expect to be building a bank comparison site. Which is why, perhaps, we’re on this path.

By Megan Hryndza and Sophia Wagner. January 29, 2021

Today marks one year since we launched the mightydeposits.com platform.

You might call us reluctant fintech entrepreneurs. We don’t have traditional banking backgrounds. We don’t look like typical fintech entrepreneurs (male). We didn’t grow up in the valley of venture funding.

But we each have backgrounds related to finance: Megan has experience in finance communications, and Sophia, a degree in policy and economics, as well as stints working at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and a CDFI community lending organization, Craft3.

We each — from our own experiences — saw a banking system that had some cracks, failed promises, and customer discontent. A system that seemed increasingly distant and walled off from the lives and concerns of a growing number of Americans. A system that seemed unnecessarily opaque to its average user: a guise to convey sophistication and complication, rather than what it seemed more likely to be, which was a way to keep customers passive and unquestioning.

It was through each of our work with companies related to ShoreBank in Chicago that we each came to see the amount of data available on the banking industry, and what banks actually do with their customers’ money. Data that once we saw it for its potential to make banking more transparent, and customer-centric, we couldn’t look away.

We’re educated, inquisitive people who believe that our actions can make a difference. We liked the idea of being able to use hard data to find banks that could do with our patronage what our favorite companies do: give us a great product, a great experience, and be good corporate citizens, too. We liked being able to sort through noise (and greenwashing) to find the good eggs.

And we realized, our friends and colleagues dug this idea, too.

It’s more than us believing that everyone deserves to know what their bank does with their money and see all banking options in one spot. It’s knowing that this is just the way of the future, which is already here, and it’s time for banking to get on board: more transparency, not stalled transparency. Greater accountability to all stakeholders, vs. just shareholders. More choice and control in the hands — and pockets — of customers.

Now with a year of data under our belt about how students, activists, nonprofits, businesses, foundations, churches, impact investors, financial planners, entrepreneurs, moms, dads, artists, homeowners, treasurers, accountants, and more are searching for banks with consideration for impact, ESG, CSR, equity, community reinvestment, place-based focus, and more, we’re so optimistic about the power of people and organizations acting informed and intentionally to shape the banking industry, versus a behemoth of an industry seemingly operating autonomously and independently of the people and organizations who fund it through their bank deposits.

We fall victim to not celebrating our progress as often as we perhaps should because there is still so much work to do, and we get busy in the tactical details of doing the work. But today, we’re grateful for how far we’ve come.

We’re grateful for those who've made us stop and reflect.

We’re grateful to have earned the trust of all who have recommended Mighty, from activists and financial planners to foundations and mainstream media. The diversity of our audience confirms that the need for transparency in powerful industries like banking is something everyone can get behind. Our nontraditional perspective, it seems, is needed, and overdue. We’re cultivating the type of experiences and building the sort of bridges we’d like to see between people and banks. Because the space between the industry and its users is not just transactional, but relational.

We’re grateful to the many individuals and organizations who've paved the way for us to get to this point. Here’s a non-exhaustive list.

Above all, we’re grateful for the tens of thousands of people who took time out of their lives this past year to use our tools and ask themselves: what is the impact of my money in my bank, and its potential?

Like votes shape our government, the placement of checking and savings accounts — and taking out loan and other financing relationships — shapes the banking system and in turn, the economy. By choosing where we bank, we’re voting with our dollars and our business where we want the industry to go (including what leaders represent it, and how they’re held accountable).

Thanks for reading. Thanks for using Mighty. Thanks for thinking about: what if customers’ money controlled the banking industry, versus the other way around?

Feedback that keeps us going:

“We’ve been thinking a lot about how to help people bank intentionally, and think Mighty Deposits is the most comprehensive, balanced resource available, so we’ve been referring everyone to you.” -Foundation leader

“I tell everyone I know about Mighty and have directed many your way.” - Wealth manager

“I finally moved my money from a global bank to a local bank, and used Mighty to aid my decision.” -Financial advisor

“Mighty made it really easy to find a bank with a mission I loved and a better interest rate than my current bank. Win-win.” -Blogger

“Mighty seems like a resource built for this moment.” -Impact Investor

Onward.

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