The challenge of making financial products and solutions as simple and easy as possible for people to understand and use is a challenge Vered Frank likes to take on. Vered is Head of Product Marketing for Vise, a Series C start-up reimagining portfolio management and a wealthtech portfolio company of powerhouse VC, Sequoia. Vise has raised over $125 million to become the latest wealthtech unicorn.
While Vered started her career in financial services, she became hooked when she realized what she was doing as a sales trader and portfolio manager, was helping people like her parents, friends, and family achieve their financial goals. The way she can help people was to focus on the education, transparency, and empathy of financial products.
After a successful career at Charles Schwab, Vered realized that she wanted to be at the intersection of tech and wealth, and had heard about a new wealthtech, Vise, from the various fintech newsletters and blogs she follows.
Location: Manhattan
I live in an apartment with my husband Micha and our cat Duncan
Hometown: Lived all over growing up so no real hometown. NYC and San Francisco are where I have spent most of my adult life and my family lives in NYC.
Favorite hobby: Running
Favorite part of your day: My morning runs along Hudson Park.
Favorite show to binge: Happy Endings. And looking forward to the next season of Emily in Paris.
Monday
7:00 am:
I like to start my work days with either a run along Hudson Park or a Peloton ride with my pal Cody. My husband and I moved to NYC in January 2020 right before the pandemic hit NYC and we were lucky to move into a building right by the water. You know the concept of ski on/ski off? Our apartment building is like that for running/walking by the Hudson River. I run about 6 miles and I usually listen to podcasts during the run which is a great way to catch up on all the new episodes.
10:00 am: It takes a bit of time for my brain to reboot after the weekend so usually I ease into the day by going through emails with latte in hand and planning out my day and week. I tend to keep multiple to-do lists - mostly written - that keep me on track and remind me what are the most pressing things I should be focusing on. Today was a bit more special because we shipped a new product feature so I made sure to triple check the email notification going out to clients and follow-up with the product team to confirm the feature was turned on. Ship days are always special days. It’s such a thrill to deliver a value adding features to our current and future users.
4:30 pm:
I have a virtual session with my therapist once a week. I know I’m not alone in feeling like the past two years have been tumultuous - to say the least. I am a big believer in therapy and decided to start working with a therapist again a few months ago. I take care of my mental health for myself, the people I love, and the people I work with. I found my therapist through Alma, a therapist matchmaking platform. For me, finding a new therapist I connected with was holding me back from starting therapy again and I found Alma invaluable in getting me over that hurdle.
Tuesday
8:00 am: Today is spin day. Because I’m no longer commuting to an office daily I prefer to run outdoors to get some fresh air but I also like to give my legs a bit of a rest from the pounding so on days that I spin try to find other ways to get outdoors at some point in the day. Usually a walk to a restaurant for dinner unfortunately.
11:00 am:
We have a hybrid work model right now so even if I go into the office I don’t get to meet other marketing team members so I like to have check-ins with the rest of the team to catch up on projects where we are working together or just in general to see how they are doing. Start-ups are roller coasters and a lot has changed since we started working together and I think it’s important to stay connected.
12:30 pm:
GTM is one function at Vise. It’s not a matter of partnering closely with sales, it's about being one team. The sales all hands is a great opportunity to see how our work translates to leads and business and it’s really exciting to hear the readouts. Plus the sales team is always super fun to work with and there is a lot of laughter on the call. We are hard workers but we enjoy working together. Laughter is important to me in company culture.
2 pm:
Brand design work and mood boards! More creativity than I usually get as a product marketing but a benefit of working at a smaller company where product marketing has a seat at the table for a lot of the brand work going on.
8:00pm:
Dinner out with some friends to socialize and get some fresh air. I find that when I work from home I barely move away from the computer all day which leaves me completely exhausted but spending time with good friends gives me a boost and nourishes the soul.
Friday
8:00 am:
Morning run to get some fresh air and energy. I used to see Friday as a day to slow down and unwind but that was pre pandemic/start-up/WFH life. If I don’t go into the office the days all blend together. I go to the office about a day every week on average.
12:00 pm:
Product demo for a marketing candidate. I really get excited about showing people how our product works and what makes it special. It also helps me continuously refine the product messaging based on the questions and feedback that come up during the demo.
12:30 pm:
Webinar day! With over 400 sign ups and 200 attendees it’s exciting to finally share the content and answer questions. I find I enjoy pulling together the content for webinars more than the presentation itself as I always worry about how I’m presenting but I also know that’s more in my mind than anything. There is always opportunity to improve but our webinars are well received.
4:00pm:
My Friday afternoons are finally time for me to catch up on all the work I can’t get to because of meetings. Sometimes they are my most productive days and I will work until 7/8pm. Other times I’m completely brain dead and will stop at 5pm. I listen to my body and try not to push too hard because I know when I will break.
Saturday
8:00am:
Every few weeks my husband and I escape the city to find a nice nature walk nearby. Today we headed to New Jersey to some trails by the Hudson River. I really love being out in nature. I find that I’m so focused on walking and not tripping that all thoughts about work, the world, and everything else fade away. We will usually look to do a 5-6 mile hike. This particular hike started off really flat but then had a steep climb down to the water. Then we walked along the Hudson for a few miles before gradually climbing back up the hill/mountain to where we parked.
8:00pm:
Dinner out at a new restaurant if I can find one - Saturday nights in NYC can be hard - but I will sometimes scroll through Resy weeks in advance and just book what I can find at the time. Then a few weeks later it’s a nice surprise to have a reservation waiting for us to check out.