Alexa Von Tobel
Alexa von Tobel (born circa. 1984 ) is the founder and CEO of LearnVest.com, an award-winning personal finance website. Von Tobel is the author of the New York Times bestseller Financially Fearless, which debuted on December 31, 2013. In April 2014, President Obama and Secretary Pritzker announced that von Tobel is an inaugural member of the Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship, alongside Steve Case, Reid Hoffman, Tory Burch and others. Originally from Florida, Von Tobel received an A.B. in Psychology at Harvard College. After graduation, she worked as a trader at Morgan Stanley before leaving to be the Head of Business Development at Drop.io. Von Tobel came up with the idea for LearnVest in 2006 while working at Morgan Stanley when she realized she and most other people had never had any formal education about how to manage their personal finances. She enrolled in Harvard Business School in the Fall of 2008 but took a leave of absence to launch LearnVest[citation needed]. Von Tobel has been included in lists like Business Insider’s 2010 "Silicon Alley 100," Inc. Magazine’s "30 under 30: The Top Young Entrepreneurs of 2010," “Women to Watch” by Forbes, “18 Women Changing the World” in Marie Claire, and BusinessWeek’s annual list of “Best Young Tech Entrepreneurs.” In 2012, she was selected as a Fortune "Most Powerful Women Entrepreneur" and named a scholar at the Aspen Ideas Festival. In April 2009, Von Tobel closed a $4.5 million series A round of funding led by Accel Partners. To date, Learnvest has raised outside equity of $72 million, from investors including Accel Partners, AmericanExpress Ventures and Northwestern Mutual Capital. As a personal finance expert and entrepreneur, von Tobel has been featured in business and consumer publications including: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek, Fast Company, Forbes, Shape Magazine Marie Claire, The Huffington Post, Mashable, TechCrunch, and more. Von Tobel has also appeared on several local and national televisions shows including: The Today Show, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, CNN Newsroom, Anderson, Katie Couric, The Rachel Ray Show, The Nate Berkus Show, Bloomberg, CNBC Power Pitch, MSNBC Your Business, NBC 4 NY and several others. Von Tobel has been included in lists like Business Insider’s 2010 and 2011 "Silicon Alley 100,” Inc. Magazine’s "30 under 30: The Top Young Entrepreneurs of 2010," “Women to Watch” by Forbes, “18 Women Changing the World” in Marie Claire, Vanity Fair’s “Next Establishment” index, BusinessWeek’s annual list of “Best Young Tech Entrepreneurs,” and “2012 Fortune Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs.” Von Tobel has been a featured speaker at several conferences and events such as the 2012 SXSW Interactive, TEDxWallStreet Event at NYSE, Stern Entrepreneurs Exchange Summit 2012, Ruth’s Chris Steak House and Marie Claire Celebrate Female Entrepreneurs: Women in Business Speaker Series, Fortune Summit: Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs, and Inc.’s GrowCo Conference in 2013. Von Tobel hosted the first live event for the website, LearnVest LIVE, in October 2012, featuring lectures by fashion designer Cynthia Rowley, Top Chef judge Gail Simmons, Marie Claire editor and Project Runway mentor Joanna Coles, Gilt Groupe cofounder Alexandra Wilkis, and one of LearnVest’s CFP professionals and their Director of Financial Planning, Stephany Kirkpatrick.