PBN BUSINESS WOMEN AWARDS 2020 ACHIEVEMENT HONOREE: Margaret Hartigan | Marstone Inc.
MARGARET HARTIGAN found a lot to like about Providence.
The co-founder and CEO of financial-technology company Marstone Inc., and New Hampshire native, spent lots of time in Providence while attending Brown University.
“It’s an unusual city, given its size,” Hartigan said of Providence in choosing it as a locale for her office. “There’s an incredible level of creativity and diversity here.”
Founded in 2013, Marstone’s first Rhode Island home was at Hope Artiste Village in Pawtucket, and it eventually moved to its current quarters at 171 Chestnut St., above the Art Bar in the Jewelry District.
Hartigan wanted to take advantage of the emerging tech sector centered around Brown’s Warren Alpert Medical School in Providence. She’s led workshops at Brown’s Entrepreneurship Program, which has introduced Marstone to potential employees.
Her company has created a digital platform that allows users to custom design financial portfolios based on factors such as age, goals and appetite for risk. Hartigan said one of Marstone’s goals is to “demystify and humanize” finance.
The platform is available through financial institutions, such as investment companies and banks, who can brand the platform as their own (called “white labeling”) while Marstone powers things behind the scenes.
Hartigan said it was easier, and less expensive, to use a business-to-business model to market Marstone’s platform, rather than go directly to consumers.
“To make the biggest impact, we wanted to work where the clients already are. Transformation comes from partnership, not disruption,” she said.
The “stone” in Marstone is designer and strategist Robert Stone, who Hartigan knew from her days in San Francisco. She said she originally spoke to him about designing logos, but his role grew to become co-founder and chief creative officer.
Marstone’s Chestnut Street office mixes simplicity with technology. The conference room’s digital platform helps users customize the platform by importing a background picture of themselves, their family, or whatever else they want.
The computer also asks what kind of investments are desired, among them biotech, gold, internet, clean water and more. Then it comes up with a suggested portfolio, with investments represented by colored boxes on a chart.
“We are a financial-tech company, but we’re also a very creative company,” Hartigan said. “To communicate that, you need a strong premise, the ability to flesh out an idea. So, it’s served me well in expressing complex ideas to a lot of different kinds of people, including our own team members.” n
