Inc. Magazine Features Pocketnest

CEO and founder, Jessica Willis, discusses the "magic" of creating a healthy work culture

As a financial wellness brand—particularly one that brought an employee financial wellness product to market—it goes without saying that Pocketnest founder and CEO, Jessica Willis cares about workplace culture. She's lived to tell many tales of what goes wrong in office environments and built Pocketnest to be different.

People are the backbone of Pocketnest

Jessica Willis created Pocketnest to bring financial wellness to the masses. With a social cause at the heart of the business and with a servant leadership mindset, she has built the startup on the following core beliefs:

People matter

With a people-first approach, we recognize and deliver on our colleagues’, clients’ and partners’ needs—whether business needs or human needs. We believe mental fitness is just as important as physical (or financial!) fitness and operate our business accordingly.

Hire intentionally

As a fast-growing startup, we’re incredibly mindful of how quickly we grow—and at what cost. We hire colleagues and take on new clients we LOVE, not just ones that will fill a seat or pay a bill. We’re an incredibly collaborative bunch, so it’s pretty crucial we actually like each other.

Scale with purpose

Whether we’re growing the business, the app itself or the team, we will always grow with a clear purpose of bringing financial wellness to the masses, and make business decisions accordingly. While the company will continue to burst at the seams, we never want to outgrow our scrappy and quirky roots. 

Live to serve

We have a lot of different groups who rely on us. Whether it's our fellow Pocketnest-er, a client, an end-user, or an investor, we always want to ensure we’re bringing clear and purposeful value back to each stakeholder.

Inc. Magazine catches wind of Pocketnest

On the heels of Fast Company and Forbes taking notice of the fintech, Inc. Magazine featured Jessica Willis in a story about workplace culture—and how to improve it.

Excerpt from Inc. Magazine below. Read the full story!

Jessica Willis, 46, founder of Detroit-based Pocketnest, a white-label financial wellness platform, has made a conscious effort to build a culture around transparency with her team. During the quarterly all-hands meeting with her 13 employees, Willis shares “pretty much everything going on” at the six-year-old company, she says. “It’s just easier than trying to not be transparent,” she says.

Overcommunicating, she says, not only creates trust among all employees, but fosters a genuine sense of connection. She says she and others know the real-life personal challenges everyone is going through or has been through, which allows them to support one another and deepens their relationships.

Inside the startup, there are still stressful moments, but Willis and her executive team try to take the pressure off. “We actually use this line all the time,” she says, “Everything matters, and nothing matters.” Because, she adds: “life is much more important than what you’re doing at work.”

Willis says she recalls being in her 20s and 30s and not feeling inspired by the leaders managing her at other companies. So when she started Pocketnest, she set out to create an environment so inviting that people would be excited to go to sleep Sunday knowing that Monday was coming, she says. “We laugh all day long."

Read the full story in Inc. Magazine!