IAM220- CEO and Serial Entrepreneur Behind an App That Lets You Make Wills and Trusts On Your Phone

Dave Hanley is the CEO of Tomorrow, whose Tomorrow App provides wills and trusts that you make on your phone. Dave is a serial entrepreneur with successful exits to Amazon and Deloitte and has had a career spanning industries as diverse as microcredit banking, social media marketing, digital music and financial technology. Dave founded Banyan Branch (acquired by Deloitte, 2013), a leading social media marketing agency; led product development for the Rhapsody Music Service, and joined Rhapsody colleagues to build a social network for readers called Shelfari (acquired by Amazon in 2008). Dave is a Fulbright Scholar, World Economic Forum Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, and recognized entrepreneurial innovator at TechCrunch Disrupt, Money2020, and SXSW.

• CEO Hack: Todoist to help get things done
• CEO Nugget: Give your own personal happiness, take care of your inner joy and satisfaction
• CEO Defined: You are the father and steward who understands the needs of the team

Website: https://tomorrow.me/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davehanley

Full Interview

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Transcription:

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:26

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresham from the I AM CEO Podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Dave Hanley of Tomorrow. And what I want to do, is to read a little bit more about Dave so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. And Dave Hanley is the CEO of Tomorrow, whose Tomorrow App provides wills and trusts that you can make on your phone. Dave is a serial entrepreneur with successful exits from Amazon and Deloitte and has had a career spanning industries as diverse as microcredit banking, social media marketing, digital music, and financial technology.

Dave founded Banyan Branch (acquired by Deloitte in 2013), a leading social media marketing agency. He also led product development for Rhapsody Music Service and join and joined Rhapsody colleagues to build a social network for readers called Shelfari, which was acquired by Amazon in 2008. Dave is a Fulbright Scholar, World Economic Forum Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, and a recognized entrepreneurial innovator at TechCrunch Disrupt, Money2020, and SXSW. Dave, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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Dave Hanley 1:29

I am!

Gresham Harkless 1:30

Awesome, awesome, awesome. So the first question I had was to hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story. What led you to start your business?

Dave Hanley 1:38

Yeah. So as you read in my bio. That did the job. That was the long version clearly. I have done this before. There actually came a moment, after, Banyan was a great run building with one of the largest places in the media industry after and we sold it to one of the largest consulting firms in the world. Became a partner there. It was nice making multiples of money per year, you know. That I never made before. But I really wasn't enjoying it. Being a consultant wasn't what I always dreamed about.

And so, a dear friend of mine saw me and said, he actually told me I was asleep. And then I didn't have the creativity I had across all the other ventures. And so, she sent me a couple of books to read and one of them is Ernest's Way, which a lot of people have done. Millions of people have done this but this is basically a 12-week self-directed course in creativity. We end up writing and writing and writing and what came out of it was ideas for a half dozen different companies. One of which I really fell in love with, was the Cornell that became tomorrow. And then, really went through the process of understanding, okay,

I have sold a couple of companies, I have done a lot of things wrong and what I want to do right and what I want to keep doing right that I have never done before and so I really stood up to do something intensional with what I have done with Tomorrow and it's been quite a journey so far.

Gresham Harkless 3:33

Yeah definitely sounds like you have had a lot of great experiences and sounds like you know, ups and downs, great successes which is always you know what we kind of measure, and then we always look at our friends to be able to kind of redirect us because ultimately we need to know exactly who you are, what you should be doing so friends we are so close to, sometimes we need those people on the outside to kind of say hey, you should go on X, Y or Z.

Dave Hanley 3:42

Oh absolutely. Shortly after we got the company launched I started spending time with Carbaugh Hoenegh. He is an investor. He was one of the first investors in Credit Karma. And he came to us, he came to me and said, hey Dave, I love what you are doing. You are the first Credit Karma has seen that reminds me of Credit Karma Let's spend some time together. So we would get on phone calls, you know, we would spend time together live and now he is on my board and I can tell you that, he is actually not a direct investor in Tomorrow, just an independent board member but that guy can tell me where my babies are going.

And I'll just like lean in and, tell me more. He is super familiar with data, willing to go deep, and goes all the way in but there's something about the relationship that he's built with me where I am desirous to hear his criticism, ideas, redirection, and having him as well as a collection of others around me that can do that really has, that was actually a big shift for me because otherwise, I don't want to hear anything negative I want to plow forward. And of course, plowing forward doesn't, doesn't always take you in the right direction.

Gresham Harkless 4:28

Yeah. And it goes to, you know, be able to build that team and to have all those great minds around you. So you're able to, you know, hit in charge forward in your goals and hit every mark that you want to hit. But at the same time, you're able to lean on and glean from all these experts that you have around you. So that's definitely great that you've been able to do that. And I wanted to drill down a little bit deeper and hear about Tomorrow. Can you tell us a little bit more about what you're doing from that standpoint?

Dave Hanley 4:50

You guys so Tomorrow was born out of this concept that we really wanted to help young families become more financially stable, right? And so when we look at the things that Uh, you know, like you go to a restaurant, you see the couple got a couple of young kids like the things are not doing like nobody has a will. Nobody has life insurance, like basically 80% of young families have neither one of those.

And so there's a few things like saving for college saving for retirement, getting out of debt appropriately, that I really wanted to figure out how to get young people to do. And so where we began with is an app that you download for your Phone, Android and iOS that you download it, you can make a will completely for free, no strings attached, it's a completely social experience.

So you invite your significant other to join you tomorrow together, you add your kids, and you make decisions together, like who's going to watch your kids if something happens to you, and, and who's going to be in charge of your will and making sure that all of your decisions are handled, take pictures of things around your house, give those away, all of that is completely free, and no strings attached. And then a small percentage of our users decide that they want to buy life insurance, where the licensed broker, we make that money, that's how we actually function as a business. And then you're gonna see more and more from Tomorrow that we'll see more and more free products coming in. And then more and more financial and other products that people need to get their lives on track.

Gresham Harkless 6:07

That's awesome. And I love that you made it kind of like a social and gamification, I guess type of experience where you're able to, you know, do something that's so important. And you're able to not only do it for yourself, but you're also able to, you know, bring on your significant other your kids have all that kind of wrapped in because so many people, especially younger people sometimes don't take into account the end. I mean, we all have an end so being able to kind of set that up before that actually happens, which a lot of people don't actually do.

Dave Hanley 6:31

Yeah, exactly. And then, you know, hopefully, you know, part of it is you learn when a guardian does you watch this video that explains it? Well, I made a video. That's what a guardian does. They love your kids, and they look after them the way that you would want them to. And then you start typing in the name of someone who might make a good guardian, we pull that contact from your phone and a tip a message that you can send to them that says, Hey, I'm getting my act together.

And part of that is picking out guardians for Nia and Maxim. And I think that you would make a great guardian. Came down to it, would you be willing to be on the list of potential guardians? And then that person can say, Oh, wow, yes, they come in, they joined tomorrow, and then they can start doing the same thing. So you actually can inspire other people to do that as well, which is about how, you know one in three of our users actually come in through that

Gresham Harkless 7:13

Nice, nice through or kind of organic outreach, just because people know is so important.

Dave Hanley 7:18

Yeah, we all know it's important. It's been on some checklist at some point, oh, I should really do that. And then, but that, no, the urgency isn't there. And we're good. We're gonna get in car insurance because we're not allowed to buy or lease a car, or get a car loan or without it, or rent or buy a house without homeowners insurance. But you know, there's no one who's there telling you like, you really need life insurance really need a will. You have to find that on your own. And so we're trying to make it as easy as possible.

Gresham Harkless 7:43

Awesome, awesome, awesome, I definitely appreciate you for doing that. And now I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And this could be for you or your organization. But this is what you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique.

Dave Hanley 7:54

For me or for Tomorrow?

Gresham Harkless 7:55

It could be for either or.

Dave Hanley 7:56

So for Tomorrow, you know, what were we really I think of where we stand out among everyone who's ever tried to do anything around estate planning, which is Wills and Trusts, or even really around the financial is that we've actually created the context to actually make it social so that you're actually engaging with your spouse or significant other against common goals. You are, you know, the vast majority of people who are assigned to be guardians in America, no one's even told them that that could actually be a possibility. And so we're actually trying to create these important conversations now.

And that's something that we do that no one else has ever done. And then really just making it visual. So download the app, it's completely free, just use it, check it out. And you'll see that you know, you've never done this before. And so might feel overwhelming, and you don't want to get it wrong, and we walk you through it. It's very visual, it's enjoyable actually to do. And then in the end you you know, you get documents that are legal in your state that you just can print and sign.

Gresham Harkless 8:51

Yeah, that's definitely huge. And you know, like, I've always felt like, you can definitely correct me if I'm wrong. A lot of times, what can prohibit people or hurt people are sometimes like family members that pass away, they don't have a living will or trust or all those things in place. And then it's such a financial burden on you know, other family members because they have to figure out how to take care of things sometimes goes into I guess Escrow is the right word, but it goes someplace where you don't have as much control as you could have if you would have taken the steps earlier.

Dave Hanley 9:18

So yeah, so so there's a probate. Probate court can be a challenge. Now there are laws that make sure that things go where the state wants them to go. But if you know, there are whole groups of people that are completely vulnerable. So if you're in a relationship with someone for years and years even and that person if you're not married, that person actually has no rights to your assets and their rights, any of your decisions.

So if you're in a relationship and you're living with someone you need to have a will really almost more than anyone other than a single parent, you must have a will otherwise your significant other will have nothing if anything happens to you. The most is as a single parent. So as a single parent, especially if you are in sole custody, if anything happens to you, there is no plan in place for who's going to watch your kids.

So that person that you want that's most in line with your beliefs is probably not gonna be the person that the state chooses. Because literally, the state will just look among who shows up, it can be the loudest, you know, aunt or uncle, who's you know, political or religious views do not reflect your own whatever it is, they're gonna show up and say, it's gonna say, well, this person is willing to do and they're gonna give your child to that person. So having a will in place, really, for any parent, but especially a single parent is critical otherwise, now we have you know, right now in Tomorrow, we've had hundreds and thousands of children that have been, you know, protected, using the app and saved from that those scenarios.

Gresham Harkless 10:42

Yeah, and it's definitely huge. I am a big believer, and I always say to myself, control what you can control no matter what level, so being able to take those steps so that if your, your son or daughter, you know, is young, and something happens to you, you're able to at least control that to some degree and taking these simple steps is a big way to do that.

Dave Hanley 10:58

Yeah, I mean, it'll take you five to 10 minutes to do it all as well. So right in the back of the viewer, whatever it is, commercials during one TV show, you can literally get knocked this all out.

Gresham Harkless 11:08

Exactly, exactly. Well, I love how you made it so simple and easy, and seamless for people to be able to do that. And I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And this might be an app or book or habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient.

Dave Hanley 11:22

So I already talked about Ernest's Way, which I think is a great book to check out. You know, one of the things that comes as a CEO is you have a backlog of two dues, right? And so you have all these things that you know, you need to do big and small and otherwise. And I've always found that anytime I create a to-do list, it is like 1000 things wrong, and then I get overwhelmed, and then I don't do any of it.

And then I just throw it out and start all over again. And so the app that I love, it's just it's the most basic of the app, it's actually called Todoist. And so ToDoist is basically you said, oh, I need to do this thing. But I'm gonna do it on Thursday. And then as soon as you say I'm gonna do it on Thursday, it disappears. So I'm only ever looking at the things I'm actually going to do today.

And you drag and drop, and I think bing, bing, bing, bing, and then I get things done. And then I can balance my whole day, and then not worry about the fact that I also have a backlog of 60 things I'm going to do over the next few days, it allows me to be a little more decisive and strategic about what I'm doing. And so it's, it's just a simple app, but you know, there's an app for your phone, there's an app for your computer, but that's one that, you know, has actually probably saved me more personal anguish, and as allowed me to not go to bed at 2 am trying to crank through more of my to-do list.

Gresham Harkless 12:31

And now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this is a word of wisdom or piece of advice. Or if you can happen to be a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Dave Hanley 12:41

For me, I really think that the number one most important thing that you can give to your team and to your investors is your own personal happiness. And so the most important way to do that is not to look exogenously to look outside yourself but look inside. And so taking the time for whatever it is that you need. For some it could just be exercise, but whether it's therapy, or having a great CEO, or coach, whatever it is like we all have things inside that we need to dig around in and lead out.

And if we can actually find that internal joy and self-satisfaction, which I've really, really found over through all these ventures and when I have that, that I will truly be my best self. And so it always seems like time away, and I should look arduous and I shouldn't be I shouldn't be taking time away. But as we said, before we started recording, I just came back from Safari in Africa, right? And yes, I worked all the way there and I worked all the way back. And while I was at this wedding, I met people that are going to be a kitty and critical of the things that I'm going to be doing. Yeah, I spent three days out in the bush, looking at animals and feeding my soul. And those things make all the difference.

Gresham Harkless 13:50

Awesome, awesome, awesome. And now I want to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different, quote-unquote, CEOs on the show. So, Dave, I wanted to ask you what being a CEO means to you.

Dave Hanley 14:02

In my mind, being a CEO means that you are that you're the father, I'm a father of four children, and literally a father of four children. I'm gonna use the word patriarch, which patriarchy isn't really common but this idea of having someone whose job is to be the senior leader who's actually the Steward looking after the needs of other people. So understanding the needs of especially the people who work most directly with you, but also the team making sure that they have all the resources that they need, that they're actually listened to. I actually spend more time in my one on ones trying to understand, things personally interpersonally like, how are they what are they doing to work on themselves, and actually helping themselves develop?

And then, of course, we get to all the, you know, the needed tasks and metrics that need to be handled. I think that if you can find a way to bring both love and strength while still retaining the power that you need as a CEO, then you can do that. And I think that's what a father who does his job well does that they bring all the love completely unfettered. They bring all the understanding, they bring the listening years, but then they still understand in the end like they're the Father. And they're the one that needs to, you know, help continue to guide and direct. But also make sure that everyone has everything that they need to be their best selves.

Gresham Harkless 15:12

Absolutely. It's a great thing of being able to build a team and be able to lean on everybody else's expertise and their gifts as well, too. So you've done a phenomenal job with that Dave, and I truly appreciate you for taking some time out. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic just to see if there's anything additional, you want to let our readers and our listeners know and of course, how best they can get a hold of you and download the app and get started.

Dave Hanley 15:32

Yeah, I think the thing I would just close with is I built this company for a purpose, right? And so when I looked at all the things that I wanted to do, this was a problem I wanted to solve, right? It's you know, there are 50 million children in America alone, who have no plan in place for it. But something happens to the parents, and I wanted to solve that problem. And that's why we do it tomorrow. So chances are, if you're listening to this, you haven't done your will. And if you have it's out of date. And so download the app, it's free, you don't have any excuses. And then just send me your feedback. I'm Dave, at tomorrow.me. So you can just shoot me a note and let me know how we can make it better.

Gresham Harkless 16:06

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, I appreciate you, Dave. And we'll have that link in the show notes as well so that they can get ahold of you and see all the awesome things that you're building and growing. And I truly appreciate you again, I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Dave Hanley 16:17

Thank you have a good one.

Outro 16:19

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co

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