By Krysten Brenlla
Moms are always on the run. Did the kids take their lunch today? Did the kids finish their homework? Where’s that document for our tax returns? Where’s the kids’ social security cards for that school application?
You don’t have to tell us – it’s a crystal-clear image in your mind right now (we get it if you need to take a coffee break, mom!)
That’s why when Jaclyn Strauss, a wife, a mom of two kids, a dog mom, a certified public accountant, and now a first-time business owner, suffered a post-delivery hemorrhage during the birth of her second child, she knew that if she didn’t make it home alive, her husband wouldn’t stand a chance.
All their family’s important documents – their house deed, vaccinations, tax returns, social security information, school documents, and more – were scattered in different locations in their home and online that only Strauss knew about.
“As a mom, I do everything – I was the only one who knew where everything was. My husband would have been lost,” Strauss told Refresh Miami. “I wanted to give my family the chance to continue on without me, so I realized we needed a solution.”
An extensive market search showed Strauss that nothing existed in the market that could act as a digital vault to store valuable information and documentation.
That’s why Strauss founded 2ndVault with her co-founder and independent financial planner, Nicole Mayer. A B2B software as a service (SAAS) company based in Fort Lauderdale, 2ndVault provides enterprises, like banks, a digital platform to help their clients store their personal information and documentation.
“Nicole and I make the perfect Yin and Yang,” says Strauss. “We approach decisions differently because of our different professional experiences and upbringings, but ultimately, having two lenses, one that knows entrepreneurship and one that knows corporate America, serves us in ways we could have never predicted.”
On top of targeting enterprises and professional service providers, 2ndVault’s business model also targets end users in search of a secure digital vault. With an annual subscription, 2ndVault’s model allows end users to store their most critical and sensitive information quickly and easily online, on their own.
But Strauss and her team of six found that 2ndVault works best as a product for enterprises, because customers feel the most comfortable with the systems they’re already using.
“When we conducted our market research, we found that people wanted to stay where they were at – they didn’t want a new username or a new password and they didn’t want to learn a new system,” says Strauss on why 2ndVault works best as a B2B platform. “If they were already engaged with an advisor or attorney, they wanted to stay there. If they were already using platforms like Google Drive or DropBox, they wanted to keep using those platforms, so we integrated 2ndVault within them.”
2ndVault uses an open API to integrate its digital vault into white-label platforms and national enterprise products or applications that clients are already using (think, your everyday banking app) to help financial advisors, brokers, and bankers retain their clients, provide generational planning opportunities, and find solutions to their clients’ needs – like setting up a life insurance policy, for example.
“Let’s say somebody reports in the app that they don’t have life insurance. 2ndVault’s integration will alert the banker that the client answered ‘no’ to life insurance, which gives the banker the opportunity to sell their solutions to the client,” says Strauss. “The client doesn’t feel like they’re being sold because it’s a consultative-type of selling.”
2ndVault also allows its users to designate confidantes to whichever section they choose, such as their attorneys with real-estate assets or will and testament documents, or financial advisors with their taxes.
“When someone loses a loved one, the time they take to find everything and sort through physical papers and breadcrumbs to get affairs in order is endless,” continued Strauss. “People lose productivity at their jobs because they have to deal with this.”
South Florida has played a key role in 2ndVault’s growth. Strauss says that the opportunities to jump into the #MiamiTech movement, such as having their own booth at this year’s eMerge Americas and participating in NSU’s Incubate program at the Alan B. Levan Center has helped take 2ndVault to new heights.
For the future, Strauss hopes to continue leveraging all that the South Florida tech community has to offer to enhance 2ndVault’s technology while landing new enterprise clients, so that other moms and loved ones can have some peace of mind.
By the end of 2022, 2ndVault plans to launch 2ndVault 2.0, which will include an enhanced user-experience with additional features to help bring greater efficiency to people’s daily lives, like notifications when a subscription is set to expire or a reminder of a loved one’s birthday.
“The best way 2ndVault is going to grow is by reaching end-users in the masses through networking and putting ourselves out there, and we think Miami is offering more than enough opportunities to do that and more.”
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