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Rhinebeck Area Chamber of Commerce

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Association for Financial Professionals

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Alexa Von Tobel
Founder, CEO, Learnvest.com

Alexa von Tobel is the founder and CEO of LearnVest.com, the leading personal finance and lifestyle website for women. Alexa developed the idea for LearnVest in 2006, during her senior year at Harvard College when she realized she, and most of her peers, had never had any formal education on how to effectively manage their finances. Alexa searched for reliable financial guidance and consistently came up overwhelmed or disappointed. Thus, the LearnVest mission was born – to make trusted personal financial information accessible to millions of women across the country.

To date, LearnVest has helped over 1 million women gain control of their finances. Read More

After receiving her degree in Psychology at Harvard College, Alexa worked as a trader at Morgan Stanley on their Proprietary Trading Desk before leaving to be the Head of Business Development at Drop.io, a venture backed start-up in NYC. She enrolled in Harvard Business School in the Fall of 2008 only to take a leave of absence shortly after to launch LearnVest and pursue her dream of bringing financial literacy to millions of women everywhere.

In just under five months after leaving HBS, Alexa raised $1.1 million of seed funding from Angel investors. Less than a year later, in April 2010, Alexa closed a Series A round of funding totaling $4.5 million from Accel Partners, the venture firm responsible for backing Facebook, Groupon and more. In July 2011, Alexa went on to close a $19 million Series B round of funding including Accel Partners, two new financial investors, and original investors.

Since launching LearnVest in 2009 at TechCrunch50, Alexa has been widely quoted as a personal finance expert and entrepreneur in top tier business and consumer publications including: New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, New York Post, BusinessWeek, Shape, Fast Company, Marie Claire, ForbesWoman, InStyle, People StyleWatch, Time Out New York, The Huffington Post, AOL's Lemondrop, Mashable, TechCrunch, VentureBeat and many more.

In addition, Alexa has appeared on several major local and national television shows including The Today Show, CNN, The Rachael Ray Show, The Nate Berkus Show, Fox Business News, CNN, ABC News, Bloomberg News, Good Day New York, NY1 News, New York Live, CBS2 News and The Gayle King Show among many others. Alexa was recently chosen as one of 26 young business leaders included in a new book published by Harvard Business Review Press and written by John Coleman, Daniel Gulati and Oliver Segovia called Passion and Purpose: Stories from the Best and Brightest Young Business Leaders.

Alexa has been included on Vanity Fair's 2011 Next Establishment list, featured on Business Insider's 2010 and 2011 Silicon Alley 100 lists, named "One of the Coolest Young Entrepreneurs" in Inc. Magazine's 30 Under 30 feature, titled a "Woman to Watch" by Forbes and included on the publication's 30 Under 30 list, highlighted on BusinessWeek's annual list of "Best Young Tech Entrepreneurs," listed as one of "18 Women Changing the World" in Marie Claire, selected as a 2011 Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, recognized as one of 2011's "Game Changers of the Year" by AWNY (Advertising Women of New York) and named to the Ernst & Young Entrepreneurial Winning Women Class of 2011.

LearnVest has been named one of "25 Women-Run Startups to Watch" by Fast Company, included on Forbes' list of the "Top 100 Websites for Women" for the second year in a row, featured on Business Insider's Digital 100 list and included on Time Magazine's annual list of "50 Best Websites."

In addition to LearnVest, Alexa is the co-founder of L.W.A.L.A. (www.lwala.org) a 501c3 focused on fighting HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Alexa has spoken at Harvard Business School, Columbia Business School, Princeton, Yale, SXSW and at Maria Shriver's Women's Conference.

Full Biography (

PDF)

Speaking Topics

Six Money Mantras to Live By

Alexa walks through her six money mantras, the perfect foundation for getting your financial life in order. Her money mantras cover everything from creative tips for organizing your finances to managing debt to reaching retirement goals. As a renowned personal finance expert, this talk integrates Alexa's favorite tips that are relevant to a wide range of audiences.

How to Get Your Dream Company Off the Ground

At just 26 years old, with the economy in shambles, Alexa dropped out of Harvard Business School to pursue her dream of starting a company. Over the past few years, she has raised $25mm in funding for LearnVest and won numerous accolades (including "One of the Coolest Young Entrepreneurs" in Inc. Magazine's 30 Under 30 feature). Alexa shares the expertise she's gained along the way, outlining how to raise capital, know your user, spend $0 on marketing, identify your success metrics, and more.

The Only Budget You'll Ever Need

Alexa presents her essential budgeting principles, revealing the ins and outs of the 50-20-30 method. For each budgeting category: Essential Expenses, Financial Priorities and Lifestyle Choices, she shares insider tips for cutting your costs and living your richest life - no matter your income.