News Detail
Jeff Cruttenden '05
Classmates of Jeff Cruttenden (‘05) may remember him as the guy who was already trading stocks in high school, so it may come as no surprise that he’s made a career of investing. The interesting twist is his innovative approach: A wildly successful start-up mobile micro-investing platform called Acorns. The Acorns app rounds up credit card purchases to the next dollar, automatically channeling the excess payment into an investment portfolio.
Cruttenden started Acorns as an easy way for people, primarily 18- to 34-year-olds, to begin building portfolios. “Young people have historically been disenfranchised from investing,” Cruttenden said, because it was too expensive. Acorns changes both perception and reality. Cruttenden estimates the typical Acorns customer invests $600–$1,000 per year, with an annual return of 4–9% depending on the chosen level of risk.
“We just want to get people to put something away,” Cruttenden said. “Someone who starts out investing their spare change may come back in a few months and realize, ‘Oh wow, I put away more money than I expected,’ and they’ll see the account differently. Maybe after 10 years, they have enough for a down payment on a home, or enough to feel comfortable pursuing an advanced degree or a start-up.”
The seeds of Cruttenden’s own start-up were cultivated in part during his years at Sage Hill. “Sage was a start-up when I was there,” Cruttenden said. “From day one it seemed we were thinking actively and creatively about the world and how we can make a positive difference.” He also found he could “dive deep into math” at Sage Hill, building the foundation from which he went on to major in math at Lewis & Clark College, graduating magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 2012.
By then, Cruttenden had already begun developing Acorns in partnership with his father. He also credits the advice and assistance of many Sage Hill classmates in the success of the endeavor. For example, Lauren Indvik (‘05) introduced him to a reporter at Mashable, leading to Acorns’ first media coverage. The article generated so much interest that the waiting list for an Acorns account “blew up,” Cruttenden said.
Cruttenden’s vision and success with Acorns landed him on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list earlier this year, as a noteworthy young professional in the field of finance. Today, Acorns holds $1.3 million in investment accounts and manages close to $300 million, while having saved its clients billions of dollars in commissions. The company has about 150 U.S. employees with about 20 more in Australia.
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