Thrive or Justthrive.com, was a free,

web-based A web application (or web app) is application software that is accessed using a web browser. Web applications are delivered on the World Wide Web to users with an active network connection. History In earlier computing models like client-serve ...

personal financial management Personal financial management (PFM) refers to software that helps users manage their money. PFM often lets users categorize transactions and add accounts from multiple institutions into a single view. PFM also typically includes data visualizations ...

application offering personalized

financial advice A financial adviser or financial advisor is a professional who provides financial services to clients based on their financial situation. In many countries, financial advisors must complete specific training and be registered with a regulatory ...

and specifically targeting people in their 20s and 30s. The service offered online money management and planning, as well as using

algorithm In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific Computational problem, problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specificat ...

ic advice to offer personalized guidance, based on transactions pulled from a user's loan, bank, and credit card accounts. It was acquired by

LendingTree LendingTree is an online lending marketplace headquartered in Charlotte, NC. The business platform allows potential borrowers to connect with multiple loan operators to find optimal terms for loans, credit cards, deposit accounts, insurance, et ...

in 2009, and its original branded website was permanently shut down on June 3, 2011.

History

Founded by Avinash Karnani and Ori Schnaps in 2006 as a

startup company A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend t ...

, Thrive was conceived when the founders noticed that their twenty and thirty-something peers had little access to credible financial planning. After entering private beta in early 2008, it was formally launched at Finovate 08 in October 2008 and reached the "$100 million under management" benchmark in less than two weeks. Thrive was acquired in full by

in February 2009. Despite the acquisition, however, development remains based in New York City and continues to be staffed by the original team.

Features

* Financial Health Score to help users monitor their

credit score A credit score is a numerical expression based on a level analysis of a person's credit files, to represent the creditworthiness of an individual. A credit score is primarily based on a credit report, information typically sourced from credit bu ...

and savings to debt ratio. * Actionable, step-by-step advice to help users improve their finances. * Entire site, including advice, presented with minimal technical terminology: in "plain English". * Dedicated customer support, including a toll-free phone number (1.888.831.4080) and non-form email response (support@justthrive.com). * Enhanced budgeting, termed "behavioral budgeting", that is based on the concept of "actions". The budget tells users what they can do each week and month, based on their individual spending habits and goals. * Brings together checking, savings, credit card, CD, investment, retirement, loans, and other financial accounts into a single, automatically updating interface. * New features are released on a roughly monthly basis.

Advocacy and expertise

Thrive experts are frequently cited in the media giving commentary on financial issues, including splurge spending, the psychology behind "Free", and the interaction between the economy and technology. Key experts include Co-founder Avinash Karnani on

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...

and

Generation X Generation X (or Gen X for short) is the Western world, Western demographic Cohort (statistics), cohort following the baby boomers and preceding the millennials. Researchers and popular media use the mid-to-late 1960s as starting birth years a ...

Generation Y Millennials, also known as Generation Y or Gen Y, are the Western demographic cohort following Generation X and preceding Generation Z. Researchers and popular media use the early 1980s as starting birth years and the mid-1990s to early 2000s ...

, Co-founder Ori Schnaps on

technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, science, ...

and

personal finance Personal finance is the financial management which an individual or a family unit performs to budget, save, and spend monetary resources over time, taking into account various financial risks and future life events. When planning personal fi ...

, Lead Scientist Matt Wallaert on

social psychology Social psychology is the scientific study of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people or by social norms. Social psychologists typically explain human behavior as a result of the r ...

behavioral finance Behavioral economics studies the effects of psychological, cognitive, emotional, cultural and social factors on the decisions of individuals or institutions, such as how those decisions vary from those implied by classical economic theory. ...

and

decision making In psychology, decision-making (also spelled decision making and decisionmaking) is regarded as the cognitive process resulting in the selection of a belief or a course of action among several possible alternative options. It could be either rati ...

, and Outreach Coordinator Elisa Cundiff on

financial literacy Financial literacy is the possession of the set of skills and knowledge that allows an individual to make informed and effective decisions with all of their financial resources. Raising interest in personal finance is now a focus of state-run prog ...

and

outreach Outreach is the activity of providing services to any population that might not otherwise have access to those services. A key component of outreach is that the group providing it is not stationary, but mobile; in other words, it involves meetin ...

. Thrive has publicly spoken out against the policies of financial institutions that provide a higher standard of service to the wealthy, citing data from a company survey of 730 people that shows that the rich have access to lower fees, better interest rates, lower closing costs, and more services, including financial guidance, enhanced customer support, and concierge services. On April 30, 2009, Thrive was on Capitol Hill advocating for increased federal support for financial education as part of the Jump$tart Financial Literacy Day.

Relationship to LendingTree

Thrive was acquired by

in February 2009 but much of the original development team remained in place until May 2010, when the last of the original team members departed from Lending Tree. In July 2009, in sync with LendingTree's rebranding effort, Thrive created a white-labeled version of the site calle
MoneyRight
Parr, B. (2009). "LendingTree Launches MoneyRight to Challenge Mint in Personal Finance"
Mashable
/ref> The sites are functionally identical, with MoneyRight being a version of Thrive skinned as LendingTree's budgeting site.

References

External links