Good morning! Gender plays a key role in the presidential election, the American Stroke Association addresses women’s risks, and millennials and Gen Z are getting prenups. Have a great Thursday.
– I do. Over the past few years, Libby Leffler noticed a handful of trends. Women were outpacing men in earning college degrees; single women owned more homes than single men did; and women were poised to benefit from the upcoming $80 trillion Great Wealth Transfer.
Taken together, those trends boiled down to a realization: women—including young women—had assets to protect. Leffler—who was Sheryl Sandberg’s first chief of staff at Facebook, where she worked from 2008 to 2015—decided to launch a startup that would make it easier for women to decide their financial future when they get married.
Her company is called First, and right now it allows couples in California to complete prenuptial agreements online. The prenup is becoming less stigmatized—and more common outside the ultra-wealthy demographic that has always relied on them. Leffler sees prenups becoming part of an “essential personal stack,” as routine as getting a mammogram or a joint Costco membership.
The company raised $4 million in a seed round, Fortune is the first to report. The round was led by Expa and Springbank, with participation from Sarah Kunst’s Cleo Capital and Karman Ventures. Kunst, who says she used the platform herself after it went live over the summer, says she invested because the startup fit her thesis of backing “complicated consumer investments—things that are expensive, unfun, and awkward to deal with.” “Everyone has a prenup,” Kunst adds. “Either you write it or the government does.”
Leffler says millennials and Gen Zers are more open to prenups because they “know how painful divorce is.” Forty-seven percent of millennials who are engaged or have been married said they got a prenup, according to a 2023 Harris poll. “If you have parents that have been divorced, you increasingly look to a prenup as basic hygiene,” she says. They see prenups as relevant no matter the size of their assets—or even as a tool to prevent a partner from becoming responsible for taking on the other’s student loan debt. “They’re really about more than money,” Leffler says. “They’re about things that you care about—your baseball card collection, your video game console. It could be about your grandma’s jewelry. It could be about your dog.” Leffler herself got a prenup before she got married in 2016.
First is part of a new generation of startups tackling the changing relationship expectations of millennial and Gen Z couples. Plenty, for example, is building a new app for couples combining finances. And First is far from the only platform to to bring legal proceedings online. Leffler argues her startup stands out because its agreements are not “plug and play,” but are custom and designed for enforceability; the platform connects couples with attorneys. A couple’s first prenup via the platform costs $2,650, with additional charges for add-ons.
Leffler chose the name “First” because a prenup is likely the first legal agreement many couples enter together. She sees potential for the platform to expand first into other states and then into other categories—online divorce is a growing business, too—but won’t say which ones yet.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
The Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune’s daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world. Today’s edition was curated by Nina Ajemian. Subscribe here.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Gender gap. Data shows that the voting gender gap has widened, with men increasingly supporting Donald Trump while women stay Democratic. The youngest voters’ preferences have had an impact on the divide—69% of women aged 18 to 29 prefer Vice President Kamala Harris for president versus the 45% of young men that do. New York Times
- Taking the stand. Gisèle Pelicot took the stand at her husband’s trial in France, where he is being tried for drugging and raping her and inviting dozens of other men to do so. Pelicot requested an open trial and that the video footage of the alleged rapes was shown. She said to the court of waiving her anonymity, “I want all women who have been raped to say: Madame Pelicot did it, I can too. I don’t want them to be ashamed any longer.” BBC
- Risk factors. For the first time, the American Stroke Association’s guidelines include women-specific risk factors, including early menopause, combined hormonal contraception, and endometriosis. Prior to the addition of this section, the stroke prevention guidelines had not been updated in a decade. The Hill
- Showing her scars. Kim Kardashian’s Skims launched a campaign during Breast Cancer Awareness Month, with 10% of bra sales from Oct. 23 to Oct. 31 supporting a breast cancer organization. Actor Olivia Munn, who had a double mastectomy when fighting breast cancer, modeled for the campaign and showed her scars. “The way my body looks is just a representation of how hard I fought,” she says. USA Today
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
NEXT Life Sciences, a male contraceptive developer, appointed Darlene Walley as CEO of Plan A. Most recently, she was chief business development officer at Pebble Life Science.
AKAM, a property management company, named Daniela Luchetto senior vice president. She was most recently SVP at Fetner Properties.
Redwood Capital Bank named Stephanie Bye senior vice president, chief risk officer. Most recently, Bye served as SVP, financial crimes at Quontic Bank.
BlockFills, a digital assets technology and trading firm, named Amy Shelly CFO. She was previously CFO at the Options Clearing Corporation.
Fusion92, a marketing firm, appointed Danielle Aldrich as chief client officer. Most recently, she was senior vice president, business development at Organic, part of Omnicom.
The FDA named Michelle Tarver director of its medical device division; she has served as acting director of the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) since July. Previously, Tarver was CDRH’s chief transformation officer.
ON MY RADAR
How Florence Welch turned rage into power New York Times
CVS shows women are hired to do impossible jobs Bloomberg
Work wives are going extinct Marie Claire
PARTING WORDS
“I oscillate between two things as a woman: It costs nothing to be nice, and women don’t owe you niceness. Both of those things are true.”
— Bridgerton actor Nicola Coughlan
