Matt Watson is trying to increase financial literacy for tens of millions of people with his all-in-one app Origin Financial.
Almost every human being will interact with money over the course of their life.
Even those who don’t directly interact with money will, no doubt, have their lives affected by it at some point. It’s inescapable. Life, death, and taxes, etc.
It’s clear, however, that over the last 20 years, the ways we interact with money have changed dramatically. Robo advisors, meme stocks, and cryptocurrency were just a dream in the mid-2000s but have surprisingly worked their way into our day-to-day lives.
The sheer amount of financial options threatens to overwhelm even the most experienced investor, and it’s obvious that a pen and paper just aren’t going to cut it anymore.
That’s part of the reason Matt Watson launched Origin Financial. The all-in-one app brings income, investing, net worth, spending, assets, and liabilities into one tool. Recently, the app has been blazing new trails with an AI component that provides personalized financial advice to customers.
It’s safe to say that Matt has a unique perspective on finance, and that’s why I wanted to feature him in our ongoing Finding Value series, where we interview people from all walks of life about their investing journey.
Let’s get to it.
ValueWalk: What do you do for a living?
Matt Watson: I’ve been an entrepreneur for most of my career after a quick stint on Wall Street. I’ve always been drawn to financial services — my first company was a vertical SaaS for insurance agents, which was acquired. Today I’m building Origin, the first AI financial advisor.
What’s your investment philosophy, and how has it evolved?
Keep it simple. The fastest way to build wealth is to keep the main thing, the main thing (which is your job). Work hard, get promoted, increase your income, and then “set it and forget it” with a diversified portfolio.
What’s the best investment you’ve ever made?
My first company! I invested all of the money that I had at the time to start the business. We ended up returning 100x to our early investors.
What’s the worst investment you’ve ever made?
I’ll say this — angel investing is hard!
What advice would you give someone who is just getting started with investing?
Your time should be spent getting into markets with as much principal as possible, not on beating the market. Increasing your principal and trusting the market is a much better way to create wealth than allocating time and energy into beating the market.
What’s your favorite stock right now and why?
Origin stock [laughs]. Taking my own advice, Origin is my main thing, so I focus on creating as much value there as possible. I haven’t thought about the value of a single stock in a long time.
What’s a financial decision you’ve made that ran counter to popular wisdom but worked out?
Early in my career, a mentor asked what I wanted to do after college. I told him I wanted to work on Wall Street because it seemed like the path successful people took. He asked if I would actually enjoy the work, and I shared that I was not sure.
He encouraged me to find work I was truly drawn to and explained that genuine interest is the foundation of both fulfillment and long-term success. That conversation reshaped how I think about money and career. You will never be great at something you do not love, and if you become exceptional at something you enjoy, the market will reward you regardless of the industry.
So I made what seemed like an irrational financial decision: I left a well-paying finance job to start a company. On paper it was a 100 percent pay cut. But it did not feel like work. I was building something I cared about. The risk paid off many times over, both financially and personally. It taught me that sometimes the best financial decisions are the ones that do not look that way at first.
What financial trends are you most interested in over the next few years?
The biggest trend I’m excited about is the elimination of information barriers. Barriers to education and specific knowledge is a regressive tax. At Origin, we’re changing that firsthand by bringing financial advice to tens of millions of households who currently can’t access these foundational tools.
How do you think having an all-in-one financial app like Origin Financial at an early age might have changed your financial journey?
I started my career in finance and still found many aspects of personal financial planning complicated. It would have significantly simplified my relationship with money — making it easier to understand where I was and exactly what I needed to do in order to accomplish my financial goals.
