The first time Amy Ouellette saw the wall, she was stunned. Stretching 44 feet across the office, the massive whiteboard was covered in thousands of pink and green Post-it notes, each scribbled with details for a new product launch. Employees would periodically scramble up a ladder to add fresh notes or rearrange the strings arching across the board in an elaborate web.

For Amy, who had just joined fintech company Betterment, seeing this two-story-tall product journey map felt like stepping into another universe. She had spent her career in the buttoned-up world of retirement plan and 401(k) administration, where innovation usually meant updating a form or tweaking a compliance process. But that clash of cultures was exactly the point.

One of the employees regularly updating that colossal whiteboard was tech entrepreneur and fintech product leader Nick Gavronsky, a multi-time founder and leader whose specialty is building high-performing teams and products. Together, Nick and Amy’s combined expertise would become the foundation for Betterment’s push into 401(k)s.

Now, Amy and Nick are at it again, this time as co-founders of Aboon, a startup using AI and automation to reinvent how advisors offer retirement plans to their business owner clients. Traditional 401(k) setup is notoriously complex, but they envisioned a process as simple as opening up a new investment account — just a few easy steps.

Aboon’s AI-powered 401(k) platform

Less than two years in, Aboon’s AI-driven third party administration platform is now available to tens of thousands of financial advisors,including at major firms like Edward Jones. The platform is built around speed and service so that financial advisors can close plans in less than a day, instead of in 10 to 12 weeks common among traditional third party administrators.

The timing couldn’t be better. Around 20 states now require employers to offer retirement plans, and federal legislation passed in 2022 expanded tax credits for employers who adopt 401(k)s. Yet nearly half of businesses with fewer than 100 employees — some 2.7 million companies — still don’t offer them.

Amy and Nick both understand why. The process of setting up retirement plans can drag on for weeks, as financial advisors, third party administrators, and business owners exchange spreadsheets, contracts, and proposal documents. “It’s always been confusing and cumbersome,” says Amy.

Nick has seen it firsthand. His father runs a lighting store in Florida and has never offered a plan for employees. “He’s focused on running his business,” Nick says. “He doesn’t want to figure out what a safe harbor plan is or how matching contributions work. Most business owners don’t even know where to start.”

Aboon’s insight and value proposition is that business owners already know who to trust: their financial advisors. These individuals often handle personal investing and retirement planning, giving them the credibility and relationships needed to bridge the gap.

AI for plan design and administration

By partnering with major recordkeepers, Aboon’s AI-enabled plan design and administration platform automates the complex work of creating and servicing retirement plans, helping advisors focus on strengthening their relationships, while also keeping business in-house.

“Before, advisors were sending this value away to third-party providers,” Nick says. “Now, Aboon’s platform, which can be co-branded,lets them offer a solution that feels like an in-house experience.” Advisors and their clients also benefit from leaning on Aboon’s expert plan servicing team, which has experience selling and serving thousands of retirement plans across the industry.

Complementary backgrounds

Aboon’s rapid progress stems from the chemistry between its founders. Nick is a builder at heart. After Betterment, he co-founded Trade Coffee, a subscription marketplace for artisanal roasters that grew to over $50 million in revenue and 50,000 subscribers. He went on to launch Welcome, a startup that made compensation transparent, accessible, and equitable for candidates and employees. In 2022, the company was acquired by BambooHR. At BambooHR, Nick led data and AI product teams. Those experiences honed his knack for spotting opportunities, building high-performing teams, and scaling companies.

Amy, meanwhile, became a master of one of the most intricate corners of finance: retirement plans. From the start, she was drawn to the puzzle-like challenge of 401(k)s, translating regulatory rules into logical frameworks and programs that encouraged employee participation. What began as a high school job at a small advisory firm turned into a career spanning decades, where she earned a reputation for both her technical expertise and her ability to efficiently run operations and teams.

At Aboon, Amy’s deep industry knowledge is the bedrock. She’s opened doors to the recordkeeping firms that anchor the retirement ecosystem and ensured the platform reflects what advisors actually need. She also keeps execution on track with her trademark attention to detail. “I love digging into the nitty-gritty, while Nick is more like the motivator-in-chief,” she says. Nick and Amy both agree they’ve always worked really well together.

An accelerating force

The partnership caught the eye of Bain Capital Ventures, which backed Aboon from its earliest days. BCV, which has long believed in AI’s potential to transform traditional service industries, acted as a bridge between technologists and these industries. Even before a line of code was written, BCV, in collaboration with our partner Runyon Design, helped Nick and Amy land meetings with major advisory firms like Edward Jones — connections few startups would be able to forge on their own. “We wanted to give Aboon a decisive advantage,” says BCV partner Ron Miasnik. “From day one, the goal was to help make the company a market leader.”

Today, advisors across the country are using Aboon to serve business owner clients that include manufacturing firms, law firms, restaurants, chiropractic practices, and landscaping companies. In some cases, these financial advisors have gone from not offering 401(k) plans at all to being business retirement experts who sell one plan per week. Using Aboon’s streamlined workflow and built-in guidance, advisors who once avoided retirement plans are now confidently leading with them as part of their core offering.

Future Aboon plans include continuing to enhance digital and automation capabilities; expanding the menu of supported workplace products; and deepening partnerships with more advisory firms, RIAs, and recordkeepers nationwide.