Matthew Savage, FinTech Product Manager of Plynk – Interview Series

Matthew Savage, FinTech Product Manager of Plynk, is a highly skilled leader in product strategy and technical execution, with expertise spanning the full product lifecycle—from conception through to end-of-life. He excels at defining and communicating product roadmaps, prioritising feature sets, and using data-driven insights and market trends to steer decisions and optimise performance. His strengths also include enhancing system and process efficiency, promoting cross-functional collaboration and aligning stakeholders and executive leadership around shared business goals. His track record includes driving the Plynk user base to triple in two years, raising in-app engagement by 80 %, and earning recognition through awards like “Best App for Beginner Investors”.

Plynk is a mobile investing platform that aims to make investing accessible and intuitive by offering commission-free trading of stocks, funds and cryptocurrencies starting with as little as $1, while providing beginner-friendly educational resources and tools. It positions itself with a promise of empowering investors through clear language, investment-simulated experiences, watchlists, expert ratings and habit-forming programs such as a 52-week “Steady Start” plan, all underpinned by a strong emphasis on security, education and transparency.

How have your experiences throughout your professional history shaped your approach to product management and prepared you for your role working on the Plynk® app?

Throughout my career, I’ve developed a mindset grounded in customer centricity, data-driven decision-making, and strong collaboration. I started off my professional career as a systems analyst, working on the technical specs and requirements for large internal systems, before progressing to a technical product manager role, leading teams of software engineers, designers, and architects through the end-to-end creation of modernized systems and products. Early in my journey, I learned the importance of listening to my customer. Understanding what your customers love and what they don’t is the difference between building just a product and building one that truly works for them. Keeping the product customer-focused means understanding how new features or improved processes can solve real problems. This approach unlocks strategic opportunities, enhances the customer experience, and ultimately drives business growth.

My next career chapter shifted me from internal to external product management with the potential to serve an unlimited customer base. That scale fundamentally shaped my data-driven, customer-centric, and deeply collaborative mindset when it comes to product management.

As I progressed into product leadership, using a data driven approach to understand customer’s needs and make decisions helped me to balance innovation with the practical needs of our customers. This opened valuable – and sometimes unexpected – opportunities for collaboration with businesses and partners that aligned with our goals.These experiences sharpened a full spectrum of product development skills, from market research and end-to-end product lifecycle management to performance optimization and effective stakeholder management.

As FinTech Product Manager for the Plynk app, what is your overarching vision for how you hope beginners view investing?

There’s a powerful and persistent misconception that you need wealth or a financial background to start investing. I want beginners to understand that investing doesn’t have to be complicated or feel unachievable, and that you don’t need a trust fund or a degree to start. No matter how much is in your bank account, you can learn to invest with the support of the right educational tools and resources.

Investing isn’t just about making money, but believing in yourself enough to learn, grow, and take control of your future. It’s an act of self-empowerment that will potentially set you up for financial success. Through consistent, small actions that compound over time, you can work towards building long-term confidence. Approaching this journey with a curious, growth-mindset may help transform it into a rewarding and fulfilling experience, rather than something stressful.

Plynk has rolled out several new features this year, such as Spatial on Apple Vision Pro and simulated trading. Which of these launches are you personally most excited about, and why?

Admittedly, I’m most excited about Plynk Spatial, and that may have something to do with the fact that I have led this project from its early concept stages through product launch. Since its launch, we’ve seen more than 1,400 downloads, which has been incredibly rewarding for the entire team and our plans for Spatial’s future are exciting.

As technology evolves and investors rely on more information to make sound investment decisions, having access to more data – and engaging and insightful ways to view and understand that data – can be incredibly helpful. Being able to immerse yourself in your research is now both practical and transformative, allowing investors to better understand the markets they’re exploring.

Investment technology continues to evolve in stages, some of which are designed to give investors tools to make decisions more confidently and efficiently.

Extended Reality (XR) investing is the next stage in that evolution, and I am proud that Plynk Spatial is among the first to bring it to life. Our team strives to enhance the research process to the point where investors can find their answers “at a glance” through Plynk applications.

In building Plynk’s education-oriented features such as simulated trading and expert ratings, how do you balance being engaging for users with ensuring accuracy and responsibility?

Encouraging responsible investing is of utmost importance to us as we develop new tools for investors. With the Plynk app, we’re all about making investing education actually enjoyable — think simulated trading that feels like a practice, AI-powered news summaries provided by Pebble that cut through the noise, Plynk Spatial that turns investing into an experience rather than a task and tools that help users learn by doing. But here’s the thing: we also know that investing isn’t a game. Real money, real decisions, real consequences.
We want users to enjoy learning but never at the cost of understanding the real risks associated with investing. Tools are the entry point. Responsibility and ethics are the foundation.

The “try before you buy” concept within simulated trading is powerful. In your view, what are the biggest cautions or downsides with that approach, and how do you mitigate them?

When you start using the simulated trading tool, you are given $100,000 in virtual money to invest in a wide variety of stocks and funds. As you make trades, your portfolio’s performance is tracked over time based on the actual market values of your simulated holdings. This allows you to see how your investments would have performed in real-life market conditions with no real money on the line.

The biggest caveat to consider is that this is a simulation, so the emotional tie to your funds may not be the same during practice. It is more important at this stage to focus on understanding how the process works and seeing how different market implications can affect portfolio performance. On the upside, it is a great opportunity to test new strategies and build a strong knowledge base before investing real money.

Can you share an example of a feature the team implemented or removed based on user data or feedback?

After consulting with our internal teams and Plynk app users with strong ties to the military, we learned that there’s a gap in the market for financial tools that address the overwhelming transition from the predictability of a military paycheck to the uncertainty of civilian life.

Learning how members of the military community often struggle to navigate finances after transitioning from the military inspired us to develop “Plynk Serve: Military.” A customized onboarding experience offers veterans and service members a tailored pathway to learn, practice, and build confidence in investing. It features a mission-oriented roadmap that blends financial education with intuitive, practical tools. The journey uses familiar language, relatable imagery, and interactive modules on foundational concepts and topics we’ve heard are the most challenging for people in this community.

In your opinion, how can fintech platforms best contribute to improving financial literacy and helping new investors gain confidence in the markets?

Fintech platforms can support people in building confidence by making financial education more approachable and practical. The aim should be to meet users where they are and provide them with the opportunity to learn through hands-on experience.
With the Plynk app, we’ve prioritized this approach when designing features like simulated trading and virtual portfolios. These tools allow users to experiment, test out ideas, and observe how different market scenarios might impact their decisions, all before using real money.

Transparency and clarity are also essential. When users understand what they are looking at, why it matters, and the potential risks involved, they start to trust their own decision-making. Over time, this understanding translates into confidence, which keeps new investors engaged and eager to learn.

Looking ahead three to five years, how do you think investor education and fintech product features will evolve, and what do you hope Plynk will contribute by then?

It’s becoming more common for consumers to search for financial platforms that support all their investing needs, from short-term goals to retirement, without overcomplicating the experience.

To meet this need, the future of investor education and fintech product features will be defined by personalization and simplification. The future will likely bring even more AI integration.

Notably, we’re already seeing more companies using AI assistants as financial coaches. The future of finance won’t be about handing control to AI but rather empowering people with it.

We’re already embracing it as a powerful ally in research. Take the Plynk app’s AI-powered news feature provided by Pebble that scans, summarizes, and delivers timely news updates based on insights to a user’s portfolio and watchlist so they can stay informed without sifting through endless headlines.

The Plynk team is committed to growing with our users, meeting them where they are today and empowering them to go further tomorrow. To support this, we plan to significantly expand our offerings, including IRAs and personal finance tools beyond investing.

Plynk was recognized as the “Best App for Beginner Investors” in a nationwide competition hosted by Benzinga in 2023. From your perspective, what makes it stand out as a top app in this space?

Plynk is one of the youngest apps to join this ultra-competitive fintech space. Our core principles have always been around simplifying the investment process for novice investors, but as our customers grow, so do we. Their needs have grown from just access, education, and simplicity to include understanding data, practicing new strategies, and making informed decisions. The Plynk app stands out because it uncomplicates the complicated so everyone can build their confidence when it comes to making investment decisions. As users deepen their knowledge, the app has tools that progress alongside them. For example, simulated trading for those who’ve never made a trade before, news and watchlists to start the research process and thematic categories to help users find their first investment. As our customers grow, we’re adding new tools to match their evolving needs while still being free of complexity because we believe power should never come at the cost of clarity.

Disclaimer: All investments involve risk, including the possible risk of loss.

Pebble Finance, Inc (“Pebble”) is not affiliated with Digital Brokerage Services LLC (“DBS”). Pebble is a third-party service provider that uses generative artificial intelligence (AI) to summarize financial news from MT Newswires. The summaries may be derived from, in whole or in part, multiple sources from MT Newswires and are provided solely for educational purposes and should not be considered investment advice or construed as an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy, or a recommendation for any investment or asset. DBS does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness or timeliness of these summaries and they should not be solely relied upon for making any investment decision. In making this information available to you, DBS is not providing tax, legal, or investment advice of any kind. Generative AI output should not be taken as infallible and may contain errors and content that is potentially misleading or biased.
Simulated trading is for informational purposes only. Past performance does not guarantee future results; actual performance returns will vary.

The projections or other information generated by the Virtual Portfolio regarding the virtual investment outcomes are hypothetical in nature, do not reflect actual investment results and are not guarantees of future results.

DBS does not provide individualized investment advice or recommendations. All general educational resources that DBS provides are available to help users make educated investment decisions on the mobile app. None of the general education tools or information we provide should be viewed as individualized recommendations to buy, sell, or hold any investment

The Plynk app is supported by a team of Digital Brokerage Services LLC associates. Brokerage services are offered through the Plynk application only by Digital Brokerage Services LLC.

Plynk marks are the property of FMR LLC; third-party marks are the property of their respective owners.
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