Getting Organized with Nat Robinson

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we’re like what this is George G. And the time is right. Welcome. Today’s guest starring a powerful that Robinson that? Are you ready to do this? I’m so ready, George, let’s get into it. Let’s, let’s let’s go. Matt is the founder and CEO of trustworthy, they are the family operating system helping families get organized and prepared by having everything in one place. Matt, tell us a little about your personal life more about your work and why you do what you do?

Nat Robinson 0:40
Sure, oh, well, I live in San Francisco with my wife and six year old son.

When I’m not working, I enjoy surfing and flying small planes. And I guess at the beginning of my career, I worked at a company called Oracle, which was a database company at the time. I really loved databases and how they let you store and retrieve all kinds of information. The flow of information is, is something I’ve been fascinated with my whole career. And in enterprises have had multitudes of systems to manage company information. But until now, you know, consumers haven’t really had anything, there’s there’s been no system of record. And that really seemed like inequity, in, in the information age, something that, surprisingly, consumers didn’t have a system of record to help manage their information. And that, that seemed like a really good problem to address.

george grombacher 1:47
Nice, I appreciate that. So you went to work at Oracle? Do you feel like you love databases before that or that really kind of piqued it?

Nat Robinson 1:59
Um, you know, I was I was sort of a hobbyist, I think for a while there was something called Microsoft Access back in the day, dating myself. And, you know, that was a really fun tool, or product to create your own sort of databases. And I think people did, you know, oh, I have a compact disc database of cataloguing, you know, my things, really a really early example of cute, you know, curating a set of information that you could benefit from, he could look up and and know what you had. Right. I think that’s a, that’s a really interesting example. So I was really into those kinds of systems. And there used to be lots of them, right, lots of sort of, I wouldn’t say consumer, maybe prosumer, or small business kinds of database systems that have all, you know, moved to the cloud now. But yeah, I was I was a hobbyist of that kind of information curation for a long time.

george grombacher 3:00
Nice. I appreciate that. So I went to work at New York Life is my first job out of college. And I think that about five years in, they rolled out this thing called a life folio. And it was simply tabs that you could put in a filing cabinet. And I was just, I thought it was the most amazing, brilliant thing, because it would just help our clients stay organized. And there was like a little book that was sort of the guide or the key to everything, but I just, I just thought it was the greatest thing. And it strikes me that trustworthy is, is that virtually and much, much more not that you have any idea what life folio is, but I just I just thought it was so cool. And so when I found trustworthy online, I thought well, this is such a such an important thing. Because while I’m sure that there are ways to sort of stay organized online, through like a Google Doc or something like that, that this just strikes me as as as something that should have been around for a long time.

Nat Robinson 4:14
Yeah, it’s it’s been fascinating to study this space and look at an understand the ways that people are are DIY seeing this problem. And, and the myriad number of systems that we’ve seen people use and and in many cases, not just one system for their household or their family, but you know, several, and it spans you know, the analog system of paper based system folders and binders and certainly filing cabinets, shoe boxes, fire safes, or regular safes. And sort of everyone has a system by default or That, that, that they receive information from entities and they do something with it. Certainly the digital side, you know, there’s a whole, there’s a myriad number of systems and a surprising variety of the ways that people have used different systems on the digital side. And, you know, everyone has a mobile device these days. So that’s, that’s at least part of your system as well. And, and I think what people are struggling with is, if they’ve built one of these consciously or unconsciously, is that they, they’re doing it themselves, you know, very much DIY. And there’s really no one to help, right. And it’s, it’s a complex problem. So they end up starting with a blank page, you know, building it up from scratch, trying to maintain it over the years, because it’s not just a one and done kind of thing, thing, you know, the information changes. Some of the systems are hard to share with the people who need access to the information. And most of them are what we call dumb containers, meaning you put information in it. And the container, the piece of paper, or the digital system, isn’t looking at what’s in the container and, and saying, Oh, this is a driver’s license, or this is a trust, or this is a well, and it doesn’t have any context for that information, and it can’t offer any value back. And sort of an automation or intelligence or really anything. And then some of the other one ones that we think about a lot are that is that thing that you’re using very secure, you know, is that a secure way to store and retrieve and manage your information? And unfortunately, most of them are not, or many of them are not. So those are some of the big things that we looked at, in, in understanding people systems, those, do it yourself systems, and how how we might help improve along those vectors. And, and that really is what trustworthy became is how do we make a better system for you to manage, you know, curate, and share and manage your information?

george grombacher 7:13
Nice. So the the idea of a dump container, certainly my my junk drawer or my shoe box that I absolutely have, we all do that just kind of collects little trinkets and stuff like that, or if it is my fire safe, which, you know, that’s that that’s why my wife and I have our important documents. So you’re you are spot on with with with us, certainly. Tell me about the smart container a little bit more. It recognizes what the document is, but it’s also giving me updates.

Nat Robinson 7:49
Yeah, exactly. Right. So we we aspire to make a better system. And in doing that said, how do we return value to members? To people who use trustworthy? What would that look like? And certainly, you know, when you your ingest your information and to trustworthy, we help you make that really simple and straightforward. And just ask you a couple of questions to customize your system at the beginning. And then, you know, we help you get your information into our secure storage as easily as possible. Whether you’re dragging and dropping files from a desktop, or using the mobile app to take a picture of something or scan something in, we try and reduce the amount of work that you have to do to to make to be successful and trustworthy. And it really begins. In some cases with that sort of intelligence scanning or ingestion is we’re able to look at some of those documents, extract, you know, use OCR to extract information from them. So you don’t have to type anything in. And then as we’re extracting the information, start to recognize what the information is, oh, that looks like a date that looks like a driver’s license number that could be a passport number. And if things have dates, for example, you know, create a reminder around that expiration date. So that when that expiration date comes up, we can send you sort of an intelligent notification saying, Hey, you’re 90 days out from the driver’s license or some other document expiring. Based on what we know about renewals at this point in time, you know, right now, say things are pretty backed up. We’re going to send you a notification way ahead of when you need to get that document renewed or updated. And so you have plenty of time and you’re not going to suffer from you know late fees or rush charges or any penalties that you might incur across your your database of information. And so already even from the very sort of initial ingestion, we’re trying to make the system more intelligent and work on your behalf. One of the things that we noticed was difficult for people was keeping their information up to date. You know, certainly you can build a system that’s, that’s a point in time system that everything’s current at that point in time. But as you know, life happens and information changes you, you your situation changes, so does the information. And we really wanted to create something that helps you keep it up to date in an automated way. So even for, you know, important documents that don’t have expiration dates on them, we set reminders, say annual chickens for your estate plan, is now a good time to talk to your estate planning attorney, and chicken, and review your documents. And we really try and do that across the whole system. So the system is working on your behalf in the background, and helping you keep things up to date.

george grombacher 11:02
There’s no way that I would just not update something that like if I had another kid, I wouldn’t forget to update my will on my own. Of course, I have a

Nat Robinson 11:13
great example of I have a great example of exactly what you’re talking about. A friend of mine, very good friend of mine, who’s who said, Oh, yeah, we have a will. And a trust, and oh, wait, I haven’t actually signed it. I haven’t funded it. It’s now 10 years later, since I worked with that attorney. And I have two kids now, and a successful business and the second home and none of that is captured in my trust, I should probably call my attorney and get on that. It’s a pretty good example of, you know, how it’s easy to put things off. And the big underpinning of trustworthy is, look, don’t put this off, we’re here to help you and partner with you and remind you to get these things done. In fact, we’ll even do some of them for you, if you let us.

george grombacher 12:10
I think it’s it’s, it’s a beautifully human behavior, what you’ve just described, and it’s so incredibly common to actually go through the work of and the expense of time and money of getting a document created. And then never, never actually put it in place or funding it, which is put the stuff inside of it, and then updating it. And it is just, it is just human nature. It’s we all know that we’re supposed to be doing it, but it’s just so having that little nudge of Hey, George, is anything changed over the past six months? Or Has anything changed over the past year looks like you set this up. So I think it’s it’s just a great way to balance out things, I’m bad as a person.

Nat Robinson 13:03
Yeah, I think it’s something we all we all suffer from, it is easy to put these kinds of things off. And unfortunately, you know, they can have that can have serious ramifications for for you and even even not serious revenue on a day to day basis, just having access to your information in the moment when you need it. When you’re at the at the at Walgreens when you’re, you know trying to get some medication, or, you know, someone’s asking you for a piece of information that you need to complete a task or that you’re trying to do a transaction and having all the information in the moment is going to make that transaction go faster. That sort of access and utility from your information, which is is frankly becoming more urgent on a day to day basis as as digital transformation happens to us. And everything becoming you know, increasingly digital first. We think that, you know, in the not too distant future, if you don’t have a system like trustworthy, it’s going to be difficult for you to do anything.

george grombacher 14:17
Interesting, I hadn’t even considered the vaccine card, but y’all are probably really well positioned for that.

Nat Robinson 14:25
Yeah, absolutely. And vaccine card is, you know, right now a good a good example of sort of a form of digital ID in many ways, right? That your certification if you like, but there are tons of examples of those already driver’s license, passport, or regular, all your other vaccine. Things that you might need if you’re going overseas. For example, you need to get a visa You know that that a lot of this information is held somewhere. And if you don’t have it or have access to it, it’s kind of a problem.

george grombacher 15:11
1,000% And that’s, you know, we’re talking about being very proactive about things and making things easy and convenient that I’m not having to, you know, look for where you know that that document is, when things do happen. When when people do pass away. You know, over my career, it’s certainly been, you know, years and years and years of of stories about families not knowing what to do if the mother or the father passes away, not knowing where everything is not knowing where people’s what people’s wishes or desires are. And it’s not easy to communicate with family members necessarily about financial matters. So I view this as this is a a tool to be able to obviously, keep everything organized, so that if something has happened to me, my family knows where everything is. And it’s a way for us to have a conversation about about financial matters.

Nat Robinson 16:09
Absolutely, we we think of trustworthy as a whole life system. For all those moments that we just talked about these everyday moments, but also for the emergency moments, you know, when something is going awry, when something isn’t going as planned. And whether it’s you or a loved one, or guardian or a trustee, or one of your trusted professionals. Having access to the information, and the moment is going to is going to make everyone’s life just a little bit easier, certainly in a time when this is the last thing they want to be thinking about. But, you know, in the moment where they do have to think about it, having that system of record is absolutely going to make everything’s easier. Give your family continuity of life, and, you know, reduce the friction around what we think of as an estate transition. We have lots of members who are kind of in the sandwich generation, between baby boomers and millennials, Gen z’s. And they are right in the middle of the equation, thinking about their own household. They’re also thinking about their parents, and the horizon that their parents are approaching. It’s it’s kind of surprising, actually, how many people are thinking ahead like that, and thinking, How do I get something like trustworthy for my parents, some of them have been through it with one parent and lost apparent already, especially in the last couple of years. So they may have been through it already and have found out oh, this was not pleasant. This was a lot of work. How do I get ahead of that for the next time?

george grombacher 17:59
No doubt. So how much does it cost? How does it work?

Nat Robinson 18:05
Yeah, it’s free to try it’s free to start, the best way to get started is go to trustworthy.com and try a free 14 day trial. We don’t ask for credit card upfront. So there’s no absolutely no commitment, you can just try it. And see if it’s a fit for your family. You get started with a couple of easy questions. And we we customize the system for you and you’re off and running. If you if you want help, most most people are happy doing it themselves. But some people have very complex systems and want help. And that’s why we have a concierge service as part of the to complement the the software platform. And, you know, people use that for onboarding and getting a tour and answering any questions they might have. But they also use it for finding things finding lost documents, or hey, I have this go customer Dropbox nightmare. Can you please take all my documents there and just put them into trustworthy? So that beautifully organized? So we’re, you know, that’s really the service side of the product that people can engage with if they need it.

george grombacher 19:23
I love it. Well, that people are ready for difference making tip. What do you have for them?

Nat Robinson 19:30
Yeah, this is a good provocation. I think the one thing that I’ve tested with people that, in my experience has great rewards for both sides is giving an unexpected compliment. Acknowledging someone for something you notice they did has immense benefits for for both sides. And I mean, not just saying thanks, but saying how you appreciate something very specific that they’re doing In my experience in doing this, the people light up when you notice that they’ve, what they’re doing and how it’s making a difference. And it’s not just the person that gets a benefit, it’s you, you get a benefit from doing this as well. You might get a rush of adrenaline, you might get some sort of physical feedback from from doing this from having the courage to tell someone that you appreciate what they’re doing. And you will see them light up as well. A good example might be like, you know, you see someone in a restaurant cleaning and doing a good job and just sort of going up to him acknowledging that and saying, Hey, I think you’re doing an amazing job. And I really appreciate that can have, I think, physiological positive physiological impact, as well as mental impact on both sides. And it’s, it’s something I wish people did more of?

george grombacher 21:03
Well, I think that that is great stuff that definitely gets Come on. Come on. Yeah, yeah, we are so quick to to pile on people and be negative towards them. Why not do the opposite, and give an unexpected compliment and the group that’s great on that, thank you so much for coming on. Where can people learn more about you and give us the website again, please?

Nat Robinson 21:26
Sure, just go to trustworthy.com or www.trustworthy.com. And all the information is there about the family operating system and how it can help your family get better organized and better prepared for life.

george grombacher 21:42
Have it well, if you enjoyed this as much as I did, show, net your appreciation and share today’s show with a friend who also appreciate good ideas, go to trustworthy, calm, and take advantage of that 14 day trial and see how easy this can make your life. Thanks kidnap.

Nat Robinson 22:03
Thanks, George. Thanks for having me.

george grombacher 22:05
And until next time, keep fighting the good fight. It’s we’re all in this together.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai