Mary Holland Nader is making money feel less like a chore and more like self-care. Mary & Pip, the wealth management app she launched on 15 October, pairs the kind of guidance once reserved for private-banking clients with behavioural science; for a generation that is smart, busy and yet still overwhelmed by the question of what to actually do with our finances.
She knows that world from the inside. A former private wealth manager at Deutsche Bank, Mary spent years looking after families who had an entire team weighing in on every decision, while her own friends froze at the first mention of an ETF (Exchange-Traded Fund in case you’re wondering.)
Mary Holland Nader, Founder and CEO of Mary & Pip. Courtesy of Mary & Pip
Then came a rather unconventional route to market: she pitched the idea on the first season of her hit show Love Thy Nader, the Hulu reality series following her family, before she even had so much as a prototype. The show aired, the community arrived, and Mary did something few founders do. She asked them what she should build.
The result is an app that connects your whole financial picture in one place, nudges you through a weekly Sunday money ritual (open the accounts, clear the credit card, look ahead) and hands the investing over to actual humans. Portfolios are professionally managed through Mary & Pip Investments, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser, with a high-yield cash account for the money you would rather keep close. There is even a Chief Behavioural Scientist on staff, which tells you most of what you need to know about the approach: fewer spreadsheets, less dread, and a Financial Health Score that reads more like a wellness app than a bank statement.
The Mary & Pip app: your whole financial picture, behavioural insights and jargon-free lessons in one place. (*Illustrative only. Not actual client data.)
Mary is not building it alone. She and co-founder Kara Cooke went from University of Georgia classmates to private wealth managers at Deutsche Bank and UBS, respectively, and now they are bringing that same guidance to everyone else. Kara, who serves as President and Chief Investment Officer, has been Mary’s best friend for a decade; and both women left Wall Street to launch the platform together.
Scroll on to find out how Mary raised her first round (with a lot of late nights and Claude for company), the strange thrill of building a finance app on national television, and why her tech essentials include a vibration plate and a very good AI chief of staff…
Mary & Pip co-founders Mary Holland Nader and Kara Cooke. Courtesy of Mary & Pip
The Download with Mary Holland Nader:
The gap I saw from Wall Street was…
I spent years on Wall Street managing money for families who had a whole team guiding every decision. Meanwhile, our friends (smart, creative, already juggling so much) were frozen. Roth or traditional IRA? Which ETFs? Modern fintech offered endless options but zero guidance, so they did nothing.
And finance looked nothing like the fashion and consumer brands I worked with: cold and intimidating instead of warm and inviting. So we’re bringing Wall Street-level guidance together with the culture of brands people actually love.
Bringing Mary & Pip to life began with…
Honestly? I didn’t have a plan. I pitched Mary & Pip on season one of Love Thy Nader before I knew exactly what I’d build. I just knew the gap was real, and figured if I put the idea out there, the feedback would show me the way.
When the show aired, I didn’t have an app, but I had a community. So I started hosting “financial wellness” events and asked everyone: What should I build? Why aren’t you using other apps? Mary & Pip was truly built with our audience, not just for them.
A Mary & Pip community gathering in Central Park, New York. Courtesy of Mary & Pip
The biggest early challenge was…
Finance is a heavily regulated industry, and rightfully so, because we’re handling people’s money. Everything takes longer than you think: registration, security audits, compliance review on every post. It forced us to build slowly and carefully, which honestly made the foundation stronger. Trust is the whole product.
Raising our first round meant…
I raised our first round from friends and family last fall, and I had never raised a dollar in my life. I didn’t even know where to start! So I surrounded myself with as many founders as I could and asked them everything.
I spent a lot of late nights with Claude, found a lawyer through an advisor, and leaned on the friends and family who believed in me before there was anything to believe in. Turns out, you don’t need to know it all. You just need the right people around you.
Mary Holland Nader and Kara Cooke went from University of Georgia classmates to private wealth managers at Deutsche Bank and UBS, respectively. Courtesy of Mary & Pip
The moment that changed everything was…
When we started filming season two of Love Thy Nader, I realised the massive distribution advantage we had. I mean, it’s Hulu and Disney+! It doesn’t get much bigger than that.
Looking back at Season 1, when Mary & Pip was just an idea I pitched to my family, I saw how far we’d come. I don’t know of any other finance app that’s been built from scratch on national TV, alongside its audience. It’s scary, and it’s also so cool. Our community gets to watch it come to life in real time, and help shape it.
Mary Holland Nader (second from left) with her sisters; Brooks, Grace Ann, and Sarah Jane Nader, at the Mary & Pip beta launch party. Courtesy of Mary & Pip.
The mistake that taught me the most was…
Early on, I hired the wrong people and didn’t let them go fast enough. I wanted so badly for it to work that I ignored the signs, and it cost us time and money we didn’t have. Now I live by “hire slow, fire fast.” Being kind to your company sometimes means making the hard call sooner.
On the hard days, I lean on…
My co-founder Kara. She’s been my best friend for 10 years, and when she left Wall Street to build this with me, we were both nervous it might affect our friendship. It turns out we work even better together because we’re friends. I trust her like family, and on the hard days, we carry each other. I seriously couldn’t be building this without her.
Kara Cooke, President and Chief Investment Officer, and Mary Holland Nader, Founder and CEO of Mary & Pip. Courtesy of Mary & Pip
What I’d tell a first-time founder is…
Start before you feel ready, and talk about it out loud. Telling people what you’re building makes you accountable and attracts the right people to you. Build community before you build the product, because your first users will tell you everything. And protect your peace: burnt-out founders build burnt-out companies.
The three gadgets I can’t live without are…
My red light mask, my vibration plate, and my OctoBuddy.
The apps keeping my working day together are…
Claude for efficiency, Granola for note-taking, and Canva for our creative projects and Instagram.
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The tech tip that changed my workflow is…
There’s a technology called MCP (Model Context Protocol) that lets tools like Claude plug directly into your email, calendar, and meeting notes. So every morning, Claude can pull everything from my meetings, emails, and calendar and send a daily to-do list straight to my Slack or notes app. Before an investor meeting, it preps me in minutes instead of me digging through old threads. It’s like having a chief of staff who never sleeps! And if it sounds intimidating, just ask Claude to walk you through setting it up.
Mary & Pip is available now on the App Store. Follow @maryandpip on Instagram.
*Illustrative only. Not actual client data. APY is variable and subject to change. Mary & Pip is not a bank; cash accounts are provided through Alpaca Securities, LLC. Mary & Pip Investments LLC is an SEC-registered investment adviser. Investing involves risk.
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