Aaron Froug grew up in Sarasota, Florida, in a home where money was taken seriously. If he wanted a quarter for the gumball machine, he had to explain why it was worth it.
Froug is the co-founder and co-CEO of Grifin, a Tampa-based investing app that turns everyday spending into stock ownership. When a user buys a coffee at Starbucks, Grifin invests $1 into Starbucks stock. When they swipe at Walmart, $1 goes into Walmart.
Before founding Grifin, Froug put himself through college at the University of Florida by buying and reselling Chubbies, a popular shorts brand on eBay. He sold so many pairs that the company sent him a cease-and-desist letter. He also bought and sold designer clothing and attempted several startups before meeting his co-founder, who was already working on an early version of what would become Grifin.
The idea for the app came from a conversation at a Starbucks. Froug and his sister received a bill of $12 for two drinks. His sister said that she should own stock in the company given how often she shops there.
“I thought, why can’t investing just be that easy?” Froug said.
Froug and his co-founders surveyed approximately 500 people near the University of Florida to understand why most people did not invest. The same three answers consistently came up: not having enough money, feeling like investing was not made for them and not understanding how it worked.
Underlying those answers were more personal reasons. Many said that their parents had bad experiences with the market. Others described the system as overwhelming or inaccessible.
“Most people do not invest until they are 32,” Froug told the Ticker. “And the average investor has historically been a financially independent male. That left a lot of people out.”
Grifin’s approach is to connect investing to spending habits users already have. The app automatically invests small amounts into brands that a user spends money with. The company refers to this as adaptive investing.
Grifin currently has more than 1.5 million downloads. Most of its users are women between the ages of 40 and 60, many of whom are first-time investors. Froug said many of these users manage their families’ spending and had not previously found an entry point into investing.
“We built Grifin for people who felt the market was not made for them,” Froug said. “And then they start teaching their kids.”
The company raised $11 million in a Series A round last year. It recently launched the Invest America, also called the Trump Accounts, Quiz, a tool to help families check potential eligibility for a federal program that provides a one-time $1,000 contribution for eligible children born between 2025 and 2028.*
The quiz reached the top position on Google within two weeks of launching and is currently adding approximately 1,000 families per day to its waitlist.
Froug was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes as a child, an experience that pulled him into a world of hospitals, research labs and advocacy work at a young age. He spent time raising money for diabetes organizations and educating children about the disease.
That early exposure to navigating a complicated system on behalf of people who needed help, he said, was not so different from what he is doing now with Grifin.
“It got me really involved in things that I cared about and wanting to help people,” Froug said. “That was one of the first stages of, hopefully, Grifin.”
Editor’s note:
*Grifin does not administer, sponsor or guarantee the program, and eligibility and program terms are determined by the federal government.
References in this article to securities do not constitute a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any security and the examples cited are for illustrative purposes rather than recommendations from Interest Financial LLC.
Investing involves risk, and past performance does not guarantee future results. Diversification and asset allocation do not guarantee a profit or eliminate the risk of losing principal. Interest Financial LLC provides investment advisory services to users, while Grifin provides the digital platform, technology and other non-advisory services.
Interest Financial LLC and Grifin are affiliated companies but operate as separate legal entities. Automatic and recurring investing does not assure a profit or protect against loss in a declining market.
Download figures reflect the total number of Grifin app installations and do not represent the number of advisory clients, and downloading the app does not mean a user has opened or funded an advisory account or received investment advisory services from Interest Financial LLC.
Information about Grifin’s services, fees and associated risks is available in the company’s Fee Schedule and Form ADV Part 2A.
