20 Enjoyable Information to Have fun 20 Years of YNAB

This submit is a part of YNAB’s twentieth Anniversary collection. Cheers to 20 Years!

Twenty years in the past, Jesse Mecham created a teensy spreadsheet to assist make hire and graduate faculty debt-free. That little aspect challenge sparked one thing a lot greater: a world motion, difficult centuries of monetary misconceptions and reworking cash from a crucial evil into a chance to precise who you’re and who you need to develop into. Properly, we’re getting there.

It sparked YNAB: an app and neighborhood the place folks love how they spend and see cash as a mirrored image of what really issues.

To have fun our twentieth anniversary, we’re trying again on the shocking moments which have formed YNAB into what it’s in the present day. We’re not simply 20 years younger—we’re 20 years sturdy, with a fan base that’s grown with us each step of the way in which. 

I sat down with Erin, one in every of YNAB’s veteran academics, to dig up 20 little-known information from our final 20 years, which someway really feel each weirdly lengthy and shockingly quick. (Wait, wasn’t 20 years in the past 1980?)

From the beginning of staff board recreation nights to Jesse’s notorious mortgage haircut, these moments offer you a peek behind the scenes at what makes YNAB… YNAB. So, seize a snug seat and perhaps a Wine Hamburger (it’ll make sense quickly)—listed here are a handful of information you in all probability didn’t learn about YNAB. 

Even die-hard YNABers (taking a look at you with the customized license plates and tattoos) are certain to be taught one thing new.

Did You Know?

1. Our first sale was… a refund. Nailed it!

Our very first sale went to a Mac consumer—besides YNAB didn’t work on Mac on the time. Jesse needed to subject a refund nearly instantly. A tough begin, but it surely sparked the drive to make the unique YNAB spreadsheet work for everybody.

2. Jesse wasn’t the primary full-time rent

You’d suppose the founder can be the primary full-time worker, proper? Really, Taylor Brown, our Expertise Fellow, was YNAB’s first full-time rent. Jesse waited his flip!

3. YNAB Professional was constructed with out a single in-person assembly

When Jesse and Taylor constructed the primary software program model (YNAB Professional), they did all of it by means of emails and telephone calls. Loads of emails. And plenty of telephone calls. They hadn’t even met in particular person but—a real distant work basic earlier than distant working was even a factor.

4. The 4 Guidelines had been re-mixed at first

YNAB’s Four Rules weren’t at all times of their present order. Rule 4 was Rule One, and every part else was shuffled too. However after just a few tweaks, we discovered a lineup that has served us nicely.

5. Jesse’s first advertising marketing campaign was hyper native

When Jesse began to appreciate he was onto one thing with YNAB, it was time for a advertising push. He printed out posters and taped them up on each flooring of each constructing in his and Julie’s condo complicated. Grassroots advertising at its most interesting!

6. Costa Rica kicked off our board recreation custom

In 2014, we held a team retreat in Costa Rica. Feels like a beachy dream, proper? Seems, we spent extra time enjoying board video games within the resort foyer than lounging by the ocean. It was the beginning of a now-legendary staff custom.

7. YNAB is a part of worker advantages packages far and broad

The YNAB staff realized that cash stress is not actually a part of our lives… as a result of all of us use YNAB. In 2021, we began working with employers to supply YNAB of their company benefits packages. We love seeing groups ‘around the world take pleasure in much less cash stress and produce their greatest selves to work.

8. Jesse by chance took the app down

Jesse as soon as determined to change the identify servers for YNAB himself. Dangerous thought. The entire app went down. After that, we made certain Jesse now not had entry to the identify servers. Disaster averted.

9. Hannah’s first video and the delivery of Funds Nerds

Hannah’s first video for YNAB debuted on January 31, 2020, the place she launched the Want Farm. Later that yr, Funds Nerds premiered on August twenty fourth with an episode about month-to-month rollovers. Our nerdiness and YouTube-ness has solely grown from there.

10. The YNAB home (and Perk the cat)

In 2015, YNAB purchased a home in Lehi, Utah, often called “The YNAB Home.” Jesse and the HR staff labored there—and so did Perk, a cat they adopted. Why Perk? He was our “work perk,” in fact. He’s now dwelling his greatest life with one in every of our Operations staff members.

11. 4-day work week, anybody?

In 2022, YNAB adopted a four-day work week. The end result? Extra stability, extra focus, and extra time for these epic board video games. YNAB has been listed because the #1 Greatest Small Office in Fortune’s Prime Locations to Work, not as a result of YNAB is your life, however exactly as a result of it’s not. Seems, we’re simply as productive (and far more recharged).

12. We love shocking our staff

YNAB doesn’t skimp on presents. Birthdays and massive life occasions are celebrated with considerate, customized surprises. We consider it’s the little issues that make folks really feel appreciated.

13. Jesse’s mortgage haircut problem

In case you’ve watched Whiteboard Wednesday movies from the yesteryear days of YNAB, you would possibly’ve seen Jesse’s hair getting longer and longer. That’s as a result of he vowed to not minimize it till he paid off his mortgage. By episode 65, the mortgage was gone—and so was his hair. This earlier than and after pic is about to go viral, I can really feel it.

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14. Our first cellular app was iPhone-only

Our very first cellular app? Solely out there on iPhone. Why? We didn’t have any Android builders on the time. Begin easy, hold bettering—that’s the YNAB manner.

15. A worldwide staff of YNAB lovers 

YNAB has come a good distance since Jesse’s first spreadsheet. As we speak, we’ve 142 U.S.-based workers and 35 worldwide staff members unfold throughout 12 nations. Another quantity to throw at you: a whopping 65 of our staff members share a reputation. (Myself being amongst 4 Emily’s at YNAB, sufficient to create an “Emily Bus” emoji.)

16. “Wine Hamburgers”—sure, please.

Closed captions don’t at all times get “YNAB” and “YNABers” proper—the truth is, they typically interpret our lingo as “Wine Abs” and “Wine Hamburgers.” Naturally, our neighborhood embraced it. And naturally, we made merch. (Attempt explaining a Wine Hamburger t-shirt to the stranger on the grocery retailer.)

17. Julie named YNAB

The identify You Want a Funds? That was Jesse’s spouse, Julie’s, thought. Jesse was caught on what to name his spreadsheet when Julie merely advised, “How about ‘You want a finances’?” And similar to that, YNAB was born.

18. April Idiot’s shenanigans

YNAB loves an excellent April Idiot’s prank. From Push Notifications to Buy Now, Pay Later to YNAB for Pets and even AI, we’ve had loads of laughs. However Jesse’s 2015 prank, the place he pretended to alter Rule Two to “Divide by Twelve,” brought on quite a lot of confused faces.

19. Our faculty program has given away nearly 100,000 years of YNAB

Via our college program, we’ve given away practically 100,000 free years of YNAB to college students. That’s a complete lot of future monetary freedom being constructed on campuses, and plenty of pizza being prioritized within the ol’ spending plan.

20. We even made a YNAB staff cookbook

The YNAB staff put collectively a cookbook that includes our favourite recipes. Oh, and bonus enjoyable reality? We rewrote an entire playlist worth of popular songs and made them songs about cash. As a result of good meals and singing songs about spending on what you like? It’s the spice of life.

So there you may have it. Twenty information for 20 years—and we’ve you, expensive YNABers, to thank for this unimaginable journey we’re on.

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Right here’s to the subsequent many moons of masterful cash selections, staff traditions, and lots extra Wine Hamburgers alongside the way in which. Nom nom nom.

The day you begin YNABing is a day price celebrating in its personal proper. Get 34 days without cost with nothing to lose. Plus, you will lastly get to see what all of the fuss is about.