# Jean Smart

> Jean Smart is the founder and CEO of Penelope, a New York fintech rebuilding the retirement recordkeeping layer for the small and micro-businesses Wall Street forgot. After a 20-plus year career as a financial-services executive at Charles Schwab, TD Ameritrade, Citigroup and UBS, she left a managing-director seat to build affordable, fully-digital 401(k) infrastructure for solopreneurs and mom-and-pop shops. The company, which she named after her daughter, launched in 2022 with a mission to put generational wealth-building within reach of the workers institutions have historically overlooked.

- **Role:** Founder & CEO at Penelope
- **Organizations:** Penelope, First Descents (board director)
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** BA, University of California, Berkeley
- **Known for:** Founded and leads Penelope, a modern 401(k) recordkeeping platform for small and micro-businesses, Raised $2.1M pre-seed round in 2022 led by Slauson & Co. with Amplify LA and others, Built a fully-digital, cloud-native, API-first recordkeeping platform from scratch

## Career timeline

- **early career** — Started as an analyst at Goldman Sachs
- **early career** — Consultant at Deloitte
- **2000s** — Roughly a decade at Charles Schwab in product marketing and sales
- **2000s-2010s** — Six years at TD Ameritrade leading workplace product strategy
- **2010s** — Global Head of Marketing for Private Client Solutions at Citigroup
- **2020** — Managing Director, Head of Business Strategy for Corporate and Institutional Advisory Solutions at UBS
- **2021** — Founded Penelope
- **2022** — Penelope emerged from stealth; raised $2.1M pre-seed led by Slauson & Co.
- **2024** — Featured on a Nasdaq billboard celebrating women in leadership
- **2025** — Expanded advisory team with retirement-industry veterans; placed 2nd at Newark Demo Day

## Achievements

- Founded and leads Penelope, a modern 401(k) recordkeeping platform for small and micro-businesses
- Raised $2.1M pre-seed round in 2022 led by Slauson & Co. with Amplify LA and others
- Built a fully-digital, cloud-native, API-first recordkeeping platform from scratch
- Featured on a Nasdaq billboard in 2024 celebrating women in leadership
- Placed 2nd at Newark Demo Day in December 2025
- Board director at First Descents
- 20+ year financial-services career spanning Goldman Sachs, Deloitte, Schwab, TD Ameritrade, Citigroup and UBS

## Latest updates

- **2025-12** — Penelope placed 2nd at Newark Demo Day.
- **2025-05** — Penelope raised additional funding, bringing total funding to about $2.1M (latest round reported May 2025).
- **2025-04** — Penelope expanded its advisory team with retirement-industry veterans.

## Links

- Website: https://penelope.co
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeankimnewyork
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/www.penelope.co

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/jean-smart
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-01