“Melissa and Jess make a remarkable team. They are so much more than the sum of their parts, bringing seasoned experience, math wizardry, common sense, compassion, and savvy boldness to their strategies. Their friendship and mutual respect give depth and joy to their business. It’s great to see these smart young women excelling in a world dominated by men.”
— Joan Ackermann, EvoQue client
If energy, empathy, and expertise are important to you, EvoQue Investments might be just the “corporate approach to wealth management” alternative you’ve been waiting for. This women-owned boutique firm connects with clients and employees who desire “a relationship with money and business filled with repose, compassion, and autonomy” with a goal to “elevate positive change in our economic culture” through authenticity and transparency. (All quotes taken from the website.)
EvoQue co-founders Melissa Mae (formerly Lydon) and Jessica Bartle (formerly Derr) started their investment firm with a dream of changing the paradigm of money by establishing a new model designed to help clients create an emotionally intelligent relationship with life and money, connecting their investments and finances to the values that ground their business, family, work, and relationships. Now celebrating five years in business, the business partners share the insights they’ve gained on their journey thus far.
Looking for a different approach
When Mae and Bartle first met at RBC Wealth Management in 2010, neither had any idea they would one day be founding a business together. What they did realize over time, however, was that something vital to each of them was missing in the corporate setting. Both were using their skills and expertise to help their clients navigate the financial landscape. However, they longed to work in an environment where they could put their clients, staff, family, health, and community at the center of their decision-making process.
Mae’s family life growing up was fraught with financial struggles. “Through it all, my incredible deaf, single mother relied on her strength, intelligence, and resourcefulness, eventually landing us transitional housing through Construct, Inc. From there, she rebuilt her credit, paid her bills, and saved enough money to purchase a house just two years later,” she explains. “Watching her do this gave me strength and inspiration—and also motivated me to learn more about money to gain my own sense of agency.”
After high school, Mae earned a degree in art and psychology from Hunter College—but continued to be intrigued by finance and law. After extensive experiences tied to culture, travel, and community, she landed her first full-time job as program director at Railroad Street Youth Project (RSYP). While there, Mae began exploring the option of buying a home. “A mortgage broker illuminated the investment process—credit history, debt-to-income ratios, downpayment—and I left the meeting wondering, ‘How come no one’s ever talked to me about this before?’” she recalls thinking.
Mae wanted to learn more about investing and become financially independent. Brian Tobin, an RSYP board member, got her an interview at RBC Wealth Management in Great Barrington, where she was hired as a branch service manager in operations. There, she obtained her Series 7 & 66 licenses [prerequisites for financial/investment representatives], became an advisor, and developed her expertise in portfolio management, retirement income planning, college education planning, and trust and estate planning. “It was amazing to have that experience following a nonlinear path. Once I learned more, I wanted to share that knowledge and advice with others,” she says.
A longstanding friendship of like-minded businesswomen
Jessica Bartle was born in Sheffield in her grandparents’ house (her grandmother, Gillian Seidl, was a well-known Scottish actress and co-founder/co-artistic director of Mixed Company theater) and developed deep ties to the community growing up. After earning a degree in chemistry and math from Wagner College, she worked for several years at CHP Family Network before becoming licensed as a FINRA [Financial Industry Regulatory Authority]-registered representative in 2012 with RBC Wealth Management—where she and Mae met and immediately formed a strong connection.
Bartle later left her small team at RBC to work for Voya Investment Management in Hartford, Conn., as an internal wholesaler, advising financial accountants across the country related to business and money management—a position involving long hours and a lot of travel to the West Coast. She missed the Berkshire landscape and her connections to the community.
In 2014, Mae became a working mother (a new reality that opened her eyes to the lack of support for women with young children), and by 2015, juggling work and home life grew more challenging. She knew she couldn’t keep working in her current position and be the kind of mother and community member she wanted to be. “I liked finance and investment strategies and working with people, but I needed a change,” she admits.
Taking inspiration from her mother, at that point Mae made a huge leap, joining Arista Advisory Group, LLC. “I started my own branch here as an independent contractor working under their umbrella, which enabled me to move out of the corporate world and into a space where people appreciate personal connections and are able to ask questions, be heard, and get intelligent investment advice.”
Building a boutique firm
Mae and Bartle had already tested the waters as co-workers at RBC. The pair had also delved into extensive conversations about the values and environment they yearned for as businesswomen. “We found our answers the hard way in terms of work-life balance, giving clients what we wanted, scheduling enough dedicated time for meetings, taking inventory, presenting choices,” Mae says. “We wanted to make every decision with our core values in mind—including which clients to take, how to build strong relationships, which investment strategies to use, and how to care for our staff, family, health, and community. And we wanted to allocate our time and finances appropriately, pace ourselves to grow stronger, not bigger, and engage fully with our clients.”
“There was a ‘force field’ that’s dishearteningly normal in the finance industry that kept me from speaking up in meetings and sharing my ideas,” Bartle acknowledges. She longed for a more holistic approach to tie financial planning to individual clients and their investments. “I felt the universe had something different in mind for me, and having a baby pushed me to seek something better,” she says. She began getting texts from Mae saying, “I need some help.” Shortly after Bartle became a mother, those conversations evolved into “Let’s do this together,” opening up an opportunity to provide a haven for clients while creating the kind of work environment they both wanted for themselves.
“Money is helpful, but it’s not what makes an entrepreneur”
Without any capital, Bartle and Mae sensed that “something was pulling us”—which was nothing short of a vision to build a wholly different structure for financial investment. “To truly work with clients how we wanted, we had to control the technology, staff, custodians of the wealth. We put a lot of thought into it and wanted to ground our work in finding out who our clients were, what they wanted to do, and why,” Mae explains.
That was in 2019 when the market was skyrocketing. “If we can get the name right, we’ll figure the rest out,” they agreed. Through a community connection, the new partners met a marketing friend who listened to their vision and helped put it into words. Listening to clients’ stories and evoking their experiences and needs was central to both of them and crucial for investing and planning. Their friend took the idea of evoking and changed the spelling. “What if we call it EvoQue?”
Then came COVID, when, as Mae puts it, “We learned even more.” Although working remotely was hard at that early stage of their development, their shared vision and complementary skills and expertise kept them going. In 2020, they moved into their current space in the Flying Church building in Great Barrington. “We used that unprecedented time to develop stronger investments, systems, and staff,” Mae points out, adding, “Most businesses fail before they’ve reached five years, but we’re here, still succeeding and offering financial advising that’s ethical, working with our small team to create the kind of working environment that supports working mothers.”
Their advice for other women entrepreneurs?
· Trust your instincts.
· Don’t let the details get in the way.
· Don’t leap into a business partnership—let it form out of a true sense of alignment.
· Don’t be afraid to ask for help (that’s a strength!).
· Operate like a great test kitchen, bouncing ideas off others and running things by the people in your networks.
A yin-yang partnership
Mae describes herself as the talker, strategist, creative thinker/processer, and Bartle as the mind-heart connection, the numbers-and-intentions person. “There’s a lot of transparency to our process—we always discuss extensively, with our clients and with each other, to get to the right answer,” she emphasizes. That open-communications approach is key to making their model work. “We’re just raising awareness. The client is the driver and decision maker,” Bartle affirms. “A dollar doesn’t mean anything until a choice is made.”
“Growing money isn’t all you should expect out of a financial advisor,” she continues, noting that it’s a huge responsibility that requires meeting extensively with clients before beginning and throughout the process, as well as depth of time, authenticity, and choices. “Wealth mentorship is a better way of putting it—a team of support to guide you on the right path and stay with you to provide practical advice, careful tracking, and continuing guidance to help you sleep at night,” Mae maintains.
Building out the team—and office space
The partners expanded their team in 2021 when Maura Folmer, a long-time accounting team member at Guido’s Fresh Marketplace, began interning with their firm. “I created my first budget as a teenager trying to save money to travel to France,” Folmer shares. It didn’t take long for Folmer or the cofounders to realize that the values EvoQue embodied aligned with her belief that anyone can manage their money wisely with the right tools, guidance, and support. She was hired full-time in December 2021. Since then, Folmer has completed her life insurance certification and expanded her role to chief operating officer, handling client relations as well as administrative responsibilities.
The reward for their investment?
“We get to see the financial journey, how it unfolds, and help create positive stories and peace and trust for our clients,” Mae answers. Given the inspiration for launching their business, you might think most clients are women, but EvoQue has attracted a balanced clientele. “Lots of men are looking for this, too—a space where they can be open and vulnerable, not a steamroller experiment,” Bartle says.
And the clients’ ages? “Anywhere from their early 30s to late 70s—families, couples with aging parents, and older clients. We guide them all through the questions they should be thinking about at each stage of life,” she recounts.
As one client describes it, investing without understanding the choices you’re given is “like cooking without a recipe.” Mae sums it up this way: “To be a true financial advisor, you need to identify and explain the ingredients and gift clients a sense of agency and competence—not pressure, but authentic confidence based on the steps you’ve taken them through.” Building that kind of confidence requires time many investment firms can’t afford to give, but Mae and Bartle can—and do—through individual meetings, regular newsletters, and consistent communications by phone and email. “We connect with our clients through systems and investments and tailor our services to their needs, values, and goals,” she says.
Seeing Mae and Bartle’s passion for what they do, it’s obvious their Instagram post from March 2021 still holds true: “The dream of working in this industry with our clients and in our community, with authenticity, freedom, joy, and repose came true. We love what we do and cannot wait to continue the journey with you all.” A good return on their investment, you might say.
To learn more, visit EvoQue Investments or check out this video interview announcing their new partnership with Gwen VanSant at Multicultural Bridge.
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