We started building 6 years ago with a crazy idea that our benefits shouldn’t be tied to traditional employment and a W2 form. We were audacious enough to believe a trillion-dollar ecosystem built by corporations, the government, and our financial institutions over the last 75 years could be toppled by a startup turning everything on its head.
Today? We still believe that. We just have to admit that we aren’t the ones to do it right now. We have made the difficult decision to shut Catch down.
To our customers: You are why we did this. We believe you deserve the same rights, the same quality financial products, and the same systems that make it easy to build stability and wealth — no matter how you work. You have an email from us detailing how to access and manage your tax payments, savings, investments, and health insurance. We wish there were another way for you to keep it all organized in one place.
To our investors: You believed in our vision. We are so grateful to have had the opportunity to try. We have learned so much and still deeply believe in our core thesis: that the world has changed, and our only hope at building a strong and successful middle class is to make it easy for a new type of worker to build assets and protect their families. There are more iterations of these ideas to come, and we hope that our work and learnings have moved them forward.
To our team: You built something good. The time and effort spent challenging historic notions of what is possible were not wasted. We have thrown a stone, and we are already watching the ripples change how companies, people, and politicians think about solutions for the future. You did that. Your ownership of that can’t be taken away.
To our friends: You supported us. The last 6 years were never easy. You pumped us up and reminded us of our potential. You saved us when things felt too much to bear. We would not be here without the networks of friends, colleagues, partners, and cheerleaders who reminded us of how big the world is and how much we can do.
To our less-than-friends: You motivated us. We don’t see eye to eye, and you probably know it. You may revel in being “right” about us, but know that you have not won the war. We know more than we did before. We will keep building. We will keep pushing forward on principles that improve customer outcomes, drive societal change for the better, and refuse to accept that just because this is the way things are, that this is the way they have to be.
Right now, the only thing to say is thank you.
To all of you.
This is not the end.
It's just the beginning.