How Philip Taylor built FinCon, the leading conference for personal finance creators
You can’t open up YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram without encountering an influencer who gives advice on how to make and save money.
In 2011, the idea of a conference dedicated entirely to personal finance creators would have sounded niche at best. Blogging was still the dominant medium, YouTube creators were rare, and podcasting was a fringe activity. Yet Philip Taylor saw something others didn’t: a rapidly forming ecosystem of creators, brands, and audiences that needed a central gathering place.
More than a decade later, that bet has paid off. FinCon has grown from a 225-person meetup into the largest conference in the personal finance creator space, peaking at over 3,000 attendees. Along the way, Taylor built not just an event, but a durable business model rooted in community, partnerships, and the evolution of the creator economy itself.
In our interview, Taylor walked us through how he got into the personal finance space, his strategy for growing the conference, and his ambitions for launching similar conferences in other niche categories.
Let’s jump into it…
From CPA to Blogger
Taylor didn’t start as a media entrepreneur. He began his career in traditional finance, working as a certified public accountant and spending roughly a decade in roles spanning public accounting and corporate finance.
“I enjoyed about a 10-year career in finance directly,” he said. “I started out with the big four accounting firms… worked my way through regional firms… and then moved into corporate finance on the internal audit side.”
But like many early bloggers, his entry into media came from a personal need rather than a business plan.
In 2007, he launched a blog documenting his journey to get his financial life in order. At the time, the personal finance blogging ecosystem was small but growing, fueled by writers openly sharing their debt, savings strategies, and side hustles.
“I was reading several blogs, and they were just inspiring me to get out there and share my own story,” he said.
What set Taylor apart early on was his commitment to transparency. Writing under the pseudonym “PT,” he published detailed accounts of his finances—debt levels, income, and progress toward financial independence.
“That transparency… was helpful for the reader, but it was also helping to hold me accountable,” he said.
Like many early bloggers, his audience initially came from Google search rather than loyal readership.
“It was mostly Google search driven… as soon as we would put up another answer, Google would send people asking those questions to our pages.”
Within a year, the blog was generating revenue through AdSense. Soon after, Taylor layered in affiliate marketing and freelance services. By 2010, the business had grown large enough to replace a significant portion of his salary.
“I would say in January of 2010, it reached about two-thirds of my corporate salary,” he said.
That milestone pushed him to go full-time.
Discovering the Power of Community
While the blog was financially successful, Taylor realized that his real interest lay elsewhere—not in serving end readers, but in connecting with fellow creators.
“I realized I really enjoyed the interaction with the other bloggers more so than I necessarily did the end user,” he said.
At the time, personal finance bloggers were forming tight-knit communities through forums and comment sections. One such hub was a forum created by Jim Wang of Wallet Hacks, where bloggers exchanged growth strategies and monetization tips.
These interactions planted the seed for FinCon.
Taylor also began attending general blogging and affiliate marketing conferences. But he found them lacking when it came to his niche.
“I always felt like, ‘Oh, we need our own space,’” he said. “I would meet in the hallways with other finance bloggers… and I just wanted to spend more and more time with them.”
The insight was simple but powerful: if a sub-community within larger events was already clustering together, it could likely sustain its own dedicated conference.
Launching FinCon With a Lean Startup Approach
In early 2011, Taylor decided to act.
“I read an article… that said something like 2011 will be the year of the niche blogging conferences,” he recalled. “I said to my wife, ‘I just feel like I need to do this.’”
He immediately registered a domain and launched a simple landing page with an email signup form. There was no detailed agenda, no venue, and no confirmed speakers—just an idea.
“I hadn’t read The Lean Startup book, but apparently I totally used the Lean Startup method,” he said.
The response validated his thesis. Within a short period, about 100 people had signed up expressing interest.
From there, Taylor co-created the event with the community itself. Using surveys and forum discussions, attendees helped shape everything from location to programming.
“We picked the location… the date… the format… the speakers… we sort of all did it together,” he said.
Managing Risk in a Capital-Intensive Business
Launching a conference carries significant financial risk, particularly for a solo operator. Taylor mitigated that risk through careful planning and conservative assumptions.
He created two budget scenarios: a smaller “Conference A” and a more ambitious “Conference B.” He committed only to the smaller version upfront.
The hotel deal itself was structured to minimize cash outlay. Instead of paying large upfront fees, he agreed to meet minimum requirements for room bookings and food and beverage spend.
“I think my food and beverage spend might have been $10,000 or $15,000… and I committed to like 50 rooms a night,” he said.
Crucially, he didn’t finalize those commitments until he had already sold a meaningful number of tickets and secured early sponsor interest.
That sequencing—demand first, fixed costs later—allowed him to launch with limited downside risk.