Mike Reust Invests in Rose-Hulman Talent
Friday, January 02, 2026
Mike Reust, president and CEO of NYC-based Betterment, combined his passions for finance and software at Rose-Hulman.
At 12 years old, Mike Reust was too young to have an official job, but that never stopped him from advancing his passions into his career. He started a "computer junkyard," upgrading and repairing computers with spare parts to save up for upgrades to his own system. Simultaneously, Reust persuaded his parents to allow him to begin investing real money, following a lifelong fascination with finance.
Rose-Hulman helped Reust, a 2008 software engineering graduate, combine his passions and led him to his current role as the president of Betterment, a New York-based financial software company that makes investing and financial wellness more accessible.
"The structure itself, the class sizes, the classmates, and the professors…their objective was clearly to set students up for success," he said, noting he often spent hours working with his Rose-Hulman professors after class. "They never made me feel like I was a burden."
In addition to his coursework, Reust worked as a supervisor for AskRose Homework Help, where he quickly took it upon himself to develop new scheduling software.
"I had never really built a software thing before," Reust said. "I was instantly addicted. could envision a solution today, and have something real and useful in days or weeks."
Today, Betterment manages over $65 billion in assets for over a million clients. Reust oversees everything related to Betterment's product and service offerings, including leading hundreds of employees focused on engineering, product design, operations, customer support and client experience, capital markets, and portfolio management.
He credits Rose-Hulman with enabling him to move from his small rural hometown to the big city lights of New York City and extends the same opportunity to others, hiring several students and graduates for both intern and full-time roles and going out of his way to help them adjust to life in the bigger city.
"Rose-Hulman, at this point, is the only school outside of the New York City metro that we consistently visit for on-campus recruiting," Reust said. "The average talent and skill set being graduated per person is quite high compared to other schools in my experience."
Reust advises others, including recent graduates, to carefully consider how a career at a given company may impact the world as a whole.
"Betterment helps over a million clients achieve their financial goals by improving access to sophisticated investing technology and advice," Reust said. "The cool part of a goal-based platform is you literally know when people achieve their goals. It's pretty fulfilling."
Rose-Hulman helped Reust, a 2008 software engineering graduate, combine his passions and led him to his current role as the president of Betterment, a New York-based financial software company that makes investing and financial wellness more accessible.
"The structure itself, the class sizes, the classmates, and the professors…their objective was clearly to set students up for success," he said, noting he often spent hours working with his Rose-Hulman professors after class. "They never made me feel like I was a burden."
In addition to his coursework, Reust worked as a supervisor for AskRose Homework Help, where he quickly took it upon himself to develop new scheduling software.
"I had never really built a software thing before," Reust said. "I was instantly addicted. could envision a solution today, and have something real and useful in days or weeks."
Today, Betterment manages over $65 billion in assets for over a million clients. Reust oversees everything related to Betterment's product and service offerings, including leading hundreds of employees focused on engineering, product design, operations, customer support and client experience, capital markets, and portfolio management.
He credits Rose-Hulman with enabling him to move from his small rural hometown to the big city lights of New York City and extends the same opportunity to others, hiring several students and graduates for both intern and full-time roles and going out of his way to help them adjust to life in the bigger city.
"Rose-Hulman, at this point, is the only school outside of the New York City metro that we consistently visit for on-campus recruiting," Reust said. "The average talent and skill set being graduated per person is quite high compared to other schools in my experience."
Reust advises others, including recent graduates, to carefully consider how a career at a given company may impact the world as a whole.
"Betterment helps over a million clients achieve their financial goals by improving access to sophisticated investing technology and advice," Reust said. "The cool part of a goal-based platform is you literally know when people achieve their goals. It's pretty fulfilling."