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Today I sit down with Eric Satz, Founder and CEO of Alto Solutions, a Nashville-based company offering a self-directed IRA platform that gives people in the US access to invest in alternative assets using their retirement funds in assets like crypto, private funds, and collectibles.
Founded in 2015, Alto now administers over $1B and has raised over $60M from Advance Venture Partners, Unusual Ventures, Acrew Capital, Foundation Capital, Coinbase Ventures, and many more.
In this episode, we discuss:
The importance of diversifying your retirement portfolio with alternative assets and why crypto and digital assets are an increasingly meaningful part of Alto’s product.
“What I would like to drive home is that we're not a crypto-only business, we really are about portfolio diversification and enabling people to invest across asset classes, across asset sectors to make sure that you're getting lower volatility with the chances for higher returns at the same time.”
Lessons from other countries around the world and what could be done to help people in the US strengthen their retirement savings.
“There are several countries that do this better than we [USA] do. But by which I mean, we actually allow people to take their long term financial dollars out of these tax-advantaged accounts, and allow them to pay penalties, if they want, in exchange for the ability to use those dollars today. Other countries have said, ‘no can do’, right? you're really investing for the future.”
[Fintech Meetup] https://bit.ly/3BbpLDP
Hypergrowth during the pandemic and how Eric has managed to expand his team from 20 to 140 since the start of COVID
“Because COVID hit in March 2020, when we were 20-something people, our company has had the benefit of growing and onboarding and building systems and processes, without having had legacy issues… it's all been in the context of remote work, right? So that's been a true benefit for us.”
And just like we’ve heard from other leaders from around the world, Eric reminds us that the only way to beat your competition is to surround yourself with great people!
"At some point, all of our competitors, or future competitors, we're all gonna have the same technology. And the thing that makes the difference, at the end of the day, is the people. And it's the experience that you provide to the people you work with day in and day out and it’s the experience that they provide to the people we serve."
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Emerging Fintech Leaders
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Three early-stage fintech companies doing amazing things
👥 STAAX (@StaaxApp on Twitter)
The future of peer-to-peer investing may be as easy as paying your friends for dinner in stocks. On the Staax platform, users can indicate their preferred stocks or ETFs and get reimbursed for everyday expenses in that form (think rent, gas money, or phone bills). It’s hassle-free portfolio building and social investing wrapped up into one.
💰Funding Status: Staax most recently raised $1.5M in a pre-seed round led by Harlem Capital. The company has also raised pre-seed capital from the Western Union Techstars Accelerator as part of their 2021 class.
👥 Co-Founders: Nikki Varanasi (LinkedIn / Twitter) and Lucy Yang (LinkedIn / Twitter)
👩🏻🎤 CHER (@Cher_App on Twitter)
The Cher app facilitates co-ownership of your dream home. Built out of Santa Monica as a solution for potential homeowners who are discouraged out of the market by rising prices and the highest student debt levels in history, Cher connects buyers with real estate agents and guides them through the loan process for shared home ownership.
💰Funding Status: To date, Cher has raised $680K in pre-seed capital from Mucker Labs, Queen City Fintech, and CFV Ventures. The company was also selected for FinHealth’s US 2021 Accelerator cohort.
👥 Founder: Eric Chebil (LinkedIn)
💸VEST (@MiVestOficial on Twitter)
Mexico’s Vest is a fully mobile, zero-commission trading app for Latin American investors looking to buy shares in NASDAQ and NYSE-listed companies. Broadening access to US financial markets will help Latin American workers take fuller advantage of their savings. The company soon plans to move beyond its current brokerage model into passive investing products to synthesize what is now a patchwork of investment platform and service providers across the region.
💰Funding Status: Vest most recently raised a $6M seed round led by Founders Fund.
👥 Co-Founders: Aaron Polhamus (LinkedIn / Twitter), Miguel Arroyo (LinkedIn / Twitter), and Jaime Rodas (LinkedIn)
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-Thank you for reading!
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Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Alto CEO/Founder, Eric Satz – Strengthening Your Portfolio with Crypto & Alternative Assets, Balancing Hyper-Growth Amidst a Pandemic, and Building a Distributed World Class Team