From Dropping Out of High School to Founding a Billion-Dollar Company: Samir Vasavada's Journey in Tech and Wealth Management

As a passionate entrepreneur and CEO of Vise, I've learned that success is not just about having the right skills or knowledge, but also about having the qualities of resilience, grit, and customer obsession - and that with these qualities, anything is possible.

  • * Samir Vasavada, co-founder and CEO of Vise, dropped out of high school to pursue his passion for building technology products.
  • * He was inspired by Steve Jobs and the iPhone, and started building apps with his co-founder, whom he met at a summer program in eighth grade.
  • * They initially tried to build an AI platform that could create iPhone apps based on user input, but found it too challenging for their skill level at the time.
  • * They then pivoted to consulting with large investment banks on AI and machine learning, charging $500-$1000 per hour as teenagers.
  • * Through this work, they discovered an opportunity to automate investment workflows for financial advisors, who were not necessarily experts in investment management.
  • * They built a prototype at age 15 and attempted to sell it to big financial institutions, but found it difficult to break into the market.
  • * Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan suggested they focus on independent financial advisors instead, leading them to discover a large market for their technology.
  • * Vasavada moved to the Bay area and lived in the Tenderloin while working on Vise, and faced many challenges and rejections along the way.
  • * He emphasizes the importance of always talking to customers as a CEO or founder, even as a company grows and becomes larger.
  • * He believes that having fewer top performers is more effective for growing and scaling a company than having more employees.
  • * Vise experienced rapid growth and success, but also made mistakes in hiring the wrong people and building the wrong culture as they scaled.
  • * Vasavada values skills, knowledge, and qualities when hiring talent, with a focus on qualities such as willingness to work hard, ability to learn, and openness to feedback.
  • * He emphasizes three core values at Vise: burn the boats (commitment), 1% better every day (continuous improvement), and customer obsession (putting customers first).
  • * Vasavada encourages aspiring founders to start a company only if it is their true passion, and to remember that the journey will be difficult but rewarding.
  • * His vision for Vise is to build the world's largest asset manager entirely powered by technology, transforming the legacy investment industry into the modern era.

Source: EO via YouTube

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