Cache Financials is a San Francisco fintech that modernizes the exchange fund, a century-old tax-deferral vehicle once reserved for the ultra-wealthy. Its platform lets people with large, concentrated single-stock positions, especially tech workers sitting on appreciated RSUs and founder shares, diversify into a broad index-like portfolio without triggering an immediate capital gains tax bill. By cutting minimums from roughly $1 million to $100,000, charging far lower fees than legacy providers, and rebuilding the product on modern software, Cache has grown to more than $600 million in assets under management since launching in March 2024.
Stirlingshire is a New York-based financial services company building an advisor-first investment platform. Operating through SEC-registered, FINRA-member subsidiaries Stirlingshire RIA LLC and Stirlingshire BD LLC, it offers a full-service broker-dealer and advisory model with a sharp twist: advisors keep 100% of their asset-management fees and commissions with zero firm expenses and permanent work-from-home flexibility, while clients can self-direct at zero commission and call on a professional advisor only when they want one. Founded in 2020 by Steven Woods, the firm pitches a 'third way' between fully managed portfolios and pure DIY investing.
Nasdaq Private Market (NPM) is an independent, New York-based financial technology and broker-dealer company that runs a marketplace for trading shares of private, pre-IPO companies. Through its SecondMarket platform, NPM helps startups, employees, shareholders, and institutional investors find liquidity before an exit - via tender offers, auctions, block trades, and custom company marketplaces - while bringing price discovery, data, and settlement infrastructure to a notoriously opaque corner of finance.
Steven Woods is the founder and CEO of Stirlingshire Investments, a New York based, SEC-registered, FINRA-member broker-dealer trying to rewire how financial advisors get paid. He started at 26 with a GED, cold-calling for $500 a day, and grew into an advisor producing millions before walking away to build a 'Hybrid Broker-Dealer' that lets advisors keep 100% of their fees and commissions with zero expenses. His 'advice on demand' model gives clients three choices: trade free, pay only when recommendations make money, or hand over full management. He frames the whole project around one question: 'How do we make this better?'
Steven Wang is the founder and CEO of dub, a regulated, SEC-registered copy-trading app that lets everyday investors mirror the portfolios of vetted managers, hedge funds, and members of Congress with one tap. A Detroit-area kid who opened a custodial brokerage account in second grade, he sold a VR company at 17, built Apple Watch software at 18, invested out of a Harvard dorm as a Dorm Room Fund partner, then dropped out to launch dub. The company has crossed 1 million downloads and raised about $47 million, including a $30M Series A in May 2025.
Yoshi Yokokawa is the co-founder and CEO of Alpaca, the San Mateo-based API-first brokerage infrastructure company that powers over 300 global fintech partners across 45 countries. A former Lehman Brothers analyst and forex trader turned repeat entrepreneur, Yoshi built Alpaca from a YC W19 startup into a $1.15 billion unicorn after raising a $150 million Series D in January 2026. His vision: a 'Global Financial OS' that makes investing borderless, accessible, and developer-native.
Finalis is a San Francisco-based fintech building the operating system for private capital markets. It pairs a registered broker-dealer with software that handles compliance, deal management, and a global network of bankers - letting independent dealmakers run M&A, capital raises, and private placements without standing up their own back office.
Federico Baradello is the Founder and CEO of Finalis, an AI-powered investment banking platform he built from his frustration with a 30-year-old technology stack while executing M&A deals at Kirkland & Ellis. An Argentine-American multilingual attorney with degrees from Princeton, Harvard, LSE, and UC Berkeley, Baradello launched Finalis in 2020 and has grown it into one of the fastest-growing investment banking platforms in history - now powering over 900 bankers across 24 countries with $22.5B+ in closed transactions.
Dusko Kelez is the Peruvian founder and CEO of Hapi App (YC W21), a San Francisco-based fintech that lets anyone in Latin America invest in U.S. stocks and crypto with no broker commissions and no minimums. After leading operations at Grin Scooters across seven countries and noticing that Latin Americans had no easy way to access global markets, he co-founded Hapi in 2020 with engineers Piero Sifuentes and Billy Caballero. Today the platform serves over 500,000 users in 20 countries, has raised $4.3M from Y Combinator and leading investors, and is celebrating milestones on the NASDAQ tower in Times Square.