financial-advisors
(12)
The Twenty-Year Overnight Success of Matt Brown
He was headed for film school when a pinstriped stranger offered to teach him the math. Three decades later, Matt Brown has made a career of turning finance's velvet ropes into software.
Patrick Kelly and the Sixty-Page Problem
A financial advisor met a 60-page application and discovered that selling insurance was easier than delivering it. His answer became two companies, one recurring obsession and a wager that the industry's least glamorous problems are worth solving properly.
Justin Boatman Learned Product Strategy in the Most Unexpected Place
Before fintech, Justin Boatman built programs and media for a church. Now he turns advisor problems into products, product launches into live shows, and even the family allowance into a lesson about risk.
Mick McLaughlin Is Selling Crypto’s Least Crypto Idea: Own the Index
After helping ETFs become ordinary, Mick McLaughlin has taken on a stranger assignment: making crypto boring enough for a portfolio meeting - without pretending the risk has disappeared.
Mark Swan Wants AI to Give Financial Advisers Their Time Back
From Aberdeen classrooms to Revolut’s fire hose and a $40 million New York startup, Swan has built his career around one stubborn idea: software should clear the desk so people can do the human work.
John Rourke Spent Three Decades Making CRM Feel Less Like Work
Before Wealthbox secured a $200 million majority investment, its CEO spent years testing one stubborn idea: business software can be powerful without making its users miserable.
Parker Ence Wants AI to Take the Notes - So Advisors Can Stay in the Room
A guitar teacher turned four-time tech CEO found his next company hiding in the least glamorous hour of a financial advisor's day: the paperwork after a good conversation.
Christopher King
Christopher King is the founder and CEO of Eaglebrook, a crypto investment platform that gives registered investment advisors (RIAs) direct access to bitcoin and digital assets through tax-optimized separately managed accounts (SMAs). A Penn State finance graduate who began investing in digital assets in 2014, King started his career in crypto-focused venture capital at Morgan Creek Capital Management before launching Eaglebrook in 2019. The New York and Miami-based company has grown into one of the largest crypto SMA platforms serving wealth managers, backed by investors including Castle Island Ventures, Brewer Lane Ventures, and Franklin Templeton.
Eden Ovadia
Eden Ovadia is the co-founder and CEO of FINNY, a New York-based AI prospecting platform built for financial advisors. A McGill-trained software engineer who worked in private equity and financial services at Boston Consulting Group, she launched FINNY in 2024 with Victoria Toli and Theodore Janson through Y Combinator. The company uses a proprietary F-Score to match advisors with high-intent prospects and automate outreach. FINNY raised a $17 million Series A led by Venrock in December 2025, bringing total funding above $20 million, and Ovadia was named to WealthManagement.com's Ten to Watch in 2025.
Robert Clare
Robert (Bob) Clare is the founder, CEO and board chairman of Fispoke, a wealth-infrastructure startup he co-founded in 2023 with Nathan Berk. Fispoke gives independent financial advisors a white-labeled private banking layer - cash, credit, securities-based loans and mortgages - traditionally locked inside wirehouses and private banks. A Georgetown MBA, Clare spent years in operating and consulting roles at Bank of America, Cognizant and JDX Consulting before deciding the advisor channel needed banking tools of its own. Fispoke has raised roughly $5.45M and signed partnerships with Broadridge, Bell Bank, Wealthbox and Sage Home Loans.
Satayan Mahajan
Satayan Mahajan is the founding CEO of Datalign Advisory, a Cambridge, Massachusetts fintech that matches Americans with vetted fiduciary financial advisors using AI and human-centered design. An MIT alumnus and Media Lab pioneer, he spent two decades building motion-capture and gaming companies (Motus, iClub) before an eight-year run at Amazon as a GM and Head of Product. He returned to startup mode in 2024 when Cogo Labs founder Dave Blundin recruited him to lead Datalign, which has since referred more than $80 billion in assets across thousands of advisors.
Mark Gilbert
Mark Gilbert is the Co-Founder & CEO of Zocks, a privacy-first AI platform that automates administrative work for financial advisors - capturing meeting notes, filling forms, and drafting client emails so advisors can reclaim 10+ hours weekly. Before founding Zocks, he held VP of Product Management at Twilio and CTO at Hearsay Systems. In January 2026, Zocks closed a $45M Series B co-led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and QED Investors, bringing total funding to $65M. The platform now serves 5,000+ financial firms.