Samir Vasavada joins Molly O'Shea on Sourcery to share how he and his co-founder Runik Mehrotra launched Vise as teenagers and scaled it to over $22 billion in platform assets with their leanest team ever: just about 40 people. After a record-breaking Q2 and 1275% YoY growth, Vise is leading the shift to Wealth 3.0 with personalized, automated portfolios that go beyond mutual funds and ETFs.
Backed with $130 million in funding at a $1B valuation from Sequoia Capital, Founders Fund, and Allen & Co, Vise uses AI to help advisors build, manage, and explain portfolios across nearly every asset class and client type.
Since recording this episode Vise has grown from $15B to $22B platform assets in just a few months.
In this episode, Samir breaks down:
• Bootstrapping Vise at 16: From seed to unicorn in 18 months
• Raising $130M from investors like Sequoia, Founders Fund, + Allen & Co
• How Vise saves clients $60M+ in taxes
• What tech billionaires actually do with their equity
• The $10T RIA opportunity—& why the legacy wealth stack is broken
• Retail demand for private credit, real estate, & alternative assets
• Global wealth shifts from London to Dubai, Milan, & Southeast Asia
• Why scaling back from 150+ employees to 40 made the company stronger
“There needs to be one platform that is functionally the platform that powers the global multi-trillion dollar asset management industry. And it will be Vise”
Molly on X: https://x.com/MollySOShea
Samir on X: https://x.com/samir_vasavada
Visit Vise: https://vise.com
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Chapters:
(00:00) $83T Market → Vise Hits $22B platform assets, 1275% YoY Growth
(01:30) Founding Vise at 16 & Becoming a Unicorn in 18 Months
(03:04) Pivoting to $10T Enterprise RIA Market
(05:28) Lean 40-Person Team → Fastest Growth Ever
(06:23) What Vise Actually Does
(10:23) State of Retail Market: $83T in wealth, $2T+ in Access to Alts
(22:45) $63M+ Saved via Daily Tax-Loss Harvesting
(24:38) Servicing Clients from $200 to $150M Accounts
(30:45) Why Zuckerberg & Elon Take “$0 Salaries”
(32:42) Billionaire Playbook: Financing Homes & Jets via Stock Loans
(39:21) Scaled to 150 Employees to “Refounding” with 40 “Barrels” (Keith Rabois Strategy)
(43:20) Vision: World’s Biggest Tech-Powered Asset Manager
