Gregory Van on Endowus Investing Accessibility, Family Entrepreneurship & Early Days at Grab - E69

Gregory Van is CEO of Endowus.com, Asia’s leading fee-only wealth management platform. Headquartered in Singapore and backed by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Softbank Ventures Asia, Endowus is the first digital advisor to span both private wealth and public pension savings (CPF & SRS). Endowus focuses on providing expert advice, institutional access to financial solutions, at low & fair fees to everyone, in a delightful digital-first experience.

Greg started his career in investment banking at UBS, advising and fundraising for private equity and venture capital firms in the Asia Pacific region. Greg then joined Grab in its early days and was the business development and partnerships lead for payments and technology.

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As a young father of two, Greg realised the importance of personal financial planning but found that managing the finances of his young family was challenging as it was costly, frustrating, and limited in high-quality options.

“Investing should be accessible, and advice should be scientific in helping people realise their goals. Coming from an investments background, I was shocked by what someone has to go through in order to plan for their family’s financial future with confidence. There is a huge gap between people’s investment activities and the portfolio that would suit their individual situation. I believe technology and access to the right products will close this gap and achieve measurable client results through structured, progressive, and personalised financial planning.”

Greg therefore saw an opportunity to combine his expertise in tech and finance to empower people to realise their financial goals. As part of Endowus Investment Committee, Greg is passionate about building holistic portfolios for every investor.

Greg’s passion for investments and helping others stems from his personal experiences and failures. At 17, Greg made his first investment in Amazon and profited 7% in 3 days. Emboldened, he began speculating which resulted in his portfolio fluctuating from a 30% profit to 95% loss. Through this journey, Greg fine-tuned his investment approach to be holistic, evidence-based with the lowest fees possible. Today, Greg and his family have invested all of their savings in Endowus’ 80% stocks, 20% bonds portfolio.

Greg graduated magna cum laude with a BA in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics from the University of Pennsylvania. He also did a one-year exchange program directly enrolled in the School of International Studies at Peking University.

Show notes at: https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/gregory-van

You can find the community discussion for this episode at: https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/gregory-van

This episode is produced by Kyle Ong.