What's In Your Merger Agreement? with Trevor Marshall + Funders x Founders with Ajay Kamat & Ethan Agarwal | Okay, Computer. Podcast
Feb 21, 2024
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Tech and fintech headlines covered include Capital One's plan to acquire Discover Financial, crypto, and AI winners/losers. The Funders x Founders segment features The Coterie's background, Silicon Valley Bank debacle impact, and current macroeconomic environment. Also discussed are market narratives, stock market evolution, and transition from founder to investor in the tech venture industry.
The Coterie addresses the financial needs of individuals with assets-based income, creating tailored solutions.
Traditional wealth management lacks customization for specific interests like crypto, private equity, and real estate.
The Coterie aims to streamline investment management for LPs and GPs in the alternative assets industry.
Deep dives
The Frustration of Traditional Banking
Ethan Agarwal, the CEO and co-founder of the Coterie, experienced frustration with traditional banking when he was looking for a mortgage without a salary. He realized that many people's total compensation came from assets rather than salary, and traditional institutions were not taking this into account when assessing risk.
The Need for a Better Financial Solution
Inspired by his own experiences, Agarwal saw an opportunity to create a financial solution that catered to individuals who derived their income primarily from assets. He wanted to build a product that understood the unique financial needs and goals of this demographic.
Challenges with Existing Wealth Managers
Agarwal's frustration continued when he met with a wealth manager who provided a generic 60/40 stocks and bonds portfolio recommendation. He realized that existing wealth managers were not effectively catering to individuals' specific interests, such as crypto, private equity, and real estate.
Creating a More Personalized and Targeted Solution
Driven by the shortcomings of traditional banking and wealth management, Agarwal set out to create the Coterie, a financial platform that offers customized solutions tailored to individuals' unique financial preferences and goals.
Meeting the demand for equity products in the financial sector
The Code Read podcast episode explores the lack of focus from big institutions and large banks on delivering equity products to individual investors. The founders of The Coterie, Ethan and Ajay, discuss how they identified the need for a platform that caters to the specific challenges faced by startup professionals and individuals in the technology and venture industry. They highlight the outdated processes in alternative asset investment, such as manual paperwork and reporting, and the difficulties faced by both LPs and GPs. The Coterie aims to solve these problems with a software-only solution that streamlines investment management for LPs and assists GPs in handling back-office tasks.
The potential and market demand for The Coterie
The podcast episode emphasizes the market potential of The Coterie. The company targets a niche audience of LPs and GPs in the alternative assets industry, which amounts to around a couple of million people. Despite the relatively small number of individuals, the dollars at work in this industry is massive, with the alternative assets industry valued at around $12 trillion. The founders discuss the high customer lifetime value (LTV) within this market segment, citing a case where a company targeting a similar demographic sold for a billion dollars. The Coterie aims to provide a holistic solution, integrating processes that are currently fragmented among multiple platforms, and revolutionizing the way LPs and GPs manage their investments and communication.
On this episode of Okay, Computer. Dan Nathan is joined by Trevor Marshall, CTO of Current, to discuss a wide-range of headlines dominating the tech/fintech markets this week. They discuss Capital One’s plan to acquire Discover Financial (3:00), Crypto (15:00), and AI winners/losers (23:00).
After the break, Dan is joined by Ethan Agarwal, co-founder and CEO of The Coterie, and Ajay Kamat, partner at Pear VC, for the latest installment of the Funders x Founders series. They discuss their background, creating companies to solve problems, what The Coterie does, how the Silicon Valley Bank debacle impacted their business, the Funder x Founder relationship and current macroeconomic environment.
