I started Surmount (Techstars 2022) when I was 20 because I watched as my grandmother got taken advantage of by her financial advisor, and we just crossed $110M in assets invested through us.

What does your company do, and why is it important?

We're making investment management software-driven.

It's important because there's not currently a solution that is client centric, personalized, and affordable. We're disrupting the industry through highly personalized, software-driven smart portfolios that can do anything a human advisor can and/or through our "Shopify for investment management" where anyone can come on, share products, and monetize them.

We're changing how people approach investment management, and it's clear people are excited about the shift towards a more balanced playing field.

How is what you are building disrupting your industry?

Advisors are just sitting back, charging fees for doing nothing.

If I'm an advisor, my goal is not to provide you with the most personalized, best client experience — it's to find 100 more of you and throw you into buckets that I'm getting compensated to throw you into.

Boo!

Instead of 1/100 portfolios, we're providing truly 1 of 1 portfolios.

What advice would you give aspiring entrepreneurs who are just starting their journey?

Find any/every way to ship faster and make quick decisions. Build off of OKRs/KPIs. A smaller, higher-quality team is better than a larger, lower-quality team.

What has been your proudest moment or biggest triumph in your entrepreneurial journey?

Acquiring a YC company/one of our main competitors.

Are there any lessons you've learned along the way that you wish someone had shared with you when you started?

There are practically an infinite number of lessons I've learned along the way.

Talk to users more (as often as possible until you know what you have).

Don't get married to ideas, that is a surefire way to fail.

Get smart people around you to give you advice, but at the end of the day, you need to run the show and be able to make decisions.

Fundraising is peacocking — what are the most attractive things about your business? How can you turn it into a story? Make a good story and show off whatever you can. Don't ever be desperate.

Can you share any resources or organizations that have been particularly helpful to you as an entrepreneur?

Books: "Do More Faster," "Sell More Faster," "Mastering the VC Game"

Organizations: Techstars

Why did you want to do an accelerator, and why did you choose Techstars?

We had no network and were starting from the middle of a cornfield on the Mason-Dixon line. A mentor advised that we choose Techstars because of the intimate class size and quality of the cohorts.

What was the most memorable experience from your Techstars program?

Meeting everyone in person in San Diego, and the first night, the entire group talking about how everyone has impostor syndrome (regardless of stage, etc.).

Ryan Kuder saying to write regular company updates.

Dave Mandell's "Badass CEO" talk.

What was your biggest takeaway from your time spent in program with Techstars?

Write company updates, build with process, do retros, and OKRs will build $1B businesses.

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