Financial Advisor For Startups

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A financial advisor for your startup can come in a few shapes and sizes. If you’re looking for a financial advisor for startups, then you’re most likely in a position where you are either looking for funding or already have funds and are looking to deploy them in the most effective way possible. However, a financial advisor can be helpful in any stage of company development.

Let’s start this conversation with the difference between finance and accounting. Accounting is looking at money movement that has already happened. If you’re looking for accounting solutions, then there are quite a few different asset tracking startups and wealthtech solutions which can help you.

The most common accounting software is Intuit’s Quickbooks for accounting, but there are plenty of specialized accounting softwares for specific circumstances such as grant funds administration and reporting which can be a little more specific with functionality such as Atlas Solutions out of Indiana. In contrast to accounting, finance is typically looking at future money movement and how best to both acquire and spend capital to grow the company. When it comes to acquiring capital, there are really only a few different vehicles by which you can raise, but an advisor can help guide you along the path to find the right solution.

Secondarily, when you’ve decided where to acquire capital from, you may want an advisor to help you decide the best way to use funds. For example, immediately paying off debt as a business is often a poor use of capital when it could have been used to grow revenues which will cover the debts. Furthermore, advisors and consultants can help with rapid expansion methods once funding is acquired. To hit both of these goals, there is an example of launching Uber Miami, Florida versus Uber Milan, Italy: launching from a marketing perspective in Miami took Uber several weeks and ended with over 1000 orders placed in the first day of the launch. In contrast, launching Uber Milan took over three months with less than 60 orders on the first day.

The difficulty in launching between these markets could be hundreds of thousands of dollars and mean the difference between life and death for early stage startups who need to wisely use any funds which come into their pocket. Had Uber launched in a different city from Milan, they may have saved hundreds of thousands of dollars and made a more lasting business impact on a city that was right for them to launch into. A huge portion of this system comes from good competitive analysis and public sentiment in demographic areas regarding your company’s brand.

Financial Planning Startups

One of if not the biggest expense and asset in early stage startups is people. Without other great humans with amazing skills in your company, you won’t get anywhere. If you’re a money-conscious early stage company who is cash poor but looking to hire great people, then human resources may be your biggest weakness. However, it doesn’t have to be. You can utilize equity and options planning to entice A+ talent no matter your stage, and companies like SecFi can help track those systems from the perspective of your employees. One big issue is liquidity when it comes to early startup equity, but if I were giving a SecFi review based on functionality, a marketplace where you can liquidate your early stage private equity is a great boon to those employees who really want to make other investments or need to liquidate for life emergencies. You can also help your employees avoid these sorts of needs for liquidation through options like origin financial planning or origin financial wellness, both of which can reduce the need for SecFi and the economy of equity within the company. Argona Partners can help you develop a financial plan through comprehensive due diligence and 5-Year ProForma planning. Contact us today for a startup financial plan example.

Wealth Management Startups

Wealth tech startups are interesting to me because innovation typically comes from a place of understanding an issue yourself, solving the issue for yourself, and then publishing that solution for others to use. For portfolio management startups and wealthtech in general, these founders are part of a very small number of individuals with some very specific life experience to help manage money in a better way. When you’re taking a look at the wealthtech 100 or the wealthtech report, just remember that to solve problems in wealth management requires a very specific kind of human. The founders in this industry most likely either come from wealth or have managed large amounts of money for a long time and experienced the same problems over and over which caused them to start their companies.

Top Wealth Management Fintech Companies

Wealth management firms come in all shapes and sizes, with different functions and target clients. To give a better understanding about the key players in wealth management, here is a list of the largest wealth management firms 2021, ranked by their AUM (Assets under management).

Morgan Stanley (2020 FY assets under management: $1.5 trillion)
Merrill Lynch (2020 FY assets under management: $1.4 trillion)
JPMorgan Chase (2020 FY assets under management: $1.4 trillion)
UBS (2020 FY assets under management: $1 trillion)
Credit Suisse (2020 FY assets under management: $870 billion)

Our technology-driven world has incubated wealthtech companies that sprawled their powers to the wealth management industry. These companies are more efficient, gain more exposure to the new generation of money-makers, and are more flexible amidst uncertainties. A few examples of wealth management Fintech startups include:

Responsive.ai, a robo-advisor that uncovers the hidden needs of clients.
Bambu, a smart advisory solution that enables businesses by making saving and investing more straightforward and intelligent for their clients.
Cred, a Barclays-backed, AI-based platform that changes the way financial institutions advise and engage their clients.

There are numerous wealth management software companies out there that have gained business traction and became sizable firms. To give an example, Wealthfront Inc. is among the top wealth tech companies that specializes in automated investment management with a goal to maximize profits and minimize taxes. As of 2019, the company had $21 billion in assets under management across 400,000+ accounts.

Financial Planning Fintech

Financial planning in startups is important to consider - money that is stagnant is not making more money. There are plenty of fintech and wealth management solutions out there that can help - especially when you’re too busy to manage your extra finances with all the additional accounting and money movement. When considering financial planning fintech solutions, fintech in investment management, or even financial advisor technology, there are a few things to keep an eye on. Rather than give you specific companies, I think it may be more useful to help you develop the right questions to keep in mind during your search. When taking a look at dashboards for investment management, look for social sentiment scraping for companies in your deal flow. Social sentiment and listening can be incredibly helpful to know when to make an investment decision. In addition to social listening, ask yourself if the analytics involved will work with your lifestyle - can you log in any time and see real time value updates? Is there anything you need to do to keep up on the investments or can you just sit back and know your money is working hard for you with transparency? Lastly, what are the fees involved? Is the advisor on your account fiduciary? Is the solution your considering working in your best interest or working for commissions?