Banking
Financial advisors have long faced a significant challenge: expanding their client base in a way that is efficient and effective. The tools they currently rely on, such as LinkedIn, ZoomInfo, and Pitchbook, are generalist platforms that do not meet the specific needs of the financial sector. Advisors end up spending up to 60 hours just to convert a single client, which makes organic growth a daunting and exhausting task. This problem, however, also presented an opportunity that Eden Ovadia, a former consultant at Boston Consulting Group, recognized while being recruited for a top role at one of the largest financial advisory firms in the U.S.
Despite the appealing offer, Eden saw a deeper issue at play: the lack of tailored prospecting tools in an industry that was on the brink of seismic change. With the $80 trillion transfer of wealth set to take place between the Baby Boomer and Silent Generation to Millennials and Gen Z, many of whom are uninterested in using the same financial advisors as their parents, the financial advisory industry was in urgent need of innovation. With approximately 45,000 financial advisors nearing retirement, an unprecedented amount of wealth was poised to shift hands.
Instead of accepting the job offer, Eden decided to solve this problem herself — not just for one firm, but for the entire industry. Within two months, she left her position and began building a solution. This led her to Victoria Toli, a friend and fellow AI enthusiast from New York's startup community. The two shared a deep background in AI engineering and an ambition to create meaningful change. Victoria, a product manager at Uber at the time, saw the same inefficiencies in the financial advisory sector that Eden had observed. The outdated tools, combined with the cultural and demographic shifts, presented a rare opportunity to build something transformative.
