How Wealthfront Finally Became Profitable After 14 Years
Summary
TLDRForbesの編集者であるMaggie McGrathとJeff Coughlinは、デジタル資産管理サービスであるWealthfrontについて議論しました。Wealthfrontはロボアドバイザーとして知られ、顧客のリスク許容度と投資目標に基づいて投資ポートフォリオを作成します。2014年に報道されて以来、2023年にようやく利益を上げるようになりました。彼らの利益化に貢献した要因は、高金利の現金口座アカウントの提供とその金利の引き上げでした。また、Wealthfrontは自動化に注力し、固定費用を抑え、低い手数料で持続可能なビジネスモデルを築きました。彼らは現在約65億ドルの資産を管理しており、将来的には上場も視野に入れていますが、その道はVanguardなどの大手企業との競争が激しいと予想されます。
Takeaways
- 😀 Wealthfrontは、リスク許容度や時間軸に基づいてカスタマイズされた投資ポートフォリオを提供するロボアドバイザーです。
- 😀 Wealthfrontは2014年から観察されており、2023年にようやく収益化しました。
- 😀 彼らの収益は2022年の8000万ドルから2023年には2億ドルに増加しました。
- 😀 高金利のキャッシュアカウントが顧客を引き付け、収益の増加に貢献しました。
- 😀 Wealthfrontのキャッシュアカウントの資産は2022年末の90億ドルから2023年末には270億ドルに増加しました。
- 😀 UBSによる買収提案が2022年に失敗し、従業員の士気に影響を与えましたが、同時期に収益化に成功しました。
- 😀 Wealthfrontはコストを抑え、自動化を重視する文化を持ち、効率的な運営を行っています。
- 😀 同社の手数料は0.25%であり、競合他社と比較しても競争力があります。
- 😀 Wealthfrontは800,000人の顧客を持ち、米国の中間所得よりも高い収入の顧客をターゲットにしています。
- 😀 Wealthfrontは今後も成長を続ける見込みがあり、将来的に公開企業になる可能性があります。
Q & A
ウェルスフロントがどのようなサービスを提供しているのか説明してください。
-ウェルスフロントはロボアドバイザーとして知られており、顧客のリスク耐性や将来の資金ニーズに基づいてカスタマイズされた投資ポートフォリオを作成します。
ウェルスフロントがどのようにして利益を得ているのか教えてください。
-ウェルスフロントは主にキャッシュアカウントを通じて利益を得ており、これは銀行が提供するハイイールド貯金口座よりも優遇された金利を提供しています。
ウェルスフロントが利益を上げるために行った主な戦略は何ですか。
-ウェルスフロントはキャッシュアカウントの提供を開始し、その金利を競合他社よりも高く設定することで顧客を引き寄せました。また、自動化を通じてコストを削減し、低い手数料を維持しています。
ウェルスフロントのキャッシュアカウントはどのようにして顧客を引き付けたのですか。
-キャッシュアカウントは銀行の提供するハイイールド貯金口座よりも高い金利を提供し、2019年に開始してから金利を競合他社よりも高く設定することで顧客を引き付けました。
ウェルスフロントが利益を上げるために行った変革の1つに、従業員の給与を含む固定コストを管理することがあります。これはどのように実現されたのですか。
-ウェルスフロントは自動化を通じて固定コストを削減し、エンジニアを含めた従業員の給与を管理しました。また、オフィスのコストを低く抑えることで固定コスト全体を管理しました。
ウェルスフロントの顧客層はどのような人々ですか。
-ウェルスフロントの顧客層は平均年収が約12万ドルの比較的高所得層であり、一般的なアメリカ人の平均年収よりも高くなっています。
ウェルスフロントの今後の展望について教えてください。
-ウェルスフロントは現在、利益を上げており、将来的には上場を目指しているとされています。しかし、収益が700百万ドルを超えるまではIPOのリターンが良いとは言えません。
ウェルスフロントがどのようにして顧客の関心を引きつける戦略を展開しているのか教えてください。
-ウェルスフロントはキャッシュアカウントの金利を高く設定し、自動化を通じてコストを削減することで顧客の関心を引きつけています。また、マーケティング費用を抑えながら効率的に顧客を獲得しています。
ウェルスフロントの競合他社と比較してどのような相対的な位置づけがあるのでしょうか。
-ウェルスフロントはBettermentやVanguardなどの他のロボアドバイザーと比較して、同じレベルの手数料を設定しています。しかし、キャッシュアカウントの提供により、より多くの顧客を獲得しています。
ウェルスフロントのキャッシュアカウントが今後どのように発展すると思いますか。
-キャッシュアカウントは現在、顧客を引き付ける重要な要素です。しかし、金利が下がる場合、顧客はキャッシュアカウントから投資アカウントに資金を移動する可能性があります。ウェルスフロントはこの変化に対応する戦略を展開する必要があります。
ウェルスフロントが今後上場する可能性についてどう思いますか。
-ウェルスフロントは上場を目指しているとされていますが、現在収益が200百万ドルとなっており、700百万ドルを超えるまでにはまだ成長が必要です。そのため、今後数年間は民間企業として成長を続けるか、他社によって買収される可能性があります。
Outlines
😀 ウェルスフロントの成功と利益化への道
ウェルスフロントは、個人のリスク許容度と目標に合わせたカスタム投資ポートフォリオを提供するロボアドバイザーです。2014年にForbesに取り上げられた後、10年以上かけてようやく利益化に成功しました。その過程で、プロのマネーマネージャーのパフォーマンスを比較するサービスから、ロボアドバイザーへとシフトし、最近ではキャッシュアカウントの提供で急速にアセットを増やしました。2023年に利益化に到達した背景には、そのキャッシュアカウントの高金利が大きな役割を果たしました。
😉 経済環境とウェルスフロントの成長
ウェルスフロントは、経済環境の変化に合わせてキャッシュアカウントと投資アカウントのマーケティング戦略を切り替えています。金利が高かった2022年にはキャッシュアカウントを主軸にし、多くの新規顧客を獲得しました。また、UBSによる事業買収が失敗した影響で社内モラルが下がったものの、キャッシュアカウントの成功と利益化に向けた取り組みがその打撃から回復を促しました。
😎 ウェルスフロントのビジネスモデルと将来展望
ウェルスフロントは自動化を通じてコストを抑制し、持続可能なビジネスモデルを築いています。ロボアドバイザーの基本的な手数料は0.25%であり、競合他社と比較して低い水準です。2023年の売上高は約2億ドルで、利益化につながる重要な役割を果たしました。将来的には、市場シェアを拡大し、数十億ドル規模の企業になる可能性がありますが、Vanguardのような巨拠企業と比べるとまだ小さい企業です。
🤔 消費者へのメッセージとウェルスフロントの今後
ウェルスフロントの今後の焦点は、キャッシュアカウントの金利が下がった場合の顧客動向と、売上高の成長です。金利が変動する中で顧客を維持し、投資アカウントの顧客獲得にも力を入れていく必要があります。消費者にとって、ロボアドバイザーは積極的な資産管理を行いたいが、個別株や共同基金の選択を自分では行たない場合の良い選択肢です。
Mindmap
Keywords
💡財産形成
💡ロボアドバイザー
💡財産形成の助け
💡固定コスト
💡収益性
💡高金利貯蓄口座
💡資産の成長
💡マーケティング戦術
💡自動化
💡市場シェア
💡IPO
💡ロボアドバイザーの利点
Highlights
Wealthfront, a fintech startup, has recently become profitable after 10 years in the industry.
Wealthfront operates as a robo-advisor, creating customized investment portfolios based on user risk tolerance and financial goals.
The company initially allowed users to select professional money managers but pivoted to a robo-advisor model within a few years.
Wealthfront's profitability was driven by the growth of its cash accounts, which are high-yield savings accounts.
Fixed costs, primarily employee salaries, were around $100 million, and the company needed to exceed $100 million in revenue to become profitable.
In 2023, Wealthfront's revenue more than doubled to $200 million, allowing it to surpass its fixed costs and achieve profitability.
The company attracted $18 billion in new deposits due to its aggressive interest rates on cash accounts.
Wealthfront's cash accounts are more profitable than the average robo-advisor customer's stock and bond portfolios.
The company has kept costs reasonable by automating processes and maintaining a frugal culture.
Wealthfront has not raised its fees since inception, maintaining a fee structure of 25 basis points on assets.
Compared to competitors like Betterment and Vanguard, Wealthfront's fees are in line with industry standards.
The company's growth was significantly impacted by the acquisition deal with UBS falling through, which affected morale.
CEO David Fortunato emphasized the importance of having a short memory and focusing on the company's cash accounts after the failed acquisition.
Wealthfront's customer base has an average income significantly higher than the median income in the United States.
The company aims to potentially go public, with board member Mike Vuli expressing this as a goal.
Wealthfront's growth in 2024 is a key area of interest, with Q1 revenue showing an 80% increase compared to the previous year.
The impact of lowering interest rates on Wealthfront's cash accounts and overall growth is a significant factor to watch in the coming years.
For consumers, robo-advisors like Wealthfront are a good option for those who want a proactive approach to managing finances without actively picking stocks or mutual funds.
Transcripts
hi everyone I'm Maggie McGrath senior
editor at Forbes we know from surveys
that nearly two in five gen Z members
and Millennials say that they have a
harder time Building Wealth than their
parents did and so I'm sitting down with
my colleague Jeff Coughlin he is a
senior editor covering finex and we are
going to be talking about one of those
fintech companies that is helping people
build wealth literally has wealth in the
name Jeff thanks so much for joining us
thanks for having me great to be here so
you wrote a story on wealth front which
is a fintech startup that we actually
covered back in 2014 in a story called
the new money Masters but 10 years later
this company is finally profitable we'll
get into how they built profitability
but I want to start by asking a very
broad question for those who might not
know what is wealth front and why do we
care about it yeah so wfront is what
they call a robo advisor basically they
will create kind of customized
investment portfolios for you based on
your risk tolerance uh your time Horizon
are you saving for retirement and so
yeah it's a robo advisor and they
started a little bit differently they
actually started by allowing people to
pick money managers professional money
managers and they kind of had a
competition which money managers are
performing the best and you could pay to
pick a money manager but they pivoted
pretty quickly uh just a couple years
after they they got that uh that one
going into the robo advisor and so just
like betterman or Vanguard other
companies that have Robo advisors that
that's what wealthfront does now they
only just reach profitability and as I
started this conversation saying we've
been watching them since 2014 what took
so long to become profitable yeah um it
is a long time and I mean I feel like
you often see that with startups but I
think that for wealth front they had
fixed costs that were a certain level
probably around $100 million or so so
they have this model this business model
where they have fixed costs which is
mostly really employees salaries uh they
have about 280 employees and a lot of
those are Engineers which command pretty
high Sal salaries and so but they had
these fixed costs that for a long time I
think they knew we have to get to really
well above a 100 million in Revenue to
actually become profitable and finally
uh in 2023 after uh you know 14 years
their revenue really took off it it more
than doubled to 200 million do from
about 80 million in
2022 and so finally you know they've
been able to get above you they had this
level fixed Clause finally they were
able to kind of break through that
threshold and become profitable what
drove that breakthrough was it a rush of
consumers using this the service or was
it something else yeah a big thing was
what they call Cash accounts it's
basically high yield savings accounts
they're broker accounts that act like
high yield savings accounts and they've
always offered a pretty competitive
interest rate on these um they started
offering them in
2019 and um they were one of the early
fintechs to start offering these high
yield savings accounts and they started
very aggressive on the interest rates
they were higher than any other high
yield savings that Banks offered um even
in 2019 when interest rates were super
low and they kind of stayed on that
strategy and now that didn't work so
well in 2020 and
2021 um especially when when interest
rates were zero oh no they surged in
when did interest rates surge 2022 early
2022 they started going up okay and so
that was the big thing is they stayed on
this strategy and then they Rose in 2022
and then in
2023 um and because of that they
attracted their Assets in these cash
accounts Grew From I think about 9
billion at the end of 2022 to 27 billion
at the end of 2023 so they added like
$18 billion in new um deposits and they
make money on interest through those
this is a very profitable product for
them more profitable than the average
Robo advisor customer who's just buying
the stock and bond portfolios and so
because they had this Big Sur merg in
assets and on a on a profitable product
that helped them become profitable
that's really interesting cuz I'm
thinking to what I was doing in 2021 and
2022 and I remember ibonds were really
going up so I was putting money in
ibonds I wasn't even considering a high
yield account through something like
wealth front I mean I do that now
but what I'm hearing is it sounds like
during that time as the economy is
ebbing and flowing they're just drawing
how many consumers came to them or
customers came to them during this time
yeah I think I think it was hundreds of
thousands I think that um I don't know
exactly but I think it was in the
hundreds of thousands and and so it was
a lot of new customers and it was a lot
of I think probably interest from
existing customers too who said wow
there's the they're offering what is now
a 5% interest rate um you know I'm going
to I'm going to try this out and earn
more interest than my bank which is in a
lot
less does this indicate that consumers
are more interested in high yield
accounts than actively managed or Robo
accounts or is it just a symptom of the
economy at the time yeah I think it's a
symptom of of the economy at the time I
mean they say that you know when
interest rates are high they lead with
cash accounts because it's a great
marketing tactic when interest rates are
low and inevitably they will they will
go down we don't know when but
eventually they will and when they start
to go down or they're low they lead with
investment accounts and so they try to
kind of um toggle their marketing um
that way to to the kind of economic
environment now another factor that was
going on here for wealth front in
2022 UBS said it was going to acquire
the business for $1.4
billion that deal fell through and what
was the effect on wealth wealth front's
business from that deal falling through
yeah I think that I think one big impact
was just on morale one of their board
members um Mike vuli talked to us about
how they were demoralized and and you
know I think it's really hard everyone
is accepting this big payout is $1.4
billion um you know if you're an
employee and you're thinking about
buying a house this is a fantastic
windfall you're you're going to get
especially if you're an early employee
um
and it fell through and so and you spend
a lot of time management spends a lot of
time on these kinds of things on you
know um selling the company and so when
that fell through it was demoralizing
for people for sure um you know the kind
of fortunate thing is at the same time
that it fell through they were just
about hitting profitability and so that
was really helpful for them this was
late 2022 interest rates were going up
still the cash accounts were really
driving a lot of people to the business
um and so that was fortunate for for the
timing where they were hitting
profitability and so but instead of you
know the CEO David fortunado instead of
kind of being bummed out about it and uh
I'm sure he was but instead of focusing
on that he focused on the cash accounts
and and kind of really trying to push
those more and um luckily their 2023 was
was a really good year for them he had
an interesting comment to you something
to the effect of you have to have a
short memory yes yeah I know he's a very
he's a pretty quiet and and um uh
reserved guy I would say and um I kept
trying to kind of get him to talk about
you know how did it feel what were kind
of the emotions you had after this and
it was pretty limited what he wanted to
say except except for that you know you
have to have a short memory for these
kinds of things so he's focusing on the
cash accounts and that's interesting
because I wanted to ask you you wrote
about how wealth front hasn't raised its
Rock Bottom fees since Inception but has
found a way to build a sustainable
business so how has it done that is it
the focusing on the cash accounts or is
there another Factor they're employing
yeah um it is a lot of things the cash
accounts definitely was a big driver the
biggest one um over the past year or two
the other thing they've done is really
just in general they've kept costs um
reasonable they've really had this
culture of automating everything their
founder Andy racku um said to us you
know if we didn't if we couldn't
automate something we wouldn't do it and
so they automated um the investment
portfolios they audited they automated
this process called tax loss harvesting
is which is when you essentially you're
selling profitable you're selling losing
investments in a similar time frame to
offset gains from profitable Investments
and they kind of automated this whole
system so you could get um a tax benefit
from it and so they did things like that
they you know they don't have that many
employees they have 280 employees which
um you know it's a decent size but for
Finch uh that's been around for 14 years
is not that big and during covid when a
lot of people were really hiring like
crazy they didn't add that many
employees they added maybe a few dozen
um half of their employees are Engineers
so that's another way to automate things
focus on
automation they've kept a pretty Frugal
culture too like David fortunado in the
early days he they bought um the desks
they got were from Ikea and he said he
personally built 40 Ikea desks um for
new hires and they were like $130 each
so they were very cheap keep overhead
low when it comes to the office yeah
exactly um and so yeah they did they
don't spend that much on Market Mar I
think they spent $6 million in marketing
in 2023 which is which is less than
their competitors and and not a a huge
amount so I do think they have this
culture of keeping costs reasonable so
they keep the business costs low so they
can keep the fees low what are their
fees right now there are 25 basis points
so 0.25% of assets and how does that
compare to their competitors like a
betterment or others on the market yeah
so betterment it is the same for their
kind of lower tier service betterman has
other services too where they offer like
a h they call it a hybrid um offering
essentially where you get access to a
financial adviser as well you can do
phone calls with them that one I think
is 65 basis points um Vanguard I believe
is about 20 to 30 basis points um so
they're kind of in line with Vanguard I
think one of vanguard's features is a
little bit lower on price um but they're
kind of in line in line with with some
of those others so speaking of Vanguard
you also write that the big winner in
terms of assets has not been a fintech
startup it's Vanguard and across some of
its platforms not even all of it is 300
billion dollar in assets under
management yeah so what's the long-term
outlook for a fintech startup like
wealthfront when you have the incumbents
like Vanguard commanding so much money
yeah yeah it's a great question I think
that I think there is certainly a place
for wealth front as they've proven you
know they have they've built a a pretty
good size business they have about
800,000 customers they have you know 200
million Revenue in
2023 65 billion roughly in assets um and
so I think it's really hard to say are
they going to be able to get to you know
I don't know are they going to be able
to get to 25% market share or that's
hard to say because Vanguard is so big
and powerful has so much kind of um
built-in distribution they and a lot of
Vanguard customers a lot of vanguard's
Robo customers most of them are actually
were already Vanguard customers so they
were already into Vanguard mutual fund
so that's very powerful for them to be
able to sell things to existing
customers so but I think there's a good
there is a good um and and they've
proven it for for I think there's a good
place for them in the market where you
know are they going to be a hundred
billion doll company I don't think so
but they um they've proven they can get
to over a billion you know if they keep
growing the way they do I think they
could be in the multiple billions um so
I think there's a place for them it's a
little bit of a smaller Niche like I
said 800,000 customers it's not you know
Mass Market tens of millions of
customers and the average income for
their customers is relatively High about
$120,000 a year yes that's a good point
yeah so much higher than the median
income in the United States absolutely
you're right so that yeah that's a great
illustration of How It's a niche and and
but they play you know if they can keep
kind of penetrating this Niche um and
and maybe broadening out a little bit I
think there's a a good place for them
will they ever be a publicly traded
company so I they want to be they're
investor you know one board member Mike
vulpi says that's the goal that's the
um wealthfront CEO
says you know we're not focused on it
now but it's certainly possible and so I
think that um that is their that's their
goal they're a little small now I think
to go public and Mike vulpi conceded
that too there's some research recently
saying that if you're below 700 million
in Revenue the IPO returns have not been
good um and so they're about 200 million
Mike vulpi thinks they can maybe double
this year so maybe it takes a couple
more years if things still go well to
get to around that level um that's
assuming a lot but um yeah I think I
could see it I think it's 5050 on
whether they do it or they get acquired
or they keep going as private um but I I
could see it I could see it happening so
you cover fintech companies as your beat
what's the one or two things you're
going to be looking for from wealthfront
over the next year year or two yeah I
think that um it'll be really
interesting to see I mean the growth in
2023 was so high can they can they
double again you know and and I think
that I think it's possible they said
their q1 revenue grew 80% in 2024 versus
q1
2023 I think it's possible they double
again but that that will be the thing I
look for the most is what is growth this
year and then also what happens with the
cash accounts as interest rates as they
eventually start to go down again we
don't know when but what happens there
do people do some people pull their
money out of cash accounts and how much
let's say assuming interest rates go
down and the stock market potentially
goes up how many more how much more can
they offset that um I don't think that
they're going to be as profitable when
if they start losing cash account
customers and gaining more investment
account customers we know the cash
accounts are more profitable and so
that's a potential Factor but um yeah
mainly I'll be watching for the effect
of of lowering interest rates and then
the growth what what does the growth end
up being and what's the number one
takeaway for consumers here if folks
watching this don't know where to put
their money have their money with an
incumbent have their money with another
fintech startup what's your message for
them yeah um it's a good question I
think that
um you know I I personally think Robo
advisors are a good offering I think
that um for someone who doesn't want to
who wants to be proactive in managing
their finances but they're not going to
pick stocks they're not going to even
choose wh exactly which mutual funds
they want or what allocation they want
across mutual funds I think Robo
advisors are a good option I personally
use one um and I think you know morning
has good research on who are like the
the benefits the pros and cons of all
the different Robo advisor so I would
say do research and places like Morning
Star objective um places on what are the
benefits I don't think I would recommend
one in particular but I do think Robo
and you think about the top you know
there's a few that are really at the top
there's Vanguard wealthfront betterment
um Schwab and Fidelity have an offering
too although I don't know if they're as
quite as highly rated as those others
Jeff Coughlin thank you so much for
coming in and breaking this down for us
thank you Maggie enjoyed it
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【もうお金だらけになりました】○○の思考の引き寄せて巨億の富を手に入れて一生困らない人生に!
🧟♂️Forbes Zombie Chains? SHOCKING Truth🕵️
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