Wealthsimple CEO Mike Katchen contrasts US fintech clearing infrastructure with the lack of backend plumbing in Canada at the company's inception.
Disclosure
Y Combinator rejected Wealthsimple's early prototype due to market doubts
“We applied to YC, little known fact about Wealthsimple's history at this stage. Got turned down because they didn't quite believe that anybody wanted what we were trying to build.”
Assertion Contradicted
Early Canadian regulations required in-person meetings to open investment accounts
“In fact, in Canada, if you wanted to open up an investment account at that time, there were rules that said that you needed to meet a financial advisor in person for an in-person suitability assessment for that person to actually build a portfolio on your beha…”
Assertion Contradicted
Wealthsimple currently manages roughly $20 billion in client assets
“You know, companies are roughly twenty billion or so today, which is you know, nothing to sneeze at, but it's not a trillion yet.”
Assertion Supported
Regulators initially forced Wealthsimple to call every new customer for suitability
“It took us like six months to get the approval, which felt like forever. Maybe it wasn't in a regulatory world, but then even when we got approval, we actually had all these conditions on it where we had to call every single client who signed up to do a suitab…”
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Wealthsimple used six months of data to convince regulators of digital onboarding
“It took us another, like, six months of showing them the data of, like, how phone calls really didn't change the answer for people, and people really didn't want, young people in particular, like, really didn't want to speak to anybody on the phone. To convinc…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Wealthsimple benefited massively from a bull market and the meme stock craze
“Like we were a massive beneficiary of starting the business in a huge bull run in the markets. You know, we were around with a stock trading app during meme stocks that was just incredibly successful.”