Vise changes investment heads as fintech unicorn product

Vise continues to struggle with executive turnover as the technology-driven startup strives to increase the way advisers invest client funds.

The latest executive to find the door is Dave Twardowski, who had served as head of investment strategy at the company. Taking over the role is Travis Fairchild, who has been on Vise’s investment team for a year and previously worked at O’Shaughnessy Asset Management. Twardowski joined Vise from Avantis Investors, and before that worked at Dimensional Fund Advisors for more than eight years.

With Twardowski’s exit, the entire management team has turned over in the past year, except for the company’s co-founders, Samir Vasavada and Runik Mehrotra. In May, Vise laid off the majority of the sales staff, including the sales manager. Other exits in the past year have included the company’s chief technology officer, chief compliance officer, chief marketing officer and chief people officer. Most of these leaders have not been replaced.

More exits from the sales and marketing departments are imminent, a source told Citywire. Overall, the company has shrunk from over 90 employees to close to 60.

The personnel changes reflect a strategic shift in the company, said Vasavada (pictured below) in an interview conducted at the company’s offices on the 84th floor of One World Trade Center.

“We just decided that Vise would work just as well, if not better, as a slightly smaller organization,” Vasavada said. “With 60 people, you move much faster. You are able to operate more like a startup.

Vise, also known as ‘Vise AI Advisors’, is a startup designed to manage RIAs’ client resources in exchange for a fixed platform fee and an administration fee of 0.50% or less. The company strives to deliver “advanced personalization” that not only leverages tax-loss harvesting opportunities, but also helps advisers build tailored portfolios so that, for example, a client can avoid holding stocks related to their career.

In May 2021, Vise raised $65 million from venture funds, including Sequoia Capital, at a self-reported “$1B+ valuation.” Emphasizing that the company is well capitalized, Vasavada explained that the company’s decision to raise money before the market falls leaves it in a position of strength.

“We could kind of see this downturn in the market coming and that’s why we really stocked up on cash,” he said.

As for the valuation, which has raised eyebrows in the RIA community, Vasavada said it reflects the long time horizon of Vise’s backers.

“We’re in a massive market where you can build a very, very large company. Ten years from now, the wealth and asset management space is going to be very, very different. And companies like Vise will take a large part of that market up, predicted Vasavada. “I look at our valuation as an indicator of the potential opportunity.”

Vise reports assets under management of $362 million, a far cry from previous forecasts given by the company. But for now, Vise’s measure of success is less AUM than customer satisfaction, Vasavada said.

‘Right now the focus is really, how can we find the best product in the space?’ he said. “Before, we thought we were ready to scale. But now we’re thinking: OK, let’s solve all our key business problems and make sure the product is really great – and then we’ll build and scale the next evolution.’