Financial freedom for the masses
Wealthfront’s robo-advisor helps you plan for the future
This story is now published on 🦄 Babyunicorns.com 🦄 at https://www.babyunicorns.com/articles/financial-freedom-for-the-masses
Have you ever attempted to invest and wondered whether you’re making the right choice? Have you sought advice from a financial advisor and wondered whether they were making choices with your best interests at heart or theirs? It’s a cruel world out there from a financial perspective but Wealthfront’s got your back — the fully automated financial advisor offers financial planning, investment management and banking related services all in one app.
What is Wealthfront?
Wealthfront is a baby unicorn company founded in 2010. It was originally not focused on making profit but rather focused on democratizing access to sophisticated financial services, things typically unaccessible to the masses. You can think of it as personal wealth management advisor.
Andy Rachleff, a retired successful venture capitalist (VC) took to teaching at Stanford Graduate School of Business. He realized his students could not seek financial advice from the services he used due to high premiums. He also realized that the best-managed endowments relied on traditional financial solutions such as spreadsheets and manual calculations to make decisions. His tech expertise led to a breakthrough notion that —
Tech could make it easier for the ordinary person to invest
Co-Founder, Dan Carroll, also concluded that most people did not have access to good financial services and decided to build a prototype that would assist users with targeted financial advice and this got Andy’s attention.
Andy met with Dan and explained to him that he did not want to make money; rather, he desired to help others access the same opportunity he had as the successful founder of Benchmark Capital. The two then gathered the best technical minds they knew, and Wealthfront was born.
What’s Special about Wealthfront?
As a pioneer Fintech Company, Wealth front was an early provider of holistic sophisticated financial advice on a fully automated platform also called the “robo advisor”, that was available to the masses. Through the app, you have access to a wide array of services from investing, saving, and planing for retirement, a mortgage or paying for college.
Wealthfront’s investment rules are are research-based and have proven results based on the massive data available in financial services and from their users. Backed by economist Dr Burton Malkiel, the company’s Chief Investment Officer, Wealthfront is designed to maximize returns. With a minimum of $500, commission-free trades and low advisory fees (0.25%), they have essentially unveiled investing for the average person.
Why Wealthfront is a Baby Unicorn
- Raised a total of $204.5MM in funding from top investors —Benchmark Capital, Greylock, Index Ventures and Social Capital.
- Clients have trusted them with $10B in assets.
- Incredible founders (Andy, Dan) have a team of scholars all w/PhDs
- Continued growth —450% in its 5th year.
What’s in the Stack?
The Dev team at Wealthfront looks for expertise in Java or similar language (such as Scala, C++ or C#) and experience with at least one scripting language. Deep knowledge of API design principles and best-practices (HTTP, caching, resiliency, RPC, REST and client-driven development) — public facing APIs is a must. On the Front End — it’s JRuby on Rails. Since they rely on mobile, you can imagine what they’re working with on iOS and Android.
Know someone looking?
Wealthfront is looking for people who are passionate about helping everyday folk secure their ambitions while helping to change an entire industry. They’re disproportionately hiring for experienced software engineers but also have openings for marketing, finance, and research.
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