Hunters will love: 1. His thoughts on why he thinks his competition is unprofitably acquiring customers and how he plans to let them slowly fade 2. Sometimes, it is wise to sacrifice some growth for a far more sustainable model. (Rare viewpoint coming from former VC, Benchmark Founder) In Episode #498, Nathan interviews Andy Rachleff, president and CEO of Wealthfront. He served as a member of the board of trustees and vice chairman of the Endowment Investment Committee for the University of Pennsylvania and as a member of the faculty for Stanford Graduate School of Business where he teaches a course on Technology Entrepreneurship. Prior to Wealthfront, Andy co-founded and was a general partner of Benchmark Capital, where he was responsible for investing in a number of successful companies. He has also spent 10 years as a general partner for Merrill, Pickard, Anderson & Eyre (MPAE). Andy earned his BS from The University of Pennsylvania and received his MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – The Innovator’s Dilemma What CEO do you follow? – None Favorite online tool? — None Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Associating myself with great people” 01:41 – Nathan introduces Andy to the show 03:03 – Andy is retired from his venture capital business and he wants to give back 04:07 – David Swensen has been an investor for Andy’s two venture capital firms 04:37 – The way Wealthfront generates investments is the same method David Swensen uses 05:09 – Wealthfront manages a diversified portfolio of low-cost index funds on behalf of their clients 05:20 – Minimum is $500 to open an account 05:55 – “If you like Vanguard, you’re going to love Wealthfront” 06:00 – Wealthfront minimizes taxes by using a software program that Vanguard doesn’t offer 07:59 – The software works 24/7 so you can monitor your losses daily 08:36 – Wealthfront has been managing around $4.4B in assets 08:53 – Wealthfront’s asset management worth is much smaller than Vanguard’s 09:25 – “With every new technology that succeeds, it gets adopted at a faster rate” 09:47 – Automated Investment Services has been adapted at a faster rate than ETF 10:09 – Automated Investment Services are actually managing more assets than ETF 10:21 – Volume of individual metrics 10:54 – Wealthfront manages the first $10,000 for free and charges a quarter of a percent on an amount excessing $10,000 11:10 – Dropbox is a sample model 12:00 – “It is more of the client’s satisfaction of our service” 12:25 – Percentage of sent invites by users 13:01 – The number of people actually invested in Wealthfront 13:51 – Average MRR 14:04 – Overtime, Wealthfront will introduce new services 14:51 – Wealthfront is a hybrid of old and new channels in software 15:28 – “We want to build services that benefit our clients” 16:03 – Wealthfront was launched in Dec. 2011 16:12 – Team size is about 140 16:15 – Total capital raised is $130M 17:15 – “I’m willing to sacrifice some growth for a far more sustainable model” 17:55 – Connect with Andy through his email and Twitter 16:10 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: With every new technology that succeeds, it gets adopted at a faster rate. Sometimes, it is wise to sacrifice some growth for a far more sustainable model. Associate yourself with great people and learn from them.