Mark MacLeodFounder, Limitless.ceo · The Startup CEO Coach | Helping ambitious CEOs & founders scale world-changing companies without sacrificing their health, happiness, purpose, or humanity

Make bold bets, Michael Katchen, CEO Wealthsimple - The Startup CEO show

12 Nov 2024 · 0 min

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0:28

Michael Katchen, CEO of Wealthsimple, bought a custody provider ten times larger than his company to own the full stack. The bet was terrifying but kept paying off as it let them build a better product than incumbents could.

You know, one of the first major turning points for wealthsimple was the decision to buy our own custody and back office provider. We did that super early. It was a company that was, I think, 10x or more our size at the time we bought them. But, you know, we realized that if we really wanted to deliver something that was just 10x better than the incumbents, we had to own the full stack capability. And that, you know, proved itself many, many times over, but was a pretty scary and not typical sort of startup decision.