#584 AI-Powered Prospecting: Rylan Folts on Data, Wealth, and the End of Cold Outreach

Mehmet: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome back to the episode of the CTO Show With Mehmet today. I'm very pleased joining me from the US Rylan Folts. He's the co-founder of WealthFeed Ry. Thank you very much for being here with me today. I really appreciate the time. I know how busy things can be. Just for the audience, I give them short tease are about what we are gonna be talking about today.

So. From the company name we, yeah, we're gonna talk about wealth management. We're gonna talk about FinTech a little bit. We're gonna talk about the AI part. But without further ado, Ry again, thank you to the, to be here with me to on the show today. Give me a little bit of background about you, you know, what you've been up to and what you're currently doing at Wealth Feed.

And then we're gonna start the discussion from there. So the floor is yours. 

Rylan: Awesome. Perfect. Mehmet. Well, appreciate it. Thanks so much. Excited to be on this podcast, heard great things, and, um, I think we're gonna dive into a lot of things. Revolving data, wealth management, financial advisor. So really excited to, to kick this off, I'll just go a little quick background.

Uh, again, Rylan Folts [00:01:00] co-founder of WealthFeed. Um, I'll give you a little bit of background and then kind of show you what we're doing today. Sure. But, um. I came from the wealth management space, so spent seven years as a, a traditional financial advisor. So, um, spent some time at, at JP Morgan's private bank, um, kind of focusing on ultra high net worth individuals there.

So, you know, families that held over $25 million plus, you know, helping them manage estate planning, tax planning, asset, a asset allocation, kinda the whole gambit. Um, and then spend some time at, at a couple other firms in the independent broker dealer channel. As well as more of the traditional RAA. So, um, you know, if, if any financial advisors are listening, they kind of know there's, there's three channels really where, you know, there's the wirehouses of the world, I think kind of the UBS, Morgan Stanley's, JP Morgan's, and then 

mm-hmm 

Rylan: Um, there's a lot of the independent broker dealers where you're kind of attached to finra, but you run your own kind of name under A DBA.

So you could think of. [00:02:00] SATs and, um, mosaics of the world, LPL, and, and then now there's kind of a big revolution of a lot of people going independent, and that's why you see kind of RIAs popping up left and right. Um, so I spent some time at, at all three channels. Um, and, and what I notice in, in kind of feeds to what we're doing today is that organic growth is extremely challenging for, for all advisors, I think.

No, no, it's tough for, you know, everyday people to, to want to talk about money. You know, no one likes to talk about how much they make or how much they've saved, or, you know, even how much they bought the house, even though, you know, that's all public data, funny enough. Um, and so, you know, from the wealth management lens, it's really tough to, to aggregate new business.

Um, other outside of referrals, you know, most pe, most advisors I would say, um, you know, aggregate business for referrals. So what we've. Kind of built today after, you know, that seven, eight year run as an advisor, I said, Hey, there's gotta be a, a better mousetrap to, [00:03:00] um, really help advisors grow. I, I set out with my co-founder who was out in Chicago to say, Hey, let's go, let's go build a, a prospecting engine, um, to help advisors grow.

And, and that's kind of what wealth Feed is today is really a full. End to end business development platform for advisors. And, and so we launched that about two years ago and, and really helping advisors all across the US get in front of that right person. And, and we could talk a little bit more, but um, at the end of the day, it's an organic growth tool for, for advisors.

Mehmet: Great, and thank you again, Ryan, for this introduction and, and the background. Now, of course I try as much as I can, although like I'm, I'm not the expert in, in all the fields to, to get some information, but, you know, I think wealth management is one of these, um, you know, domains where traditionally, because you know, even myself as professional here in Dubai, like.

Or anywhere in the world, like you would be approached by people and you know, [00:04:00] usually they try to have this, what we call it, even in sales, relationship driven, you know, relationship, right? Mm-hmm. How that, you know, in this market now with AI power prospecting becoming relevant in your opinion? 

Rylan: Yeah, I, I think AI is changing, uh, the game in, in multiple ways from the advisor.

The good thing where. It's not replacing the advisor is, um, you know, people, people want to talk to an actual human. Uh, you know, especially when they deal with, when, when you kind of get into above like a million dollars of, of net worth. And, and we see that all the time, as you know, you're never gonna lose you.

You want that human trust element, um, because trust is so big. And so, you know, I, I see AI as not taking over the, the wealth management, um, position. Um, but almost like. Enabling advisors to help them grow more. Um, and also just, you know, keep them from doing the stuff they, they are best at. You know, advisors are always [00:05:00] better at, you know.

Whether it's asset allocation or talking to their clients versus like all the note taking and, and all the administrative tasks. There's a ton of, uh, document stuff and, and you know, filling out proper compliance forms. It's a heavily regulated industry, so. AI is really helping consolidate all the, all the, all those tasks that aren't really that important in a, in a relationship.

So advisors could go out more and, and, and prospect, um, as well as, you know, help more clients. So it is really freeing up and that's where we see a huge tailwind, you know, these AI applications are, are mm-hmm creating more time in the day for advisors. Um, you know, they're, they're not bogged down by administrative tasks anymore.

Um, and so that gives them more opportunity to grow instead of an advisor typically having, you know, a hundred to 200 clients, they could have 2, 3, 400 clients now just given, um, where AI kind of comes in to help their book of business. 

Mehmet: Right. Rather, [00:06:00] in your introduction, you mentioned something interesting.

Um, you mentioned about, you know, the very well known big, uh, firms in this space, and you said like a lot of people that are going out by themselves. So how do you describe the current state of, because there, there's a lot of innovation that needs to happen. I mean, in, in that space also as well. Are you seeing like these traditional players more like.

Cautious, you know, of adopting, you know, something that can enhance their offering though. You know, a lot of people, they're saying that they are slow. Nothing is changing here. Let, let's go out by ourselves and try things out. Or do you think they, you know, finance, financial institutions, being financial institutions, and we discuss this with many guests on the show here, you know, by nature they move slower, but at some stage they would be accelerating.

So what's your, your take on, on, on this? 

Rylan: Yeah, I, I think, you know, all big institutions move like a turtle, [00:07:00] honestly, that it's so slow and. I think that's really a big, the biggest motivator, um, of, of why people end up, you know, leaving the big wirehouses, the Merrill Lynch's, Morgan Stanley's of the world and, and just starting, um, the realm.

Because at the end of the day, every financial advisor is actually pretty entrepreneurial. You know, it's, it's really your own business at the end of the day. I mean, most of 'em are commission based and, and stuff like that. And so you're already. That entrepreneurial mindset when you're an advisor. So you know, if you stick an entrepreneur and you put 'em at a big firm, you know you're gonna clash a little bit just because, hey, especially now how, how far AI is accelerating.

The, the firms aren't as quickly to adopt is, is, is, is where a lot of advisors are ending up leaving. And so it, it's, it's a really big risk to, to all the, the big banks and the, and, and the big warehouses of the world where, um, you know, if they don't catch up quick enough, you know, those advisors are gonna leave because they're seeing.

Hey, you know, advisor across the [00:08:00] street isn't spending, you know, five hours a day, you know, doing account opening and doc creation, all these admin tasks. If I just, you know, you know, start my own thing, I don't have to do all that and I can make more money. And so, um, definitely I, I think there, there is always, um, you know, no one wants to jump in the sand first in a little bit.

And I think the, the bigger institutions are always last. Um. You could say that's a, sometimes a good thing and a bad thing. I think today it's, it's probably a little bit more of a bad thing just because how, how far this advancement's actually really helping, uh, advisors. So we'll see how it all plays out.

But, you know, they always come around. It's just maybe a, a five to 10 year lag. Um, yeah, around it. 

Mehmet: Yeah. Let's see how, how this will develop with time. Yeah. Now let, let's deep dive a little bit in your offerings and, and, you know, the value proposition, uh, that you offer, uh, Ryland. Um, so first tell me like, because, you know, maybe the first question as, as someone who [00:09:00] works in, in sales, you know, I, I used to be like, you know, all the time having these objections, so, uh, I gotta play the devil advocate a little bit here.

So what makes you know your offering different from like any traditional CRM or prospecting tool, uh, that you know, some of the advisors might be using today and how much, you know, the AI power prospecting actually, you know, can enhance and change the way these advisors would be carrying their day-to-day workflow?

Rylan: Yeah, no, great question. I think. In terms of how we're different, you know, there, there's a ton of prospecting tools, um, mostly on the, on the B2B side, right? Um, so, so not too many on the wealth management side, we we're, we're the first to come to market. Um, there's a couple others that, that have popping up, but, you know, think of.

Your big kind of, I, I always think of like the zoomin infos of the world. These big, you know, B2B databases, which kind of own, you know, who works where, at what [00:10:00] company, who, what's their work email, um, you know, are they c you know, what's their job position, job title, all that stuff. We kind of came in and taken a different approach and, and said.

You know, from an advisor's lens, you know, if, if you're trying to just, most of 'em are like, Hey, you know, I'm reaching out to CEOs, um, because hey, I think they have a lot of money. And what we've noticed is it's just because you're a CEO doesn't mean you're the right perfect, you know, fit at that right time.

You know, there's always a right time, right place, especially with wealth management. Um, no one's really acat, you know, and I say ACAT transfer securities to other advisors randomly. No one wakes up one day and is like, you know what? I'm gonna hire in a financial advisor today. Um, as I, I probably wish it was that easy.

Uh, it really stems, and this is kind of our core differentiator, it really stems from some sort of catalyst event in their life. So when you, I say catalyst, you know, think of like money in motion, um, some sort of, Hey, I just moved, or I sold property, or I sold my business, or I just had a [00:11:00] baby. Um, these life events that people go through, everyone goes through them.

Um, that's usually there's a timeframe right after that where they're like, Hey, you know, now's the time. I, I, I, I need to get my stuff, I need to figure this out. You know, I, I, I, I need help around it. And so that's really where we come in and focus is saying, Hey, there's so much public data out. We, we kind of took a, a, a data lens, um, and, and, and this is, you know, three years ago before kind of AI was, was was cool and said, Hey, we can now aggregate all this data utilizing AI under the hood.

Um, quickly so that advisor doesn't have to go to Zillow and look at what property transacted, and then go to the property appraisal site and see who bought it. And then, you know, try to find an email here and Google and end up on weird websites to get their phone numbers. Um, just to make, you know, a call to the, you know, Hey, welcome to the neighborhood we said.

You know, what if we just aggregate all this data, this life event data, you know, people selling businesses, [00:12:00] selling homes, getting married, you know, inheriting money, um, and, and then feed it all to a platform and really layer on net worth, I think at the end of the day, advisors care who they're reaching out to.

They want to make sure they're almost qualified it on a net worth basis. And, um, instead of just guessing that a VP of sales is worth X amount of money, or, hey, a CEO is worth this. I could kind of now bring in a lot of more data points for us to give that advisor a really high targeted, you know, net worth score in a way and saying, Hey, you know, if you wanna reach out to people over $10 million, you know, here's the, here's the audience for you.

Instead of spraying and praying, you know that your messaging's getting in front of that person. And so, you know where we come in. We're, we're that data broker. At the end of the day, aggregating so many unique. Data sets to help the advisor with more insights around net worth, around where they live, and then specifically those life events.

So that's kind of our main differentiator, um, that [00:13:00] advisor advisors utilize is, is really those net worth filters as well as those life event filters that, that we bring to the platform. 

Mehmet: Right. And, you know, correct me if I'm wrong, Ryan, and feel free to elaborate a little bit more. So this is, this is, you know, it's like music.

To the ear of, of everyone who, who would be like prospecting. And I think, you know, of course it applies to your domain, but if I, if I'm selling to certain persona, I wish I have all the information I can, as you said, instead of spraying, you know, spraying and praying as we say, like in, in sales and waiting like, okay, maybe we'll hit someone who would be in this moment interested now when we apply your offering.

Are your clients seeing more meetings? Are they seeing like better outcomes from these meetings? Or is it like, you know, the, the, the, you know, the response rates are, are higher? Like, what kind of, you know, yields they can see when they start to use the platform? 

Rylan: No, I [00:14:00] think we've, instead of, you know, we, we've, we've seen a ton of case studies, you know, on the platform and it kind of goes down.

What we're trying to solve is obviously there's a time element. I think that's what, you know, all of AI is really solving is just speed to market timing. You know, instead of taking days to write this email or write this, you know, 10 page paper, it could do it in seconds, you know, and, and that's almost kind of what we're bringing to advisors instead of.

Spending hours and hours and hours prospecting, or if you want to do an event trying to gather your audience, you know, you could, you know, log into our platform filter for, you know, who just moved to your area and now you have a list of a hundred people and all their contact information and a, and really a split second for you to click a button and it could send an email out or send a direct mail to, you know, piece out.

So, you know, we're, we're saving advisors tons of time and being able to scale, um, their audience and, and their niche. In terms of success rate, it, it really depends on the advisor. You know, we're giving them all the tools we've [00:15:00] seen, like, you know, instead of having to, you know, call a hundred people, you could call 10 and get the same result because of that money in motion, uh, overlay, you know, and then, and that's kind of the biggest piece is capturing someone at the right time and, and at the right place.

And that, and that's really where. Um, advisors have success, but every advisor, you know, is, is so different on their niche where it, it's a little tough to, to have a, a full baseline layer of, of an ROI. But, um, just to give you some insight on, on, on that, 

Mehmet: right. Uh, without going too much technical, right. And like, uh, I, I believe, you know, and you said like you aggregate a lot of data, uh.

You know, are you building, you know, some, uh, proprietary models or like, you are fine tuning existing ones? Like, uh, of course if there's anything which is like kind of business secret, I can understand, like nothing can be shared, but is it like more a, a, a. Model building, uh, [00:16:00] approach or is it like orchestrating multiple systems together?

Rylan: Yeah, no, great question. You know, our moat is our, our data pipelines. You know, that's the secret sauce and, and we're really well positioned and I think now, you know, with AI and now cloud code, with the big updates and chat, GBT. You know, software creation is, is really easy nowadays. And, and that's why, you know, just at a macro level, um, you know, software multiples are, are, are kind of decreasing and, and we're getting a lot of volatility in the market on any, like you look at Salesforce and some of the big players, um, kind of their stock price and seeing what they've done and so.

We've taken, and we've always had this mindset kind of before this has happened, is, is, is the, the, the gold, the, the liquid gold is the data. And, and so we've always kind of focused on the data end and let the, let the platform and software come. And now with ai, you know, we could build this crazy like software overlay on the data, but starting, you know, our, our, when we built this, we, it wasn't like a, you know, a sexy front end [00:17:00] platform.

You know, we were just focused on the, on the data of how to aggregate these unique. Very unique life event. Catalyst, like inheritance data is something that no one has cracked the code that we've kind of built internally, and that's probably our biggest pro proprietary data pipeline and, and looking at, you know, how can we capture this?

$70 trillion of wealth changing hands. You know, everyone's talking about the, the great wealth transfer. You know, boomers control 90% of the assets well in 10, 15 years. All those assets are gonna flow and we're kind of positioned to capture, you know, you know who, you know, pop Smith just inherited $5 million and this property and whatnot.

And so we could give that to now we serve that up to a platform. For advisors to really filter down and, and reach out to. So it's all, it's all data aggregation on our end. And, and it's, and it's hard and where we've built a lot of proprietary things is a lot of the identity resolution that we call, uh, making sure, you know, Bob Smith that lives in Arizona is the same, is a different Bob [00:18:00] Smith that lives, you know, a block a street over.

And so the, the, it, it is a, a crazy world once you dive into the data and how much. W public accessible data that's out there. And, but it's very messy. The data world is, is extremely messy. Um, 'cause no one kind of runs, like, there's no, like, hey, this is the, the base layer, you know, every, every time you aggregate data, you get a, a little bit more information.

So you have to end up aggregating, you know, hundreds of different data feeds to, to kind of get to the end result. And, and that's kind of our moat. 

Mehmet: Right. Speaking of data Ryland, and this is again of course in, in, in, um. In, in FinTech and the broader finance industry, and as we know in other industries as well as health, health tech, and, you know, all these highly regulated, uh, industries.

The, the, the trust is very important and it's everything. So. How did you manage to build the trust? You know, especially because you're dealing with a [00:19:00] lot and, and I can imagine, you know, the amount of data that, uh, you're aggregating and you're building the whole, uh, offering based on it. So like how did you build that at what, you know, how, what like, this is, I'm asking for the broader also maybe founders and entrepreneurs in, in that space who, you know, would think that it's a highly regulated industry like.

There are like precautions and precautions that I should be aware of. So tell me a little bit more about that aspect, which helps in building the trust. 

Rylan: Yeah, no, definitely. If you, if you said, Hey, you know, five years ago I want to build, you know, and, and sell to now these institutions that we're selling to, I mean, we're selling to all the big wire houses in terms of, you know, access to the platform and, and gone through all those compliance approvals.

Um, it's a little bit like you'd think we're crazy when we initially set the idea because they're like, Hey, no way. You know, the big banks like approve that, you know? No way. And, and it's that, that's to all the entrepreneurs listening and, and all [00:20:00] the founders. Like, that's when you have that idea, like if someone ever tells you that like, Hey, no, no, no way in hell that, you know, this is going to happen.

You're, you're on the right path in a way. And so, um, that's kind of what happened to us and what we were now kind of ahead of our time in terms of the AI revolution and, and what's going on. And now. People are just trying to catch up because it all comes back to what our thesis was. And our thesis was, Hey, advisors aren't growing quick enough.

Um, and firms now, and back then in 2020 and 2021 where we're kind of just getting started, um, there was a lot of m and a happening and so these PE companies and, and consolidators out there were buying all these books of businesses. Um, that when, when you see that happening, you know, okay, the next five years they're gonna have to grow out of that.

You know, they put paid a premium to a multiple. They really have to grow out of that. And so, um, you know, we were just lucky enough that that whole low interest rate environment happened in a way, in the wealth management [00:21:00] industry of, of different books of business. Because now, you know, all those companies need to grow and make their money out.

And so the best way to grow is, is using a tool like us. And you, you know, if you're, if you, if your back's against the wall, some of those. You know, the compliance measures kind of say, Hey, we gotta get this done. You know, someone at the top is like, at, at the end of the day, we have to get this done. But, um, in terms of our platform, it was as, it was actually easier than we thought to kind of get, you know, from, to build trust with a lot of these big institutions because that data is all publicly accessible.

So, you know what, what we saw is like advisors could like. You know, like I said, go on Zillow and find a property that mm-hmm. That's sold. And then the property appraisal site's all public, so they could find the person on title and then you could go to LinkedIn and get their contact information. And so you end up like the, the, it's already there.

It's almost like no one has built kind of that AI phone book in a way that, that is kind of how we structured it. So, uh, it was an easier process. But, you know, for all those entrepreneurs and, and [00:22:00] founders on the podcast, you know, if someone says it's tough, that's means you're on the right path. 

Mehmet: Let me ask you something about the early days.

Also, Ryland like. I'm sure like there were some metrics that you said like, if we achieve these metrics, uh, like we are on the right track in a, uh, domain or let's say vertical iq, like what were the metrics that really mattered, uh, in the early days, you know, that also you saw were, you know, important for the later stages, growth of the company.

Rylan: Yeah, I think as a founder you're always looking for product market fit When you, when you first launch, and, and I remember we sent out a cold email blast. I, I think it was. To a thousand people, like a thousand advisors. We said, you know, hey, you know, we, we didn't have anything built, but we said we had it built.

Sometimes that's what you gotta say, um, to just see there what product market fit is. And we [00:23:00] kind of laid out, hey, um, we started our, our kind of bread and butter was on the inheritance side. And I think we sent out an email saying, Hey, we could, um, help you identify, you know, people inherit people who received inheritances in your neighborhood.

Like respond if you're interested in this list. Like we're just kind of a data vendor list. At that time we didn't have the full platform. Um, and I, I think we got like 150 people or almost two. So 20%, which is crazy. Usually it's like a 1%, you know, hit rate back. Saying, oh, I would take that, take that list.

Like, oh, I'm interested. Um, and so that's kind of when we, we knew, hey, we had something that, that could, you know, catch fire and, and, and, and, and really scale. And so, um, I think, you know, you just gotta always try to find product market fit and, and just test different things. Um, and, and, and make it simple.

I think from, especially for the FinTech and, and anyone that's selling into the wealth management space. Um, these are simple people, you know, they're not CMOs or they're [00:24:00] not, they're a little behind kind of the normal, I would say, like B2B companies that have built out, you know, crazy mouse traps for, you know, social media campaigns and different stuff like that.

Um, you know, a lot, most of these advisors just wanna make their clients happy and, and if you, you know, if you've just helped them. Find more people like they, they love it. And so sometimes just being a little more simple on, on, on kind of your initial product. And some, I see a lot of people make mistakes like trying to build the most complex thing and then they, they don't have product market fit.

'cause you know, no one really wants to try to understand something versus starting small and then building on top of the platform to to, to kind of make it your end product. 

Mehmet: Right. I, I, I liked your approach, uh, about, you know, reaching out to people before, uh, you build that. I think, you know, like, um, this is one of the most successful tactics or strategies I should call them.

Um mm-hmm. And I think successful for many entrepreneurs like the famous one that I. [00:25:00] Many people by now knows about it. It's, it's Dropbox when they, they did the same thing. Right. So, uh, and I think it's, it's good because you don't want to spend time. Now, of course, maybe someone would argue with me and say, Hey, with this vibe coding tools that are popping out, yeah, maybe you can show a kind of an MVP and ask people like if they're interested.

But yeah, if we go back before this era, which is not very a long time ago, yeah, I think this was the right approach Now. I'm gonna just try to combine these two questions into one and, you know, people, especially my guests, they say sometime I ask loaded question, I don't intend to, but like two related things together.

So. Now we'll talk about prospecting and, you know, the, the, the way you are offering, you know, a clean overview of certain prospect, you know, to, to the advisors. So do you believe AI will be able also to go beyond just like the prospecting part, [00:26:00] uh, maybe augmenting some of the work that the advisors that they would do.

And how would that have, you know. Biggest impact on, on, on the FinTech industry in the coming few years, in your opinion island? 

Rylan: Yeah, no, great question. I think. Well, we've built now, I mean it didn't start like this, but this is kind of the, the V three is, is the full end-to-end prospecting solution. So not just the, the data audience side of it, really the, the augmentation and, and the multi-channel approach.

And so today, if advisors signs up to it with our platform. Um, you have that full data engine around it, but you also what we call like a marketing hub that could do all the automation for you. So we have multi-channels, which is I think a lot of people forget that, you know, if you want to build your brand, you know you need touchpoints.

But in different types of channels, you know, there's face-to-face channels, there's physical mail channels, there's email, um, there's. Direct mail. There's [00:27:00] text message, there's LinkedIn. Um, and so we've kind of built, you know, piecemealed this together to build, you know, a multi-channel outreach. So we actually have like a, a postcard direct mail solution.

We have a, a really neat handwritten note that a robot is actually like writing the handwritten note and it looks like a wedding style invitation. So advisors could send that out to people in their community. Um, you know, we have LinkedIn integrations where you could automate connection requests and automate LinkedIn messages.

We have email automation, almost like a CRM, where you could do email blast to that ideal audience. Um, we have like auto call and, and text features. And so now what the advisor could do is say, let's say, let's say they focus on a certain niche and, and we, this is kind of where advisors have success of saying, Hey, you know, I wanna focus on doctors.

Well, in, in two seconds you could, you know, build that doc like who's the doctor and X, Y, Z. County or city or zip code. And now we could automate, you know, real relevant [00:28:00] content to them via email, direct mail, texts, LinkedIn. Um, so, so you're getting kind of that relevant content right, right. To them at their fingertips and.

That's the best way to build trust. You know, at the end of the day, like you said, like you, you need to build, we need to build trust with these institutions. But at the end of the day, more importantly, the advisor needs to build trust with, with the consumers. Um, and the best way to build trust is just relating to someone at the end of the day, especially if someone you don't know, as soon as you say, oh, you know, you are, you're a doctor.

I was a doctor for 10 years and, and, and that's why I built my financial advising firm. 'cause you know, doctors, you know, I was losing, I didn't have the correct insurance. I didn't. You know, allocate my money, right? And so as soon as you kind of break the ice and says, Hey, I'm, I'm just like you, that's where that trust barrier kind of, um, goes away and, and advisors have success.

So we're just trying to help advisors kind of connect the dots there, um, around it. But yeah, to answer your question, the, the platform, uh, is really full end to end. So you could click a button and now it just drips [00:29:00] on. Call it, you know, your niche every month, you know, multi-channel approach type of deal.

Mehmet: Yeah, I like this. I, you know, because we, we talk a lot about personalization in the age of ai, and I think this is very, very important because, you know, we, we are seeing it a lot on LinkedIn and other, you know, platforms where people complaining about like, yeah, it's an automated message, and if, yeah, like of course, like.

It does the job, but if you keep repeating it in a robotic way, you get like the robotic answer from the ai. Right? Yeah. So, uh, so, so I, I love this, uh, this approach. You mentioned also something that you, you reach out to, to your customers directly. So I believe it's a kind of a, from go to market perspective, let's say direct sales, right?

Um, have you also implemented any kind of. Partnerships, any part, like maybe education, because I believe, especially when you come up with something quite new to any [00:30:00] industry, like you need to do a lot of education. So what have worked the best for you, Ryland? 

Rylan: Yeah. No, definitely the edu we're, we're like consultants at nature.

'cause you know, every advisor that signs up with wealth feed and, and gets started usually, you know, I would say 60% of the time. Hasn't been doing any marketing. They come us, they come to us as kind of their, their first swing. And so it, it, it, there is a lot of, there, there's a, there's a learning curve to it because, you know, most of these, like the majority of advisors, you know, if of kind of just didn't even, almost, they had a website.

They haven't updated it in 30 years. They probably never posted to LinkedIn. They never reached out to anyone new. You know, they're, um, but they're like, Hey, I want to grow and there's so many new tools out there I want to take utilize, and so. Really just building blueprints have helped us the most. And I think, um, just blueprints to for success and showing them, Hey, here's where you're [00:31:00] today.

Here's what, uh, you know, a, an advisor that's having a ton of success. Here's what their world looks like. Here's what their website looks like. Here's, look at their LinkedIn profile. Um, here's what they're doing. They're sending out direct mail to, uh, their specific niche. They're also, you know, posting once a week on Instagram and TikTok and stuff like that.

So. Just showing them the road a little bit. Um, and here's our, how our platform could help you get there. Um, just kind of lays it out, you know, 'cause I think everyone is a little bit nervous to, to jump into the marketing game. And it, it is because there's a lot of trial and error to it, you know, I mean.

The amount of money we spent on Google ads and social media ads. I mean, you could at conferences. I mean, you know, from a business owner standpoint, we, we know that, we know that, you know, we, we could spend right big checks and, and get a, a zero from it, but that's just part of the game. Um, but you know, kind of how you scale marketing is just showing them, Hey, there's a path to success.

You really need to be a consultant. Um, and so that's kind of what we, how we help [00:32:00] advisors is just really showing them. Um, showing 'em almost like an aerial view of, of the success and, and the path to get there. 

Mehmet: I, I like, uh, when you said it's part of the game, like this is the, you know, the entrepreneurship mindset at its best because, you know, a lot of people they think yeah, like, oh, like we will build and they will come and, you know, like, uh, we have the best technology, so everyone should be buying from us.

And Yeah, like there are, these are the realities that. A lot of entrepreneurs, you know, they, they face, especially if it's, you know, they, they didn't have skill in the game before. They didn't work, maybe with other startups or maybe it's their first experience being entrepreneurs. And I've, I've seen like, people do this mistake, they think, yeah, we'll build, they will come, you know?

Yeah. But you have to expect these lessons. Now, if you mentioned about, you know. The vision and where, uh, you kind of want to be heading Ryland. But if, if I come back and I sit with you maybe two to three years from now, what wealth [00:33:00] feed would be like by that time. 

Rylan: Yeah, no, that, that's a great question. And I sometimes think of that too.

It you, I'm, I'm a big vision guy and so, um, I, I think at the end of the day, my, my vision is like. Every small business, I consider, you know, an advisor, kind of a a, a small kind of solo business. Most of them are team businesses. Um, you know, every small and medium sized business needs to be doing some sort of outbound.

And I, and I and I especially in, in now with AI of how easily, you know, apps could get created, how easily people could start businesses. You're gonna have to separate yourself. So my thesis is that like advisors, like people are gonna have less and less businesses just on referrals, like, um, and I think there's a ton of businesses that you could talk to and that says like, I never paid a dollar for an ad, or I never, you know, everything comes from referrals.

And I think that's just gonna change a little bit given. Um, the barrier to entry to build a business. And [00:34:00] so, um, you know, we want to expand outside of wealth management. Not, you know, just because there's other, you know, verticals that, you know, this data is powerful. Like, let's say I, if I move, let's say I build a brick and mortar, so a, a high end.

Um, it could be like a salon or a, a high-end, uh, gym. And I'm like, Hey, I want, you know, how do you get, uh, people to your, to your gym? Um, well, you know, I could hop on, well feed and search, Hey, who just moved to my area and now I could be sending them, you know, a free week gym membership at my gym of people that just moved to the area.

And so the, the platform really could mold into other verticals, not just wealth management because we have the net worth aggregator, but. Knowing someone's net worth is great for all businesses. If I'm, you know, a luxury good, if I'm a Ferrari dealership, I want to know who's the wealthiest person in x, y, z city and market to them.

And so hopefully the next time, you know, you know, a year or two and, and this is on our roadmap, is to, you know, [00:35:00] not just have the wealth management financial services sector, but the luxury goods, the, the, any business that that wants to do some sort of marketing have the ease. To, to hop on the platform and, and, and aggregate their highest converting client.

Mehmet: Yeah, I feel the sky could be the limit here. Just be with the two examples that you gave. I'm thinking out loud. You mentioned about, you know, like, you know, luxury buying. I, I thought about loyal loyality programs also as well, like. Membership kind of programs that they run. Yeah. So I, I think, yeah, because again, you're, you're, you're, um, sitting on bunch of, you know, precious data that, that can be, uh, translated into needs into something other than wealth management.

So, um, yeah, looking forward to see that maybe in, in couple of years, rather now as we come close to an end. Maybe final words to, to [00:36:00] fellow entrepreneurs in the FinTech space and of course, my original question where people can get in touch and find out more. 

Rylan: Yeah, no, I, I think I, and this is my mindset, I always kind of.

Um, just keep thinking every day. Like my thing is keep going, you know, just in, in quotes, like, just keep going. And, and there it's a rollercoaster and some days you, you think you're gonna, um, you know, go bankrupt and it's the last day of your business. Some days you, you know, you think you're gonna IPO and be a billion dollar entity, and so you just gotta keep going and, and, and, and kinda put your head down and, and know that vision.

Have that mission statement and know like, hey, you know, I see that, you know, in, in the next five years that, you know, everyone's gonna have an organic growth tool on their desktop. And that's my vision and it keeps me keeping going. And so, um, that's my biggest advice there. And, um, if anyone would like to, to reach out, you know, feel free to add me on LinkedIn.

Happy to. Connect with them. Again, my name is Ryland Foltz, co-founder of Wealth Feeded. You could also check out our website too, if you're a [00:37:00] small business owner and say, Hey, I want to grow, um, and get in front of some unique, uh, access some unique data sets. Um, the website's, just wealth feed.com, uh, wealth feed.com.

So, um, no, but Matt, appreciate you having me on. This was awesome and. I'm excited to, um, come back here hopefully soon on the pod. 

Mehmet: Sure. Uh, the pleasure was all mine. Ryland, thank you very much for sharing, you know, your, uh, insights and your experience as well. I really appreciate that. For the audience, the links that Ryland just mentioned, we will find them in the show.

Also, if you're listening on your favorite podcasting app. All the links, Ireland's link it in Profile and Wealth Feed website. You will find them in the show notes. If you're watching this on YouTube, you'll find them in description. And this is how I add my episodes. This is for the audience. If you just discovered us by luck.

Thank you for passing by. I hope you enjoyed If you did, so give me a favor, subscribe and share it with your friends and colleagues. And if you are one of the people who [00:38:00] keeps coming again and again, you know, the loyal fans. To the show. I really appreciate you. I appreciate your help. Uh, 2025, I was always telling you like we are ranking from time to time in one of the countries in the top 200 Apple Podcast chart.

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