Masters in Business · Friday, July 17, 2026
Jason Wenk shared his perspective on how the established custodian market reacted to Altruist's launch, comparing it to a known saying: 'First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then you win.' He noted that while incumbents like Schwab and TD Ameritrade (now part of Schwab) might have been dismissive, independent advisors were receptive, with thousands signing up for waitlists and hundreds becoming design partners.
“first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then then you win.”
“So, respectfully, I think, yeah, like there's going to be a natural rent seeking, you know, sort of mentality from those people who are the dominant players. Why would they ever want there to be any change, you know, why would they want to change their cost structure, why would they want to modernize their systems? Like things were great, you know, for those companies.”
“But advisors never were. Like when we first started putting prototypes out into the public and sharing our vision, we had thousands of advisors that signed up for our waitlist, hundreds that decided to become design partners.”