- 4 hours ago
Goodfin CEO Anna Joo Fee on Go, the company's new AI agent platform built to make private market investing smarter, faster, and more accessible.
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00:00Agentec investing platforms are on the rise, breaking down complex financial information
00:05to make investments that much more accessible. We're here now with the founder of Goodfin. Thank
00:11you so much for being here, Anna Jufy. We really appreciate it. And we're so excited to learn all
00:15about Goodfin. So tell us a little bit more about what it is and how it works. Thank you so
00:20much
00:20for having me. I'm really excited to share. So at Goodfin, we are building at the intersection
00:25of AI and wealth. On our platform, we offer investment opportunities in private companies.
00:31They tend to be high growth, late stage tech companies in areas such as AI, defense, space,
00:38and robotics. And we have built really ground up using AI and designed an end to end investing
00:45experience to take the user from start to finish using AI. That's so interesting and such an
00:51interesting concept to be using AI in this way. Why did you decide that right now is the right
00:56time to start this? You know, AI is now reaching really transformative potential, especially in
01:04finance. And so the underlying models have become increasingly powerful. But, you know,
01:11I have firm conviction that being able to purpose apply and purpose build for, let's say, an investing
01:17use case is key and combining not just the AI and the technology, but with the underlying investments
01:23and the financial product. So what AI is able to unlock, let's say, for an individual credit investor
01:30are a lot of the kinds of tools that have been gated and reserved for very large institutions that can
01:36afford big investment teams and a lot of sort of data and resources, analytics. And that's exactly what
01:44we've built at Goodfin. Yeah, it sounds so interesting, but also like such a huge undertaking.
01:48So tell us about some of the challenges when you're trying to build all of this from the ground
01:52up. How has that been? It's been a really interesting and also wild ride. So again, I think
01:59where the underlying models have come, even in the past quarter, is markedly improved and stronger
02:08than where it started, let's say, in 2022 and 2023. So if you were using Chachapiti then and you were
02:13to use it now, it's really a very different experience. And again, because those underlying
02:19models have become that much more powerful and we've been building now for a few years in the
02:23space, the vertical application, let's say, into investing into these domains have now started to
02:30really come to fruition. And so what we have built is a pretty complex orchestration layer on top of
02:38multiple models where really you can think of dozens of specialized workers. We call them agents,
02:44but they're really doing autonomous or semi-autonomous workflows and tasks. And it's really not like,
02:51you know, a deterministic task. The idea is that these agents are taking steps. They have an objective,
02:58they are working towards it, and they are making decisions along the way. They're working independently,
03:04but also in a coordinated way. And that's how you're able to really unlock a lot of these
03:10workflows and tasks that would have taken a team of people to do. That's so interesting to use all of
03:16that, kind of harness that AI power to really make this platform. Tell us a little bit more about the
03:21opportunities that this unlocks, especially for, you know, retail investors, people who are going to be
03:27able to use this platform and really unlock an entirely new way to do things. The unlock, I think,
03:34is hard to overstate. For example, on Goodfin right now, you can run a deep research report. It takes
03:42several minutes. It's actually a very extensive report that's pulling from a number of sources,
03:47both proprietary as well as web and third party. And a team of agents is putting that together.
03:53They're analyzing those sources. They're vetting them. One is drafting them. One or more of them
03:58is drafting them. One's checking them. And so that report now almost instantly, or at least within
04:05minutes, is producing something that could have taken a week or more of real professionals to do.
04:10And I think the bottom line is AI is now at a place where it is able to productize and
04:17expand access
04:18to professional expertise. And that is a new unlock that this technology does. And so, you know,
04:27really, like if you think about that, you think of all the expertise that is locked in, you know,
04:34behind Wall Street in financial legacy institutions at advisory firms to be able to turn that into
04:42software for both the benefit of institutions' advisors as well as the individual user is what
04:49we're talking about here. It's really transformative.
04:51Yeah, it's incredible to kind of take all of that knowledge that is really behind closed doors so
04:57much of the time and make it accessible to people. Exactly. That's right.
05:00So when you think about that, what's your kind of broader vision then for Goodfin? Because it sounds
05:04like this is not about just a few people making some investments here or there. What's this broader vision?
05:08No, that's right. So we've started there and that has been a really powerful wedge for us. And I think
05:13there's so much value creation in private markets that will continue to grow and we are doubling and
05:18tripling down on that. We're expanding partnerships actually with advisors and with banks. So we will
05:24continue to grow private market investing and building a suite of tools that are unlocked by AI to
05:30really help people, whether they're the end users or advisors, understand these investments, make better
05:36decisions, tweak them for their own portfolios and the like. Our bigger vision is private wealth more
05:43generally. And we started with private markets because that was a pain point I had personally
05:47experienced and where I do think a lot of our users who are accredited investors are still having a tough
05:54time accessing and filling that slice of their portfolio. But really, there's a suite of wealth,
06:01pretty complex, sophisticated financial products and services that required humans or that were gated in legacy models
06:09that I believe, you know, and we are determined to unlock. And so I'm excited about that. We'll be launching
06:16other
06:16products starting with tax this quarter. And we have a lot of white space to go after. Yeah, it's exciting
06:24to think about all that AI can do and that you can do with AI. But some people might say,
06:29I'm a little
06:29nervous about AI, right? I'm a little bit scared about trusting this AI kind of amorphous thing out
06:36there. So what do you say to those people about the risks and limitations and what they should think
06:40about when they use the platform? Absolutely. And I think that those concerns are very legitimate. And
06:45my advice to anybody with hesitation would be to try it, right, to really utilize it and think of it
06:53as a
06:53partner. Think of it as a tool, because it is. It's a machine and it's there to enhance you and
06:59help you learn.
07:00Our users use our AI to really go deeper in researching opportunities to learn about private
07:08markets. And I think on the sort of provider side, the way we approach it is to enable source checking
07:17and
07:17transparency and to describe sort of what it does and what it may not be able to do.
07:22And at the end of the day, I don't think it should substitute for your own judgment, right? So like
07:29definitely use it as a tool. It is so powerful. Again, it's like a research team in your pocket. Why
07:34wouldn't you want to utilize that? But at the end of the day, like that research needs to help you
07:39make
07:39a decision for yourself. And that is like the real value and unlock. Yeah, that makes sense that you're not
07:45blindly trusting it, but also taking advantage of the technology that's sitting right there. Exactly.
07:50And when you think about some of these success stories, tell us about that. Maybe some anecdotes,
07:55some kind of real success stories that have come out of GoodFin already. Yeah,
07:58so we have been astounded at the rate of usage of our AI agent. We call it Go. That's really
08:04the
08:04whole system of agents that are working together. But really surprised just at the percentage of our
08:10investors that are going deep, generating reports, asking a lot of questions, and
08:17using it all the way to convert, meaning all the way to like go through the actual investment flow,
08:22ask questions about the legal documents, and really, you know, commit and wire into the investment.
08:27So I think that enables us to sort of improve the AI, see what questions people are asking. One of
08:34the
08:34features that we're excited to release soon is showing our users what other users are asking,
08:39right? You might come to the platform and say, I'm curious what my peers are asking about this company.
08:44What are other investors thinking? And that is kind of like community data and insights that we'll also
08:49be sharing. But really, like the we've seen people, let's say like scenario model, they'll say like, I'm
08:57allocated this way, should I be going further into this type of industry? Should I, you know, think about
09:03something else? Or I really liked, you know, this sort of company, what's the next version of that? But again,
09:08like using the AI like a thought partner, and having it analyze all this data instantly, kind of put it
09:16together for you, while you're thinking of like, what questions do I want to ask? What am I going to
09:20do with this
09:21information? I think that again, are like the real success stories for my users. Yeah, that's so interesting to
09:26think about. And the community aspect too, is amazing, because there are so many
09:30questions out there that you might not even think to ask. But then you see it on there, and you're
09:34like, that
09:34actually was a great question. Exactly. That's how I, that's what I would want. That's what I would want as
09:39well.
09:39That's super interesting. And when you think to the future, and we've mentioned a few other things that you
09:44guys want to do here, a few other things you want to roll out, how do you see this all
09:47coming together
09:48as we look towards the future of AI being used in so many different ways in financial services?
09:54So I think in, in financial services, you're going to see it applied really powerfully by legacy
10:01providers. I hear from banks, I hear from advisor shops, it is now consensus that this technology is so
10:08powerful. And it's really just a question of like, how do we implement it? How do we harness our data
10:13and
10:13distribution? Those tend to be the advantages of the legacy providers. And I think everyone is really
10:18invested in figuring this out. So you're going to see great efficiency gains, you're going to see
10:22expanded access, let's say for advisors who can serve more clients. On the other side, you're going
10:28to see startups like us, and you're going to see a new version of that future financial company or
10:33financial institution where we are built ground up AI native. And I do think we have, we have our own
10:39advantages, right? We don't have legacy systems, we marshal our data from the get go, thinking about
10:44how it'll be utilized with the technology. And we are reimagining the experience from AI, not sort of
10:51slopping it on. So I think like you're going to see both types and financial services are a big enough
10:58market with big enough winners, where I do think the next generation, we will, we will see different
11:03kinds. And I also think that these buckets of players will also collaborate and work together.
11:10And we are already doing that, right? Like we have a consumer facing platform. But as I mentioned,
11:15we have started working with some legacy providers. And I do think you're going to see,
11:20like in prior waves of FinTech, you will see both things happening. Yeah, it's so interesting to think
11:25about all of these things coming together and where it's all going to lead. Thank you so much for
11:28being here today. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.
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