Ready to build your own Founder-Led Growth engine? Book a Strategy Call
Frontlines.io | Where B2B Founders Talk GTM.
Strategic Communications Advisory For Visionary Founders
Actionable
Takeaways
Design your GTM motion around the actual decision your buyer is making — not just the product you're selling:
Advisors joining Savvy aren't buying software. They're becoming 1099 contractors on Savvy's registered investment advisor, migrating their book of business, and repapering client contracts. That's an entirely different sales motion than SaaS. Ritik built a hybrid sales-recruiting team — SDR sourcers paired with account executives running a consultative process — specifically because the decision resembles a career move more than a software purchase. If your product creates this level of lock-in or life disruption for the buyer, your GTM team structure, process, and ICP targeting need to reflect that reality.
Use publicly available compliance data as a targeting signal:
Financial advisors are required to register their licenses with the SEC, making their firm history, tenure, and professional movement publicly searchable. Savvy built a "likelihood to move" model that ingests this data alongside LinkedIn signals to generate a probability score for each prospect. The model is intentionally a black box — they can't fully articulate every variable or its weight — but it lets the sales team concentrate effort on the advisors most structurally ready to make a move, rather than spraying outreach across the market.
Build a dedicated experimentation budget and treat it as a non-negotiable line item:
Ritik runs a formal experimentation allocation that varies from 10% to 50% of the marketing budget in a given quarter. The goal is early signal across a wide diversity of channels — not optimization of existing ones. When a signal fires, the philosophy is simple: 100x spend on that strategy immediately. The repeatable lab — the ability to run cheap, fast, diverse experiments — is the actual GTM asset, not any individual channel.
In trust-dependent markets, earned credibility compounds faster than any outbound motion:
Cold email and conference booths both underdelivered for Savvy. Cold email failed for a structural reason specific to their ICP: financial advisors are heavily solicited, so standing out requires being at the 97th or 98th percentile of quality — and even then it's unclear if it moves the needle. What actually drives growth is advisor-to-advisor word of mouth and partner referrals from others in the wealth management ecosystem who interact with advisors regularly. In markets where the buyer is moving their livelihood, no sequence substitutes for peer trust.
Hire from adjacent industries when the sales motion transfers, even if the domain doesn't:
Rather than defaulting to wealth management veterans, Ritik recruited from industries with structurally similar sales dynamics — insurance brokers, real estate agents — where reps were already experienced at convincing someone to move their entire business. He layered in advisors with financial advisor recruiting backgrounds for domain nuance. The result is a team that cross-pollinates tactics rather than inheriting the assumptions of a single industry.
Don't rebuild infrastructure from scratch just because you can — partner first, build incrementally:
Watching Brex build a banking core from the ground up gave Ritik a clear counterpoint. At Savvy, he took the inverse approach: partner aggressively at the start, absorb the limitations, and build toward better financial infrastructure over time as the business proves itself. For most early-stage founders, going to bare metal is a costly bet on a future scale that isn't guaranteed yet.
The "AI replaces the human" thesis breaks down wherever psychology is the actual product:
Robo-advisors made the same displacement argument in the 2010s. The data showed minimal impact on advisor headcount — and at the lower end of the client wealth spectrum, clients who started with robo advisors eventually graduated to human ones. Ritik's argument is that AI framed purely as a work-output replacement misses why high-net-worth individuals actually hire advisors: as net worth grows, so does decision paralysis and fear of costly mistakes. The psychological function of an advisor — giving clients confidence to act — isn't something an AI agent replicates. The correct framing is AI eliminating middle and back-office friction so advisors maximize time in front of clients, acting as editors of AI-generated work rather than writers of it.
Conversation
Highlights
How Savvy Wealth Built a GTM Motion for a Market Where Trust Is the Product
Most B2B sales processes ask a buyer to change a tool. Savvy Wealth asks something categorically different: move your entire business.
When an independent financial advisor joins Savvy’s platform, they become a 1099 contractor on Savvy’s registered investment advisor, migrate their book of clients, and repaper every client contract in the process. There’s no pilot period, no low-stakes trial. It’s closer to a career decision than a purchasing one.
That single constraint — the weight of what the buyer is actually agreeing to — is the lens through which Ritik Malhotra, Founder and CEO of Savvy Wealth, has designed every part of his go-to-market. In a recent episode of BUILDERS, he broke down the mechanics.
The Sales Motion Has to Match the Decision
Because advisors are moving their entire professional infrastructure, Savvy built a hybrid team that functions part sales, part recruiting — SDR sourcers identifying candidates, account executives running a consultative process that looks more like business due diligence than a demo cycle.
“The actual process itself is highly educative in the sense that we’re effectively treating it like a business consultant,” Ritik said, “where we analyze all parts of their business — where they’re having pain points, where they have gaps — and try to retrofit and see if Savvy’s platform can actually go and fill and help those gaps.”
The implication for founders: if your product creates genuine switching costs or life disruption for the buyer, your team structure, your process, and your ICP targeting all need to reflect the actual magnitude of that decision — not the motion you inherited from a prior company.
Using Public Regulatory Data as a Targeting Signal
Before any conversation happens, Savvy runs a predictive model to determine which advisors are structurally ready to make a move.
The inputs are largely public. Financial advisors in the US are required to register their licenses with the SEC, making their firm history, tenure, and professional movement searchable. Savvy ingests this alongside LinkedIn data to generate a probability score for each prospect.
Ritik was precise about the model’s limitations: “There’s a number of factors, but that’s where effectively we have this somewhat black box model that’s effectively just running a number of permutations across a number of variables. The thing with a black box model is that you can only estimate what those signals are, what the variables are, and what the weights on each of those are.”
That honesty matters. The model doesn’t deliver certainty — it delivers prioritization. It lets a lean sales team concentrate effort on the highest-probability targets rather than working a broad list that moves slowly and trusts carefully. For any founder selling into a regulated ICP, the compliance infrastructure your buyers are required to maintain is often a targeting data layer hiding in plain sight.
Hiring From Adjacent Industries, Not the Target One
When building the sales team, Ritik didn’t default to wealth management veterans. He looked for people who had already sold something requiring a similar level of buyer commitment — the act of convincing someone to move their livelihood.
“Whether it’s insurance brokers or real estate agents,” he said, “that was similar enough because in a similar vein you were asking those individuals to also move their business over.” He layered in people with financial advisor recruiting backgrounds for industry nuance. The blend was intentional: cross-pollinate tactics from adjacent industries rather than inheriting the assumptions — and the ceiling — of a single one.
The Experimentation Framework Behind the GTM Motion
Ritik tried the obvious channels. Cold email underdelivered — financial advisors are heavily solicited, and standing out requires being at a level of quality where the marginal return becomes unclear. Conference booths produced mixed results, with no strong correlation between spend and outcome.
What drives growth: advisor-to-advisor referrals and partners in the wealth management ecosystem who already carry trust with the ICP. In a market where the buyer is moving their livelihood, peer validation compounds faster than any outbound sequence.
His framework for finding what works — and what doesn’t — is structural rather than intuitive. Savvy runs a formal experimentation budget that ranges from 10% to 50% of marketing spend in a given quarter, deliberately allocated to testing a wide diversity of channels.
“As soon as you find the one,” Ritik said, “you basically just 100x your spend on that one strategy. And effectively if you build the best repeatable laboratory of just being able to do this over and over again, that is how you design the best go-to-market motion.”
The lab — the repeatable ability to generate and kill hypotheses fast — is the durable asset. Not any individual channel.
The Infrastructure Lesson From Brex
Before founding Savvy, Ritik spent roughly two and a half years at Brex, where he watched the company scale from approximately $5 million to $100 million in revenue in a single year. He left with two principles.
The first: hire exceptional people. A Brex founder put it plainly — “You get no extra points for doing things yourself, so you might as well get all the help you can.”
The second was a deliberate inversion of what he observed. Brex built its banking core from the ground up. Ritik saw the cost of that bet and took the opposite approach at Savvy.
“When we started Savvy, I actually thought it doesn’t always make sense in principle from a business strategy perspective to go and just rebuild those things. We actually partnered a ton in the beginning and said, look, we can figure out all the limitations as we go.”
The principle: going to bare metal is a bet on future scale that the business hasn’t yet earned the right to make. Partner first, prove the model, build toward better infrastructure incrementally.
Why the AI Displacement Argument Keeps Getting the Value Prop Wrong
Every company in this space has to answer the same question: will AI replace the advisor? Ritik’s answer is grounded in a prior cycle.
Robo-advisors made an identical displacement claim in the 2010s. “The data speaks for itself,” he said. “There’s very little impact to financial advisors.” At the lower end of the wealth spectrum, clients who started with robo-advisors eventually graduated to human ones.
His argument for why this pattern repeats goes beyond market inertia. As net worth grows, so does the psychological complexity of financial decision-making. “There’s additional latent value in an advisor that doesn’t get talked about often — the human nature of someone dealing with their own money actually has a lot of psychological elements that need to be considered.”
Decision paralysis increases with wealth. Fear of making the wrong call — even when the probability distribution favors a decision — is real and persistent. That function isn’t automated away by a better financial planning output.
Savvy’s thesis runs in the opposite direction: use AI to eliminate middle and back-office friction so advisors maximize time in front of clients. “Easier to be an editor than it is to be a writer,” Ritik said. The end state he’s building toward is a team of proactive AI agents — investment analysts, financial planners — surfacing insights before the advisor needs to ask.
One platform. Every money-related decision. The advisor spending their time on the thing only they can do.
Recommended Founder
Interviews
Ben Borodach
Co-Founder and CEO of April
Ben Borodach, Co-Founder and CEO of April: $40 Million Raised to Embed Intelligent Tax Experiences
Enrique Perezalonso
CEO of Palla Financial
How Palla Financial navigates selling to banks with no standard buyer: from remittance teams to CEOs | Enrique Perezalonso
Halle Kaplan-Allen
Head of Marketing of Sydecar
Why LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads Beat Traditional B2B Creative
Rafael Loureiro
CEO of Wealth
Rafael Loureiro, CEO of Wealth: $16 Million Raised to Build the Future of Estate Planning
Rodney Reisdorf
Co-Founder & CEO of Co-Founder & CEO
Rodney Reisdorf, CEO of Verivend: $3 Million Raised Transform Private Capital Transactions
Sohaib Zahid
CEO and Co-Founder of Railz
Sohaib Zahid, CEO and Co-Founder of Railz: $15 Million Raised to Build to Accounting Data as a Service Category
Jacob Casson
Founder and CEO of MONET
How Monet used Facebook groups to sign up 7,500 content creators before building the product
Ron Benegbi
CEO & Founder of Uplinq
Ron Benegbi, CEO & Founder at Uplinq: Over $5 Million Raised to Transform SMB Lender’s Existing Credit Evaluation Process
Debbie Soon
Head of Marketing of Privy
Storytelling for Technical Products w/ Debbie Soon
Patricia Montesi
CEO & Co-Founder of Qolo
Patricia Montesi, CEO & Co-Founder of Qolo: $30 Million Raised to Build the Future of Omnichannel Payments Infrastructure
Swapnil Shinde
CEO and Co-Founder of Zeni
Swapnil Shinde, CEO and Co-Founder of Zeni: $47+ Million Raised to Build the Finance Operations Category
Thibaut Sahagian
CEO of Multis
Thibaut Sahagian, CEO of Multis: $9 Million Raised to Build a New Category of Software Designed to Meet the Needs of Web3 Organizations
Jonas Overgaard
CEO of Anyday.io
Jonas Overgaard, CEO of Anyday.io: $4M Raised to Transform the Buy Now Pay Later Market
Daumantas Dvilinskas
CEO & Co-Founder of TransferGo
Daumantas Dvilinskas, CEO & Co-Founder of TransferGo: $125 Million Raised to Build the Future of Cross-Border Payments
Jessica Zhang
CEO & Co-Founder of Pier
Jessica Zhang, CEO & Co-Founder of Pier: $2.5M Raised to Build the Future of Credit Infrastructure
Nicholas Lembo
VP of Marketing of Coast
Navigating GEO: Earned Media & SEO Tactics That Actually Work
Brian King
CEO of LODAS Markets
Brian King, CEO of LODAS Markets: $8.5 Million Raised to Power the Future of Alternative Investments
Matt Bivons
CEO & Founder of Canopy
Matt Bivons, CEO & Founder of Canopy: $30M Raised to Build a Modern Servicing Platform for Scaling FinTechs
Caleb Avery
Founder & CEO of Tilled
Caleb Avery, Founder & CEO of Tilled: $40 Million Raised to Build (and Dominate) the PayFac as a Service Category
Patrick Mollard
CEO & Co-Founder of Fipto
Patrick Mollard, CEO & Co-Founder of Fipto: $16 Million Raised to Build the Future of Blockchain Payments
Steve Pomfret
Steve Pomfret, CEO & Founder of Cygnetise: $8 Million Raised to Build the Future of Signatory Management
Daniel Grunstein
CEO and Co-Founder of Crowded
Daniel Grunstein, CEO and Co-Founder of Crowded: $6.4 Million Raised to Transform Nonprofit Financial Management
Steffen Vollert
Co-Founder of Volt
Steffen Vollert, Co-founder of Volt: $87 Million Raised to Build the World’s Leading Global Real-Time Payment Network
Renaud Laplanche
Co-Founder and CEO of Upgrade
How Upgrade built 6 billion-dollar products by designing for multi-product from day one | Renaud Laplanche ($6B Valuation)
Kalpesh Kapadia
CEO and Founder of Deserve
Kalpesh Kapadia, CEO and Founder of Deserve: $50 Million Raised to Build the Future of Credit Cards
Helen Chong
Head of Growth of Puzzle
Helen Chong, Head of Growth at Puzzle: Collaborating with Founders – Insights for Effective Marketing Alignment
Chandini Jain
CEO & Co-Founder of Auquan
Chandini Jain, CEO & Co-Founder of Auquan: $8 Million Raised to Transform Financial Intelligence Through AI
Carmen Li
CEO of Silicon Data
Carmen Li, CEO of Silicon Data: $5M+ Building the World’s First GPU Compute Risk Management Platform
Scott Dorey
Co-Founder of OpenPath
Scott Dorey, Co-Founder of OpenPath: $25 Million Raised to Build the Future of Payments
Nathan Beckord
CEO of Foundersuite
Nathan Beckord, CEO of Foundersuite: $13 Million Raised to Build the Go-To Platform for Startup Fundraising
Bob Suh
CEO of OnCorps
Bob Suh, CEO of OnCorps: $18M Raised to Help Large Financial Institutions Solve Operational Problems with AI
Jeremy Almond
CEO & Founder of Paystand
Jeremy Almond, CEO & Founder of Paystand: $100M Raised to Power the Future of B2B Payments
Sandro Zweig
CEO and Co-Founder of tiun.
How tiun validated product-market fit with 6-12 months of pilot data before scaling | Sandro Zweig
Ahmad Ibrahim
CEO of NeoTax
Ibrahim, CEO of NeoTax: $13 Million Raised to Build the Future of Tax Automation
Stephany Kirkpatrick
CEO and Founder of Orum
Stephany Kirkpatrick, CEO and Founder of Orum: Over $85 Million Raised to Build an API integration for Instant Payouts
Varda Bachrach
Director of Marketing of ChargeAfter
700% AI Traffic Growth: ChargeAfter’s GEO Playbook
John Lunn
CEO and Founder of Gr4vy
John Lunn, CEO and Founder of Gr4vy: $27 Million Raised to Build the Future of Payments Infrastructure
Fady Hawatmeh
Founder and CEO of Clockwork
Fady Hawatmeh, Founder and CEO of Clockwork: Nearly $3 Million Raised to Make Financial Modeling and Cash Flow Forecasting Easy
Colin Luce
CEO & Co-Founder of Basis Theory
Colin Luce, CEO & Co-Founder of Basis Theory: $20 Million Raised to Build the Future of Payments Tokenization
Ben Goldin
CEO and Founder of Plumery
Ben Goldin, CEO and Founder of Plumery: $4.5 Million Raised to Power the Future of Digital Engagement for Banks
Laura Kornhauser
Co-Founder and CEO of Stratyfy
Laura Kornhauser, Co-Founder and CEO at Stratyfy: $10 Million Raised to Power the Future of Financial Inclusion
Tate Hackert
Co-founder & Chief Strategy Officer of ZayZoon
How ZayZoon built 300+ payroll partnerships to reach 15,000 businesses without direct sales | Tate Hackert
Shamir Karkal
Co-founder and CSO of Sila
Shamir Karkal, CEO of Sila: $20+ Million Raised to Build the Money API For Fintech
Joshua Silver
Founder and CEO of Rainforest
How Rainforest justifies the ROI of hosting a podcast and conference | Joshua Silver
Magali Chapuis
Marketing Manager of Embat
Magali Chapuis, Marketing Manager of Embat: Strategic Insights for Scaling Fintech Marketing Across Borders
Arik Shtilman
CEO of Rapyd
Arik Shtilman, Rapyd: $15 Billion Valuation (Unicorn Builders)
Eric Velasquez Frenkiel
Founder and CEO of Pomelo
Eric Velasquez Frenkiel, CEO of Pomelo: $70 Million Raised to Build the Future of Remittance
Klas Bäck
CEO & Co-Founder of Pagos
Klas Bäck, CEO & Co-Founder of Pagos: $44 Million Raised to Power the Future of Payments Operations
Yasmin Graeml
Marketing & Communication Leader of Flourish Fi
Yasmin, Marketing & Communication Leader at Flourish Fi: Driving Financial Engagement with Innovative Tech
Jack McDonald
CEO of PolySign
Jack McDonald, CEO of PolySign: $50 Million Raised to Power the Future of Digital Assets
Fiona Sherwood
CMO of Dasseti
The Death of Gated Content: Why This CMO Gives Everything Away
Yogi Goel
How Maxima moved upmarket from 10-person startups to 500-1,000 employee companies after early customer feedback | Yogi Goel (Maxima)
Olga Chin
CEO and Founder of InterPrice Technologies
Olga Chin, CEO and Founder of InterPrice Technologies: Over $10 Million Raised to Build the Future of Capital Markets Treasury Management
Nik Talreja
CEO & Co-Founder of Sydecar
Nik Talreja, CEO & Co-Founder of Sydecar: Over $16 Million Raised to Make Venture Deal Execution a Frictionless Process
Michael Babineau
Co-Founder & CEO of Turnstile
How Turnstile positioned quote-to-cash for founders who don’t know the category exists | Michael Babineau
Daniele Grassi
CEO of Axyon AI
Daniele Grassi, CEO of Axyon AI: $5.5 Million Raised to Power the Future of Financial Markets with AI
Donald Muir
Co-Founder & CEO of F2
How F2 hires only ex-finance professionals for sales instead of traditional salespeople | Donald Muir
Beatriz Gomez
Chief Marketing Officer of Ontop
Community Lead Growth Masterclass w/ Beatriz Gomez
Iris Pfeifer
VP of Growth of Wisetack
Iris Pfeifer, VP of Growth at Wisetack: Mastering B2B Marketing Through Sales Alignment and Product Strategy
Omri Mor
CEO & Co-Founder of Routable
Omri Mor, CEO & Co-Founder of Routable: $100 Million Raised to Transform AP Automation for Fast-Growing Companies
Tal Shahar
CEO & Co-Founder of Atlas Invest
Tal Shahar, CEO & Co-Founder of Atlas Invest: $13 Million Raised to Transform Real Estate Financing
Steven Greene
CEO of Standard Practice
Steven Greene, CEO & Co-Founder of Standard Practice (Previously Nibble Health): $8 Million Raised to Bring the Fintech Revolution to the World Healthcare Payments
Julio Martínez
Co-Founder and CEO of Abacum
Julio Martínez, Co-Founder and CEO at Abacum: $40 Million Raised to Build the Future of FP&A
Florian Wimmer
Co-Founder & CEO of Blockpit
Florian Wimmer, Co-Founder & CEO of Blockpit: $15 Million Raised to Power the Future of Crypto Tax Management
Felix Rodriguez
CEO & Founder of Finally
Felix Rodriguez, CEO & Founder of Finally: $110 Million Raised to Power the Future of Finance Automation
Wade Arnold
CEO and Founder of Moov
Wade Arnold, CEO and Founder of Moov: $77.5 Million Raised to Build the Future of Embedded Payments
Don Muir
CEO of Arc
Don Muir, CEO of Arc: Over $180 Million Raised to Empower Startups with a Better Cash Management Experience
Ankit Ratan
Co-Founder and CEO of Signzy
Ankit Ratan, Co-Founder and CEO of Signzy: Over $38 Million Raised to Build the Future of Digital Onboarding Infrastructure
Bryan McCarty
Director of Product and Product Marketing of Orum
Donuts & Product Launches: Orum’s Unconventional Event Strategy
Henrique Dubugras
Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Brex
Henrique Dubugras: the Story of Brex ($12 Billion+ Valuation)
Reed Switzer
CEO of Hopscotch
Reed Switzer, CEO of Hopscotch: $10M to Build the Future of B2B Payments For SMBs