Alex Harmson, PortfolioPilot .com. You have quite
the story and background. I look forward to getting
into that. Before we do that, though, let's go
into the future. Tell me about your vision. I
think the single biggest thing, obviously, these
days is AI. And whether it's overhyped or not,
I think that a lot of people are talking about
the wrong stuff when it comes to AI. I think
that most folks talk about how AI can be used
to troll through tons of data and pull out interesting
insights. Absolutely true, right? But I don't
think that's the big thing. I think a lot of
people talk about ASI and super intelligence
or creating the nanobots or how does it replace
jobs? I think the main benefit that comes from
AI is more around... personalization and bringing
experts advice, bringing experts knowledge, wisdom
to your specific situation. There's actually
something really interesting. I like to think
that this podcast is going to be really cool,
really informative. The audience really got something
from it. What my guess is if it was you, me,
and one listener in the audience, you know, specifically
talking about their story, the podcast would
be 10 times more interesting. But if we can dive
deep into this one very specific audience members
situation and connect everything we're saying
to their life, then it becomes even more powerful.
And so I think you can do that with AI and there's
this level of personalization. I think it fits
into this. I'm so down to invite somebody. If
you're up for it, I'd be happy to invite an audience
member to come in and do that with us. I love
that too. I'm totally down for that. I'm planning
on that then. I'm perfectly happy to share all
my stories and what worked and what didn't work
and the highs and the lows. I mean, at the end
of the day, imagine if you're listening that
you somehow want to connect it through to something
in your life or double click on an issue that's
actually really interesting to you or skip this
part. That's not really relevant. I know those
things already. Fast forward to the stuff, the
real unique stuff for me. Oh, we'll do that.
I'll be happy to because that allows people to
see the magic. And people want to see the magic.
I downplay the magic because I'm principle driven.
And so I love that you started by just establishing
a base. People need to understand that base in
order to be able to take responsible action on
what it is that you're talking about. So I'll
do some things on my end as a host for whichever
visionary wants to come in and have that experience
with us. We'll pick somebody who we know we can
put in a safe place as well. on that stage and
then we'll be able to dive in with them on some
specifics in a controlled environment where we
can then help them unlock a new level of how
ai would be used i have a feeling that's going
to influence me in a way where i'm like oh i
didn't think about doing that or i haven't thought
about using it that way and that's going to also
help me so those of you listening in these are
types of experiments too that with all sense
of safety um right you can do in your own podcast,
in your own lives. Start playing with these tools
in a way where you can start to learn the power
of this resource. We're not going to dive too
far into that. I want to dive into one more piece
for today, Alex, and respect both of our times
on this. Where did your vision come from? What
led you to this point where you started to see
the value? Everybody's now claiming that they
see it, but you have, let me give a little context
for the audience here because I was shocked.
I was like, dang, this is deep. So Alex is a
tech entrepreneur who's passionate about AI finance
and autonomy, right? Who hasn't heard that lately?
But he founded PortfolioPilot .com and it's an
AI financial advisor with over $30 billion in
assets on platform. i hope you provide me like
a resource link on that alex so i can i can fact
check that um before that he already founded
and sold iris automation advancing ai and autonomy
and even worked on nasa's mars helicopter um
he's built and scaled ai driven companies raised
over 30 million in venture capital and went through
y combinator just as my first startup did um
he's recognized by forbes 30 under 30. um loves
discussing startups like all of that's like oh
okay I don't meet you every day. You know, I
don't meet somebody with those accolades every
day. Yet you're also a genuine individual. Again,
the brief version, let's go to the big version
later. But what, where did the vision come from?
I think there's two things. One thing is just,
I like to think genuine curiosity. I think there's
a selfishness actually to wanting to ask questions
and learn constantly and like, I'm building startups,
working on co -projects, helping people. I get
to meet really interesting people. I get to work
on something that teaches me something new. I
get bored very easily. So the role I have right
now in a fast -growing startup as the CEO, basically
every six months my job is different. And so
I get deep going. I think the second part is
after I sold my previous company, Iris Automation,
in 2021, I was looking for real expert financial
advice just from my own situation. The first
time that I have any sort of liquidity, we bought
a house in the Bay Area. We started a family.
We have two toddlers now. My wife runs a startup
in the biotech space. I was talking to financial
advisors and wealth managers and private bankers
and ended up on some list at some point. And
lots of people that... calling me but it sort
of felt like i was talking to a lot of sales
people they weren't really experts that were
going to sit down with me and just really dive
into my specific situation and so i built something
for myself and you know i had a lot of time and
it was sort of coveted i had this baby on the
side and was sort of just tinkering and at the
end of the day just built something for myself
for my own situation that eventually, now three
and a half years later, turned into portfolio
pilot, this AI financial advisor. And didn't
really call it an AI financial advisor on the
first month or two. It was just this engine that
I could attach to my life and my finances and
all of my settings and preferences, a long -term
or short -term goals and tax situation. And then
it would spend six hours very slowly, very inefficiently,
just sort of searching through this set of rules
and look at markets and run a bunch of calculations
to try to figure out, you know, what can I optimize
about my situation? And then I think after four
or five months, it worked well enough. I started
talking to other people about it and like that
personal project. that you know solved a specific
need for me has now turned into 30 000 users
and 30 billion dollars of assets on the platform
and keeps growing you know every week Thank you
for being here today. I'm really happy that you
tuned in to Vision Pros Live. I'm looking forward
to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue
to move forward. This is going to get more and
more fun. We'll have more and more engagement
as well. We'll invite people to participate in
the show and thank you for giving us your time
and attention. Have an excellent time building
out your vision and becoming a vision pro yourself.