In this episode of AI for Advisors, Mark Heynen and James Cantwell talk with Jason Wenk, founder and CEO of Altruist, about building a modern custody platform from scratch and why infrastructure matters more than software. They discuss Jason’s journey from FormulaFolios’ 14,000% growth to raising nearly half a billion dollars for Altruist, his early (failed) attempts to pitch AI to advisors in 2018, and the strategic acquisition of Thyme to build Hazel. The conversation covers the economics of custody, why being multi-custodial creates unnecessary pain, data ownership debates, and whether note-taking is already commoditized. They also dive into Robinhood’s TradePMR acquisition and what makes a successful wealth tech company in 2025.

Key Takeaways: 

• Custodial infrastructure is the bottleneck—great AI on bad infrastructure just creates faster pain as you scale.

• Advisors unanimously rejected AI in 2018; ChatGPT changed everything by making AI feel accessible and trustworthy.

• Note-taking is commoditizing fast; differentiation comes from agentic workflows and deep custodial integration.

• Data should belong to advisors, but open APIs need thoughtful controls to maintain platform reliability.

• Technical moats in AI are minimal—go-to-market execution and distribution matter more than product features.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Learn more about Jason Wenk | Altruist

Website: https://altruist.com 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonwenk 

Learn more about Mark Heynen | James Cantwell | AI for Advisors Podcast

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markheynen 

Website: https://www.knapsack.ai/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamescantwell 

Website: https://www.wealthtechselect.com 

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/@AIforAdvisorsPodcast 

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4z1NMErEJ5lxMe0aaO5w8W