Alfia Ilicheva came to the U.S. at 12 without speaking English, after her father died suddenly. That experience turned into a founder operating system: wake up, look in the mirror, and ask, “Is this the life I want?” She always leads with values and mission-aligment first.

Today she’s the CEO and founder of Formulary Financial, building AI-native fund administration in a world where, according to her, most private market firms quietly run parallel “shadow books” because they don’t trust their administrator’s data. Previously she was a product leader at Bridgewater Associates and the CEO/co-founder of Edna Technologies (incubated inside Apollo). She also co-founded WIN: Women in Innovation and serves on the national board of the Girl Scouts of the USA.

We also get tactical on how she does user research when customers don’t tell the blunt truth, including her “magic wand” question and the difference between functional benefits (data access) and emotional benefits (sounding smart in the meeting).

In this episode:

• The shadow-books reality in private markets

• How to cut through customer theater

• Why “systemization” beats “automation”

• Leadership lessons from Presidents Bush and Clinton

• Her spiciest advice: find where trust is still required

Subscribe for more episodes of Not Another Podcast. If you know someone building in fintech, private markets, or enterprise AI, send them this one.