Wealthfront Founder Andy Rachleff

Andy Rachleff, the co-founder and CEO of Wealthfront, has a unique background that sets him apart from other financial advisors. He's a Stanford Business School professor.

Rachleff has a strong academic foundation, having earned an MBA from Stanford Business School. He's also a successful entrepreneur, co-founding Wealthfront in 2009.

As a professor, Rachleff has taught entrepreneurship at Stanford, passing on his knowledge to the next generation of business leaders. His expertise in finance and entrepreneurship has been invaluable in shaping Wealthfront's mission.

Rachleff's experience as a professor has also given him a unique perspective on the financial industry, allowing him to identify areas for improvement and innovation.

Andy Rachleff founded Wealthfront in 2008 as kaChing, a mutual fund analysis company, before pivoting into wealth management.

Wealthfront started 2013 with $97 million in assets under management and grew by 450% in one year.

In 2016, Wealthfront re-launched a 529 tax-advantaged college savings plan with the state of Nevada, after Nevada passed approval on a new tax credit for employers who provide fund matching to employees participating in 529 savings programs.

Andy Rachleff is currently the executive chairman and chief executive officer of Wealthfront.

Wealthfront launched a homeownership planning tool for Path in January 2018, and was listed in Business Insider's Top 10 Best Robo Advisors in 2020.

In January 2022, UBS agreed to acquire Wealthfront for $1.4 billion, but the acquisition was mutually terminated in September 2022.

Andy Rachleff has a background in venture capital, co-founding Benchmark Capital and serving on the board of Reed Hasting's first company, Pure Software.

Wealthfront focuses on users under 40 with less than $1M, who prefer not to regularly interact with advisors.

The company has grown to manage over $6.5 billion in assets under management with over 130,000 clients.

Andy Rachleff believes that product market fit is the real driver of growth and that the most successful companies are able to continually reinvent themselves.

Wealthfront established a client's risk level and the client can then adjust, but changing too frequently is a bad idea because changing risk settings results in incurring taxes.

Andy Rachleff sees market opportunities and builds companies to address the gaps he sees, and couldn't stay away from the day-to-day at Wealthfront, returning as CEO last fall after two years out of the c-suite.

Wealthfront's growth rate, fundraising, revenues, and assets were discussed by Andy Rachleff and Jason in an episode of This Week in Startups, where they also talked about the company's future plans, including banking services and an IPO.

Wealthfront's financial journey began with funding from top-tier investors, including Benchmark Capital and Index Ventures, who recognized the potential of the company's innovative approach to financial planning.

The company received a significant boost in April 2014, raising $35 million in a funding round led by Index Ventures, Ribbit Capital, and Benchmark Capital.