Randy Cass,

Founder and CEO, Nest Wealth

Successful companies are born out of a gap in the marketplace or a new technology. Which was it for Nest Wealth?

Without a doubt a massive gap in the marketplace. I don’t believe that people embrace technology for technology’s sake. I believe they only embrace technology because it improves their lives in some measurable way. In our case, it was the fact that Canada has the highest fees in the world for investment products, and nobody was doing anything about it. Everybody is talking about how hard it is to get ahead, but nobody is pointing out the fact that if you’re paying the average mutual fund fee of 2.5 per cent in Canada you’re likely giving away half your potential wealth. Canadian investors have been relegated to second-class citizens when it came to their own savings, and nobody was stepping up to say this was wrong.

What is the biggest advantage Nest Wealth offers its customers?

The biggest advantage Nest Wealth provides our clients is the ability to rest easy as they accumulate more wealth. We reduce the fees a client is going to pay by 90 per cent and then provide them with a personalized, transparent, and sophisticated wealth management solution. We make sure they can sleep easy at night by letting them know their portfolio is being monitored constantly with bestin-class technology. And finally, we provide each investor with their own portfolio manager, who has a fiduciary obligation to put their interest first.

What was or is your biggest obstacle to greater success?

Just letting people know they have a better choice. Educating investors about the fact that hidden fees can cripple their ability to retire or travel or pay for education or anything else that matters. However, once someone has a moment to learn the numbers, the Nest Wealth solution almost sells itself.

Were people initially skeptical that such a business could succeed?

A lot couldn’t understand why I would want to start a business that would leave so much money on the table. I remember telling them that we weren’t going to be leaving money on the table, we were going to be leaving it in the investor’s pockets, which is where it belonged in the first place.

How is Nest Wealth disrupting personal investing in Canada?

We were the first company in Canada to offer a digital wealth management solution, and now there are banks following suit. We are the largest and fastest growing independent digital wealth advisor in the country and a model for what now seems like the inevitable way the industry must evolve going forward. Nest Wealth entering the marketplace two years ago created an environment where all Canadian investors will have greater transparency, keep more of their own wealth, and have a better chance of reaching their financial goals.

You used to host a show on BNN and are now a successful business story in your own right. What do you think sets you apart from people who dream of starting their own business but never get it off the ground?

I have always had the ability to relentlessly pursue a singular goal without any regard for the resources at hand. In other words, I’ll decide to jump out of the plane believing that somewhere on the way down I’ll find a parachute and everything will turn out great.