Russ D'Argento, CEO and founder of FINTRX, sits down with CJ in this episode to discuss building a Data as a Service (DaaS) business while also sharing insight into the highly lucrative world of family offices. He explains what a family office is (name a billionaire, they probably have one), their roles in wealth management, and how he identified this niche. He sheds light on FINTRX, what it does, and why building a verticalized data business for a niche market can be both exceptionally complicated and rewarding. He delves into the nuances of DaaS business models, what makes them different from SaaS, why it’s so important to own your own data, and the unique challenges one faces in a business like this. He also talks bout the fine art of workflow integration and how allowing customers to access FINTRX’s data in other APIs has been surprisingly beneficial.

If you're looking for an ERP, head to NetSuite: https://netsuite.com/metrics and get the CFO’s Guide to AI and Machine Learning.

—

SPONSORS:

Rippling Spend is a spend management solution that handles your entire company’s spending in one unified system. It enables you to bring your corporate cards, expense management, bill pay, and more into one place to achieve real-time visibility and uniquely granular control with automated policy controls across every type of spend. Get a demo to see how much time your org would save at rippling.com/metrics.

Vanta's trust management platform takes the manual work out of your security and compliance process and replaces it with continuous automation. Over 9000 businesses use it to automate compliance needs across over 35 frameworks like SOC 2 and ISO 27001. Centralize security workflows, complete questionnaires up to five times faster, and proactively manage vendor risk. For a limited time, get $1,000 off Vanta at vanta.com/metrics.

Tropic is an intelligent spend management solution that consolidates your spend data and processes into one unified offering, enabling insights and decisive action. From spotting hidden optimization opportunities to automating painful procurement workflows and giving you the best market data to turn vendor negotiations in your favor, Tropic combines smart insights with real human expertise to keep you ahead of the curve. Visit tropicapp.io/mostlymetrics to learn how.

NetSuite provides financial software for all your business needs. More than 40,000 companies have already upgraded to NetSuite, gaining visibility and control over their financials, inventory, HR, eCommerce, and more. If you're looking for an ERP platform, head to NetSuite https://netsuite.com/metrics and get the CFO’s Guide to AI and Machine Learning.

Planful is a financial performance management platform designed to streamline financial tasks for businesses. It helps with budgeting, closing the books, and financial reporting, all on a cloud-based platform. By improving the efficiency and accuracy of these processes, Planful allows businesses to make better financial decisions. Find out more at www.planful.com/metrics.

Subscript is a modern billing and revenue recognition platform designed for SaaS finance teams that need flexibility and accuracy. From automated invoicing and dunning to compliant, transparent revenue recognition and real-time analytics, Subscript eliminates manual work, reduces errors, and gives you a single source of truth for all your financial data. Book a free demo at subscript.com.

—

@cjgustafson222 (CJ)

—

TIMESTAMPS:

(00:00) Preview and Intro

(02:57) Sponsor – Rippling Spend | Vanta | Tropic

(07:23) What Is a Family Office

(11:49) Why Family Offices Are an Attractive Place To Grow Your Career

(14:06) Examples of Family and Multi-Family Offices

(18:04) Sponsor – NetSuite | Planful | Subscript

(21:13) The Founding Story of FINTRX

(23:38) What FINTRX Does

(25:02) The Data as a Service Business Model

(28:50) The Challenges of Starting a DaaS Business

(34:07) Broad Versus Narrow in DaaS

(37:57) Building FINTRX’s Ideal Customer Profile

(42:20) Sourcing Your Own Data Versus Partnering With Others

(46:09) Hiring for Engineering and Data Science

(51:07) Using FINTRX’s Interface Versus Accessing the Data in Another Tool

(1:02:26) Advice for Someone Launching a DaaS Business

(1:02:02) A Habit That Russ Swears By as a Founder

(1:03:24) A Lesson From Something That Went Awry

Get full access to Mostly metrics at www.mostlymetrics.com/subscribe

The Billionaire Rolodex: Building a DaaS Business to Target the 0.001%

Run the Numbers