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Elon’s New Nemesis WITH BLEEDING-EDGE TECH AND A $3 BILLION WAR CHEST FROM AMAZON, FORD AND THE SAUDIS, SECRETIVE AUTOMAKER RIVIAN IS ALREADY TESLA’S WORST NIGHTMARE. Bloom and Bust KR Sridhar’s Bloom Energy promised to turn natural gas into clean electricity “cheaper than the grid.” But after blowing through billions, its fuel cells have turned out to be outrageously costly—and not so green after all. By Christopher Helman.

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Published by Read My eBook for FREE!, 2020-03-29 04:45:20

Forbes - USA (March 2020)

Forbes is the world’s leading business magazine and since its inception in 1917, Forbes has stood, unwavering, for one overriding principle: the unshakable belief in the power of free enterprise. Forbes mission has always been clear and unchanging: to provide insights and information that ensure the success of the world’s most influential. Faithfully fulfilling that promise is what draws today's most influential business leaders to Forbes.

Beyond its famed lists, Forbes has a unique voice in its coverage of global business stories. Whether it’s reporting on the “next facebook” or scrutinizing a new tax law, Forbes covers stories with uncanny insight and conciseness that hurried business folks appreciate. Read Forbes today for rigorous, to-the-point business analysis.


In This Issue

Elon’s New Nemesis WITH BLEEDING-EDGE TECH AND A $3 BILLION WAR CHEST FROM AMAZON, FORD AND THE SAUDIS, SECRETIVE AUTOMAKER RIVIAN IS ALREADY TESLA’S WORST NIGHTMARE. Bloom and Bust KR Sridhar’s Bloom Energy promised to turn natural gas into clean electricity “cheaper than the grid.” But after blowing through billions, its fuel cells have turned out to be outrageously costly—and not so green after all. By Christopher Helman.

ner has caused him to miss
the ten-year anniversary of
his marriage to Gina Gallo,
the third-generation face
of the family behind the
world’s largest wine pro-
ducer by volume, E. & J.
Gallo. During their engage-
ment, they made a wine of
the same origins togeth-
er—blending, bottling and
corking by hand—and then
served it at their wedding
as a symbol of her histor-
ic California roots becoming intertwined with his Vine Dining wine division, described Boisset as “the wine
family’s own Burgundian heritage. The elegant tasting equivalent to Ringling Brothers—he’s an enter-
rooms at two of


“Half of it is made in Burgundy, so that’s 49% Boisset’s vineyards, tainer with flair and flash. He’s also a great busi-
of the blend,” Boisset says in a thick French ac- Buena Vista (left) nessperson‚ able to take a tarnished penny and

and Yountville
cent before pausing dramatically. “I need to con- shine it up.”
fess. I will tell you something very personal. My Along with his older sister, Nathalie, Boisset pre-
love likes to be on top. So 51% is California.” sides over close to 30 wineries worldwide, includ-
Sex is clearly the theme of this Boisset soirée, ing a good portion of Burgundy’s vineyards. Annual
where the innuendo-filled jokes flow as freely as sales are about $200 million; Forbes conservative-


the wine. Leopard-print silk napkins sit on a red ly estimates the company to be worth some $450
velvet tablecloth, and a mirror has replaced the million. If the collection were divided up at auc-
ceiling (“Ladies, be careful, because I can see ev- tion, many assets would likely sell for more than as
erything!”). Dates never sit together, and Boisset part of the package. “Buyers are looking for a tro-
encourages touching (“You could still caress the phy purchase,” says Michael Baynes, executive part-
person next to you. I see a lot of that is already ner at Vineyards-Bordeaux Christie’s International
happening, which I’m delighted to see!”). Real Estate. “There’s a lack of supply. The Boisset
The 50-year-old Boisset is blithely oblivious to Collection would get a very premium price.”
the #MeToo era, and his guests seem to appreci- Back at Boisset’s Last Supper, he introduces
ate the single entendres. A few months earlier, JCB No. 81, a chardonnay inspired by the mo-


Rob McMillan, founder of Silicon Valley Bank’s ment in 1981 when he first became fixated on Cal-
ifornia wines. As the story goes, it was during a
trip to Sonoma with his grandparents when he
Little Big Picture was 11 years old. After visiting Buena Vista win-
ery, founded in 1857, Boisset turned to his sister
GRAPE EXPECTATIONS
and prophesied, “One day we will make wine to-
Napa makes up 4% of California’s wine production, but gether in California.”
its grapes command the highest prices. Over the past few
decades, the median price of Napa grapes has surpassed Nearly a decade later, Boisset’s parents ac-
the steady rise of other California regions. “In Napa, quired a patchwork of properties throughout
they are willing to pay an awful lot for cabernet,” says
John Aguirre, president of the California Association of some of the most valuable parts of Burgundy
Winegrape Growers. As demand has exploded, so has the through a combination of local bank loans and
grape supply. In fact, there’s a surplus—so drink up.
sheer luck. Because it was so hard to combine
$6,000 Napa parcels, few others even tried.
BUBBLE LOUNGE BY SCOTT CHEBEGIA $4,000 MEDIAN GRAPE PRICE PER TON Sonoma ly import business in San Francisco and search-
He brought that maverick philosophy to Amer-
$5,000
ica. In 1991, Boisset started leading the fami-
Mendocino
ing for family-owned wineries with history to
acquire. Buena Vista, after retreating from na-
$3,000
tional distribution, looked promising, but the

owners rebuked Boisset’s offer. “It was very in-
$2,000
novative at the time, very iconoclast[ic] from a
$1,000


1992 1996 2000 2006 2012 2016 strategy standpoint. No one looked at California
F O R B E S . C O M
USDA NASS Grape Crush Report
Morimoto

The James Bond of Burgundy Cont.



the way we looked at it,” he says. That includes his not-so-secret identity, Agent
He closed on DeLoach Vineyards in Sonoma 69, an ersatz James Bond who brandishes swords
instead in 2003. Boisset then began spending and rescues women—and wine—at lavish par-
more time in California as DeLoach transitioned ties and in several very campy videos. It’s some-

to biodynamic farming based on the lunar cycle. times difficult to tell where the serious wine-

50 In 2007 he acquired the 300-acre estate of Ray- maker ends and the louche alter ego begins. At

mond Vineyards in St. Helena. Boisset finally se- Raymond’s tasting room, visitors on tours are
cured Buena Vista in 2011, after trying at least HOW TO PLAY IT ushered past industrial tanks and mannequins
E
F four times. hanging upside-down on fuzzy red swings, wear-
I According to
L
After an acquisition, Boisset has three main Charlie Munger ing sheer bras and leopard-print leggings.

strategies: First, every vineyard transitions to or- Boisset has also commoditized his hyperactive
N Choice grapes
A ganic farming. Next, he increases the price of the and branding libido. With Swarovski, JCB produces lines of
I genius are at the
R wines, usually around 30% to 40%. (In the case of jewelry, one of which, Confession, features hand-
A heart of the busi-

R Raymond, the retail value of several bottles more ness of vintner cuffs. There’s also a red wine called Restrained.
T than doubled to $45 each.) Finally, the wines are Jean-Charles The bottle is fastened with a leather bondage
N
O marketed with the rest of the collection to more Boisset and his harness and O-ring.
C $350 The Surreal-
than 600 partners worldwide. Buena Vista, De- ist cabernet sau- Boisset’s business partners say they’re not put

Loach and Raymond, for example, are now sold vignon. For that off. “He doesn’t hide who he is,” says Dina Opici,
price, you could
in more than 20 countries each. Because Bois- president of her family’s New Jersey–based wine-
have bought
set’s wines range from $15 to $2,600, this system the equivalent and-spirits distribution company, who has known

streamlines the buying process for distributors of 38 bottles of Boisset for 15 years. “It is really genuine. He’s well-
Kirkland Signa-

who can mix and match for different accounts. ture cabernet, intentioned.”
“In Europe, if you come from Burgundy, you’re sold at Costco, With 10 wineries in the U.S. and a growing
a wholesale club
on the upper scale,” Boisset says. “But it’s too much private-label business, Boisset must now contend
that generates

stratification of society, perceived value and histo- upward of $2 bil- with an overcrowded wine market amid fast-
ry based on heritage rather than who you are. In lion in wine sales growing categories such as hard seltzer and le-
a year. While
the U.S. you could come from wherever, whoever, galized cannabis. Last year, Americans’ wine con-
Costco’s vino is
whatever. It’s about you. That’s what I really val- cheap, its stock sumption declined for the first time in 25 years,

ue. That’s what allowed me to become who I am.” has aged like a according to trade group IWSR.

Lafite Rothschild,
returning an But opportunities beyond wineries abound. Last
annualized 17% year was particularly busy: Boisset acquired the
since its 1985 nearly 140-year-old Oakville Grocery and founded
IPO, versus 10.7%

for the S&P 500. Napa’s first wine-history museum. He also opened
Thanks no doubt a strip mall called JCB Village in Yountville that
to urging by
longtime Costco features a tasting room, a day spa and a boutique
board member that sells JCB label candles and dress socks along
and shareholder with Baccarat decanters inspired by Boisset’s own
Charlie Munger,
Berkshire Hatha- collection, which is the largest in the world. Amid
way has a sizable declining Napa tourism, he has opened lounges
position in its outside the valley at the Ritz-Carlton in San Fran-
stock. In recent
years, savvy wine cisco, Ghirardelli Square’s Wattle Creek and the
shoppers have Rosewood Hotel in Palo Alto.
helped Costco
maintain 5% Boisset insists his luxury empire will continue
growth, even to take years to build—and will withstand threats,
as competitor be they wine tariffs, climate change or compet-

Amazon has laid

siege to many itors. “You don’t build a luxury business in five
brick-and-mortar minutes,” he says. “Besides LVMH and Pernod Ri-
retailers.
card, two monsters, no one has had our journey.
The American way of life drove me here.” F


FI NAL THO U G HT
“A BOTTLE OF WINE CONTAINS TIM PANNELL FOR FORBES
Crystal Clear MORE PHILOSOPHY THAN ALL
THE BOOKS IN THE WORLD.”
Boisset has a longstanding collaboration with Swarovski—
the collection includes a brooch of his wife Gina Gallo’s lips. —Louis Pasteur


F O R B E S . C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 0



At our 2019 AgTech Summits, we partnered with

SVG Ventures-THRIVE for a Demo Day and pitch

competition to showcase startups with the best

emerging technologies focused on advancing the

future of food and agriculture. Winners of the THRIVE-

Forbes Innovation Icon Award received the opportunity

to speak at our Under 30 Summit in Detroit this past
October, while our Salinas winner received a $200,000

investment from SVG Ventures and our Indianapolis

winners received the opportunity to participate in

SVG Ventures’ award-winning THRIVE VI Accelerator

Program. A big congratulations to the winners!














































INNOVATION ICON AWARD WINNERS FORBES AGTECH FOUNDING PARTNER

SALINAS INDIANAPOLIS

THE LIST TOP ADVISORS























BEST-IN-STATE











WEALTH





















































OUR 2020 BEST-IN-STATE WEALTH ADVISORS LIST SPOTLIGHTS
MORE THAN 4,000 ADVISORS ACROSS THE COUNTRY, NOMINATED

BY THEIR FIRMS—THEN RESEARCHED, INTERVIEWED AND ASSIGNED
A RANKING BY SHOOK RESEARCH.




BY SHOOK RESEARCH AND JASON BISNOFF

ALABAMA 5. Joe Di Vito CALIFORNIA 12. Rich Petit 5. Melissa Corrado 2. Mike Koppenhaver
1. Moss Crosby RBC Wealth Mgmt. (SOUTHERN) Morgan Stanley Private Harrison Merrill Lynch
UBS Private
HighTower Advisors PHOENIX 1. Laila Pence Wealth Mgmt. Wealth Mgmt. Wealth Mgmt.
HUNTSVILLE $540M Pence Wealth Mgmt. MENLO PARK DENVER DOVER
$749M
$6.5B
$1B 6. Brian Crawford NEWPORT BEACH $1.1B
2. Tony Smith Wells Fargo Advisors $1.4B CALIFORNIA 6. Perry Mattern 3. Thomas Rice

Merrill Lynch
UBS Financial Services TUCSON 2. David Bahnsen (LOS ANGELES AREA) Mattern Capital Mgmt. Wealth Mgmt.

BIRMINGHAM $1.1B HighTower Advisors 1. Randy C. Conner DENVER WILMINGTON
$3.5B 7. Jacob Duffy NEWPORT BEACH Churchill Mgmt. Group $480M $1.4B

3. Camper O’Neal Baird $1.5B LOS ANGELES 7. Diane Padalino 4. David Plaza
Merrill Lynch SCOTTSDALE 3. Joseph D. Anderson $6B Merrill Lynch
Wealth Mgmt. $426M Pure Financial Advisors 2. Richard Jones Merrill Private Wealth Mgmt.
BIRMINGHAM 8. Tony Bebbington SAN DIEGO Merrill Private Wealth Mgmt. WILMINGTON
$893M UBS Financial Services $2.3B Wealth Mgmt. DENVER $413M
54 LOS ANGELES $1.5B
4. Bob Runkle PHOENIX 4. Sonny Kothari 8. Ali Phillips 5. Jason Betz
Merrill Lynch $241M Merrill Lynch PETER PRINCI $15.7B Ameriprise
Obermeyer Wood
Wealth Mgmt. Wealth Mgmt. 3. Reza Zafari Investment Counsel Financial Services
MONTGOMERY ARKANSAS BREA Boston Merrill Private ASPEN WILMINGTON
$1B 1. Hardy Winburn $1.3B Morgan Stanley Wealth Mgmt. $300M
S 5. Mark Mantooth UBS Financial Services 5. Carolyn Taylor Graystone LOS ANGELES $1.6B
R Merrill Lynch LITTLE ROCK Weatherly Asset Mgmt. $15.7B 9. Mark Brown 6. Donald Truesdell Jr.
Merrill Lynch
O Wealth Mgmt. $557M DEL MAR “Don’t get caught 4. Rebecca Rothstein Brown and Company Wealth Mgmt.
S HUNTSVILLE 2. Don McDonald $863M up in day-to-day Merrill Private DENVER
I $901M Merrill Lynch ups and downs of Wealth Mgmt. $508M WILMINGTON
V Wealth Mgmt. 6. Chad Evans news concerning BEVERLY HILLS 10. Donna Di Ianni $1.4B
D 6. Michael Warr FORT SMITH Morgan Stanley geopolitical risk $3.2B Merrill Lynch 7. TJ Zak
A Morgan Stanley $3.6B Wealth Mgmt. or polarization of Wealth Mgmt. Wells Fargo Advisors
Wealth Mgmt. NEWPORT BEACH 5. David Hou GREENVILLE
H TUSCALOOSA 3. Robby Bader $9.8B politics. There’s Evoke Wealth ASPEN $340M
$1.2B
L T $455M Grp./Raymond James 7. Bob Inbody always something LOS ANGELES 11. Andrew Dodds
The Solomon Wealth
to get emotional
$4.9B
A 7. Brian M. Woodke SPRINGDALE Morgan Stanley about, but the Dodds Wealth DISTRICT OF
COLUMBIA
Merrill Lynch
E Wealth Mgmt. $421M Wealth Mgmt. focus should be 6. Alan Whitman Mgmt. Group/LPL 1. Marvin McIntyre
W BIRMINGHAM 4. Pledger Monk LA JOLLA on economic Morgan Stanley ENGLEWOOD Morgan Stanley Private
$3.1B Wealth Mgmt. $423M
P $967M Merrill Lynch 8. Larry Smith fundamentals.” PASADENA Wealth Mgmt.
O 8. Alistair Wealth Mgmt. UBS Financial Services $1.8B CONNECTICUT $3.8B
T Harding-Smith LITTLE ROCK 7. Drew Freides 1. Jeff Erdmann 2. Keith Apton

$1.9B BREA 7. Cheryl Young
S Morgan Stanley $983M Morgan Stanley UBS Private Merrill Private UBS Financial Services
$1.5B
Wealth Mgmt.
CALIFORNIA
A ’ BIRMINGHAM (SAN FRANCISCO) 9. Kerrick Bubb Wealth Mgmt. Wealth Mgmt. Wealth Mgmt.
LOS ANGELES
GREENWICH
3. Jim Wohlgemuth
C $795M 1. Troy Griepp KWB Wealth Managers LOS GATOS $4.6B $8.6B Morgan Stanley Private
I REDLANDS $993M Wealth Mgmt.
R 9. Palmer Whiting Morgan Stanley Private $729M 8. Mark Schulten 2. Paul Tramontano
8. George
E Merrill Lynch Wealth Mgmt. 10. David Molnar Papadoyannis Wells Fargo Advisors First Republic $758M
M Wealth Mgmt. $11.2B HighTower Advisors Ameriprise LONG BEACH Investment Mgmt. 4. Brett Anthony

MOBILE
A 2. Elaine Meyers Financial Services $3.8B GREENWICH Morgan Stanley
$467M SAN DIEGO $2B
JP Morgan Securities 9. Drew Zager Wealth Mgmt.
10. S. Wesley Carpenter $2.8B $950M SAN MATEO Morgan Stanley Private 3. William Greco $2.9B
$850M
Merrill Lynch 3. Jesse Bromberg 11. Courtney Liddy Wealth Mgmt. UBS Financial Services 5. J.C. McKnight
Wealth Mgmt. Morgan Stanley UBS Financial Services 9. Dana Jackson LOS ANGELES HARTFORD Merrill Lynch
FAIRHOPE Wealth Mgmt. SAN DIEGO Morgan Stanley Private $7.9B $3.7B Wealth Mgmt.
$444M $1.3B $647M Wealth Mgmt. $1.3B
10. Eric Gray
11. Robert Comer 4. Jeffrey Colin 12. Peter Huffman MENLO PARK Merrill Private 4. Brian Hetherington 6. Michael O’Neill

Merrill Private

$42B
Merrill Lynch Baker Street Advisors Merrill Lynch Wealth Mgmt. Wealth Mgmt. Morgan Stanley Private
Wealth Mgmt. $9.1B Wealth Mgmt. 10. Michael Abrams LOS ANGELES NEW CANAAN Wealth Mgmt.
BIRMINGHAM LA JOLLA Wells Fargo Advisors $9.3B $2.7B $2B
$405M 5. Debra Wetherby $722M PALO ALTO
Wetherby Asset Mgmt. $6.5B 11. Craig Chiate 5. Ron Weiner FLORIDA
ALASKA $5B 13. Anouchka Balog UBS Private HighTower Advisors (MIAMI AREA)
1. Tommy Kibler 6. Shane Brisbin Morgan Stanley 11. Alan Zafran Wealth Mgmt. WESTPORT 1. Louis Chiavacci
Wealth Mgmt.
IEQ Capital
Merrill Lynch Morgan Stanley Private LAGUNA NIGUEL LOS ANGELES $859M Merrill Private
Wealth Mgmt. Wealth Mgmt. FOSTER CITY $3.2.B 6. Charles Noble III Wealth Mgmt.
ANCHORAGE $3.8B $670M $7.8B 12. Spuds Powell Janney CORAL GABLES
$352M CALIFORNIA Kayne Anderson Montgomery Scott $2.9B
7. Tim Emanuels
2. Tom Konop Morgan Stanley Private (NORTHERN) Rudnick NEW HAVEN 2. Adam Carlin
Morgan Stanley Wealth Mgmt. 1. Mark Curtis LOS ANGELES $1B Morgan Stanley Private
Wealth Mgmt. $6.9B Morgan Stanley $4.4B 7. Tom Vacheron Wealth Mgmt.
ANCHORAGE 8. Ash Chopra Graystone 13. Sean Yu Merrill Private CORAL GABLES
$268M PALO ALTO Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Mgmt. $2.9B
Merrill Private $105B
3. Ryan Callaway Wealth Mgmt. Wealth Mgmt. FAIRFIELD 3. Margaret Starner
Ameriprise Financial $2.8B 2. Greg Vaughan PASADENA $1.7B The Starner Group of
Services Morgan Stanley Private $900M 8. Harold Trischman Raymond James
ANCHORAGE 9. Dagny Maidman Wealth Mgmt. 14. Michael Kanigher Morgan Stanley CORAL GABLES
$475M First Republic MENLO PARK $1.1B
Investment Mgmt. UBS Private Wealth Mgmt.
4. Kenneth Jones $3.9B $9.5B Wealth Mgmt. GREENWICH 4. Peter Bermont
Merrill Lynch 10. Sandi Bragar 3. Andy Chase LOS ANGELES $1.9B The Bermont
Wealth Mgmt. Aspiriant Morgan Stanley Private $4.6B 9. Thomas Frame Advisory Group of
ANCHORAGE $12.2B Wealth Mgmt. COLORADO Morgan Stanley Private Raymond James
$676M MENLO PARK Wealth Mgmt. CORAL GABLES
11. Rick Gordon $27.7B 1. Shawn Fowler $2.1B
ARIZONA First Republic Morgan Stanley Private GREENWICH
1. Steven Schultz Investment Mgmt. 4. Robert J. Skinner II DEBRA Wealth Mgmt. $1.4B 5. Andrew Schultz
IEQ Capital
UBS Financial Services $1.5B FOSTER CITY DENVER 10. Bryan Stepanian Morgan Stanley Private
Wealth Mgmt.
PHOENIX 12. Gillian Yu $7.8B WETHERBY $3.3B Alex. Brown/ MIAMI BEACH
$1.9B Morgan Stanley Private 2. Wally Obermeyer Raymond James $738M
5. Mark Douglass
2. Glenn Pahnke Wealth Mgmt. Morgan Stanley Private San Francisco Obermeyer Wood GREENWICH 6. Ghislain Gouraige
$1.1B
RBC Wealth Mgmt. $5.8B Wealth Mgmt. Wetherby Asset Investment Counsel UBS Private
SCOTTSDALE 13. Roger A. Carter MENLO PARK Management ASPEN 11. Teresa Jacobsen Wealth Mgmt.
UBS Private
$760M Sepio Capital $5.7B “Many who have $1.6B Wealth Mgmt. CORAL GABLES


3. Jeffry Korte $3B 6. Jon Goldstein founded firms in 3. Mark Smith STAMFORD $2B
Merrill Lynch 14. Greg Onken First Republic this business are M.J. Smith & Associ- $851M 7. Jorge Gomez
Wealth Mgmt. JP Morgan Securities Investment Mgmt. now facing the ates/Raymond James UBS Financial Services
SCOTTSDALE $3.3B PALO ALTO decision of how GREENWOOD VILLAGE DELAWARE CORAL GABLES
$681M (and in what form) $786M 1. Thomas Weisenfels
15. Debbie Jorgensen $3B $1.1B

4. Robert Bancroft Merrill Lynch their firm will 4. Pamela Rosenau Merrill Lynch 8. Bruno Miranda
Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Mgmt. survive them and HighTower Advisors Wealth Mgmt. UBS Financial Services
Wealth Mgmt. $1.8B pass to the next ASPEN WILMINGTON
SCOTTSDALE generation.” $1.1B $475M CORAL GABLES
$650M
$1.3B
F O R B E S . C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 0

It started with an idea: to build an investment
business with two things in mind—consistent


growth and our clients’ challenges to achieve it.
It was called MainStay Funds. Three decades

later, the principles of consistency, longevity

and trust are more apparent than ever. Today,
You may know the MainStay Funds is working to deliver the right


name, MainStay Funds. opportunities for our clients with insight and

perspective from a network of global, independent
But you may not know boutiques. The MainStay Funds story is only



the full story. part of the full New York Life Investments

story—a story that adds up to more than $550
billion in AUM. And it’s a story that exemplifies

the strength of a true client-investor relationship.

One that was defined by our parent, New York

Life Insurance Company, 175 years ago.




To learn more go to morethaninvesting.com






MAINSTAY FUNDS






Consider the Funds’ investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses carefully before investing. The prospectus,
or summary prospectus, and the statement of additional information include this and other relevant information
about the Funds and are available by visiting nylinvestments.com or by calling 800-624-6782. Read the prospectus

carefully before investing.
Assets under management as of December 31, 2019. “New York Life Investments” is both a service mark, and the common trade name, of the investment advisers
®
affiliated with New York Life Insurance Company. The MainStay Funds are managed by New York Life Investment Management LLC and distributed through NYLIFE
Distributors LLC, wholly owned subsidiaries of New York Life Insurance Company. NYLIFE Distributors LLC is a Member FINRA/SIPC. 1842026


































More than investing. Invested.

FLORIDA 8. Michael J. Merlin 2. Brent Brodeski IOWA 4. Charles Simmons 3. Greg Miller
(NORTHERN) Morgan Stanley Private Savant Capital 1. Bryan Boesen Ameriprise Wellesley Asset Mgmt.
1. Michael Valdes Wealth Mgmt. ROCKFORD Morgan Stanley Financial Services WELLESLEY
Merrill Private ATLANTA $6.3B Wealth Mgmt. METAIRIE $2.6B
Wealth Mgmt. $1.4B 3. Scott Magnesen DES MOINES $1B 4. Debra Brede

TAMPA 9. Wes Moss Morgan Stanley $566M MAINE D.K. Brede Investment
$5.1B Capital Investment Wealth Mgmt. 2. Matt Fryar Mgmt. Company

1. Gibson Wilkes
2. Clarke Lemons Advisors OAK BROOK Wells Fargo Advisors HighTower Advisors NEEDHAM
WaterOak Advisors ATLANTA $3.6B DES MOINES PORTLAND $1B
WINTER PARK $2.5B 4. Kyle Chudom $766M $518M 5. Darlene Murphy
$2B 10 Rick Kent Morgan Stanley 3. Jerry Ask Wellesley Asset Mgmt.
2. Jeremiah Burns
3. Bob Doyle Merit Financial Advisors Wealth Mgmt. Jerry K. Ask Morgan Stanley Private WELLESLEY
Doyle Wealth Mgmt. ALPHARETTA OAK BROOK Investment Services/ Wealth Mgmt. $2.6B
ST. PETERSBURG $2.2B $905M Raymond James PORTLAND 6. Dan Wilson
56 $982M 11. Keith Mericka 5. Benjamin Klein SEAN YU CEDAR RAPIDS $494M Ameriprise
4. Christopher Aitken UBS Private Merrill Lynch $408M 3. Chris Rogers Financial Services
UBS Private Wealth Mgmt. Wealth Mgmt. Pasadena, Calif. 4. Malik Khaliq Raymond James & AUBURNDALE
Wealth Mgmt. ATLANTA NORTHBROOK Morgan Stanley Wells Fargo Advisors Associates $1.6B
PONTE VEDRA BEACH $3.3B $856M Private Wealth DAVENPORT PORTLAND 7. Richard Miller
$773M 6. Ron Stenger Management $277M
S 12. Bert Ponder $730M Ameriprise
R 5. Thomas Ruggie Merrill Private Morgan Stanley “Sometimes you 5. Joshua Denning 4. Todd Doolan Financial Services
O Ruggie Wealth Mgmt. Wealth Mgmt. Wealth Mgmt. have to keep Ameriprise Morgan Stanley WELLESLEY
S TAVARES ATLANTA OAK BROOK a line between Financial Services Wealth Mgmt. $653M
I $652M $1.8B $856M FORT MADISON PORTLAND 8. Thomas
V 13. John Montgomery 7. JR Gondeck professional and $462M Bartholomew
D 6. Manish Mehta UBS Private The Lerner Group personal, and $394M Bartholomew &

A UBS Private Wealth Mgmt. DEERFIELD sometimes you KANSAS 5. Nichole Raftopoulos Company
Wealth Mgmt. need to cross it.” 1. Rick Homuth Nvest Financial Group
H ORLANDO ATLANTA $1.1B Merrill Lynch KENNEBUNK WORCESTER
$2.5B
$810M
8. Rod Loewenthal
L T $817M 14. Donna Joyner UBS Financial Services Wealth Mgmt. $228M 9. Stephen Kelliher
A FLORIDA Merrill Lynch NORTHBROOK 9. Thomas Salvino LEAWOOD MARYLAND Morgan Stanley
E (SOUTHERN) Wealth Mgmt. $818M William Blair & Co. $906M 1. Kent Pearce Wealth Mgmt.
W 1. Thomas Moran ALPHARETTA $1.4B 2. Tom Freeman Merrill Lynch NORWELL
Moran Wealth Mgmt. $934M 9. Tom Kilborn UBS Private Wealth Mgmt. $1.3B
P NAPLES Merrill Lynch INDIANA Wealth Mgmt.
O $3.4B 15. Leslie Lauer Wealth Mgmt. 1. Brian Cooke LEAWOOD TOWSON 10. Jessica Guo
$1.6B
T UBS Private NORTHBROOK $1.6B UBS Financial Services
2. Don d’Adesky Wealth Mgmt. $1B Cooke Financial Group 2. Martin Eby WELLESLEY
S The Americas Group ATLANTA at Noyes 3. Tim L. Werth WMS Partners $425M
10. Rob Siracusano
A ’ of Raymond James $3.3B Wells Fargo Advisors INDIANAPOLIS Raymond James TOWSON
$2B
C BOCA RATON 16. Andy Zager NAPERVILLE Financial Services $2.7B MASSACHUSETTS
(BOSTON AREA)
I $3.2B UBS Financial Services $625M 2. J. Christopher Cooke HAYS 3. Joseph Jacques
R 3. William King ATLANTA Cooke Financial Group $680M 1. Raj Sharma
E Merrill Lynch $712M 11. Steven Porter at Noyes 4. Scott Ferguson Jacques Financial Merrill Private

M Wealth Mgmt. Merrill Lynch INDIANAPOLIS Morgan Stanley ROCKVILLE Wealth Mgmt.
$895M
A VERO BEACH GUAM Wealth Mgmt. $2B Wealth Mgmt. $7B
$976M 1. Daniel Roland NORTHBROOK 3. David Hefty LEAWOOD 4. Barry Garber 2. Peter Princi

Alex. Brown/
4. Jason Stephens Raymond James & $673M Credent Wealth Mgmt./ $980M Raymond James Morgan Stanley
UBS Private Associates 12. Dave Sheppard LPL 5. Philip Verhaeghe BALTIMORE Graystone
Wealth Mgmt. MAITE Merrill Lynch AUBURN Merrill Lynch $2.2B $3.8B
NAPLES $1B Wealth Mgmt. $805M Wealth Mgmt. 3. Brian Strachan

$921M 2. Jason Miyashita DEER PARK 4. Eric Payne LEAWOOD 5. Jeff Leventhal Morgan Stanley Private

5. Todd Battaglia Raymond James & $652M Merrill Lynch $672M HighTower Bethesda Wealth Mgmt.
$1.1B
BETHESDA

MG&A Wealth Associates 13. Michael Schaffer Wealth Mgmt. KENTUCKY $950M
PLANTATION MAITE Wells Fargo Advisors INDIANAPOLIS 1. Travis Musgrave 4. Sean Dillon
$1.7B

$899M $1B LAKE FOREST 6. E. Geoffrey Sella UBS Financial Services
$1.5B 5. Ron Mencias Merrill Lynch SPC Financial/ $1.6B
6. Jeremy Schneider HAWAII Wealth Mgmt. Raymond James
Merrill Lynch
JP Morgan Securities 1. Eric Fujimoto 14. John Hammond III Wealth Mgmt. LEXINGTON ROCKVILLE 5. Devin Condron
PALM BEACH GARDENS Ameriprise Financial Merrill Lynch INDIANAPOLIS $673M $825M Morgan Stanley Private
$1.2B Services Wealth Mgmt. $1.7B 2. Barry Barlow Wealth Mgmt.
HONOLULU NORTHBROOK Merrill Lynch 7. Robert Collins $1.4B
GEORGIA $629M $1B 6. Martin Gregor Collins Investment 6. William Sullivan
1. Rod Westmoreland 15. Benjamin Leshem Merrill Private Wealth Mgmt. Group UBS Private
LOUISVILLE
Merrill Private 2. Peter Backus HLM Capital Wealth Mgmt. $864M BETHESDA Wealth Mgmt.
Wealth Mgmt. Morgan Stanley HIGHLAND PARK INDIANAPOLIS $856M $1.4B
Graystone

ATLANTA HONOLULU $2.5B $1.1B 3. Mitch Settle 8. Ann Marie Etergino 7. Mary Mullin
$5.2B Hilliard Lyons RBC Wealth Mgmt.
$810M ILLINOIS (CHICAGO) OWENSBORO Merrill Lynch
2. James Hansberger 3. Peter Ehrman $638M CHEVY CHASE Wealth Mgmt.
Morgan Stanley Private 1. Raj Bhatia $910M $2.3B
Wealth Mgmt. Morgan Stanley Merrill Private 4. Phil McCauley 9. Larry Boggs 8. Raj Pathak
ATLANTA Wealth Mgmt. Wealth Mgmt. Morgan Stanley Wells Fargo Advisors Morgan Stanley
$2.1B HONOLULU $1.6B Wealth Mgmt. Wealth Mgmt.
$1B LOUISVILLE CUMBERLAND
3. Brian Frank 2. Daniel Fries $1.1B $708M
Morgan Stanley Private 4. Jimmy Bennett Merrill Lynch $989M 10. Gregory Baker 9. Victor Livingstone
Wealth Mgmt. Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Mgmt. 5. Drew Watson Merrill Lynch Morgan Stanley Private
ATLANTA Wealth Mgmt. $982M Ameriprise Wealth Mgmt. Wealth Mgmt.
$2.3B HONOLULU 3. Sharon Oberlander Financial Services $1.3B
$1B OWENSBORO BETHESDA
4. Andy Berg Merrill Lynch $575M $1B 10. Richard F.
Homrich Berg IDAHO Wealth Mgmt. 11. Brad Hill Connolly Jr.
$1B
ATLANTA 1. Brian King LOUISIANA Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley Private
$6.1B RBC Wealth Mgmt. 4. Mark Thorndyke 1. Curtis Eustis Wealth Mgmt. Wealth Mgmt.
Merrill Lynch
5. Hank McLarty EAGLE Wealth Mgmt. Merrill Lynch EASTON $1.6B
Gratus Capital $614M $1.1B Wealth Mgmt. $1.4B 11. Marcie Behman
ATLANTA 2. Sandra Dalton NEW ORLEANS 12. Jonathan Murray Merrill Private
$1.9B UBS Financial Services 5. Jim Moriarity LOUISE LANE $955M UBS Financial Services Wealth Mgmt.
6. Ron Hughes BOISE Morgan Stanley Private Chicago 2. Rick Frayard HUNT VALLEY $1.5B
Wealth Mgmt.
Merrill Private $593M $1.8B William Blair UBS Financial Services $1.3B 12. Maxwell D. Peckler
Wealth Mgmt. 3. Justin T. Samples LAFAYETTE UBS Financial Services
ATLANTA Ameriprise 6. John Cultra When Lane was $1.9B MASSACHUSETTS $683M
$1B Financial Services William Blair & Co. hired in 1976, she 3. James Spiro 1. Susan Kaplan 13. David Barcomb
7. Buck Wiley III BOISE $3.4B became William Morgan Stanley Kaplan Financial Merrill Lynch
Services

Merrill Private $618M 7. Ted Davis Blair’s first female Wealth Mgmt. NEWTON Wealth Mgmt.
Wealth Mgmt. ILLINOIS Morgan Stanley broker. “It is a NEW ORLEANS $2B $870M
ATLANTA Wealth Mgmt. male-dominated $2B 14. Gary McGuirk
$720M

$2.2B 1. Steve Hefter business, and 2. Chuck Bean Merrill Private
HLM Capital 8. Louise Lane everybody is try- Heritage Financial Wealth Mgmt.
HIGHLAND PARK William Blair & Co. Services $2.1B
$2.5B $1B ing on diversity.” WESTWOOD
$1.5B
F O R B E S . C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 0

MICHIGAN 8. Judy Fredrickson 3. Andrew Laszlo Jr. 10. David Weinerman 2. Brian Cochran 6. Louise Gunderson
1. Charles Zhang UBS Private Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley John Moore Associ- UBS Financial Services
Zhang Financial Wealth Mgmt. Wealth Mgmt. Wealth Mgmt. ates/Raymond James $912M
PORTAGE MINNEAPOLIS BILLINGS FLORHAM PARK ALBUQUERQUE 7. Rich Abrams
$4.1B
$566M
$1.6B
$1.3B
$3.1B UBS Financial Services
2. David Kudla MISSISSIPPI NEBRASKA 11. Andy Schwartz 3. Chuck Reardon $1B
Mainstay 1. Rush Mosby 1. Jonathan Beukelman Bleakley Morgan Stanley 8. Brian Bennett
Capital Mgmt. UBS Financial Services UBS Private Financial Group Wealth Mgmt. UBS Financial Services
GRAND BLANC JACKSON Wealth Mgmt. FAIRFIELD ALBUQUERQUE $778M
$2.5B $1B LINCOLN $1.1B $810M 9. Jacqueline Willens

3. Jeffrey Fratarcangeli 2. Arthur Finkelberg $1.6B 12. Jack Riley 4. Nathan Armstrong UBS Financial Services
Fratarcangeli Raymond James & 2. Jason Dworak UBS Financial Services Merrill Private $930M
Wealth Mgmt. Associates UBS Private WARREN Wealth Mgmt.
BIRMINGHAM RIDGELAND Wealth Mgmt. $2.5B ALBUQUERQUE 10. Nick Kavallieratos

$1.3B $498M LINCOLN 13. Scott Mahoney $450M Morgan Stanley 57
Wealth Mgmt.
4. Leo Stevenson 3. Dudley Barnes $818M MICHAEL J. Morgan Stanley Private NEW YORK $3B
Merrill Lynch Barnes Pettey/ 3. Todd Feltz Wealth Mgmt. (EXCLUDING NYC) 11. Adam Zipper

Wealth Mgmt. Raymond James Feltz WealthPLAN VALDES MORRISTOWN 1. Rob Clarfeld JP Morgan Securities
WYANDOTTE CLARKSDALE OMAHA $828M Clarfeld Financial
$701M $556M $2.3B Tampa, Florida 14. Patricia Bell Advisors $1.1B A
5. Philip Appel 4. Lynn Phillips-Gaines 4. Thomas Foley Merrill Merrill Lynch TARRYTOWN 12. Jay Canell M
Merrill Lynch Phillips Financial/ HighTower Advisors Private Wealth Wealth Mgmt. $6.3B JP Morgan Securities E
Wealth Mgmt. Raymond James OMAHA Management SHORT HILLS 2. Kevin Peters $2.1B R
BLOOMFIELD HILLS STARKVILLE $560M “We prefer stocks $710M Morgan Stanley 13. Neil Canell I
$2.5B $182M over bonds. With 15. Ken Schapiro Wealth Mgmt. JP Morgan Securities C
6. Dana Locniskar NEVADA inflation creeping Condor Capital PURCHASE $2.1B A ’

Merrill Private MISSOURI 1. Mark Binder up a bit, fixed Wealth Mgmt. $1.5B 14. Peter Svarre S

Wealth Mgmt. 1. Bud King UBS Private income has cre- MARTINSVILLE 3. Lori Van Dusen Merrill Lynch
TROY UBS Financial Services Wealth Mgmt. ated a negative $1.1B LVW Advisors Wealth Mgmt. T
$2.8B ST. LOUIS LAS VEGAS NEW JERSEY PITTSFORD $1.7B O
$1.3B $3.2B rate of return P
7. Timothy Long over time.” (SOUTHERN) $1.7B 15. Jason Babb
Merrill Lynch 2. Mike Moeller 2. Randy Garcia 1. Ira Walker 4. Thomas Sullivan First Republic W
Wealth Mgmt. Wells Fargo Advisors The Investment UBS Private Merrill Lynch Investment Mgmt. E
GRAND RAPIDS CHESTERFIELD Counsel Company Wealth Mgmt. Wealth Mgmt. $1B A
$6.1B $1.7B LAS VEGAS RED BANK GARDEN CITY 16. Andrew Vahab
$1.2B 4. Dan Schwartz L T
8. Todd Sanford 3. Seth Murray UBS Private $1.2B $2.4B Citi Personal
Sanford Ameriprise 3. Deborah Danielson Wealth Mgmt. 2. Jim McLaughlin 5. Daniel O’Connell $2.6B H

Financial Services/ Financial Services Danielson PARAMUS Princeton Wealth Advi- Merrill Lynch 17. Ira Mark A
Raymond James SPRINGFIELD Financial Group $1.6B sors of Raymond James Wealth Mgmt. RBC Wealth Mgmt. D
PORTAGE $2B LAS VEGAS PRINCETON GARDEN CITY $1.3B V
$850M $492M 5. Christopher Cook $1.9B $1.3B I
4. Diane Compardo Merrill Lynch 18. Allen Saunders
9. Melissa Spickler Moneta 4. Michael Chudd Wealth Mgmt. 3. Mark Fendrick 6. Todd Silaika UBS Financial Services S
Merrill Lynch ST. LOUIS UBS Financial Services FLORHAM PARK UBS Financial Services Merrill Lynch $784M O
Wealth Mgmt. $1.4B LAS VEGAS $2B MOUNT LAUREL Wealth Mgmt. R
BLOOMFIELD HILLS $917M $997M CLIFTON PARK 19. Harry Elish S
$1.2B 5. Mark Wilkins 6. Mary Deatherage $1.3B UBS Financial Services
UBS Private 5. Jim Small Morgan Stanley Private 4. Steve Rothman $1.4B
10. Abe Post Wealth Mgmt. UBS Financial Services Wealth Mgmt. UBS Financial Services 7. W. Corby May
Merrill Lynch CLAYTON LAS VEGAS LITTLE FALLS Merrill Lynch NEW YORK
Wealth Mgmt. $673M $1B $2.6B RED BANK Wealth Mgmt. (NYC
TROY $477M GARDEN CITY PRIVATE WEALTH)

$913M 6. Gordon Hamilton III 6. Geoff Lee 7. Steve Braverman 5. John Hudspeth $1.2B 1. Brian C. Pfeifler

Morgan Stanley Ameriprise Pathstone Merrill Lynch
11. Frank Migliazzo Wealth Mgmt. Financial Services 8. Frank Marzano Morgan Stanley Private
MERRILL PRIVATE KANSAS CITY HENDERSON ENGLEWOOD Wealth Mgmt. Wealth Mgmt.
WEALTH MGMT. TROY $1.2B $400M $12.8B MOUNT LAUREL GM Advisory Group $5.2B
$1.2B 8. Mark Cortazzo $961M MELVILLE 2. Christopher Errico
7. Dennis Williams 7. David Miller MACRO 6. Christine McGinley $740M
MINNESOTA Morgan Stanley Private UBS Financial Services Consulting Group UBS Financial Services 9. Jon Myers UBS Private
1. Christina Boyd Wealth Mgmt. RENO PARSIPPANY MOUNT LAUREL Ameriprise Wealth Mgmt.
$2.2B
Merrill Lynch KANSAS CITY $376M $417M $839M Financial Services
Wealth Mgmt. $1.2B 9. Michael Ricca VESTAL 3. Lyon Polk
WAYZATA 8. Barbara Archer NEW HAMPSHIRE Morgan Stanley 7. Anthony Valente $710M Morgan Stanley Private
$1B HighTower St. Louis 1. John Habig Wealth Mgmt. Morgan Stanley 10. Bruce Burrows Wealth Mgmt.
Wealth Mgmt.
2. Rob Metcalf Wealth Advisors Morgan Stanley FLORHAM PARK SHREWSBURY Morgan Stanley $8.4B
Wealth Mgmt.
UBS Private ST. LOUIS PORTSMOUTH $4.1B $1.8B Wealth Mgmt. 4. Richard Saperstein
Wealth Mgmt. $774M $371M GARDEN CITY Hightower/

MINNEAPOLIS 9. Robert Millner 8. Francis Bitterly $4.6B Treasury Partners

$1.6B Morgan Stanley 2. Bob Bonfiglio Morgan Stanley 11. Chris Sebastian $14.8B
Wealth Mgmt.
Ameriprise

3. Richard S. Brown Wealth Mgmt. Financial Services RED BANK Merrill Lynch 5. Martin Halbfinger
JNBA Financial ST. LOUIS BEDFORD $473M Wealth Mgmt. UBS Financial Services
Advisors $1.3B $382M BUFFALO $3.3B
MINNEAPOLIS 10. Kathleen 9. Rick Udine $1B 6. Michael Poppo
$1B Youngerman 3. Brian Doyle Morgan Stanley 12. Bill Schoff UBS Financial Services
Wealth Mgmt.
4. Brad Wheelock Morgan Stanley Private Wells Fargo Advisors MOUNT LAUREL UBS Financial Services $1.3B
RBC Wealth Mgmt. Wealth Mgmt. LEBANON $895M ROCHESTER 7. Ed Moldaver
CHESTERFIELD $700M
SAINT CLOUD 10. Michael Pron $1.7B Stifel
$1.2B $327M 4. Sean Doyle Merrill Lynch $3.6B
NEW YORK
Merrill Lynch
5. Ben Marks 11. Jim Hise Wealth Mgmt. Wealth Mgmt. (HIGH NET WORTH) 8. Ron Basu
Marks Group Merrill Private MANCHESTER PRINCETON 1. Jason Katz Morgan Stanley Private
Wealth Mgmt. Wealth Mgmt. $706M Wealth Mgmt.
MINNETONKA KANSAS CITY $412M 11. Neil McPeak UBS Financial Services $5B
$1.1B $1B NEW JERSEY RANDY CONNER Wells Fargo Advisors $2.6B 9. Colleen O’Callaghan

6. Bryan Sweet 12. Matt Burke (NORTHERN) Los Angeles LINWOOD 2. Gregg S. Fisher JP Morgan Securities
Sweet Ameriprise 1. Frank Seminara $1.2B Gerstein Fisher $1.8B
Financial Services/ Financial Services Morgan Stanley Private Churchill $2.3B 10. Jordan Waxman
Raymond James CHESTERFIELD Wealth Mgmt. Management Group 12. L. Marc Shegoski 3. John Olson
FAIRMONT $390M FLORHAM PARK “Take a look back UBS Financial Services Merrill Lynch Nucleus Advisors
$496M $1.2B PRINCETON Wealth Mgmt. $2.1B
MONTANA at the last two $3B

7. Louis Close 1. James Stack 2. Joseph Matina years and ask $1.8B 11. Jeffrey Kobernick
UBS Private Stack Financial Mgmt. UBS Private yourself how you NEW MEXICO 4. Gerard Klingman UBS Private
Wealth Mgmt. Wealth Mgmt. felt about your 1. Michael Stevens Klingman & Associ- Wealth Mgmt.
MINNEAPOLIS WHITEFISH SHORT HILLS investments. 2018 Merrill Lynch ates/Raymond James $3.4B
$1.3B
$1.6B $1.2B Wealth Mgmt. $1.9B 12. Rob Sechan
2. William Royer 3. Elliott Kugel was awful, and ALBUQUERQUE 5. Scott Siegel UBS Private


UBS Financial Services Merrill Lynch in 2019 we had a $837M Morgan Stanley Wealth Mgmt.
BILLINGS Wealth Mgmt. rally. We think a Wealth Mgmt. $3.4B
$972M tactical approach
BRIDGEWATER $3B
$1.6B works best.”
M A R C H 2 0 2 0 F O R B E S . C O M

13. Ron Vinder 4. Randy Carver 4. Grant Rawdin 3. Tommy McBride VERMONT 4. Erin Scannell

Morgan Stanley Private Carver Wescott Financial Merrill Lynch 1. Tim Stotz Ameriprise
Wealth Mgmt. Financial Services/ Advisory Group Wealth Mgmt. Morgan Stanley Financial Services
$2.3B Raymond James PHILADELPHIA DALLAS Wealth Mgmt. MERCER ISLAND
14. Scott Stackman MENTOR $2.3B $1.7B COLCHESTER $1.3B

UBS Private $1.5B 5. Samuel Spanos 4. Dwight $708M 5. Paul Ried
Wealth Mgmt. 5. Rick Buoncore Spanos Group of Emanuelson Jr. 2. Brian Pelkey Paul R. Ried
$3B MAI Capital Mgmt. Raymond James Merrill Private Morgan Stanley Financial Group
15. John Barrett CLEVELAND BEAVER Wealth Mgmt. Wealth Mgmt. BELLEVUE
Merrill Lynch $5.2B $625M DALLAS COLCHESTER $761M
Wealth Mgmt. 6. Rip Hale 6. David Lees $2.9B $884M 6. Dean Braun
$1.9B Morgan Stanley myCIO Wealth Partners 5. Rob Bertino 3. Joshua Parker Morgan Stanley Private
16. Shawn Rubin Wealth Mgmt. PHILADELPHIA UBS Private Merrill Lynch Wealth Mgmt.
Morgan Stanley Private BEAVERCREEK $8.1B Wealth Mgmt. Wealth Mgmt. SEATTLE
58 Wealth Mgmt. $1.2B 7. Peter Sargent DALLAS BURLINGTON $2B
$1.3B 7. Dean Trindle Janney Montgomery $978M $265M 7. Lowry West
17. Richard Pluta Morgan Stanley Scott CHRISTOPHER 6. Van Pearcy Morgan Stanley Private
VIRGINIA
Merrill Lynch Wealth Mgmt. YARDLEY AITKEN Van Pearcy’s Wealth (NORTHERN) Wealth Mgmt.
Wealth Mgmt. CINCINNATI $734M Services Team/ SEATTLE
$982M $636M Ponte Vedra Beach, Raymond James 1. Paul Pagnato $1.1B
S 8. Jim Rimmel MIDLAND Pagnato Karp
R 18. Evan Steinberg 8. Dan Roe UBS Financial Services Florida $1.2B RESTON 8. Michael Hershey
O Morgan Stanley Private Budros, Ruhlin & Roe PITTSBURGH UBS Private Wealth 7. Kevin Blonkvist Sr. $2.1B JP Morgan Securities
S Wealth Mgmt. COLUMBUS $1.4B Management BELLEVUE

I $2.3B $28B 9. Virgil Kahl RBC Wealth Mgmt. 2. Jeff Grinspoon $950M
V 19. Peter Rukeyser 9. Paul Carbetta “A tweet from MIDLAND HighTower Advisors

Spring Ridge
D UBS Private Ameriprise Financial Group President Trump $1.8B VIENNA WEST VIRGINIA
A Wealth Mgmt. Financial Services WYOMISSING or geological 8. Stephen Engro $1.3B 1. Chris Hall
$2B events can derail Beacon 3. Gregory Smith Hall Financial Advisors
H WORTHINGTON $767M you. Our clients Financial Group Baird PARKERSBURG
$848M
L T 20. Alex Williams PUERTO RICO have won the DALLAS RESTON $650M
UBS Private
A Wealth Mgmt. OKLAHOMA 1. Franco Estrada- race—I don’t want $787M $2.1B 2. Fred Scheeren

E $2B 1. Jeff Blumenthal Velasco to put them back TEXAS (SOUTHERN) 4. Simon Hamilton Wells Fargo Advisors
W 21. Robert Waldele Wells Fargo Advisors UBS Private in it and crash out, 1. Nestor Vicknair Baird WHEELING
Merrill Lynch OKLAHOMA CITY Wealth Mgmt. so we aren’t going Merrill Lynch RESTON $263M
P $1B SAN JUAN to take excep- $2.1B

3. Jeffrey H.
O Wealth Mgmt. 2. Matt Monger $431M Wealth Mgmt. Biederman Jr.

$3.1B
T tional risk.” HOUSTON 5. Ryan Sprowls
Merrill Lynch RHODE ISLAND $5.6B Wells Fargo Advisors Morgan Stanley
S NORTH CAROLINA Wealth Mgmt. 1. Malcolm Makin 2. Scott Tiras ALEXANDRIA Wealth Mgmt.

TULSA
A ’ 1. R. Mitchell Wickham $733M Professional Planning SOUTH DAKOTA Ameriprise $1.3B HUNTINGTON
$349M
Merrill Private
C Wealth Mgmt. Group/Raymond James 1. Gordon Wollman Financial Services 6. Tristan Caudron
I CHARLOTTE 3. Don Jackson WESTERLY HOUSTON Caudron Megary WISCONSIN
R UBS Financial Services $1B Cornerstone $1.9B Blackburn
E $10B TULSA 2. Edye De Marco Financial Solutions/ Wealth Mgmt. 1. Andy Burish
M 2. Gregory Cash $412M Merrill Lynch Raymond James 3. Bonner Barnes ALEXANDRIA UBS Financial Services
MADISON
A Merrill Private 4. Steve Jelley Wealth Mgmt. SIOUX FALLS Corda Investment $1.6B $4B
Mgmt.
Wealth Mgmt. PROVIDENCE $426M
Merrill Lynch
CHARLOTTE Wealth Mgmt. $1B 2. Todd Nelson HOUSTON VIRGINIA 2. Michael Klein
$10B Merrill Lynch $1.1B (SOUTHERN) Baird
TULSA 3. Denise Roberts
3. Larry Carroll $946M Morgan Stanley Wealth Mgmt. 4. Darrell Pennington 1. Joe Montgomery MILWAUKEE
Carroll Financial 5. John Cary Wealth Mgmt. SIOUX FALLS Ameriprise Wells Fargo Advisors $4.5B
Associates NEWPORT $2.4B Financial Services WILLIAMSBURG 3. John Petrie
CHARLOTTE Morgan Stanley $440M 3. David Olson HOUSTON $1.3B Aspiriant
Wealth Mgmt.
$982M Merrill Lynch $899M MILWAUKEE
TULSA 2. John Gill
4. John McCardell $517M SOUTH CAROLINA Wealth Mgmt. 5. Brian Tramontano BB&T Scott & $12.2B

Merrill Lynch 6. Matt Cain 1. Richard Migliore SIOUX FALLS Merrill Lynch Stringfellow 4 Barry Martzahl

Wealth Mgmt. Merrill Lynch Merrill Lynch $680M Wealth Mgmt. VIRGINIA BEACH Morgan Stanley
CHARLOTTE Wealth Mgmt. Wealth Mgmt. 4. Mary Sterk SAN ANTONIO $809M Graystone
$4.2B COLUMBIA Sterk Financial Services $648M GREEN BAY
TULSA 3. Allan Strange
5. Patrick Rush $1.9B $4.2B DAKOTA DUNES 6. Fred De Groot Janney Montgomery $1B
Triad Financial Advisors 2. E. Robertson Kibler $333M Merrill Lynch Scott 5. Bryan Sadoff
(TFA) OREGON Merrill Private Wealth Mgmt. RICHMOND Sadoff Investment

GREENSBORO 1. Judith McGee Wealth Mgmt. TENNESSEE THE WOODLANDS $664M Mgmt.
$664M McGee Wealth Mgmt./ COLUMBIA 1. Timothy Pagliara $1.9B 4. Jamie Cox MILWAUKEE
Raymond James $6.2B CapWealth 7. Langston Turner $1.4B
NORTH DAKOTA PORTLAND 3. Robert Vingi Jr. FRANKLIN UBS Private Harris Financial Group/
LPL
1. Joel Bird $632M Wells Fargo Advisors $1B Wealth Mgmt. RICHMOND 6. Michael Sadoff

Ameriprise 2. Kent Kirby HOUSTON $660M Sadoff Investment
Financial Services 2. Lucas Newman CHARLESTON UBS Private $1.8B Mgmt.
First Republic
BISMARCK Investment Mgmt. $1.8B Wealth Mgmt. 5. Aashish Matani MILWAUKEE
$2.2B 4. Ronnie Dennis UTAH Merrill Lynch $1.4B
PORTLAND NASHVILLE Wealth Mgmt.
Merrill Lynch
2. Jason Kirchmeier $694M Wealth Mgmt. $2.6B 1. Dane Runia NORFOLK WYOMING
Ameriprise 3. Keith Sheppard 3. Tim Roberson Merrill Private $1.2B 1. Lester Brunker
Financial Services UBS Financial Services COLUMBIA Merrill Lynch Wealth Mgmt. UBS Private
$4.2B

BISMARCK PORTLAND Wealth Mgmt. PROVO 6. Brett Hayes Wealth Mgmt.

$2.2B 5. Clark Gallivan $2.7B Hayes Nystrom Sarrett TETON VILLAGE
$632M UBS Financial Services BRENTWOOD Wealth Mgmt. Group
3. Dave Schlafman $2.1B 2. Nick Bapis RICHMOND $345M
AMERIPRISE 4. Rebecca DeCesaro GREENVILLE 4. Jeffrey Bates Rockefeller $530M 2. Jeff Vincent


FINANCIAL SERVIC- First Republic $642M Kings Point Capital Mgmt. Vincent Financial
ES BISMARCK Investment Mgmt. 6. Kenneth Parham Capital Mgmt. SALT LAKE CITY 7. Tim Mullins Services
$2.2B PORTLAND UBS Financial Services $1.3B Wells Fargo Advisors
$1B BRENTWOOD RICHMOND RIVERTON
OHIO GREENVILLE $977M 3. Glen Mintz $903M $270M

1. David Singer PENNSYLVANIA $1B 5. Matt Miller UBS Financial Services
PARK CITY

Merrill Private 1. Peter Rohr 7. Jeff Jones Merrill Private $1B WASHINGTON For the full ranking,
Wealth Mgmt. Merrill Private Wells Fargo Advisors Wealth Mgmt. 1. Michael Matthews

CINCINNATI Wealth Mgmt. HILTON HEAD ISLAND BRENTWOOD 4. John Van Wagoner UBS Private please visit
$3.1B PHILADELPHIA $402M $924M Merrill Lynch Wealth Mgmt. forbes.com/
$4.5B Wealth Mgmt.
2. David Ellis III 8. Bert Arrowood TEXAS (NORTHERN) SALT LAKE CITY BELLEVUE best-in-state-
UBS Private 2. Johanna Walters UBS Financial Services 1. Charles McKinney $655M $1.2B
Wealth Mgmt. Merrill Lynch GREENVILLE Morgan Stanley 2. Bruce Munster wealth-advisors

CINCINNATI Wealth Mgmt. $1B Private Wealth Mgmt. 5. Jeffry Roundy Merrill Private
$1.6B BLUE BELL 9. Gary Bezilla Merrill Lynch Wealth Mgmt.
$5.1B DALLAS Wealth Mgmt.
3. Kevin Myeroff Wells Fargo Advisors $1.3B SALT LAKE CITY BELLEVUE

NCA Financial Planners 3. Patti Brennan HILTON HEAD ISLAND 2. William Corbellini $1.2B $2B
CLEVELAND Key Financial $645M Merrill Private 3. Steve Hollomon
$1.3B WEST CHESTER Wealth Mgmt. Merrill Lynch
$1B Wealth Mgmt.
DALLAS
$2.9B SEATTLE
$2B
F O R B E S . C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 0

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THE LIST THE FINTECH 50


















60



E
D
I
U IN
G

T
N
E
M
T
S
CRYPTO
E
V
N
I









HE














TRUSTS


















FOR NOW, COINBASE LOOKS LIKE A CASINO, BUT
ITS BILLIONAIRE FOUNDER, BRIAN ARMSTRONG,

SEES IT AS JUST THE BEGINNING OF
THE FINANCIAL LIBERATION OF THE PLANET.









GUTTER CREDIT




BY WILLIAM BALDWIN AND MICHAEL DEL CASTILLO
PHOTOGRAPH BY JAMEL TOPPIN FOR FORBES

F O R B E S . C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 0

61 61






























































































M A R C H 2 0 2 0 F O R B E S . C O M

→ Near the foot of San Francisco’s California



Street stand the august stone pillars of a



bank dating to the 19th century.
62


A few paces away sit the offices of Coinbase, the
T
S largest American exchange for cryptocurren-
I
L
cies like bitcoin. It’s a beehive of software engi-
E
H neers and young marketing executives. There,
T
the worlds of by-the-books banking and crypto-

anarchism collide.
E
D In style and philosophy, Brian Armstrong,
I
U the 37-year-old billionaire cofounder and CEO
G
of Coinbase, is in the camp of the financial an-
T
N archists. He sits, jammed alongside lieutenants,
E
M in a row of tiny desks resembling library carrels.
T He wears a black T-shirt, black pants and shiny
S
E white sneakers. He talks about a brave new world
V
N in which we are liberated from the shackles of
I
giant banks and government-controlled mon-
ey supplies. During an expansive interview, this
usually reserved and press-shy entrepreneur de-
clares why he got into this business: “I wanted
the world to have a global, open financial system
that drove innovation and freedom.”
In following a business model, though, Arm-
strong fits in with the pinstriped financiers work-
ing down the block. Eight years after its start, his
firm has opened 35 million accounts, presides
over $21 billion of assets and is on target, we es-
timate, to top $800 million in revenue this year.
That success comes from acting like a bank.
Coinbase draws in customer funds via bank


Change Agents wires. It stores its assets—numerical keys
Chief operating that unlock coins—in vaults. It boasts of
officer Emilie Choi
(left) and chief insurance coverage from Lloyd’s of Lon-
financial officer don. It has a security staff of 41, including
Alesia Haas
at Coinbase in an Iraq War veteran assessing perimeter
San Francisco’s risks and a Ph.D. cryptographer doing the
Financial District
same for mathematical assaults.
The selling proposition here is securi-
ty—security conspicuously lacking at some of the exchang-
es with which Coinbase has competed. The Mt. Gox ex-
change in Japan went bust in 2014 after hackers spirited
away coins worth $480 million. Customers of QuadrigaCX,
which was one of Canada’s largest exchanges, have been
unable to retrieve $150 million in crypto since the founder PHOTOGRAPHS BY ETHAN PINES FOR FORBES
supposedly died suddenly in December 2018, holding the
only set of keys to unlock their money. They now want the
body exhumed.
In order to capture a gilt edge, though, Armstrong has
had to veer away from the antiestablishment ethos that got


F O R B E S . C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 0

bitcoin going. He plays ball with government in- THE FORBES
spectors, for example.
The Coinbase compliance staff, already num-
bering 55, is expected to grow to 70 by quar- FINTECH 50
ter’s end. They comb through transactions look-
ing for money laundering. They will conform
to a controversial new rule that mandates a pa-
per trail when customers move coins from one INVESTORS PUT MORE THAN $53 BILLION INTO FINTECH
exchange to another. Coinbase dutifully sends STARTUPS WORLDWIDE IN 2019, ACCORDING TO ACCENTURE. 63
1099-K reports to the IRS on traders who in one WITH ENTREPRENEURS STAGING A FRONTAL ASSAULT ON
year do 200 or more trades involving a combined CENTURIES-OLD FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS, MORE OF THE POT
HAS BEEN GOING TO DIGITAL-FIRST BANKS AND INSURTECHS. I
$20,000 or more in proceeds. N
VALUATIONS ARE GROWING: 13 OF THIS YEAR’S PICKS ARE V
Given all this snitching, how does Coinbase E
WORTH MORE THAN $2 BILLION, COMPARED WITH EIGHT S
appeal to diehard crypto fans? One way is by LAST YEAR. SO, TOO, IS INNOVATION. NINETEEN COMPANIES T
having a menu that includes 26 newer curren- ON THE 2020 FINTECH 50—OUR FIFTH ANNUAL LIST—ARE M
E
cies, some of which are explicitly designed to of- FIRST-TIMERS. ALL COMPANIES ARE PRIVATE AND HAVE N
fer more privacy than bitcoin does. The other is a OPERATIONS OR CUSTOMERS IN THE U.S. T

SEE MORE DETAILS AT FORBES.COM/FINTECH50. G
service, introduced in August 2018, that enables U
a customer to move bitcoin into a personal wal- I
D
EDITED BY JANET NOVACK AND JEFF KAUFLIN E
let exempt from know-your-customer and anti- REPORTED BY MICHAEL DEL CASTILLO, ASHLEA EBELING,

money-laundering regulations. ANTOINE GARA, SARAH HANSEN, SAMANTHA SHARF,
KELLY ANNE SMITH AND HANK TUCKER H
T
“If you are an individual and you want to store E
your own cryptocurrency, you’re not a financial
L
I
service business,” says Armstrong, mindful of S
T
any U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network
cops who might be listening. “And there are com- A C O R N S A F F I R M
panies, including us, who provide tools for peo- IRVINE, CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO
ple to store their own cryptocurrency and use it.”
PERSONAL FINANCE PERSONAL FINANCE
For $1 a month, micro-investing Offers consumers instant
app rounds up debit- and credit- short-term, point-of-sale loans
B    parents, Armstrong displayed an card purchases, moving extra at APRs between 10% and 30%
orn near San Jose to engineer
pennies into portfolios of ETFs.
when they check out online at
entrepreneurial streak as early
For $3 a month, it adds IRAs,
4,000 participating merchants,
as grade school. He recalls being checking and debit card. including Walmart, Wayfair
hauled into the principal’s office FUNDING: $257 million; latest and Expedia. (Select retailers,
on charges of operating a candy-reselling venture valuation of $860 million such as Peloton, subsidize 0%
on the playground. The business flings continued BONA FIDES: 6.2 million users, up loans.) New app allows users
with a scheme to resell used computers and, after from 4.5 million a year before to prequalify for financing and
he earned a master’s degree in 2006 from Rice CEO: Noah Kerner, 42 shop anywhere.
University, a startup that matched tutors to stu- FUNDING: $800 million;
latest valuation of $2.9 billion
dents. He worked on the education venture while
living in Buenos Aires. “I had just decided, I’ve A D D E PA R BONA FIDES: Generated
$4 billion in loans in 2019
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA
COFOUNDER & CEO: Max Levchin,
WALL STREET & ENTERPRISE 44, a cofounder of PayPal and
former chairman of Yelp
Cloud-based software used by
Morgan Stanley, Fidelity and
hundreds of other firms allows
Money Moves 2020
financial advisors, family offic-
PORTRAITS BY PATRICK WELSH FOR FORBES Credit Karma are among those paying 1.7% or more FUNDING: $240 million; latest
es and private banks to track
TURBOCHARGE YOUR CASH
and analyze clients’ holdings.
Thanks to a rush of fintechs and nonbank alternatives,
you no longer need to settle for pitiful bank
valuation of $500 million
deposit returns. Goldman Sachs’ digital bank,
Marcus, and Fintech 50 members Betterment and
BONA FIDES: $1.7 trillion in
assets tracked on platform
on FDIC-insured money-market accounts. Even bet-
ter, the fintechs will spread your money among mul-
COFOUNDER & EXECUTIVE
tiple banks, boosting your effective FDIC insurance
CHAIRMAN: Joe Lonsdale,
coverage from $250,000 to $1 million or more. Or, for
0.08% a year, MaxMyInterest.com links to your bank
Palantir Technologies
CEO: Eric Poirier, 37
account, sweeping excess cash to the highest-paying
insured accounts online. —Sarah Hansen 37, also a cofounder of MAX LEVCHIN
M A R C H 2 0 2 0 F O R B E S . C O M

BEATING







CANCER IS The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society


challenged these executives to raise

$10,000 or more. Together they
IN OUR BLOOD. raised over $12 million to bring
®


light to the darkness of cancer.





Michael Agostino, Hy-Vee, Inc. David Crow, SailPoint Holly Heer, Barnes & Thornburg LLP
Tom Alban, Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives Eardie Curry, St. David’s South Austin Medical Center Jeff Hennessy

Leslie Amendola, Johnson and Johnson Thuy Dancik, Team Dancik Rich Heppe
Tamara Amini, Bank of America Melissa Davis, BSA LifeStructures Ed Hetherington, Doosan Financial Solutions
Sabrina Anderson, Team Sabrina Steve Dearborn, Miller Paint Company Guy Hill, Allstate
Brett Anderson, Colorado State University Ryan DeBolt, Combover LLC Donnie Hill, Precision Manufacturing Co Inc.
Todd Anderson, Kettering Health Network Steve DeCook, E-Konomy Pool Service and Supplies Rick Hoagland, GEICO
Adam Andolina, KeyBank Ellen Defuso, Blue Green Vacations Louis Hoch, USIO
Ray Armini, Peninsula Country Club Steve DeMattos, Xencor Paul Hoelscher, Horizon Therapeutics
Steve Armstrong, MSC Industrial Supply Co. Matt Denning, C.H. Robinson Tom Holland, Citrix Systems
Norman Armstrong, King & Spalding Joseph DeSabia, Barclays Bill Hollett, Cousins Properties

Bhavesh Ashar, Bayer Jacqueline DeSteffano, Team Jackiepie Carol Horn, Horn Team
Jamie Atkinson, Swan Global Investments Jaclyn Diamond, Macy’s, Inc. Wesley Hudson, Otemanu Group
Mohammad Azab, Astex Pharmaceuticals Robert A. Dickinson, Dickinson Fleet Services Philip Hughes, Jr., Keystone Industries
Anna Backman, HCA MidAmerica Division Donald Dixon, Retired, Deloitte Mike Hunsaker, BMC Triangle
Tony Bajak, Good Samaritan Medical Center Tam Driscoll, Team Nancy & Cath Michael Huntress, Acquest Development

Mario Barnaba, Barnaba & Marconi LLP Jeffrey Dunn, Florida Power & Light Company Benjamin Hurd, IA Management, LLC
Tedd Barr, Converze Media Mike Dykema, Western Michigan Fleet Parts Inc. Kelsey Hyland, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
Michael Barrett, Unosquare Cheryl Ecton, Elite Building Services, Inc. Brian Jaramillo, Tilden-Coil Constructors
Michael Bartschat, Johnson Controls Scott Eichel, Barclays Jenn Johnston, Global Franchise Group
Missy Bass, C & F Mortgage  Martin Einhorn, W.E.C. Elizabeth Jordan
Richard Battle, Elliott Davis Bill Eisig, BDO USA, LLP Maxwell Kagan, Wellstar
Mitch Beckman, Webber Lyle Ekdahl, Oracle Dan Kaplan, Sierra Land Group



Kathy Belfiore, Sanofi Genzyme Jason Ellington, Brasfield & Gorrie Aaron Kaplowitz, Johnson and Johnson
Lynda Bennett, Lowenstein Sandler Jesse Essex, Hendrick Motorsports Amy Kappen, Medpace
Mitch Berger, Montgomery County Public Schools Jamie Fagan, Biotronik Jennifer Keating, Palo Alto Networks
Laura Berra, Wells Fargo Advisors Barbara Farber, Lympho-Lights Harold Keer, Astex Pharmaceuticals
Troy Beshears, Elbit Systems of America Mike Farmer, BMC Triangle Dave Keffer, Blue Delta Capital Partners

Darrell Bilbrey, Encompass Health Bill Farris, Generac Power Systems Karri Kelly, Robson Communities
Misty Birch, Castleview Hospital Dr. Omotayo Fasan, Novant Health
Scott Birkhead, Anadarko Petroleum Corporation Scott Feighner, Colliers International
Lauren Bishop, Beam Team Hugo Fernandez, M.D., Moffi t Malignant Hematology ARE YOU UP FOR
Courtney Black and Cellular Therapy at Memorial Healthcare System THE CHALLENGE?
Michael Blackman, Retired IBM Executive Rita Ferro, The Walt Disney Company
Colin and Jessica Blalock, Jones and Kolb Sanford Feuer, Best Buy Co., Inc., retiree
Barry Blanton, Blanton Advisors, LLC Christine Finley, Ferguson Enterprises Become a 2020
Christina Bold, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Al Fliss, Daiichi Sankyo, Inc. Executive Challenger
Dennis Bole Brian Follbaum, FPL Energy Services, Inc.
Dave Borkowski, Harkins Builders, Inc. Sam Forrest, Florida Power & Light Company LightTheNight.org
Chris Born, Dell Children’s Medical Center Archie Foster, Citi
Marsha Bourque, Marsha Bourque and Associates George Frahm, Stater Bros. Markets
R. Michael Brannock, Jr., WorkForce Unlimited, LLC Todd Frank, SRS Real Estate Partners Aron Kershner, Goldman Sachs
Harris Brett, Gibson Energy Donna Frazier Sumeet Khemani, ComplySci
Joseph B. Brocato, Gozdecki, Del Giudice, Daniele Fresca-Carteaux, LeadIn Logistics Kevin Kieran, Exelon Corporation
Americus, Farkas & Brocato LLP Christy Froehlich, Precision Planners Bob Kimbro, Ernst & Young
James Brooks, SWERP, Incorporated Richard Garber, Garber Automotive Group John King, Waterfront Botanical Gardens
Samantha Burns, Student at Weston High School Stuart Gelb, The Liquidity Source David & Louise Kingsley

Brian Burns, Storr Office Environments Karen Geraci, Bristol-Myers Squib Jennifer Kipphut, Fortitude Fitness/Beauty Counter

Bill Burns, Cross Country Healthcare Steve Gfroerer, Cobb Strecker Dunphy & Zimmermann Inc. Sam Kirschner, Caribbean Property Group, LLC
John Burroughs, Warren American Oil Company Adam Gill, Walgreens Bruce Klein, Klein Consulting
Callie Cantrell, Dell Linda Glover Stuart Klein, Self-Employed CPA
Matthew Casner, Barclays Ron Goldman, Deloitte BJ Knapp, Iowa Realty
Michael Castellano, Esse Health Lynn Goldschmidt, DKMG Consulting Dr. Greg Knight, Levine Cancer Institute
Patrick Chairs, Prudential Advisors Wendy Gonsalves, Avnet, Inc. Grant Knowles, Ardon Health
Dr. Mohamad Cherry, Atlantic Health System Manny Gonzalez, MGM Consulting Guenther Koehne M.D., Ph.D., Miami Cancer Institute
Paul Chodak III, AEP - American Electric Power Josh Goyne, Webber Dave Koenig, GEHA
Brian Christein Todd Granato Lynn Kuckelman Peters, LK Design Group
Dan Church, DairyChem, Inc. Carol Gray, Westwood Cartage Robert LaCaze, Bayer
Matthew Clear, HKS Architects, Inc. Rick Gray, The Wynn Las Vegas John Lambert, US Bank
Ronda Conger, CBH Homes David Grish, Team Jackiepie Jay & Kelley Lamy
John Conklin, BlackArch Partners Tami Gunsch, Berkshire Bank Kathy Lanterman
Tim Conklin, BMC Jessica Hack, UFCW Local 27 Andrew Larew, Larew, Doyle & Associates LLC
David Conway, Morgan Stanley Bryan Hacken, Team Attacken’ for Maddie Hacken Arnold Lau, Morgan Stanley
Adam Cook, Commonwealth Real Estate Services Christina Hamati, Northwestern Mutual Ashley Lawson, VGraham, LLC
Elizabeth Cote, The Long Group Kathryn Hansen, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Shane Lea, Bristol-Meyers Squibb

Jeff Cregger, Frederick Brick Works Inc. Chad Harder, LAUNCHPAD Jeff Leahy, Balfour Beatty

Mike Criscuolo, Skyline-Holt Exhibits + Events Jeffrey Hare Michelle Leon Cordova, Intuit

THOMAS DOLL CHUCK CUDA HEATH MELTON CHUCK KIVEN JIM CARMAN

Subaru of America, Inc. OPES Commercial The Howard Hughes SK2 Campus Living The Howard Hughes
Real Estate Corporation Corporation





Peter Levine, Amber Properties Richard Raffetto, US Bank Amy Smedley, Huntsman Corporation

Alanna Levine, Boston Children’s Health Physicians Regina Ramazani, Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) Mike Smith, The Rockport Group
Sarah Seiff Lewis, Salesforce Gene Rapisardi, Cigna HealthCare Chris Smyth, IQVIA Biotech

Ross A. Lissuzzo, CIBC Bank USA Lisa Reale, M.D., Miami Cancer Institute Bradley Souder, Universal Interiors
Larry Little, VCU Health Jay Reavis, Delta Dental of Tennessee Jason Spears, Academy Mortgage Corp
Judith Lofurno, Billups Tim Regan, Clover Key Home Loans Johnese Spisso, UCLA Health
Joe Lopez-Cepero, Good Samaritan Medical Center Ryan Rehmann, Dynamic Systems, Inc. Clark Spoden, Burr & Forman LLP
Christine Lowney, EY Nikolas Reigleman, BDO Taylor Stefano, Team One
Robert MacAdam-King, Bedford Cabinet Steven Reiss, Willis Towers Watson Laura Steger, Insight Global
Amanda Maggiotto, Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Center Guy Revelle, Splitsville Allie Steiner Fujarski, Paycom
Mark Magness, Ecotone Richard Reynolds, PwC Jeffrey Stern, Houlihan Lokey

Tim Main, Barclays Toni Reynolds, Les Schwab Ralph Stingo, Bernhard MCC
Becky Mancuso-Winding, UCLA Health Mark Richards, Northwestern Mutual
Carol Markway, Markway Strong Bobby Rios, Bartlett Cocke General Contractors Steve Stouthamer, Skanska

John Marraffa, KPH Healthcare Services, Inc. Raul Rios, RSM US LLP Suzanne B. Strothkamp, SSM Health Legal Affairs


Brittney Martin, Kendra Scott Kurt Ripkey, Icon Heather Stubblefield, Florida Power & Light Company
Ron Martin, BDO Cole Robertson, BP Energy Partners Jennifer Swanton, AZ Big Media
John T. McCauley, Wells Fargo Advisors Debra Robinson, Centennial Revenue Management Jason Swift, Best Egg
Mark McCullough, AEP - American Electric Power Emily Robinson Gorelik, CBC Specialty Beverage Shandell Szabo, Anadarko Petroleum Corporation
Mark McDonald, CM Constructors Sasha Rocke, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Darren Taylor, GEHA
Jack McKeegan, Harrison Financial Services Manny Rodriguez, UCHealth Lauren Thompson, Lauren Thompson Counseling
Mark Merz, FIS Theodore S. Roman Tana Thomson, Vista Capital Partners
Bill Messner, Portland General Electric Michelle Roomsburg, BRR Refrigeration Jay Tilley, Costco Wholesale Corporation
Melissa Messner, Lovejoy Real Estate Adam Rosenfelt, Atomic Entertainment David Tokarsky, Garber Bay Road
Edgar Meza, Fred Loya Insurance Lisa Roth, EisnerAmper LLP Raphael Tomlin, Global Franchise Group Atlanta
Steve Mihalik, Progressive Insurance Corporation Mary Rower, Markowitz Herbold PC Michael Tooley, Tooley Oil Company
Ken Miller, Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco Kristin Rubino, Terra Lawn Care Michael Touloupas, Touloupas & Touloupas Dentistry
Richard Miller, Earl Swensson Associates, Inc. Peter Ruehlman, Retired - Oncologist/Hematologist Nancy Tower, Tampa Electric Company
Michael R. Mills, Glenn Associates Surveying, Inc. Kim Rupert, SAIC Beth Trammell, DocVue
Brad A. Molotsky, Duane Morris LLP Kristine Rutter, Wells Fargo Greg Trayer, James Hardie
Brandon Moore, JE Dunn Construction Amanda Salas, Fox 11 - Los Angeles Winselow Tucker, Bristol-Myers Squibb
Courtney Morgan, SIMON Markets Brian Sapp, Jam City Donald Ubell, First Tryon Securities
Sonya Arnold Motes, Merrill Lynch Manolis Saridakis, US Bank Michelle Urban, Nabriva Therapeutics
Patrick Mulloy, RSM US LLP Mary Savage, GlaxoSmithKline Brian Vail, River West Investments
Helen Murphy Connors, Salesforce.com Tracey Sawyer, Mission Pharmacal Ada Varchola, Goldman Sachs
Lisa Myers, Gerstle, Rosen & Goldenberg, P.A. Peter Schaaf, Harkins Builders, Inc. C.S. Venkatakrishnan, Barclays
Swati Navani, Seattle Genetics Joseph Schenk, PRG Adam Viente, JLL
Marjie Nealon, Bilzin Sumberg Baena Price & Axelrod LLP Josh Schimmels, AZ Big Media
Robert Newton, Morgan Stanley Robert P. Schmid, The Schmid Group LLC Ginger Villanti, Broadcom
Paula T Nylander, Jones Day Mike Schmidt, Generac Power Systems Jen Wahl, Sun Life
Mark Nylander, Nylander + Associates Terry K. Schmoyer, Jr., Schmoyer And Company, LLC Whitney Wall, Wells Fargo
Susan O’Brien, MD, UC-Irvine Brian Schneider, Phyl-Mar Electrical Supply Corp. Jagath Wanninayake, Suvoda LLC
Matthew O’Bryan, KLA Laboratories Inc. Jeremy Schraeder, Streamline Sales & Marketing John Ward, Bridge Investment Group
Ryan O’Connell, SDS Restaurant Group Rick Schuerger, John Moriarty & Associates of Florida, Inc. John Warren, Energy Alloys
Karl Olson, Burns & Wilcox Brokerage Eduardo Schur, Guidehouse Zach Weast, Chisholm Trail State Bank
John Orsini, UAW Local 774 Martin Schweitzer, Goldman Sachs Bob Weintraub, Industrial Controls Supply

Teresa Orton, IQVIA Sean Sciara, Boston Scientific Corporation Chris Wheeler, George & Margaret McLane Foundation

Rick Ostroff, Ostroff Associates Jennifer Sciarra Jeremy Wien, Graham Capital Management

Jay Palus, PricewaterhouseCoopers Helena Scott, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Melissa Wilkinson, CBH Homes
Pranav Parekh, Google Matt Seehawer, Oregon Mainline Paving, LLC Greg Williams, Carruthers & Roth, P.A.
Stan Patterson, IQVIA Biotech Michael Seiden, The US Oncology Network, McKesson Barry Willis, Costco Wholesale Corporation

Brandon Pauler, BDO Norma Serna, BMC - New Braunfels Jeff Willman, Citizens Energy Group
Keith Pence, Caler, Donten, Levine, Cohen, Porter Faisal Shaikh, Deloitte Dwayne Wilson, Salesforce
& Veil, P.A. Ben Shapiro, PIVOT Meron Winkler, Twilio
Tracy Peters, Red Capital Group Patty Sharpe, The Woodshed James & Brenda Wishbow, James P. Wishbow Company

Ken Peterson, Shea Homes Jeff Shaw, Bridge Commercial Real Estate John Wright, RSM US LLP
Jennifer Petrillo, Accenture Garrett Sheehan, EXCEL Brian Wulfestieg, Toll Brothers Seattle Division
Brittany Pietrucci, Cumulus Media Joseph Shermer, ADP Susan Yaeger, Merrill Lynch

Joe Pizzimenti, Bigfish Creative Group Dave Shevsky, Ally Financial Inc.
Kevin Pohle, Energy Reps Linda Silver Jim Yancey, The Clearing House
Steve Pollard, JLL Cynthia Simon, Bristol-Myers Squibb Marta Yee Viñas, Royal Homes
Ryan Pratt, Ernst & Young John Simon, Onyx & East Ken Yoder, Baker Tilly
Kristen Presser, Penn Medicine Tom Simons, Woda Cooper Companies Melissa Young, Corporate Incentives, Inc.
Ron Pusey, CTSI Mike Simons, EY Chris Zavadowski, LifetimeMarketingSuccess.com
Randy Quickel, UFCW Steve Sipola, BNB Bank Elizabeth Zazo, Jodi’s Family & Friends
Michael Quinn, Williams Quinn Petersen & Keith Sitzman, Skanska Jackie Ziemianski, Peoples
Associates of Ameriprise Brad Slomsky, Towne Properties Jeff Zwick, PEDCO Engineering

T H E FO R B E S F I N T EC H 5 0

never been to South America. I want to travel for
a year and try to work on this remotely as an ad- A XO N I B E T T E R M E N T
venture. Figure out what I want to do with my
NEW YORK CITY NEW YORK CITY
life,” he says. “[It] was an interesting experience
BLOCKCHAIN & BITCOIN INVESTING
to see the financial system in another country
Uses blockchain technology Robo-advice pioneer offers
like that, that had gone through hyperinflation.”
to overhaul financial-markets managed ETF portfolios for
Later, as a coder at Airbnb, Armstrong had his
infrastructure, most notably 0.25% of assets a year, or
crypto epiphany. His employer was sending mon-
the DTCC’s Trade Information 0.40% for access to human
66 ey to landlords in Latin America. He describes Warehouse, which tracks financial planners, too.
the process this way: “High fees . . . long delays $10 trillion worth of credit
. . . opaque. We’d try sending money to somebody derivatives around the globe. FUNDING: $275 million; latest
1
T valuation of $800 million
S in Uruguay and didn’t know how much would
I FUNDING: $59 million; latest BONA FIDES: $22 billion in assets
L show up on the other side.” 1
valuation of $171 million under management
E
H In 2010 he read the manifesto, published by a BONA FIDES: 15 banks, including COFOUNDER & CEO:
T person (or persons) under the alias Satoshi Naka- Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, Jon Stein, 40

• just launched new Axoni-built
moto, that proposed bitcoin as an underground
E infrastructure for equity swaps
D currency. Its transactions are recorded on a led-
I COFOUNDERS: CEO Greg Schvey,
U ger called the blockchain, maintained in dupli- 33, and CTO Jeff Schvey, 35, B R E X
G
cated computer files by a band of self-appointed brothers who also cofounded SAN FRANCISCO
T TradeBlock
N guardians called nodes. Disputes about transac- B2B LENDING
E
M tions and ground rules are resolved by majori- Issues corporate credit cards
T ty vote. The nodes are kept honest, and trouble-
S B E H AVOX designed for startups. In Oc-
E makers at bay, by requiring a participant in the tober, it rolled out a corporate
V NEW YORK CITY
N network to engage in some arithmetic busywork cash-management account.
I WALL STREET & ENTERPRISE
before certifying a batch of transactions. A node FUNDING: $315 million; latest
who completes the arithmetic task is awarded a Sells system used to monitor valuation of $2.6 billion
few new coins. traders for insider trading BONA FIDES: More than 10,000
The busywork, called mining, did not inter- and market manipulation. customers, including Airbnb
Its algorithms screen email
est Armstrong. But he did see an opportunity in and chat data, while its voice COFOUNDERS & CO-CEOS:
Henrique Dubugras, 24;
the business of safeguarding the keys to the coins biometrics track phone calls Pedro Franceschi, 23
and setting up transactions. Anybody can do that on loud trading desks.
with some readily available software, but if you
FUNDING: $20 million; latest
mishandle the protocol your coins will be stolen valuation of $300 million
or lost. BONA FIDES: Used by more than
Armstrong took a flyer on bitcoins, buying 40 companies; revenues grew
130% in 2019
$1,000 worth at $9 a coin. The price sank to $2.
He kept the faith. FOUNDER & CEO: Erkin Adylov,
36, a Kyrgyzstan-born former
Working weekends and late nights, Armstrong Goldman Sachs analyst and
wrote code in Ruby and JavaScript to buy and hedge fund portfolio manager
store coins. He was doing for the bitcoin network
what an earlier generation of programmers had
done for the internet by creating browsers. B E T T E R .C O M RYAN WILLIAMS
It was fun. Was it worth quitting his day job? NEW YORK CITY
C A D R E
REAL ESTATE
Online mortgage originator NEW YORK CITY
provides home shoppers with
REAL ESTATE
preapprovals in as little as
Online platform allows institu-
three minutes. Uses matching
Money Moves 2020 tional and wealthy investors to
software to sell loans to insti-
buy into commercial real estate
USE A RETIREMENT-INCOME HACK tutions such as Chase and
Fannie Mae. partnerships at lower fees.
Figuring how best to draw annual income from var-
ious accounts in retirement can be bewildering. But FUNDING: $254 million; latest FUNDING: $133 million; latest
new hybrid-robo services such as Vanguard’s Person- valuation of $610 million valuation of $800 million
al Advisor, Schwab’s Intelligent Income, Capital One’s BONA FIDES: Has financed
United Income and Fintech 50 member Kindur make it BONA FIDES: Revenue increased purchases of $3.1 billion worth
easy. The apps create an individualized asset alloca- fivefold to $115 million in 2019, of property in 36 deals
tion and tax-optimized income plan (they’ll even send thanks in part to a refi boom COFOUNDERS: CEO Ryan
you a monthly “paycheck” and counsel you on when FOUNDER & CEO: Vishal Garg,
to take Social Security), all under the watch of on-call 42, also started MyRichUncle, Williams, 32; brothers
human advisors. Costs vary, but are usually far less an early online lender that shut Jared Kushner, 39, and
than for a traditional planner. —Ashlea Ebeling down in 2009 Joshua Kushner, 34


F O R B E S . C O M 1 According to PitchBook M A R C H 2 0 2 0

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T H E FO R B E S F I N T EC H 5 0

A $150,000 capital infusion from Y Combinator,
source of seed funding to Airbnb and many oth- CARTA C O I N BA S E
er illustrious startups, answered that question
SAN FRANCISCO SAN FRANCISCO
in 2012. Fred Ehrsam, a Goldman Sachs alum,
WALL STREET & ENTERPRISE BLOCKCHAIN & BITCOIN
joined the venture and gave Coinbase credibility
Tracks capital tables (shares, After making its mark as a
with the banks that would be wiring money to it.
ownership, value, dilution and safe, regulatory-compliant
Venture capitalists, led by Andreessen Horow-
options) for private companies, crypto exchange, Coinbase
itz, have showered half a billion dollars on Coin-
their investors and employees. has branched out to offer a
68 base. “It’s like if Google made Gmail for bitcoin,” variety of additional services.
FUNDING: $448 million; latest
says Chris Dixon, an Andreessen partner who valuation of $1.7 billion (See story, p. 60.)
serves on the Coinbase board. “And that’s literal-
T BONA FIDES: Now managing cap FUNDING: $525 million; latest
S ly the way they described it.” tables for 13,000 companies (in- valuation of $8.1 billion
I
L Its last round of funding valued Coinbase at cluding most valuable fintech,
BONA FIDES: Coinbase Custody
E Stripe) worth a collective $575
H $8.1 billion. Ehrsam, 31, has since left Coinbase billion, with 800,000 investors holds $8 billion in assets for 200
T but retains a stake; he keeps busy arranging ven- institutional clients

• COFOUNDER & CEO:
ture capital for startups that aim to use crypto- COFOUNDERS: Brian Armstrong,
E Henry Ward, 44 37; Fred Ehrsam, 31
D currencies and blockchains to build transaction
I
U networks for corporations.
G
C H A I N A LYS I S
T C R E D I T K A R M A
N NEW YORK CITY
E SAN FRANCISCO
M he essence of what Armstrong BLOCKCHAIN & BITCOIN
T has in mind can be captured in PERSONAL FINANCE
S T    Builds tools to help enforcers
E the word defi, which stands for The original free credit-mon-
V track down criminals, and fi-
N decentralized finance or, if you nancial institutions comply with itoring and credit-score ser-
I vice has expanded its offerings
prefer, defiance of authority. Defi regulations, in crypto space.
is supposed to reach into all aspects of wealth; to include free online tax fil-
FUNDING: $45 million; latest ing and high-yield savings ac-
someday, supposedly, blockchains will support valuation of $266 million 1 counts. Earns fat referral fees
trading, peer-to-peer lending and loan collater- BONA FIDES: 250 customers, when users bite on its recom-
alization without the usual financial institutions including the U.S. government, mendations for credit cards,
Barclays and Bittrex
as intermediaries. Intriguingly, Coinbase has a loans or auto insurance.
broker/dealer license. Could it someday end-run COFOUNDER & CEO:
Michael Gronager, 49 FUNDING: $869 million; latest
stock exchanges? Maybe. valuation of $4 billion
If the grand vision for Coinbase is to be a gate- BONA FIDES: More than 100
way to decentralized finance of all sorts, the rev- million users in the U.S., Canada
and the U.K.
enue for now is coming from more mundane
COFOUNDERS: CEO Ken Lin, 44;
things like trading commissions. Coinbase allows
CRO Nichole Mustard, 47; CTO
amateurs to go in and out of crypto, or swap one Ryan Graciano, 38
crypto for another, for fees and spreads that come
to 2% or so. At archrival Binance, these small-
DAVE
CHRIS BRITT Ì
LOS ANGELES

PERSONAL FINANCE
C H I M E This $1-a-month mobile app
Money Moves 2020 offers users checking accounts
SAN FRANCISCO with no minimums or over-
BUY CREDIT BLUE-CHIPS PERSONAL FINANCE draft fees, cash advances of
Credit tracker Fair Isaac is an excellent way to play the Digital-only bank offers no-fee up to $100, automated budget-
digitization of credit. The company’s credit-scoring checking accounts with free ing and the ability to build
technology currently underlies a vast majority of all up their credit score through
credit-card issuance decisions. It’s also beginning to overdraft protection of up to
use artificial intelligence with psychometric and finan- $100, access to paychecks up reporting of rent and utility
cial data to create ultra-reliable profiles of consumer to two days early and option to payments to credit bureaus.
behavior. Relatedly, duopoly Mastercard is a great play round up debit purchases and
on the growth of e-commerce. Within a decade, Mas- FUNDING: $76 million; latest
tercard projects, machines will begin transacting digi- move extra pennies into savings. valuation of $1.2 billion
tal payments as, for example, gas pumps hook up with FUNDING: $805 million; latest BONA FIDES: 2019 revenue of
computers in cars. Everything will share a connection valuation of $5.8 billion $90 million; 5 million–plus users
with encrypted personal financial information stored
in the cloud, and Mastercard is a natural gatekeeper. BONA FIDES: Exceeded 7 million COFOUNDERS: CEO Jason Wilk,
Both Fair Isaac and Mastercard are brisk growers with accounts in January 34; CTO Paras Chitrakar, 41;
high P/Es, but they’re worth it, considering their 10-year COFOUNDERS: CEO Chris Britt, chief design officer John
Wolanin, 37
47; CTO Ryan King, 43
annual returns of about 30% each. —Jon D. Markman

F O R B E S . C O M Ì NEW TO LIST M A R C H 2 0 2 0
1 According to PitchBook

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T H E FO R B E S F I N T EC H 5 0

fry speculators would pay 90% less, but they’d be
dealing with a firm that mostly inhabits the shad- D I V V Y H O M E S Ì FAT T M E R C H A N T Ì
owy world of offshore finance. Malta-based Bi-
SAN FRANCISCO ORLANDO, FLORIDA
nance has only a small presence in the U.S.
REAL ESTATE PAYMENTS
Serious traders get a better deal. They use
A digital take on rent-to-own, Bundles online and in-store
Coinbase Pro, a different platform that replicates
Divvy buys homes that clients credit-card processing and
the bid-and-ask order book of a stock exchange;
select and becomes their land- sales analysis into one monthly
here the combined buyer and seller commission
lord, allowing 2% upfront fee subscription service that it says
70 ranges from 1% for small trades down to 0.07% and part of rent to be turned costs small businesses 30% to
at the $100 million level. into a down payment later. 40% less than traditional per-
Somewhat more than half of Coinbase Pro’s Now in six markets. transaction charges.
T
S trading volume comes from algorithmic trad-
I FUNDING: $66 million; latest FUNDING: $18 million; latest
L ing. Furious trading doesn’t look socially produc- 1
valuation of $163 million valuation of $140 million
E
H tive, but it lubricates the capital markets. Bid/ask BONA FIDES: Receiving 10,000 BONA FIDES: Processed $2.3
T spreads on bitcoins, now worth $9,300 apiece, applications a month billion in transactions in 2019


are measured in dimes. In percentage terms, the COFOUNDER & CEO: COFOUNDERS: CEO Suneera
E
D crypto spread competes with the spread on the Adena Hefets, 33 Madhani, 32; president Sal
I Rehmetullah, 30 (Madhani’s
U very liquid SPDR S&P 500 ETF. brother); CTO Jacques Fun, 34;
G
The trouble with commission income is that chief strategy officer Lyndsey
T Lang, 27
N it’s extremely sensitive to crypto prices. When
E
M bitcoin collapses, as it did in 2018, trading vol-
T ume shrinks and the dollar revenue from each
S F I N I X Ì
E coin goes down.
V SAN FRANCISCO
N So Coinbase is trying to create stable revenue
I
streams to balance out the commissions. A big PAYMENTS
one, says Alesia Haas, the company’s chief finan- Gives companies more control
cial officer, is coming from a custody operation ADENA HEFETS over their payment processing,
for institutional clients. This digital warehouse, which helps them to keep more
greatly expanded by Coinbase’s acquisition last of the processing fees mer-
August of Xapo’s institutional business, holds E TH O S Ì chants pay.
$8 billion of bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies. FUNDING: $55 million
A new revenue source is “staking.” Here, the SAN FRANCISCO BONA FIDES: More than
50 customers, including
holder of certain coins, such as tezos and EOS, INSURANCE Lightspeed, a Canadian
collects fees for confirming transactions on the Uses predictive technology to company that processes $17
network. There is no electricity-gobbling busy- quote term life insurance rates billion a year in transactions
work calculation as with bitcoin, but some fi- in about 10 minutes via app. COFOUNDERS: CEO Richie Serna,
nesse is needed, because messing up the recipe It verifies data with medical 32; Sean Donovan, 37
causes the player’s stake to be confiscated. Coin- and pharmacy records, requir-
ing no exam for most buyers.
base handles the details and splits stake revenue Ì
FUNDING: $107 million; latest H I P P O
with its customers. It’s rather like a stockbroker
valuation of $450 million
1
PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA
BONA FIDES: Licensed in every
INSURANCE
state except New York
Using public data, satellite
COFOUNDERS: CEO Peter Colis,
30; CTO Lingke Wang, 29 imagery and smart home de-
vices such as water-leak and
Money Moves 2020 motion detectors, home insur-
TURN YOUR HSA INTO AN INVESTMENT FUND E V E R L E D G E R Ì ance agent Hippo streamlines
the application process and
One of the best-kept secrets about Health Savings LONDON minimizes claims. It’s currently
Accounts is that they can be used as investment ac-
counts. If you’re covered by an eligible high-deduct- BLOCKCHAIN & BITCOIN licensed in 21 states and aims
ible health insurance plan, you can contribute up to Has developed a blockchain to to be nationwide by year’s end.
$3,550 for an individual or $7,100 for a family to an track goods from raw-materials
HSA for 2020, reducing your taxable income by that FUNDING: $209 million; latest
amount. Of course, HSA withdrawals are tax-free source to sales. valuation of $1 billion
when used to pay for medical expenses. But healthy BONA FIDES: Premiums grew
or wealthy HSA holders should invest and grow the FUNDING: $20 million; latest fivefold last year
stash tax-free to be used for medical costs in retire- valuation of $100 million
ment. Fidelity and Fintech 50 member Lively offer BONA FIDES: First application COFOUNDERS: CEO Assaf Wand,
45; CTO Eyal Navon, 39
investor-friendly HSA platforms. Fidelity offers mutual tracks 2 million diamonds
funds plus commission-free trading of U.S. stocks and
ETFs. Lively provides no-fee access to TD Ameritrade, FOUNDER & CEO: Australian
Leanne Kemp, 47
which also offers free online trading. —A.E.

F O R B E S . C O M Ì NEW TO LIST M A R C H 2 0 2 0
1 According to PitchBook

T H E FO R B E S F I N T EC H 5 0

lending out your margined securities to short-
I C A P I TA L N E T WO R K K I N D U R Ì sellers, except that there you’re unlikely to get cut
in on the revenue.
NEW YORK CITY NEW YORK CITY
Another Coinbase product, called USD Coin,
INVESTING INVESTING
developed in partnership with cryptocurrency
Platform allows high-net-worth Hybrid advice service lures
exchange Circle, lets customers put up U.S. dol-
clients to invest as little as Boomers with free robo-
lars in exchange for a cryptocurrency that has the
$25,000 per fund in private eq- retirement-income plans, then
same value but can be traded more quickly. The
uity, debt, VC and hedge funds. pitches comprehensive money
dollars in question earn interest that Coinbase 71
management with a dedicated
FUNDING: $80 million; latest shares with its customers.
1
valuation of $700 million human advisor for 0.50% of
assets on accounts of $5,000- Coinbase says it handled $80 billion of trans-
BONA FIDES: $47 billion in assets I
invested through the platform plus, 0.25% on $500,000-plus. actions last year. (Binance boasts of a dai- N
ly volume that annualizes to $1 trillion.) Is that
V
COFOUNDER & CEO: FUNDING: $11 million; latest E
Lawrence Calcano, 57 valuation of $35 million enough for a profit? CFO Haas allows that the S
1
T
bottom line flits in and out of the plus column M
BONA FIDES: 21,000 people with E
$14 billion in retirement savings from month to month. But, she adds, if you ex- N
have built free plans on Kindur clude non-cash items like charges for goodwill T

since its launch last April G
amortization and the hypothetical value of em- U
FOUNDER & CEO: ployee options, Coinbase has been solidly in the I
Rhian Horgan, 42 E
D
black for several years.

In a firm fixated on growth, the money goes out
T
L E M O N A D E the door almost as quickly as it comes in. Coin- H
E
base has quadrupled its staff to 1,000 since hir-
NEW YORK CITY I
L
ing chief operating officer Emilie Choi two years S
INSURANCE T
ago. At headquarters, construction workers can
SNEJINA ZACHARIA Sells renters’ insurance from barely keep up with the new hires streaming out
$5 a month and homeowners’ of the onboarding room. There are offices in New
I N S U R I F Y Ì from $25 a month using AI to York, Dublin and Tokyo. And then there are bets
approve coverage in 90 sec-
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS on the future.
onds and pay claims in as lit-
INSURANCE tle as three minutes. Discour- Choi, who came to Coinbase after doing
Comparison site aims to use ages bogus claims by donating business development at LinkedIn, has taken
AI to sell auto, home and life excess (after claims, expenses the venture capital portfolio from nothing to 60
policies online, without buyers and fixed fee) to charity. Now firms. It includes Bison Trails in New York City
talking to human agents. in 26 states, D.C. and Germany. and Alchemy in San Francisco, both aiming to
FUNDING: $480 million; latest help corporations use blockchains, and Amber
FUNDING: $30 million
1
valuation of $2.1 billion Group in Shenzhen, China, which is applying
BONA FIDES: Has closed 130,000
auto policies, 67% of them BONA FIDES: More than 500,000 artificial intelligence to cryptocurrency trading.
without touch of human agent customers, producing annual Says Choi: “A lot of the stuff that we’re doing in
recurring revenue of $115 million
COFOUNDER & CEO: the venture side of the house is things we prob-
Snejina Zacharia, 43, a native COFOUNDERS: CEO Daniel ably wouldn’t do as a principal but that we think
of Bulgaria Schreiber, 49; COO Shai
Wininger, 46 are really interesting.”
Armstrong adds, “These venture bets could be
KABBAGE L I V E LY Ì huge, but we don’t know if they’re gonna work.

ATLANTA
SAN FRANCISCO
B2B LENDING
PERSONAL FINANCE
Its automated system approves
Digital health-savings-account
lines of credit up to $200,000
platform offers workers access Money Moves 2020
in minutes. New service helps
to fee-free investing (through
small businesses manage RIDE THE STOCK MARKET WITH TRAINING WHEELS
TD Ameritrade) of money
invoices and receivables.
they’ve socked away tax-free Know someone with only $50 to invest? Mobile app
FUNDING: $489 million; latest for future medical costs. Stash offers fractional purchases of stocks, and
valuation of $1.2 billion Acorns, a “round-up” app, moves extra pennies from
FUNDING: $42 million; latest credit- and debit-card purchases into ETFs. No-fee,
BONA FIDES: Has loaned more valuation of $112 million no-minimum custodial Roth IRAs are available from
1
than $9 billion, including about both Schwab and Fidelity for youngsters with earned
$3 billion in 2019, to 220,000 BONA FIDES: Users have nearly income. Roths grow tax-free for retirement, and origi-
small businesses $200 million in accounts, double nal contributions can be taken out without penalty or
the amount a year ago
COFOUNDERS: tax at any time. A word of warning, though: Don’t try
CEO Rob Frohwein, 52; COFOUNDERS: CEO Alex Cyriac, this if your kid might qualify for need-based aid from
president Kathryn Petralia, 49 37, and COO Shobin Uralil, 38 a private college. —A.E.


M A R C H 2 0 2 0 F O R B E S . C O M

T H E FO R B E S F I N T EC H 5 0

And they actually should have a pretty high rate
of failure. Otherwise, we’re not thinking big MAKERDAO Ì N E X T I N S U R A N C E Ì
enough.”
NEW YORK CITY PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA
INSURANCE
BLOCKCHAIN & BITCOIN Mobile-first insurance carrier
Decentralized finance platform
C    rypto has been condemned lets borrowers use volatile sells small business lines
as rat poison by Warren Buf-
cryptocurrency as collateral
(liability, commercial auto
fett, as a fraud by Jamie Dimon
72 and the mother of all scams by for loans of stablecoins pegged and workers’ comp) packaged
for specific industries (e.g.,
to the U.S. dollar.
doomsday economist Nouriel restaurants). Sells in all states
FUNDING: $63 million; latest
Roubini. Where’s the payoff to the economy? except New York and is a
T valuation of $500 million
S It’s coming, Armstrong says. He posits a fu- licensed carrier in 26.
I BONA FIDES: Generated
L
ture in which thousands of startups use crypto $10 million in interest in 2019 FUNDING: $381 million; latest
E
H to raise capital in a global marketplace no longer FOUNDER AND CEO: valuation of more than $1 billion
T Rune Christensen, 29
controlled by Wall Street firms. Within a decade, BONA FIDES: Serves 79,000

he predicts, the number of people participating small businesses
E
D in the blockchain economy will explode from 50 COFOUNDERS: CEO Guy
I Goldstein, 52; CTO Alon Huri,
U million to 1 billion. We are destined to enjoy a MARQETA
G 43; VP of R&D Nissim Tapiro, 50
financial system that is “more global, more fair, OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA
T
N more free and more efficient.” PAYMENTS
E
M There is an emotional component to the quest Debit-card transaction proces- N OVA C R E D I T
T for financial liberation. Coinbase’s newly hired
S sor gives companies that issue SAN FRANCISCO
E chief product officer, Surojit Chatterjee, talks cards to workers or customers
V PERSONAL FINANCE
N about what happened when India all but de- more control over which trans-
I Draws on credit-report infor-
stroyed currency holdings in a surprise attack on actions are approved.
the money supply. His 80-year-old father spent FUNDING: $378 million; latest mation from eight countries to
produce a standardized num-
five hours in line to retrieve the equivalent of $30. valuation of $1.9 billion ber similar to a U.S. FICO cred-
Many countries, including Mexico, Argentina, BONA FIDES: $300 million-plus in it score, enabling newcomers
2019 revenue, Forbes estimates
Russia and Cyprus, have perpetrated wealth con- to the U.S. to qualify for loans
COFOUNDER & CEO:
fiscations of this sort, in which some store of val- and apartment rentals based
Jason Gardner, 50
ue is frozen or forcibly converted into something on their home-country records.
less valuable. The U.S. is an offender, too. FDR FUNDING: $65 million
seized gold in 1933, replacing it with pieces of pa- BONA FIDES: American Express
per that have since lost 95% of their value. uses Nova data to instantly
Like gold, bitcoin is too cumbersome to be approve immigrants from
Australia, Canada, India, Mexico
used as a means of exchange. The convoluted and the U.K. for U.S. cards
mechanism for adding transactions to the ledger COFOUNDERS: CEO Misha
means it takes 10 minutes to confirm a payment Esipov, 32; COO Nicky Goulimis,
and that only four transfers can take place per 31; Loek Janssen, 30
second. You can’t run a global economy on that.
Solutions are on the way, Armstrong says. One JASON GARDNER
is to consider bitcoin a store of value and add a O P E N D O O R
SAN FRANCISCO
M O N E Y L I O N Ì REAL ESTATE

Home sellers in 21 cities can
NEW YORK CITY
request all-cash offers from
PERSONAL FINANCE
Money Moves 2020 Opendoor online, receive bids
Digital bank provides users free in 24 hours and close in as lit-
GIVE YOUR IRA A SECOND WIND checking, debit cards, paycheck tle as two weeks. New app en-
advances (with direct deposit) ables buyers to make offers on
Effective January 2020, Congress made a bunch
of changes to the rules governing retirement ac- and managed ETF portfolios. any home for sale in six cities,
counts. For one, if you have earned income, you can FUNDING: $207 million; latest including Dallas and Phoenix.
now contribute to an Individual Retirement Account valuation of $630 million
no matter your age (the old cutoff was 70½). That’s FUNDING: $1.3 billion; latest
great if you continue to work part-time after you BONA FIDES: 6 million–plus users valuation of $3.8 billion
“retire.” Another boon to Boomers: The age for tak- COFOUNDERS: BONA FIDES: Purchased
ing mandatory retirement-account payouts was CEO Dee Choubey, 38; CIO 19,000 homes in 2019
pushed from 70½ to 72. One new gotcha: Leave your Pratyush Tiwari, 43; CTO Chee
Individual Retirement Accounts to non-spouse heirs, Mun Foong, 42 COFOUNDER AND CEO:
and in most cases they must withdraw the money Eric Wu, 37
within 10 years. —A.E.


F O R B E S . C O M Ì NEW TO LIST M A R C H 2 0 2 0
1 According to PitchBook

The of the nation





25 years in a row.







The world travels to the hospital


ranked #1 in heart care.



















ClevelandClinic.org/Care

T H E FO R B E S F I N T EC H 5 0

layer atop it for transactions, much the way a
quiescent base of vault currency and Federal Re- PAYO N E E R Ì P R O P E L Ì
serve deposits supports a torrent of checks and
NEW YORK CITY NEW YORK CITY
electronic payments in the banking system. The
PAYMENTS PERSONAL FINANCE
other is to create new digital currencies built
Enables third-party sellers Its Fresh EBT mobile app al-
with transaction speed in mind. Among the ones
and hosts on marketplaces like lows food-stamp recipients to
Coinbase supports are litecoin and bitcoin cash.
Amazon, Walmart.com and check balances, clip store cou-
In December, Coinbase got a first-of-its-kind
Airbnb to accept payments in pons and search job listings.
74 authorization from Visa to issue debit cards that foreign currencies. Has start-
allow holders to make purchases at the 46 mil- ed lending to Amazon and FUNDING: $18 million; latest
1
valuation of $55 million
lion locations (including ATMs) that accept Visa, Walmart sellers.
T BONA FIDES: Users doubled to
S and have the money drawn from a Coinbase ac- 2 million in 2019
I FUNDING: $270 million; latest
L count holding cryptocurrencies. Initially, these 1
valuation of $1 billion FOUNDER & CEO:
E
H debit cards will be available to residents of 29 BONA FIDES: Four million Jimmy Chen, 32
T countries, but not the U.S. Still, Coinbase could customers in 150 countries;

• net profit margins north of 5%
eventually develop its Visa authorization into yet
E
D another business line: issuing credit cards on be- FOUNDER & PRESIDENT: Yuval
I Tal, 54 CEO: Scott Galit, 49
U half of other crypto exchanges.
G
Banks, meanwhile, aren’t missing the oppor-
T
N tunity to redesign payment networks using old- P L A I D
E
M fashioned dollars. Zelle, an instant-payment sys-
T tem run by a consortium of big banks, ran $187 SAN FRANCISCO
S
E billion of traffic last year, putting it well ahead of PAYMENTS
V
N PayPal’s Venmo. Zelle is mostly aimed at retail Making its fifth—and, assuming
I its pending acquisition by Visa JIMMY CHEN
clients doing things like splitting dinner tabs, but
has handled transactions as large as $3.2 million. goes through, last—appearance
on this list, Plaid connects pay-
No question, disruptive technology is coming ment apps like Square Cash
to the banking system, and Coinbase will be a and personal-finance apps like R I P P L E
part of it. It is the only outfit to appear on both Acorns to users’ bank accounts SAN FRANCISCO
the Forbes Fintech 50 and Blockchain 50 lists. to transfer and track funds. BLOCKCHAIN & BITCOIN
But Armstrong is going to have plenty of com- FUNDING: $310 million; Visa Its blockchain-based global
petition, starting with central banks, which are agreed to pay $5.3 billion settlements network is used
plotting their own digital currencies. Facebook BONA FIDES: 2,600 customers, by some 300 institutions.
hasn’t given up on Libra, which is intended to be including Venmo, Robinhood It also lets companies make
and Coinbase
a globally accessible digital currency backed by payments in XRP, the crypto
COFOUNDERS: CEO Zach Perret, created by its founders.
assets like dollars and euros.
32, and former CTO William
Let a thousand flowers bloom, says Arm- Hockey, 30 FUNDING: $293 million; latest
strong. “When I started Coinbase, most people valuation of $10 billion
thought [blockchain] was crazy. Governments BONA FIDES: Still holds $12 billion
and the old guard, the blue chips, are now in- P L A ST I Q Ì of XRP in escrow and has used
XRP sales to fund expansion
vesting in this technology. So let’s just say that’s a SAN FRANCISCO COFOUNDERS: Chris Larsen, 59;
very good thing.” Jed McCaleb, 45; Arthur Britto
PAYMENTS
CEO: Brad Garlinghouse, 49
For a 2.5% fee, lets small busi-
nesses use a credit card to pay
expenses (e.g., rent) for which ROOFSTOCK
cards usually aren’t accepted.
Money Moves 2020 Typical clients are restaurants, OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA
OWN UP TO YOUR CRYPTO TRADING HABIT doctors’ offices and construc- REAL ESTATE
tion firms. Digital real estate marketplace
The new Schedule 1 of the IRS’ 1040 form asks wheth-
er you had any transactions in virtual currencies last FUNDING: $140 million; enables investors to purchase
year, so forgetting to report sales is no longer an latest valuation of $700 single-family rental properties
option for people who want to avoid jail. But being to $800 million in 25 states.
honest may in fact save you money: As with other BONA FIDES: More than 50,000
kinds of property, capital-gains tax on a crypto- customers; processing nearly FUNDING: $133 million; latest
currency investment is due only when you sell. Sell- $4 billion in transactions a year valuation of $550 million
ing just your losing positions generates capital loss-
es that can be put to use absorbing gains elsewhere COFOUNDER AND CEO: Eliot BONA FIDES: Has sold $2 billion
(such as from stocks and bonds). Crypto, moreover, Buchanan, 30, started Plastiq of real estate
is exempt from the wash-sale rule that limits capi- after his attempt to pay his COFOUNDER AND CEO:
tal loss deductions for securities positions that are Harvard tuition with a credit Gary Beasley, 54
card was rejected
quickly reestablished. —W.B.

F O R B E S . C O M Ì NEW TO LIST M A R C H 2 0 2 0
1 According to PitchBook

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T H E FO R B E S F I N T EC H 5 0


R O OT I N S U R A N C E ST R I P E TA L LY Ì T R U M I D


COLUMBUS, OHIO SAN FRANCISCO SAN FRANCISCO NEW YORK CITY
INSURANCE PAYMENTS PERSONAL FINANCE WALL STREET & ENTERPRISE
Auto insurer sets customers’ Its platform lets businesses Credit card debt consolidation Electronic bond-trading plat-
rates by first monitoring their ranging from small websites to and payoff app extends a line form for investment-grade and
driving with a smartphone Amazon and Facebook accept of credit (at a lower-than-cred- junk bonds. Started with anon-
app measuring 200 variables online payments. Last year, it-card interest rate) to custom- ymous block trades, but now
76 (e.g., braking, miles driven). Stripe launched a corporate ers and applies their monthly also allows traders to post bids
credit card and small business payment to their existing cred- and asks anonymously and
FUNDING: $528 million; latest
valuation of $3.7 billion loans, which are automatically it card debts, avoiding late fees then negotiate privately.
T
S repaid from payments it and paying off highest interest-
I BONA FIDES: $307 million in FUNDING: $200 million
L processes for borrowers. rate balances first.
direct premiums in the first BONA FIDES: Trading volume has
E three quarters of 2019
H FUNDING: $1 billion; latest FUNDING: $92 million; latest surged to $17 billion a month
T COFOUNDERS: CEO Alex Timm, valuation of $35 billion, making valuation of $285 million
1
FOUNDER & CEO:
• 31; CTO Dan Manges, 34 Stripe the most valuable private
BONA FIDES: Increased revenue Ronnie Mateo, 46
E fintech in the U.S.
D fourfold in the past year
I BONA FIDES: Processes hundreds
U of billions of dollars a year in COFOUNDERS: CEO Jason Brown,
G STA S H 40; Jasper Platz, 40 Ì
transactions U N I S O N
T
N NEW YORK CITY COFOUNDERS: CEO Patrick SAN FRANCISCO
E Collison, 31, and president
M INVESTING John Collison, 29 TOA ST REAL ESTATE
T For a flat fee of $1 to $9 a
S Offers homebuyers and owners
E month, app offers fractional BOSTON
V in 30 states and Washington,
N purchases of stocks and ETFs, TA L A PAYMENTS D.C., the option of selling some
no-fee checking account and a Its restaurant point-of-sale of the future appreciation in
I
debit card with stock rewards. SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA software can handle payments, their houses. If Unison and
FUNDING: $192 million; latest PERSONAL FINANCE reservations, online orders and its investors put down 10% of
1
valuation of $585 million payroll. Now makes loans to
Makes loans ranging from $10 a home’s purchase price, they
BONA FIDES: More than 4 million to $500 to developing-world restaurants, too. take 33% of appreciation when
customers
customers with little or no FUNDING: $498 million; latest the house is sold.
COFOUNDERS: CEO Brandon formal borrowing history, valuation of $2.7 billion FUNDING: $40 million
Krieg, 45; president Ed using their smartphone data BONA FIDES: Processes tens of
Robinson, 36 BONA FIDES: Has bought stakes
to judge risk. (Applicants who billions in sales a year
in $4.4 billion worth of housing
pay utility bills on time and COFOUNDERS: Co-presidents
phone their mother regularly Aman Narang, 37, and Steve FOUNDER AND CEO:
Thomas Sponholtz, 53
Fredette, 36; CTO Jonathan
are more reliable.)
Grimm, 34 CEO: Chris
FUNDING: $200 million; latest Comparato, 52
valuation of $800 million
UPSTA RT
BONA FIDES: Made more than
$1 billion in loans to 4 million T R A N S F E R W I S E SAN MATEO, CALIFORNIA
customers; profitable in Kenya
PERSONAL FINANCE
and the Philippines; growing fast LONDON
in Tanzania, Mexico and India Online lending platform uses
PAYMENTS AI and alternative data such
FOUNDER & CEO:
Shivani Siroya, 38, started Tala Executes international money as education and employment
after having studied the impact transfers for consumers at an history, as well as conventional
MAX SIMKOFF
of microcredit in sub-Saharan average cost of 0.7%, compared credit score and income info,
Africa for the U.N.
STAT E S T I T L E Ì with 4% to 5% at U.S. banks, to underwrite personal loans.
by matching currency orders Upstart says 70% of its origina-
SAN FRANCISCO within a country. Its new debit tions are fully automated.
REAL ESTATE card allows fee-free purchases
FUNDING: $165 million; latest
1
Using online ownership data and ATM withdrawals around valuation $750 million
and predictive analytics, clears the world. BONA FIDES: Has generated
80% of homes for title insur- FUNDING: $689 million; latest $6 billion–plus in loans to more
ance in less than a minute. valuation of $3.5 billion than 400,000 borrowers; loans
are funded by five partner
FUNDING: $107 million BONA FIDES: 6 million banks
customers in 71 countries
BONA FIDES: 2019 revenue of transfer $5.5 billion a month COFOUNDERS: CEO Dave
$185 million, after taking over Girouard, 54, previously
part of Lennar’s title business COFOUNDERS: CEO Kristo president at Google Enterprise;
Käärmann, 40, and chairman product head Paul Gu, 29;
COFOUNDER AND CEO: SHIVANI SIROYA Taavet Hinrikus, 39, both
Max Simkoff, 38 originally from Estonia operations head Anna M.
Counselman, 39


F O R B E S . C O M 1 According to PitchBook Ì NEW TO LIST M A R C H 2 0 2 0

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION





JAPAN 2020:




POSITIONED FOR





GROWTH





The country’s corporate lodestars are firmly focused on the horizon in positioning their

companies for continued success.















































With the enthronement of a new emperor in Indeed, a focus on the long term and the transformation that aims to foster synergies
May 2019 and the successful hosting of Asia’s ability to adapt to ever-changing conditions in new business areas, even as it continues to
first Rugby World Cup, optimism in Japan have been the hallmarks of leading compa- pursue a strategy of mergers and acquisitions.
has been running high in recent months. nies such as Canon, Kikkoman and THK. As for Akihiro Teramachi, CEO and Presi-
This enthusiasm is expected to carry over Yuzaburo Mogi, Honorary CEO and Chair- dent of THK, the aim is to capitalize on the
this year, as the country takes center stage man of the Board of Kikkoman Corporation, is megatrends of digital technology, aging pop-
again with the Tokyo Olympic Games, which one who is no stranger to taking bold steps in ulations and globalization to fuel the com-
is scheduled to take place this summer. the face of uncertainty. He led the traditional pany’s growth. He likens running a business
Meanwhile, Japan's government in Decem- soy sauce maker to set up a factory in the to a marathon rather than a sprint, stressing
ber raised its economic growth forecast for U.S. back in the early 1970s, a daring move the need to keep a long-term view in order
the next fiscal year to 1.4% on the back of that was decades ahead of its time. Looking to reap efficiencies. In 2020, THK will launch
improving domestic demand. ahead, he believes that companies need to a new service known as OMNIedge—a solu-
Despite the bright spots, there is no get- look beyond just technology and focus on tion to predictive failure detection. It works
ting away from an uncertain macro environ- developing their human capital in order to by installing sensors on existing THK com-
ment plagued by trade tensions, a broader succeed. ponents embedded in client machines that
retreat from globalization and geopolitical Fujio Mitarai, Chairman and CEO of collect and analyze data and provide alerts.
tensions. For some of Japan’s most success- Canon Inc., is another Japanese corporate In an era marked by disruption and
ful corporates, however, the current bout of leader concentrating beyond the immedi- change, it will be companies such as these
volatility is just another short-term challenge ate turbulence to position his company for that will emerge stronger from the immedi-
in their long and successful track record of future growth well into the middle of this ate challenges ahead to prosper for many
overcoming adversity. century. Canon is in the midst of a major more generations to come.


Japan 1

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION





FUJIO MITARAI AIMING TO POSITION



CANON FOR FURTHER GROWTH




ST
INTO THE MID-21 CENTURY





equipment, such as CT, MRI and ultrasound,
while also boosting their competitive
capabilities.
Mid- to long-term growth includes a focus
on regenerative medicine, which could have
far-reaching applications, especially in an
aging society. Since August 2019, the com-
pany has engaged in joint research with Nobel
Prize winner Professor Shinya Yamanaka of
Kyoto University into induced pluripotent
stem (iPS) cells, and how they could be used
to replicate injured tissue, test drug efficacy
and develop new medicines. Canon is con-
tributing advanced optical, measuring and
diagnostic imaging technologies to the proj-
ect. Together with Yamanaka and his research
group, Canon is confident they can make a
contribution to the further development and
adoption of regenerative medicine. It’s still
in the early stages, according to Mitarai, but
there is huge growth potential.

M&A: Mitarai Adopts
Two-Pronged Strategy
Canon's network camera business boasts
annual growth of more than 15% outpac-
ing the market, and Mitarai aims for further
dominance in this area with a two-pronged
strategy of acquiring various hardware and
software businesses.
In 2015, Canon acquired Axis Communica-
Fujio Mitarai is looking to position Canon Inc. The transformation of Canon’s business tions, a global leader in network video equip-
for future growth into the middle of the 21st portfolio includes seeking synergies in new ment, less than a year after the acquisition of
century by building on the transformation of business areas that leverage its existing Milestone Systems, a leader in video manage-
his company’s business portfolio to make the assets, including both technology and human ment software for such equipment. In addi-
switch from a B2C to a B2B company and stay resources, while also continuing to pursue a tion, in 2018, Canon acquired leading video
abreast of global market developments. strategy of merger and acquisitions. “We are analysis solution provider BriefCam.
The year 2020 marks the end of Phase V of transforming our business portfolio to stay in The global network camera market is
this business portfolio transformation, and the sync with the changing times,” Mitarai says. expected to see annual growth in excess of
multinational company that is listed on both 10% over the mid- to long-term, with such
the Tokyo and New York stock exchanges con- Canon at the Cutting Edge in fields as security and law enforcement mak-
tinues to advance steadily toward the targets the Medical Field ing up a major share.
set by Mitarai. Mitarai has earmarked the medical field as an Mitarai explains, “Using a camera equipped
area for potential growth and in December with the ultra-high-resolution 250-megapixel
2016, Canon acquired Toshiba Medical Sys- CMOS sensor and 800mm telephoto lens, it is
“We are transforming our business
tems Corporation. possible to identify the lettering on the side of
portfolio to stay in sync with the
Over the short term, Canon is looking an aircraft from a distance of about 18km. This
changing times,” Mitarai says.
to expand its lineup of diagnostic imaging can help security patrols view objects that



2 Japan

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION


































Canon to expand its lineup of diagnostic imaging equipment. 8K immersive live viewing at Canon's Tokyo headquarters.



cannot be seen with the naked eye.” Serving Professionals and Canon’s Free Viewpoint Video System is
That’s not to say Mitarai is ignoring the con- Innovating Imagery comprised of cameras installed around the
ventional applications of network cameras The Canon name has long been synonymous perimeter of the field, producing computer-
and their potential to help realize a safer, more with consumer cameras, but this market has generated video that provides a new perspec-
secure society. matured as many of the original user needs tive of the game.
Mitarai also sees uses in marketing: “Net- can now be met by smartphones. Mitarai “The images from the cameras are immedi-
work cameras can be used in places like super- wants his company to focus its efforts else- ately processed by computers and television
markets to gather data on purchases made by where, including the professional user market. viewers can observe events from virtually the
certain demographics from specific shelves. I “When we talk about the shrinking camera same level as the crowd in the stadium. It is
believe that this technology can be used to market we are really only talking about con- also possible to trace individual on-field plays,
create a more convenient society,” he says. sumer cameras. The market for professional- and to use computer processing to view them
He cites potential smart cities as a catalyst level cameras used by the media and those from different perspectives,” Mitarai says.
for the future development of the network who shoot sporting events will not disappear. He sees possibilities for strategic analysis in
camera market, envisaging the technol- These are areas where smartphones can’t such sports as American football and to help
ogy connecting such institutions as schools, meet user needs,” he says. referees determine rule violations from posi-
broadcasters and hospitals. Beginning with the Rugby World Cup in tions they cannot see for themselves. “This will
Mitarai’s M&A strategy is also proving a suc- 2019, Japan is set to host a number of global transform the way people watch sports,” he
cess in the field of commercial printing, identi- sporting events over the next several years. adds.
fied as one of Canon’s new core businesses. Mitarai himself played a leading role during Looking ahead, you can be certain that
Canon acquired Océ, based in Venlo, the the Rugby World Cup as Chairman of the Mitarai and his staff have plans for Canon to
Netherlands, in 2010, but the company that is Organizing Committee. continue to create new image expressions
expected to revolutionize high-volume, high- Canon maintains a strong connection that change the way people view sports
speed printing continued to operate under to sports, including event sponsorship and as the third decade of the 21st century gets
its original name. Last year, Océ’s business media support, and has actively honed its underway.
division recognized the advantage of adopt- technological capabilities, including the Free
ing the Canon brand name, and effective Viewpoint Video System, capture and display
from January 2020, the company has been of high-resolution 8K images, and immersive
rebranded as Canon Production Printing— widescreen viewing experiences. Canon pro-
making Océ, already a fully fledged member duced video content that allowed viewers to
of the Canon Group, a member in name as feel like they were right in the middle of the
well. action.






A native of Kyushu, Japan, Fujio Mitarai decided not to follow his father and brothers into medi-
cal school, but instead joined Canon where his uncle served as the first President. Five years
later he was posted to Canon’s U.S. headquarters. He stayed for 23 years, eventually becoming
President of Canon U.S.A. Back in Japan, he was later appointed President of Canon Inc. before
becoming Chairman and CEO. Fujio Mitarai
Chairman and CEO, Canon Inc.
global.canon


Japan 3



SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION





A MAN FOR ALL SEASONINGS




Few executives anywhere have seen as many economic cycles as the head of the world’s best-known maker
and purveyor of soy sauce and other global seasonings.




something, the human perspective, you can’t
really understand anything in business today.”
His most incisive comments were about
rapid change, risk and middle managers’
inability to deal with both: “One thing I notice
is the increasing pace of change. Of course,
there is change in any era. But now the busi-
ness cycles are much faster. There is greater
pressure for companies to make changes
quickly. Management must adapt. However,
today’s middle managers have never experi-
enced a period of strong economic growth.
To use another sports analogy, they’ve never
been on a winning team, so they don’t know
how to win.”
“In fact, top management isn’t much bet-
ter—in many cases senior executives are just
as risk-averse as middle managers, afraid to
He’s not as young as he used to be, but he still assets to work, perhaps by having older work- invest even when doing so is necessary for
cuts a dapper figure in person. At 84, he is one ers teach younger ones, is a smart policy. It’s a company’s growth. Simply put, people are
of the elder statesmen of Japanese business, good for the company, good for the workers afraid of risk," he says.
not merely by virtue of age, but due to the and good for society. Everyone wins.”
widespread respect he commands both at Regarding Japan’s labor shortage he says,
home and abroad. “The short-term answer is simple: we must What should be done? Mogi replies
Yuzaburo Mogi, the Honorary CEO and make the best possible use of our existing quickly that “both employees and
Chairman of the Board of Kikkoman Corpora- resources. That means providing better work- managers should be given a wider
tion, is in many ways the face of the company. ing opportunities for both seniors and for range of experiences to broaden
Back in the early 1970s, he pushed the tradi- women.” their outlook.”
tional soy sauce maker to set up a factory in Many Japanese companies are now putting Bold, decisive men such as Mogi
the U.S.—years before Japan’s giant electron- a strong emphasis on hiring employees with helped to build Japan into the eco-
ics companies and automakers did the same. IT or technical skills. As Kikkoman is deeply nomic giant it became in the 1970s
His strategy of local manufacturing, local sales involved in biotechnology, does Mogi share and beyond. To continue growing in
and responding to local needs was decades that emphasis on technical expertise and IT this century, the nation needs more
ahead of its time. skills? leaders with his values, insight and
How does this farsighted executive feel He thinks a moment and replies, “Of course, vision.
about changes in Japan today? For example, IT skills are important today, but for most work-
many Japanese companies set 60 as their ers, they’re only a tool. Business is fundamen-
mandatory retirement age, but are now hik- tally about people, not technology. To succeed
ing it to 65 in response to the growing labor in business you must understand people.”
shortage. How does Mogi see that change? “I hear some executives say that history, lit-
He is quick to respond: “There are lots of erature, philosophy and so on have no value
people who are still vigorous and want to in the business world. I disagree. I believe
work until 70 or even 75. Why should they be our education system is too specialized; it
forced to retire? Older workers have a wealth has forgotten the importance of liberal arts.
of knowledge and experience. Putting those If you don’t understand the background of




Yuzaburo Mogi is a descendant of one of the founding families of Kikkoman, which is among
the oldest continually running businesses in Japan. He became company President in 1995, was Yuzaburo Mogi
named Chairman in 2004, and assumed the title of Honorary CEO and Chairman of the Board Honorary CEO and Chairman of the Board
of Directors in 2011. Mogi holds an MBA from Columbia University. of Directors, Kikkoman Corporation



Japan 5



SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION





THK TO MAINTAIN MID- TO LONG-



TERM BUSINESS STANCE







“Human beings are multifunctional ani-
“I believe business is more like a mar-
mals. Hence, robots that perform only single
athon, so it is necessary to see things
tasks will not be able to help us in the future.
over the longer term if we are to react
Human symbiotic or human-friendly robots
efficiently.”
that can perform multiple tasks or jobs are
Akihiro Teramachi needed,” he says.
Chief Executive Officer and President, THK That suggests a business opportunity of
staggering proportions.
“The global population is approximately 7
Impact of Digital Technology to 8 billion people, and if the approximately
and OMNIedge Launch 1 billion of those people who live in the
Teramachi and his staff are not adopting a advanced industrialized world live in har-
short-term stance, but are seeking medium mony with such human-friendly robots, then
to longer term solutions as their clients switch we are talking about the birth of a market
strategies, products and business flows using equivalent to that of the global automobile
the latest in digital technology. market,” Teramachi says.
Digital technology underpins AI, IoT and
robots, all of which are fields where THK Globalization

solutions are in demand. However, increased Given that 60% of its workforce now works
digitalization has also created a need to boost overseas, it is no surprise that THK is also
their response time to their clients. To reply banking on globalization. The company is
to those demands, the company developed building a new factory in India, and Terama-
Omni THK, a platform for communicating chi expects the country to develop into a
with clients. market second only to China. Further facto-
Following on this development, from 2020 ries are being considered as THK looks to cut
THK will offer a new service—OMNIedge. the distance between supplier and user.
OMNIedge installs sensors on THK com- “When it comes to components produced
ponents embedded in client machines to in volume, supply and distribution lead times
While many companies have assumed a monitor and predict faults by collecting and become extremely important, and we are
short-term business stance, Akihiro Terama- analyzing data as well as issuing alerts. setting up a system that allows us to pro-
chi is keeping his sights on the mid- to long- “The data gathered from this diagnosis not duce close to our clients. I believe this to be
term, and is looking to capitalize on the new only makes our products more visible, but an important strategy,” he says.
reality of digital technology, aging popula- can also be used to help us advance to the The adoption of these bold strategies sug-
tions and globalization. next stage,” Teramachi says. gests that Teramachi and THK will success-
“The business world is shifting more and fully continue to adapt to the changing busi-
more to a short-term stance. It’s a bit like Extended Life Expectancy ness environment of the future.
being told to be ‘on your mark, get set and Presents Staggering Business
go,’ then having to dash. I believe business Opportunity
is more like a marathon, so we need to see Amid predictions that human beings may live
things over the longer term if we are to react until the age of 120, the challenge is to keep
efficiently,” says Teramachi, Chief Executive up with the compound needs of the ultra-
Officer and President of the company that aging population. Teramachi believes sup-
developed the Linear Motion (LM) Guide port robots are the answer, but he sets high
mechanism in 1972. entry requirements.






Akihiro Teramachi graduated from Keio University in 1971 and joined THK Co., Ltd. in 1975.
He became a Director in 1982 and Vice President in 1994, before becoming CEO in 1997. Akihiro Teramachi
Chief Executive Officer and
President, THK
www.thk.com


Japan 7

THE PROFILE












ELON’S
84














NEW















NEMESIS
























C H E C K YO U R R E A R V I E W M I R R O R ,

T E S L A . R I V I A N H A S A $ 3 B I L L I O N
W A R C H E S T F R O M A M A Z O N , F O R D
A N D T H E S A U D I S , A N D I S R E V V I N G

U P P R O D U C T I O N O N I T S E L E C T R I C
S U V S A N D T R U C K S . N O W A L L T H E

S E C R E T I V E A U T O M A K E R H A S T O D O
I S S TA R T B U I L D I N G C A R S A N D AV O I D
T H E R O A D B L O C K S T H AT A L M O S T

C A U S E D T E S L A T O C R A S H . A R A R E
I N T E R V I E W W I T H I T S 3 7 -Y E A R - O L D

F O U N D E R , R . J . S C A R I N G E .


BY CHUCK TANNERT




F O R B E S . C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 0

85






























































































M A R C H 2 0 2 0 PHOTOGRAPHS BY JAMEL TOPPIN FOR FORBES F O R B E S . C O M

open workspace, accessible to all, with a cafete-
ria, polished concrete floors and lots of natural
light, just like the floor plan at Rivian’s research
and design center in Plymouth, Michigan. The
concept for both offices was to merge industri-
al and outdoor aesthetics that mirror the com-
pany’s brand—an automaker that builds sustain-
able vehicles usable in off-road settings. Rivian,
86 which was founded in 2009 but is finally releas-
ing its first vehicle this year, also has operations
in San Jose and Irvine, California, where it devel-
E
G ops its technology and batteries.
N “When we’re done cleaning, painting and in-
I
R stalling the equipment,” says Rivian’s 37-year-
A
C old founder and CEO, Robert Joseph Scaringe
S
(better known as just R.J.), “we will eventually
.
J I
. be able to produce 250,000 vehicles per year by
R
mid-decade.”


E Starting an independent car company is not
L
I easy. Among the roadkill in automotive history
F
O are Preston Tucker, who challenged Detroit in
R
P the late 1940s, and John DeLorean, who failed to

E take the Motor City back to the future in the early
H
T 1980s. Producing a line of mass-market vehicles
in the 21st century is even more difficult than it
was for Tucker and DeLorean, and considerably
more perilous in the EV category.
With the emergence of Rivian, the electric ve-
hicle market is no longer a one horseless carriage
It’s 8 o’clock on a January morning, and the race. Indeed, the 2020s are gearing up to be the
temperature in Normal, Illinois, just a few hours decade of the EV. According to research at Op-
south of Chicago, is well below freezing. The penheimer, EVs and plug-in electric hybrids ac-
small pond in front of Rivian Automotive’s as- counted for a mere 2.2 percent of all U.S. vehicles
sembly plant has turned to ice, the grass is cov- sold in the last quarter of 2019. And only a third
ered with frost and there is snow in the forecast. of those were purely electric. But that is changing
It’s not much warmer inside the plant. Near- rapidly. While only 5.1 million electric cars were
ly the entire 2.6 million-square-foot facility is a sold worldwide in 2018, that figure is expected
construction zone, undergoing a massive $750 to surge throughout the decade—21 million units
million renovation to prepare for the end of the are projected to be sold in 2020, 98 million in
year, when it expects to start rolling out battery- 2025 and 253 million in 2030.
powered trucks, vans and SUVs. So minor details Building a new EV, however, requires investing
like heat are not exactly a top priority. in cutting-edge research into components like
The only finished area—a second floor at the battery packs and powertrains. The only compa-
front of the building that overlooks the factory— ny that has been remotely successful is, of course,
is where the plant’s previous owner, Mitsubishi, Tesla—and even it has had a rough go of it.
had its executive offices. Back then, access to this “We spent a lot of time looking at and un-
floor was restricted to the suits. Now it’s a giant derstanding how different [automakers] were




2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Company Elon Musk joins Tesla goes
DRIVE founded as chairman Roadster Musk becomes Model S public with
CEO; first
TESLA by Martin after investing prototype Roadsters debuts. $1.7 billion
Eberhard
TIME and Marc in its $7.5 million unveiled. delivered. market
Series A.
cap.
Tappenning.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF
TESLA AND RIVIAN R.J. Scaringe
RIVIAN launches
Mainstream Motors.


F O R B E S . C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 0

JIMCO, the investment arm of
Abdul Latif Jameel, a Saudi
corporation that has bet big on
energy and mobility—has giv-
en Rivian a valuation just north
of $5.5 billion. Scaringe is es-
timated to own slightly more
than 20 percent of the compa-
ny, making him the latest auto- 87
motive billionaire. The funding
has also allowed Scaringe to
nearly triple the size of Rivian’s T
H
workforce, from around 700 in E

2018 to more than 2,000 today, P
R
which is how he can scale pro- O
F
duction this year. I
L
The question is: Even with E


$3 billion, does Rivian have
R
enough to realize Scaringe’s .
J
.
electric dreams?
S
Until now, it’s been a far C
A
smoother road than the one R
I
Musk faced with his first vehi- N
cle. Tesla raised around $100 G
E
million between 2003 and
2008 to produce the Roadster,
which was soon abandoned in
favor of the Model S, and the
Model S required more than
Ride and Seek built,” Scaringe says. “And we spent a lot of time $350 million in funding (including a 2010 IPO
Rivian’s adventure understanding the risks associated with how to that valued the company at $1.7 billion). The jour-
SUV can
accommodate build and scale a business, and the working cap- ney of the Model 3 was particularly rocky. Supply-
seven people, but ital that’s [required].” Over the past 13 months, chain issues and Musk’s desire to completely dis-
the company has
also filed for a patent he and his team have raised $2.85 billion to fund rupt the manufacturing process led to a two year–
to adapt a seat for Rivian’s future. First Amazon (and others) in- plus delay delivering cars to customers and a slew
first responders.
vested $700 million in February 2019. Then of quality-control issues. The fallout from these
Ford ponied up $500 million two months later. problems reportedly cost the EV maker hundreds
Cox Automotive, whose brands include Auto- of millions of dollars. (Tesla did not respond to
trader and Kelley Blue Book, came through with multiple requests for comment.) The company
another $350 million in September. And if that then took on estimated billions in debt as it scaled
weren’t enough to turbocharge Scaringe’s out- its production for the mass market.
sized ambitions, just before Christmas Eve, So if the mighty Tesla has faced so many detours
money management behemoth T. Rowe Price and potholes, what makes Scaringe think that
led yet another investment round worth more Rivian, which hasn’t made a single car, can have a
than $1.3 billion. smooth ride? He doesn’t. “Things will go wrong,”
That early infusion of capital—on top of in- admits the young CEO. And Scaringe, who comes
vestments of nearly $500 million, including from across like a mild-mannered Clark Kent type com-




2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

Raises $1 billion– Market cap
plus in debt Model 3 reaches $100
Model X and more than launches; orders Model Y billion; Tesla
introduced. $5 billion top $7.5 billion debuts. becomes the
over the next in 24 hours. most valuable
five years. Raises U.S. automaker.
Acquires $200 million
Research former in funding Secures
Name changed operations begin Mitsubishi from Standard $2.9 billion from
to Rivian in Michigan; plant in Chartered Amazon, Cox,
Automotive. California Normal, Illinois, Bank; reveals Ford and
follows in 2016. for $16 million. first vehicles, T. Rowe Price.
R1T pickup
and R1S SUV.
M A R C H 2 0 2 0 F O R B E S . C O M

After graduating with his doctorate in 2009,
ROAD WARRIORS Scaringe returned home to Melbourne, Florida,
where he founded the company that became Riv-
ian. He and his team spent four years developing
a speedster-like EV before Scaringe found what
he thought was an obvious gap in electric vehi-
cles and one that spoke to his outdoorsy inter-
ests—a truck and a luxury SUV.
88 Scaringe also spent nearly a decade develop-
Elon Musk R.J. Scaringe
ing its innovative skateboard platform—a chas-
CEO, Tesla Founder/CEO, Rivian
sis that contains the battery pack, suspension,
E BORN
G electric motors for propulsion and a computer
N Pretoria, South Africa Melbourne, Florida to control it all. Finally, in November 2018, Rivi-
I
R AGE an unveiled its two prototypes at the Los Angeles
A
C 48 37 Auto Show: The R1S, an electric SUV that seats
S
NET WORTH
seven, and the R1T, an electric pickup truck. The
.
J
. $39.3 billion $1 billion so-called “adventure vehicles” look like the love
R
CARS PRODUCED TO DATE children of a Range Rover—rugged, capable and


E 900,000-plus 0 luxurious—and are packed with the latest ame-
L
I EDUCATION nities such as internet connectivity and a host of
F
O B.S., University of B.S., Rensselaer Polytechnic driver-assist safety features.
R Pennsylvania; B.S., Institute; M.S. and Ph.D., MIT,
P the Wharton School Sloan Automotive Lab The company expects to deliver an ambitious

E MARITAL STATUS 20,000 units (combined truck and SUV) in 2021
H
T Twice divorced, five sons; Married, and 40,000 in 2022, which could translate to ap-
now dating pop star Grimes three sons proximately $1.4 billion and $2.8 billion, respec-
SUPERHERO ALTER EGO tively, if all goes according to plan. By comparison,
Tony Stark Clark Kent Tesla sold 25,000 units of the Model X in 2016, its
TWITTER FOLLOWERS first full year of release.
31 million 10,600 Beyond its first two releases, Scaringe says

TYPICAL TWEET there will be three more vehicles in the Rivian
“And, no, I’m not an alien . . . “Great work team.” portfolio by 2024. Though he is cautious about
but I used to be one.”
providing details, Scaringe admits that one will
be smaller in size and all will be considerably
lower in price. It’s a strategy akin to what Land
Rover does with its Defender and top-of-the-
line Range Rovers—i.e., the same base model
pared to Musk’s manic Tony Stark, is confident he with fewer amenities. And if Scaringe can truly
can overcome any perils or roadblocks. After all, keep the price below $50,000, it will cause far
Rivian is built for treacherous terrain. worse headaches for Musk than a broken shat-
terproof window on his Franken-vehicle, the
Cybertruck.
R    starting his own car company ket—by one estimate it represents nearly 80% of
.J. Scaringe first dreamed of
Tesla, of course, now dominates the EV mar-
sales in the United States—and Rivian will face
when he was in high school. But
unlike most teenage gearheads stiff competition in the luxury battery-powered
with the same ambition, Scaringe SUV segment from other automakers. The R1S
backed it up by studying engineering. His vision SUV will enter a market in the fall that includes
changed in 2007 while attending MIT’s presti- the Mercedes-Benz EQC (starting at $67,900);
gious Sloan Automotive Lab, where he attained the Audi e-tron SUV ($74,800); the Jaguar i-
a doctorate in mechanical engineering and the Pace ($69,500); and, of course, the Tesla Model
skills he would need to build the vehicle he imag- X ($84,990). Other automakers such as Hyun-
ined in his head. “As I became increasingly aware dai and Kia will offer more affordable options,
of how many problems were born out of the au- such as the Kona EV, starting at $37,190, and JOHN RAOUX/AP; CARLOS DELGADO-AP
tomobile—geopolitical, climate, air quality and Niro EV, starting at $38,500, respectively.
more—it became a huge source of internal con- Rivian should be without real competition in
flict for me,” he recalls. So he scrapped his plan the truck category, however. Despite Tesla’s high-
for a gas-powered sports car for one that was bat- ly public debut of the Cybertruck, it’s not expect-
tery-powered, much like Tesla’s original Roadster. ed to be produced until 2022. And both Ford and


F O R B E S . C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 0

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General Motors have promised to release electric aving built a $3 billion war
pickups in the next few years. H    chest from Amazon, Ford and
“The opportunities [in the EV market] are Cox in a short time is certain-
pretty substantial,” says Ed Kim, a market ana- ly an impressive start for Scar-
lyst for AutoPacific, an automotive research and inge, but if Tesla’s history is an
consulting firm based in California. If Rivian be- example, that won’t be enough funding to scale
comes a threat to Tesla dominance, it could en- production to compete with Musk. Then again,
ergize the category and set up a true EV rival- those brands see opportunity in Rivian that Tesla
90 ry. “Some experts have been predicting this for a could never provide.
while, and I think there are a few key factors hap- The partnerships Scaringe forged weren’t just
pening now that [are leading to further] pene- about the cash. In Ford’s case, the two companies
E
G tration of the EV,” says Steven Low, a professor will also build an electric vehicle together. “We’re
N of computer science and electrical engineering at providing the platform,” Scaringe says. “They
I
R Caltech. One is that vehicle range is expanding. will provide the body and the interior.” Although
A
C Another is the availability of more charging facil- Scaringe is reticent in talking about the project,
S
ities. And the third element is price. the vehicle will be a luxury SUV with Ford’s Lin-
.
J
. Rivian claims its R1S and R1T will offer out- coln brand.
R
standing performance, including a range of just Rivian hopes the Ford alliance will allow the


E over 400 miles, or nearly 75 miles more than company to grow beyond its own consumer elec-
L
I any other existing EV. Both will be able to sprint tric vehicle offerings. For its part, Ford is seem-
F
O from zero to 60 mph in about three seconds. ingly doing it to keep the company’s options
R
P Above all, Rivian promises genuine off-road ca- open, as it often does, to pursue the best option

E pability. Try driving your Tesla on the beach or with which to achieve its electrification goals: 40
H
T into the woods. electric vehicle models by the end of 2022. Be-
The company also plans to build out a charg- sides the Lincoln with Rivian, Ford is working on
ing infrastructure, much like Tesla’s Supercharg- the electric Mustang-inspired Mach-E SUV and
ers. “We are developing them in parallel,” Scar- both a hybrid and all-electric version of the Ford
inge says. As for the cost, Rivian’s pickup will F-150, America’s best-selling vehicle. Ford is also
have a base price around $69,000, and the SUV working with Volkswagen to develop EVs on its
will be $72,500 (and both come with a federal new EV platform.
tax incentive). Scaringe hints that these prices Amazon, meanwhile, is looking to Rivian to
will come down closer to release but wouldn’t re- develop a battery-powered delivery van as part
veal a precise figure. of its pledge to be net-zero carbon across all its
Much will depend on Rivian’s new deep-pock- businesses by 2040 and use 100 percent renew-
eted partners. able energy to power those businesses by 2030.










THE FABULOUS STUDEBAKER BOYS

Electric-car companies have been short-circuiting for more than a century. Some 50 years
after their company was founded, three of the Studebaker brothers—Henry, Clem and
John—steered their family’s prosperous wagonmaking business toward automobiles. In 1902,
Studebaker released its first battery-operated vehicle and would eventually add several
more models, including a line of commercial trucks. But the cars were expensive—around
$30,000 in today’s dollars, or nearly 15% more than a Ford Model T—and slow, maxing out
around 20 mph, a third of what a gas-powered car could do. The batteries alone weighed
970 pounds. After producing just 1,841 vehicles in
12 years, Studebaker ended its electric line in
1912 to focus on gas vehicles.
The irony was not lost on Elon Musk, who in 2018
visited the Studebaker museum in South Bend,
Indiana, and tweeted out John Studebaker’s
dictum about gas cars: “Clumsy, dangerous, STOCK MONTAGE/GETTY IMAGES; ALAMY
noisy brutes, which stink to high heaven.”
Five Pack
The Studebakers launched their wagon company
in 1852. The last car to bear their name, the
Studebaker Cruiser, rolled off the line in 1966.



F O R B E S . C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 0

91



T
H

P
R
O
F
Consequently, Amazon ordered 100,000 vans out of a suitcase, spending five days a week trav- The New Normal E
I
L
from Rivian. At least 10,000 should be on the eling among the company’s four offices to make Rivian’s complex E

in Illinois was •
road by late 2022, and all are expected to be op- sure things are on schedule. His wife, Meagan, formerly a Mitsubishi

R
erating in Amazon’s fleet by 2024. The vans will and their three boys (all under 5) see him from factory, many of .
whose workers J
presumably become part of an end-to-end logis- Friday night to Sunday evening in their unas- have returned. .

Next, Scaringe will S
tics network that Amazon has been working on suming three-bedroom house near Irvine. On purchase a 350-acre C
since 2015. If so, expect more Rivian orders to Sunday evening, he boards a plane to Michigan farm nearby to A
supply food for the I
R
come down the road. and repeats the process to ensure that his larg- facility. N
But it’s the Cox partnership that could prove er vision is being realized: thinking globally and G
the most troubling for Musk. While Tesla has acting locally.
E
more than 100 service centers in 30 states, When the Mitsubishi plant closed in July 2015,
Cox handled more than 55 million service ap- for example, the mood in Normal was decided-
pointments in 2019 at its sprawling network ly funereal. “It hurt,” says Mayor Chris Koos. “It
of commercial and dealer partner service cen- left over 1,000 people out of work, which causes a
ters across the United States. If something goes ripple effect throughout the community.”
wrong with an R1T or R1S, the idea, presum- Even after the plant was sold to Rivian for
ably, is that a customer will be able to take the $16 million in 2017, residents remained skepti-
vehicle to a Cox service center like Pivet to have cal. That negative sentiment soon changed, how-
it repaired correctly and in a timely fashion, ever. “Rivian showed interest in the lifestyle of
something that Tesla has struggled with since the community, the quality of education, afford-
its inception. able housing and access to transportation,” May-
Cox is also playing the long game with Rivi- or Koos says. The company even had a preview
an—as more vehicles come to market, it wants day in Normal last summer to answer any ques-
to control secondary sales. “My hope is with tions from local residents. It made a big impact
the skills that we have,” says Cox president San- on Normal’s perception of Rivian and, not sur-
dy Schwartz, “and with all the things that we’re prisingly, proved valuable when it came to re-
learning, that we’ll be the chief wholesale remar- cruiting employees.
keter for all Rivians someday.” With the town onboard, Scaringe is now on a
Now they just have to build some. mission to lead Rivian through its first produc-
tion cycle and expand its line. Though it’s too ear-
ly to tell who will win the EV wars, Rivian is one
T    that Rivian calls home is the per- chance not only to survive, but thrive, according
of just a couple of companies that has a strong
he name of the Illinois town
to Navigant’s Sam Abuelsamid. He thinks Rivi-
fect adjective to describe Scar-
inge himself and differenti- an might even be in a better position going for-
ate him from Musk: Normal. ward than Tesla: “If you’re talking about who’s
Whereas Tesla’s cofounder is all bravado and going to have potentially the most volume, get-
showmanship—he has weaponized his Twitter ting more vehicles to market in the near to mid-
account and turned it into a de facto marketing term, [I’d say] probably Tesla.” But from an ac-
division—Scaringe is soft-spoken and low-key. tual business standpoint, Rivian is “in the better
While Musk is photographed with models and position to succeed because of the nature of the
pop stars, Scaringe is a family man, even if he products they have.”
rarely sees his family lately. These days, he lives But first, the rubber has to hit the road.


M A R C H 2 0 2 0 F O R B E S . C O M

THE TREND














92






T R U S T Y O U R G U T






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O N T H E B R AV E S T F R O N T I E R I N H U M A N

H E A LT H , S C I E N T I S T S A R E U S I N G

B A C T E R I A F R O M T H E D I G E S T I V E S Y S T E M

T O C R E AT E N O V E L M E D I C I N E S F O R A

H U G E R A N G E O F A I L M E N T S I N C L U D I N G

P A R K I N S O N ’ S , C A N C E R A N D A U T I S M .
G AT E S , B E N I O F F A N D Z U C K E R B E R G A R E

T R U E B E L I E V E R S , A N D T H E R E S U LT

C O U L D B E B L O C K B U S T E R D R U G S T H AT

T R A N S F O R M L I V E S — A N D D E L I V E R

MASSI VE RET UR NS FOR EARLY IN VESTORS .














BY SUSAN ADAMS AND WILL YAKOWICZ PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL PRINCE FOR FORBES

93






















































































Fecal Forest

Finch Therapeutics cofounder Mark Smith at Finch’s


Somerville, Massachusetts, offices. “It’s only in the

past 15 years that we’ve come to understand the
incredible diversity of the microbiome. It’s almost
like a rainforest inside our bodies. There are 100
times more bacterial genes than human genes.”

→ Sharp pains shot through the



patient’s stomach, and he had

94
constant diarrhea. Seven rounds

D
N
E
R
T
of antibiotics over 18 months had
E
H
T
only made him feel worse.




A previously healthy man in his 20s who wishes to remain anonymous, he had contracted a recur-
ring case of Clostridium difficile, or C. diff, after having his gallbladder removed in 2012. Hospital
patients are prone to C. diff since antibiotic treatment for other maladies decimates the infection-
fighting capacity of what scientists call the gut microbiome, the trillions of cells that move through
the human digestive system. “It didn’t just affect my gut,” he says. “I was exhausted all the time.
I had really bad brain fog. I couldn’t concentrate.”


Desperate, he researched possible therapies and discov- longer distances. A new drug for obesity alone could be
ered articles about fecal transplants wiping out the infec- worth more than $20 billion.
tion. But his gastroenterologist refused to perform the pro- So far, the most compelling microbiome-derived therapy is
cedure. So he took matters into his own hands. He asked a live fecal transplant for C. diff, which strikes half a million
his roommate to supply a stool sample, bought an enema Americans annually, killing 15,000. In 2013, the New England
kit from CVS, pulsed the mixture in a blender, strained Journal of Medicine published a paper that caught the scien-
it through a coffee filter and pumped it into his gut. As tific community by surprise and jump-started investment in
though a wizard had cast a spell, he made a full recovery microbiome drug development. In a randomized trial, 94%
within days. of recurrent C. diff patients recovered after receiving fecal
Welcome to the most promising new frontier in medicine: transplants. To put that in context, cancer drugs with efficacy
poop. By focusing on what’s coming out of patients’ rear rates as low as 10% have been approved by the FDA.
ends, a growing body of scientific research over the last 15 Billions of dollars are pouring into microbiome medicine.
years has highlighted the crucial role the microbiome plays Gbola Amusa, a medical doctor and partner at Chardan, a
in human health. That new understanding could lead to health care–focused investment bank in New York, pegs the
breakthrough treatments for a huge range of illnesses, from total amount invested since 2014 at more than $5 billion.
obvious ones like digestive ailments and food allergies to sur- Techie billionaires including Bill Gates, Salesforce founder
prising ones like cancer and autism. A microbiome-derived Marc Benioff and Silicon Valley venture capitalist Vinod
drug is already in the works to prevent childhood asthma. Khosla are funding microbiome startups, and Gates, Be-
Put crudely, the idea is to use gut bugs as drugs. More nioff and Mark Zuckerberg have all made donations to sup-
than 50,000 scientific papers in the last five years have ex- port microbiome research at institutions including Stan-
plored the microbiome’s effects. Various kinds of gut bac- ford, Washington University in St. Louis and the University
teria appear to stimulate or suppress immune responses of California, San Francisco.
in the body, while others seem to fight off disease-causing The race is on for FDA approval of the first drug made
microbes. A groundswell of cutting-edge research has the from gut bacteria. But the science is young and unproven.
potential to deliver a burst of new therapies that will vastly At Oppenheimer in New York, Mark Breidenbach says
reduce human suffering—and generate huge paydays for investor enthusiasm in microbiome companies is on a
the field’s pioneers. downswing because “there is no consensus about what the
When scientists transferred gut microbiome cells from microbiome can do.”
obese mice into lean ones, the recipients gained weight. In Amusa is more bullish. “The science is turning,” he says.
one study, melanoma patients with the most diverse mi- “When it comes through with proof, these biotech compa-
crobiomes had the best response to immunotherapy. And nies will be worth not hundreds of millions of dollars, but
mice injected with gut bacteria from marathon runners ran billions.”


F O R B E S . C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 0

S    omerville, Massachusetts–based Finch cessfully treated, freeze-drying it and delivering the equiva-

Therapeutics is one of the most prom-
lent of a fecal transplant in a single pill. It’s also working on
simpler drugs made from five to 10 key bacteria. It expects
ising startups developing microbiome
drugs. Cofounder Mark Smith, 33, was a results from its first Phase 2 trial (which demonstrates ef-
microbiol ogy grad student at MIT when ficacy) of the full-spectrum C. diff capsule by the end of the
the 20-something C. diff patient begged him for help. “I had second quarter of 2020.
to tell him, I’m a microbiologist, not a doctor,” Smith says. “Even if only a few of the microbiome therapies scientists
The patient’s ordeal motivated Smith to create Open- are working on come to fruition,” Smith says, “it will have a
Biome, the equivalent of a public blood bank for human huge impact on public health.” 95
feces, while Smith was still at MIT in 2013. The Cambridge,
Massachusetts, nonprofit, the first of its kind in the world, nother MIT Ph.D., Bernat Olle, 40, is run- T
has since supplied stool for more than 53,000 transplants A    ning Vedanta Biosciences, a nine-year-old H
in 1,200 hospitals and clinics. Cambridge, Massachusetts–based micro- E

Inspired by the demand for transplants, Smith cofound- biome drug developer with $112 million M
I
ed for-profit Finch (named for the diverse group of finches in funding, including $10 million from C
R
Charles Darwin discovered in the Galápagos Islands) in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates investment O
B
2016 to develop an FDA-approved C. diff pill. Currently, supports preclinical research at Vedanta aimed at develop- I
O
most doctors perform fecal transplants through a colonos- ing a gut bacteria–derived drug that would prevent child M
copy, which can cost as much as $5,000. The procedure is malnutrition in the developing world. Nearly 200 million E
not FDA-approved or reliably covered by insurance. children under age 5 suffer from either wasting or stunting,
Smith and his 80 employees occupy two floors in an in- resulting in at least 1.5 million deaths a year. “Malnourished
dustrial park that formerly housed administrative offices children struggle to gain weight even when fed enough,”
and storage space for the Harvard Art Museums. Tall and Olle says. “Emerging research suggests that this is because
slender with piercing blue eyes, he welcomes the inevitable their gut microbiota develop abnormally, and that benefi-
jokes that come with being a human-feces entrepreneur. On cial gut bacterial strains may help correct this imbalance.”
Halloween he wore a poop-emoji costume (“I was a pooper Vedanta also has two partnerships with big pharmaceuti-
trooper”) to the office, where the copiers have names like cal companies, including Bristol-Myers Squibb, to develop
Squatty Potty and Magic Stool Bus. drugs aimed at boosting the effectiveness of immunotherapy
But he has raised serious capital. Venture funds have put to treat melanoma and colorectal and gastric cancers. Like
in $130 million, and Finch has a partnership with Tokyo- Finch, Vedanta is developing a drug to treat recurrent C. diff.
based pharma giant Takeda
to develop drugs for ulcer-
ative colitis and Crohn’s dis-
ease, which together have
10 million sufferers world-
wide. Finch is also working
on an autism drug.
Traditionally, scientists
start with data gathered
through experiments on
mice. Finch is taking a “hu-
man-first” approach, skip-
ping the rodents and ana-
lyzing the stool of human
patients who have recov-
ered after receiving fecal
transplants. “We’re looking
at what works in patients
and figuring out how to
make our drugs from the
top down,” Smith says. “It’s
MICHAEL PRINCE FOR FORBES Finch is extracting what Drugs From Bugs
called reverse translation.”
For one of its C. diff drugs,


Smith describes as the “full
spectrum” of bacteria in a
Bernat Olle, cofounder and CEO of Vedanta Biosciences, in one of Vedanta’s labs
human stool sample from
in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “I don’t think there’s any other field of medicine today
a patient who has been suc-

M A R C H 2 0 2 0 that holds as much promise for the future of medicine as the microbiome.” F O R B E S . C O M

E    very gold rush attracts

its share of charlatans
and claim jumpers.
More than a half-
dozen startups are
using the microbiome as a marketing
buzzword to sell stool-analysis tests.
The kits, which require the consumer
96 to mail a small sample to a lab, pur-
port to convey valuable personalized
health data and nutrition advice. That
D
N despite a consensus among scientists
E
R that it’s not yet possible to draw useful
T dietary recommendations from a per-

E
H son’s poop. To avoid hostile oversight
T
by the FDA, the kit sellers are careful
to make no specific claims about diag-
nosing or treating particular diseases.
Four years ago, former InfoSpace
billionaire Naveen Jain, 60, launched
Bellevue, Washington–based Viome,
which sells a $119 “gut intelligence
test” online. After analyzing a pea-sized
stool sample, it sends customers a cus-
tomized 60-page report with dietary
recommendations “aimed at balanc-
ing your overall microbiome.” It might
recommend, for instance, increasing
Medicine Show
consumption of “superfoods” like al-
Viome founder Naveen Jain at company headquarters in a Bellevue, Washington,
WeWork space. “The goal is to scientifically show that it’s not voodoo stuff or a placebo.” falfa sprouts and anchovies or avoiding
green beans and kombucha. Jain says
Viome has sold more than 100,000 kits
Inside Vedanta’s maze of labs and storage rooms is an and banked more than $15 million in revenue last year.
oversized freezer containing fecal matter from 275 donors “Viome’s claims are not supported by any scientific litera-
on four continents, including an indigenous tribe in Papua ture,” says Jonathan Eisen, a medical microbiology professor
New Guinea. Vedanta is isolating and then testing bacteria who directs microbiome research at the University of Cali-
from each sample in the hope of determining which strains fornia, Davis. “What they’re saying is, in fact, deceptive.” A
make the most effective drugs. dozen former Viome staffers say they believe the company
A wiry Catalan immigrant with close-cropped salt-and- was selling a product of dubious value. Six of those ex-staffers
pepper hair who bicycles to work, Olle came to the U.S. describe the food recommendations as “pseudoscience.”
in 2002 to study chemical engineering at MIT, where he “Anyone who says this doesn’t understand how our sci-
focused on the emerging science of using live organisms ence works and how we make recommendations,” Jain
like bacteria to produce drugs. In 2007, after earning both counters. “It’s not my job to convince everyone; it’s my job
an MIT doctorate and an MBA from the Sloan School, he to continue to help make the world a better place.”
joined PureTech Health, a Boston biotech firm. A nonstop talker prone to enthusiastic, stream-of-
In 2010 PureTech backed him in launching Vedanta consciousness self-promotion, Jain immigrated to the U.S.
with five cofounders, all scientists, including big names from India in 1982 and worked at Microsoft from 1989 until
such as Kenya Honda, a microbiology professor at Keio 1996, when he founded InfoSpace, also in Bellevue, which
University medical school in Tokyo. Honda had published delivered internet content to early cellphones. His net
a groundbreaking paper on the connection between gut worth ballooned to $8 billion, then crashed to $220 million
bacteria and regulatory T cells, known to prevent inflam- when the first internet bubble burst. A flood of shareholder
matory diseases. “Think of them as the U.N. peace forces suits followed, and the InfoSpace board fired him as CEO in
of the intestine,” Olle says. “Honda’s work suggested that late 2002. Before he left InfoSpace, he bought a $13 million
the cells encoded in human DNA are influenced by the stucco mansion on the shores of Lake Washington not far
bacteria that live within you.” from Jeff Bezos’ and Bill Gates’ pads. TIM PANNELL FOR FORBES
“This work has forced me to rethink what it means to be Despite having no background in science or medicine,
human,” Olle says. “We are not just the product of the Homo Jain has managed to raise $75 million from investors in-
sapiens genome.” cluding Benioff and Khosla. Both declined to comment on


F O R B E S . C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 0

their microbiome investments. But Alex Morgan, a Khosla where 1,000 germ-free mice, delivered by Caesarean section
Ventures principal with an M.D. and Ph.D. from Stanford, in sterile conditions to ensure they are bacteria-free, live
suggests Khosla’s decision to back Viome has nothing to do inside plastic-encased rectangular bubbles. Grad students
with nutritional advice. Instead, he says, the firm invested douse the animals’ food with various gut microbes to test
because Viome hired a team of scientists from the U.S. De- which bacteria promote tremors and motor problems in
partment of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory. In mice that correlate with Parkinson’s symptoms in humans.
addition, Viome had made a deal with the lab to license a In 2016, David Donabedian, a chemistry Ph.D. who was
valuable tech platform that has a unique ability to sequence then a partner at Longwood Fund, a Boston venture capital
the biochemical activity in microorganisms. firm, volunteered to raise the money and research power to 97
So even if Jain is selling snake oil, Viome might have sig- move Mazmanian’s biotech venture forward. The company,
nificant value. Indeed, British pharma giant GlaxoSmith- Waltham, Massachusetts–based Axial Biotherapeutics, has T
Kline struck a royalty deal with Viome in November 2019 to $55 million in backing and 30 employees. Under Donabe- H
use its tech to help develop microbiome-derived vaccines. dian as CEO, Axial is in the early stages of developing syn- E

Jain’s investors could make out handsomely. thetic drugs made of small molecules it hopes will absorb M
I
the particular gut-bacteria byproducts (called “metabo- C
R
A    crobiologist Sarkis Mazmanian, 47, is working on a drug to treat the digestive problems suffered B
t Caltech in Pasadena, California, mi-
lites”) that appear to exacerbate autism symptoms. It’s also
O
I
O
by many people with Parkinson’s.
considered one of the foremost gurus of
M
microbiome research. In 2012 the MacAr- In the U.S., more than a million people suffer from autism, E
thur Foundation gave him a $500,000 and there are no drugs to treat it; an additional million have
“genius” grant for his work on the microbiome’s role in Parkinson’s. What would be the value of an FDA-approved
disease. Since then, he’s been exploring one of the most in- drug for either condition? “I can’t give you a market size,”
triguing connections in human health: the “gut-brain axis.” says Donabedian. “But if either one hits, it will be huge.”
The working thesis is that the bugs in your belly have a Chris Howerton, a biotechnology analyst at Jefferies, a
direct impact on your neurological health, which has pro- New York investment bank, is less shy. “If every single mi-
found implications for autism, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. crobiome paper turns into a proven therapy, it could im-
In 2008, two years after joining the Caltech faculty, pact the drug markets for most major categories of disease,
Mazmanian published a cover story in Nature that docu- which together were worth $350 billion in 2018 in the U.S.
mented his successful treatment of inflammatory bowel dis- alone,” he says. “The breadth of the microbiome’s potential
ease in mice with human gut bacteria. A Caltech colleague, application is really tantalizing.” F
Paul Patterson, who was
researching autism in mice,
saw a possible connection to
the digestive problems suf-
fered by as many as 60% of
children with autism.
Together they started test-
ing whether human gut bac-
teria could induce and ame-
liorate autism-like symptoms
in mice. In the midst of their
early work, Patterson was
diagnosed with fatal brain
cancer. In a hospital room
at UCLA where Patterson
was awaiting surgery in May
2014, Mazmanian signed pa-
pers giving Patterson a stake
in a company that would de-
velop drugs from their exper-
iments. “I wanted Paul to get
the recognition of his con-
ETHAN PINES FOR FORBES Patterson died the following The Gut-Brain Connection
tribution,” says Mazmanian.

month.
Mazmanian is carrying
Caltech professor Sarkis Mazmanian in one of his Pasadena, California, labs. In a trailblazing study,
on their research in his sub-
he transferred gut bacteria from humans with autism into sterile mice who then exhibited autism-like
basement lab at Caltech,

M A R C H 2 0 2 0 behaviors. “The most rigorous clinicians and investors,” he says, “realize this is a long journey we’re on.” 
F O R B E S . C O M

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F O R B E S . C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 0


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