He pitched 100 VC and spent 3 years building— then grew to $7B AUM. | Doug Scott, Founder of Ethic

Doug spent 3 years building technology before landing real customers. While other startups were growing fast, Ethic was stuck at $5M AUM after two years. Until he found a way to help his customers help them WIN new clients they couldn't land before.

That single shift took them to $250M AUM in one year. He reveals why he left investment banking in Australia, sold everything, and moved to the Bay Area within three weeks with no idea what company to start.

He pitched over 100 investors to raise early rounds, survived years of building with no traction, and discovered the enterprise sales playbook that unlocked distribution in wealth management. Today Ethic manages $7B and has raised.

"If I knew how difficult it would be, maybe I wouldn't have done it." This is the reality of building a decade-long overnight success.

Why You Should Listen:

• Why helping customers win new business is the killer ROI
• How to survive a 3-year build phase when everyone else is growing fast
• Why you should pitch 100+ investors even if only 5 will say yes
• How to figure out distribution and go-to-market
• Why the best value-add investors never pitch their value-add

Keywords:

startup podcast, startup podcast for founders, Ethic, Douglas Scott, wealth management, ESG investing, fintech, B2B2C, Series A, distribution strategy

00:00:00 Intro

00:01:47 What Ethic does

00:08:15 Leaving Australia for Bay Area with no plan

00:17:06 The breakthrough for 5x YoY growth

00:29:42 Three years building with no traction

00:38:36 Distribution partnerships unlock growth

00:42:44 Finding product-market fit

Send me a message to let me know what you think!