GreenwichFounder Spotlight
The Retirement Institute — Brandon Stuerke
One of the standout stories to come out of Greenwich was Brandon Stuerke and The Retirement Institute.
The content was always the strength here, real planning insight for retirees, delivered through an impressive technology platform. What came out of conversations with our Funders was a sharper read on the business model underneath it: the original agency structure wasn’t built to command the kind of multiple a business with this quality of content and delivery deserved. So Brandon rebuilt around an online learning platform instead, same substance, a model built to scale.
“I left Greenwich, went home, and immediately read two books: The Science of Scaling and Platform Revolution. Within 30 days, 26 years of learnings clicked into place and we started building The Retirement Institute. We went from ‘your business isn’t scalable enough’ to a vision and a plan for the largest virtual family office in the country.”
The traction since has been real. Brandon onboarded his first 10 advisors in the last 60 days, and he’s now adding 5 to 7 new advisors a month, with a plan to scale to 10-15 a month by Q4. He’s also launched his first 2 consumer course funnels, with 4 more rolling out this month.
Coming up: The Retirement Institute Live Zoom Podcast, a weekly session where retirees can log on and learn directly from some of the sharpest minds in retirement planning.
This is a great example of why we do what we do. Brandon didn’t leave Greenwich with a check, he left with a room full of operators who pressure-tested his model and helped him find a better one.
Check out what they’re building: theretirementinstitute.com
PlaybookBuilder — Jon LoDuca
Jon LoDuca and PlaybookBuilder have been on a tear since we last saw them in Greenwich.
PlaybookBuilder already had EOS Worldwide’s endorsement, the software runs inside EOS’s own HQ operations today. Now that relationship has officially expanded: PlaybookBuilder was just named the only licensee for the Process Component, one of the Six Key Components in Gino Wickman’s Traction. EOS is turning their internal use of the software into a public case study, and Jon is partnering directly with Kelly Knight, EOS’s Integrator (President), on a joint venture Masterclass on being an Integrator, launching this fall through the PlaybookBuilder platform. Real traction, pun intended.
Here's why this matters beyond PlaybookBuilder itself
Every advisor practice and agency of real value has a process that’s been normalized over the years, the thing nobody talks about because it’s just “how we do it,” but it’s actually the backbone of the business. Most of that knowledge lives in people’s heads or scattered documents. PlaybookBuilder is the system built to capture it, structure it, and turn it into something the business owns and can pass on and scale. That’s exactly why an organization like EOS Worldwide is aligning with them.
The growth numbers back it up
Revenue is up 43% since last fall, and the team has grown by 3 people, roughly doubling in size.
On the product side
Jon and team just launched Sofia, an AI search tool that turns a user’s entire account into something like an Alexa or Siri, aggregating all their content into a searchable, instantly answerable knowledge base. A refreshed version of the core software, with an updated UI and new features, is coming this August. And a new book, Unleashed, launches in Q1, with a foreword from Kelly Knight, laying out PlaybookBuilder’s approach to transferring wisdom inside an organization.
They’ve also stood up their first cohort of Certified Advisors, 6 process advisors now trained in the PlaybookBuilder methodology and using the platform with their own clients.
The biggest swing
PlaybookBuilder is moving to become an MCP (Model Context Protocol), positioning itself as the “brain” of a company, plugging into a business’s various data feeds and AI tools, processing that information, and automatically creating and sharing training while measuring adoption in real time.
From a Greenwich conversation to a formal licensing relationship with EOS Worldwide, this is exactly the kind of growth we love to see.
Check out what they’re building: playbookbuilder.com
Kadance — Darren Rowe
Darren Rowe came to Greenwich with one of the most compelling stories in the room: an insurance living benefit that people actually use, on day one, before a claim is ever filed.
Since then, Kadance has kept building momentum on every front. Nationwide completed an initial pilot of the Kadance Program through LIBRA Insurance Partners, joining Chubb in helping make precision health management available to policyholders. Kadance also brought on new capital, most recently from Oncology Ventures, along with a strategic investment from Nassau Financial Group’s Nassau Reimagine venture arm, both signs of how seriously the industry is taking this space. A number of our own Funders saw the same thing and put their own capital behind Darren’s mission, which says a lot about the conviction in that room in Greenwich.
Here's why it matters beyond Kadance
For decades, life insurance has been a product people buy and then forget about until something goes wrong. Kadance flips that. Engagement rates are as high as 90% and significantly higher than traditional insurance benefits, and third-party-published data using Kadance’s technology has shown a 2.1% absolute mortality reduction in high-risk seniors. For a carrier, that is not a marginal improvement; it changes the underlying risk profile of the policy. For an agent or agency, it is a living benefit clients will actually thank you for, not another line item they forget they are paying for.
The team has stayed disciplined on the financial side too. YTD May 2026 net revenue for Kadance is up 51% year over year, and they have cut consolidated hosting costs by roughly 50% while continuing to grow. They are also gearing up for a direct-to-consumer launch this month, opening the door for individuals to access the program outside of an employer or carrier relationship for the first time.
Darren and team are proof of what happens when you combine a real clinical breakthrough with the discipline to run the business well. That is exactly why we wanted him in the room in Greenwich, and why our Funders keep showing up for him beyond it.
Check out what they’re building: kadance.com
DeepVest — Toby Wade
Toby Wade brought a sharp thesis to Greenwich: general-purpose AI has a hallucination problem, and in wealth management that isn’t a minor bug, it’s a fiduciary risk. DeepVest exists to solve it, giving advisors CIO-level portfolio analysis with full auditability and zero hallucination risk.
Since then, DeepVest has shown just how fast that thesis is playing out
Revenue doubled month over month from April to May, and DeepVest crossed a real inflection point, moving from negative to positive gross margins in the same stretch. Their largest client scaled usage from 10 seats to 35, and the team is now in late-stage discussions with a top-tier wirehouse that would meaningfully expand their reach and the assets served through the platform.
The industry is taking notice too. DeepVest was named a finalist in two categories, Portfolio Analytics and Client Profiling, at the Wealth Management Industry Awards, standing alongside established names like YCharts and Nitrogen. They were also selected to open the Morningstar Fintech Showcase as the first presenter, with Morningstar’s CEO in attendance. Winners get announced September 10th in New York, and we will be cheering Toby and team on as the industry gets its chance to see just how much they value what DeepVest is building.
Toby and team have kept pushing the research forward
Publishing studies on where general AI breaks down in investment workflows and why consistency and repeatability are non-negotiable for AI used in a fiduciary setting, the kind of thought leadership that is helping set the standard for the category rather than just compete in it.
As one advisor and investor close to the company put it, this isn’t a tailwind, it’s a hurricane. That’s exactly the kind of momentum we look for from the groups that presented in Greenwich.
Check out what they’re building: deepvest.ai
ReFocus AI — Colby Tunick
Colby Tunick, CEO of ReFocus AI, took his business to the next level after presenting at the Greenwich event. ReFocus’s IntelliAgent software automatically re-shops policies across an agency’s carriers and automates the surrounding workflow end to end. But Colby realized after presenting to our group that agencies don’t need more software to manage, they need their existing workflow to run itself, so they can do a lot more without manual back-office work and focus on customers and growth.
“We left the last Founder’s Chair event in Greenwich with a realization: a good tech product isn’t good enough by itself. The tech has to be great, but it has to work inside the customer’s existing workflow and their business, and be seamless for them to implement, while cutting their back-office work by more than half. So we went and built Renewal Hub, and this month we launched it to our customers.”
Renewal Hub, a configurable renewal-pipeline CRM that gives agencies a single working surface for every upcoming renewal with the AI engine underneath, is already earning its keep. One account manager at an agency on the platform, a few weeks in, put it simply: “It’s saving me a lot of time, which was awesome. A lot of times I’d have my team go into the carrier, check the quotes, and put notes on where to check, and it’s already in there.” No new system to learn, it worked inside the workflow she already had, from day one.
The traction is real. ReFocus now manages 565,000+ accounts and 1.37M+ policies on the platform for independent agencies across the country, with new agencies coming onto the platform every month and inbound demand arriving faster than the team can handle. The vision is every independent agency running on automation that works the way they do, with AI doing the heavy lifting.
Check out what they’re building: refocusai.com
Navierre — Mustafa Dinani
When Mustafa Dinani presented Navierre in Greenwich, the feedback from our Funders was remarkably consistent: focus on the immediate commercial opportunity and prove the healthcare fraud, waste, and abuse use case first. The team took that feedback to heart.
Over the past year, Navierre sharpened Orion, its AI-powered fraud, waste, and abuse platform, leading to detailed strategic discussions with several Medicare Supplement carriers, including Mutual of Omaha, where the team is progressing through executive review, commercial negotiations, and implementation planning.
What surprised the team was where those conversations went next.
Carriers quickly realized the best way to improve fraud detection wasn’t simply by analyzing claims, it was by creating richer health intelligence before claims ever occurred. That insight led to Eterna, a clinician-powered longevity platform that unifies health information, identifies emerging risks earlier, and helps members mitigate those risks through targeted interventions, creating the intelligence layer that sharpens Orion’s ability to detect fraud, waste, and abuse. An optional Longevity App extends that relationship directly to members through a personalized digital health companion, opening new ways for carriers to engage with their members and access the data needed to detect and mitigate risk.
Today, those same carriers are evaluating Navierre not as a fraud solution, but as a connected data and risk intelligence platform spanning distribution, in-force risk management, and claims. What began in Medicare Supplement is now opening conversations across life insurance, long-term care, and other product lines, with new opportunities to transform underwriting, policy conversions, and member engagement through richer health and risk intelligence.
This is exactly the kind of evolution we hope to see after Greenwich. Navierre sharpened its focus around Orion, but in doing so uncovered an even bigger opportunity: becoming the data and risk intelligence layer that helps insurers acquire better risks, manage them continuously, and improve outcomes throughout the insurance lifecycle.
Check out what they’re building: navierre.com
AdvisorCRM — Ryan Borer
One of the stories to come out of Greenwich was Ryan Borer and AdvisorCRM.
The platform was never the question. Ryan built it as an operator, not a founder chasing a category, 25 years in the business, and a run at Fusion where one person on his ops team ran the work that normally takes five. What came out of the room in Greenwich was a simpler way to say what he’d built. This isn’t a CRM. It’s the system that does the watching, so the advisor and their team can do the work that matters. The Funders pressure-tested that story, and Ryan came home and led with it, one platform, a handful of tools that do real jobs, built for how producer-led teams actually work.
“I didn’t set out to build a software company. I built AdvisorCRM because I lived the problem. My team was buried in software instead of serving families. Greenwich helped me say it more plainly: the platform does the watching so the team can do the work. That’s the whole thing, and it’s where we’re headed.”
The traction since is real. In the six months after Greenwich, Ryan shipped three tools on the same foundation. Trove watches a firm’s existing book and surfaces the moments that get missed, a CD coming due, an annuity nearing surrender, a life event, a position that’s grown too concentrated, so the team acts instead of hunting. Beacon put a secure assistant inside the platform, one that works with the AI tools advisors already use without their client data leaving the building. And Ember gave advisors a clean, branded way to handle onboarding and intake, so the client experience finally matches the relationship.
Trove started with a closed group of 10 firms managing $6 billion between them. It’s now moving to an enterprise offering, since it does more running across a full organization than it does on a single advisor’s book, and that’s where the real value is. The core platform stays free.
Coming up: Trove’s enterprise rollout, and Future Proof this September in Huntington Beach, where the team will announce its most ambitious offering to date. It’s already running in 4 beta offices, with plans to expand quickly through year end.
This is why we do what we do. Ryan didn’t leave Greenwich with a check. He left with a room full of operators who pushed on the story until it got sharper, and the market’s been proving it out ever since, one release at a time.
Check out what they’re building: advisorcrm.com
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Greenwich brought together founders and funders for candid feedback, meaningful
introductions, and conversations that continued well beyond the event.