Game Time

by Aaron Klein
CEO at Riskalyze

“Game time!” Spencer said as he jumped out of the car and headed for the baseball diamond.

My son was beyond excited for his first game of the season. Having battled an autoimmune illness that kept him off the field last year, getting back into the game was extra special to him.

“Play ball!”

It wasn’t long after the California sunset that I regretted not bringing a coat. By about 8pm, I’m freezing my tail off up in those stands.

I glance down at my phone — either it was ringing, or my bones were just chattering — and sure enough, I’m getting a call from the CEO of a large enterprise customer of ours. This CEO happens to be located on the east coast of the United States, so do the math.

It’s 11pm his time.

When the CEO of one of your big enterprise partners calls you at 11pm, something is up, and you take that call.

I quickly stepped away from the baseball game, answered the phone, and he stated the obvious right up front.

“Hey, Aaron. You’re probably wondering why I’m calling you this late at night. Well…

“It’s been a bit of a wild day.

“It’s been a bit of a wild week.

“It’s been a bit of a wild month.”

I said, “No kidding — it sure has. How are you holding up?”

What he said next was something I didn’t expect to hear that night.

“I’m just calling just to say ‘thank you’ to everyone over at Riskalyze.”

Wow. No words.

He continued. “I’ve been thinking; I don’t know if you’ve really had the opportunity in your nine years as a company to validate your value to the world, but I’ll tell you what — our revenue would be substantially lower without the Riskalyze process this week. I think we’d be in crisis mode if we didn’t have Riskalyze by our side.”

At this point, I’ve forgotten about my lack of a coat entirely.

This particular enterprise has implemented Riskalyze across their entire firm. Every one of their advisors uses it.

He tells me that there are two reasons why he believes Riskalyze has safeguarded their business amidst so much widespread fear.

“First,” he says, “our clients whose Risk Number is 42…they’re actually invested at a Risk Number 42. If our advisors were just out there chasing returns, every one of these portfolios would have been an 80. And our assets would have taken a massive hit compared to where they are today.”

Obviously, that alone would be quite the hit to revenue for this well-respected wealth management brand. But he went on.

“And to compound that, those clients wouldn’t understand why that had happened, they’d be upset, and they’d be leaving our advisors in droves!

“So not only are our clients in the right portfolios on a risk-adjusted basis — which means that our assets are far higher than they would have been — but more importantly, we have happy clients!

“They’re staying put.

“So, I’m just calling you at 11:00 at night to say ‘thank you’.”

The call didn’t last long; I was back in the stands watching my boy play ball in no time. It sure got me thinking, though.

In this blip of history, so much of our nation is bound by fear.

But I feel incredibly grateful.

Grateful that I get to work alongside a team at Riskalyze so committed to defeating the fear that too often drives investors into bad decisions.

Grateful we get to serve partners who take the time out of a crisis to express optimism and gratitude.

And I still pinch myself knowing that we get to join thousands of firms in what has become the Fearless Investing Movement.

We will not give in to fear.

It’s game time for these advisors, and that means it’s game time for us.