Don't Abandon Your Vision to Keep the Peace with Chris Shuba, Helios Quantitative Research
Summary:
Are you compromising your company’s vision to avoid difficult conversations?
On this episode of Don’t Do That, Kelly Waltrich sits down with Chris Schuba, CEO and Founder of Helios, for an honest discussion about the challenges of maintaining your entrepreneurial vision while building a team. Chris shares his unique approach to “insourcing” investment management for financial advisors, the dramatic origin story behind his company name (involving a near-death experience at sea), and his biggest leadership lesson learned the hard way. From the importance of loving problems over solutions to the reality of entrepreneurial struggles, this conversation digs deep into what it really takes to stay true to your vision while growing a business.
Kelly and Chris cover:
00:01 Introductions and Chris’s confusion about the day
00:37 Chris introduces himself and Helios’s role as an outsourced/insourced CIO
01:40 Who Helios works with and what makes them unique
02:49 Importance of communication support for advisors
03:18 Helios’s three-pillar approach to helping advisors
04:53 Marketing battle: “Outsourced” vs “Insourced” CIO
06:07 Clever resume marketing tactic at conferences
08:38 The wild origin story of Helios (Costa Rica + boat breakdown)
10:55 Chris’s “Don’t Do That” – don’t abandon your vision to keep the peace
12:48 Loving problems vs. loving solutions
15:15 Kelly’s struggle balancing vision with feedback
17:15 Fear of losing key people when defending vision
18:57 Using “why” questions to separate feedback from noise
21:24 Bootstrapped vs. well-funded company challenges
22:35 Vision-setting without rigid 10-year plans
24:28 Building a cause-driven, problem-solving culture
27:24 Tactical ways to consistently share purpose
30:49 Jensen Huang quote on the reality of entrepreneurship
22:35 How to think about vision setting without rigid 10-year plans
24:28 Building a cause-driven culture around problem-solving
27:24 Tactical approaches to consistently sharing purpose with your team
30:49 The powerful Jensen Huang quote about the reality of entrepreneurship
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About Our Guest:
Chris Shuba is an innovator, experienced analyst, and the founder of Helios Qualitative, LLC. After spending the majority of his career helping financial advisors navigate market volatility, Chris wanted to create a technology- enabled service that could help advisors communicate with their clients and manage their assets in the digital space. Based on a pressure-tested, research- backed, and statistically relevant approach to investment management, Chris founded Helios in 2016 to help advisors, practice owners, and investment committees increase scale and efficiency. He wanted to help them communicate with confidence by providing investment support and research, model design, portfolio and model analyses, compliance documentation, and ongoing education. Prior to establishing Helios, Chris earned a BS in Business Finance and a minor in Law from the Opus School of Business at the University of St. Thomas. He excelled in various roles at Ameriprise Financial, as a Senior Quantitative Analyst at Columbia Threadneedle, and as Chief Investment Officer at WGG Wealth Partners, where he developed mathematical models and algorithms that garnered interest from financial advisors all across the country. He has completed the Level 1 CFA.