TFP #056: Reflections On 4 Years In Business

4 years in business - wow that’s fun and crazy to type.

This is my second time reflecting on the business and sharing it with the wider world (last year was reflections on 3 years in business.)

It’s a little bit of our Coastal Capital state of the union - looking back on the previous year and looking ahead - what’s working, what’s not, and where we are headed.

Let's jump in.

Facts about Coastal Capital Advisors (CCA)

  • We’re (still) a team of two (Chris and Joe). But a fun fact - while our team has stayed the same size, our families are growing. In 2020 there was 1 kid and 2 dogs. Now there’s 4 kids and 2 dogs.

  • We work with 130 ongoing clients / families

  • We’re currently taking on new clients - our ideal pace is 1-2 clients a month. Thankfully, the demand is there.

  • We have a specific expertise with tech professionals with equity comp. And particularly with current / former Procore employees.

Year 4 was great

Last year I wrote “I don’t anticipate too many big changes over the next 12-18 months. I see Chris and I continuing to bring on clients, dial in our processes and growing the firm.”

And that’s precisely what we did.

The business is growing

In 2023 we brought on 20 new clients - 13 from LinkedIn, and 7 from our personal network / referrals. Almost all new clients worked in tech and had some element of equity compensation.

LinkedIn has been an incredible generator of business. The strategy continues to be the same as I wrote last year: “I write content that is relevant, interesting, and valuable to people. My goal is that if & when people are ready for an advisor, they think of me and reach out, provided I’ve built up enough trust and expertise with them.”

Something that I didn’t include last year, but has been tremendously helpful: I write specifically for tech professionals with equity compensation, and particularly for Procore employees.

Not because we only work with Procore employees, but because we’ve found that the more specific we write, the more business it generates. I’m sure we could take this too far - Procore employees living in Alaska who surf and fly fish probably doesn’t have a huge audience. But so far it’s worked.

I’m also really happy that the number of referrals we get from happy clients continues to increase. While we don’t ask for referrals, it’s cool to see that clients are having a great experience and that they trust us enough to refer their closest friends and loved ones.

So far in 2024 we’ve continued to grow as well. As of writing this, we’ve brought on 5 new families (and should have a couple more joining soon!).

We started to implement a new CRM (called Quivr).

The goal is that we are able to have better processes and procedures - from prospect meetings to onboarding to client progress meetings to distributions to estate plan reviews, and everything in between.

When we started Coastal Capital, we went with a free CRM that worked just fine. And it probably would still work fine. And candidly, clients might never notice a difference. But by having better systems and processes in place, it helps ensure that a) we don’t drop the ball b) all the steps get followed and c) better coordination between team members. Right now c) is pretty easy since it’s me and Chris, but if/when we grow, it will be even more important to have that in place. Better to start now.

The transition has been more difficult than expected! Part of it was the timing. We started in November / December, and then Carly had baby Cosy in late January, and so we really didn’t start fully implementing it until this spring. And when a lot of the processes have lived in your head for 4 years, it takes time to document everything, get it into the system, then realize you forgot something, redo it, and so forth.

But I am starting to see how Quivr will help us going forward - from the way we prepare for meetings to how we do paperwork to reviewing different parts of our client’s plans.

I went to my first conference

In September 2023 I went to Future Proof in Huntington Beach, CA. It’s definitely not your typical conference - it seems to draw a lot of inspiration from music festivals.

It was so fun to meet a number of advisors I had only ever previously met virtually, and to meet a bunch of new people as well. I even ran into a guy from high school. Plus the content was really solid, from some of the biggest names in investments to pro athletes (shout out Jay Williams) to other advisors doing great work and a number of blogs and podcasts I follow.

I’m excited to go again this year.

I joined the AGC

The AGC stands for Advisors Growing as a Community, and it’s a community where I can interact, engage, and collaborate with like-minded advisors. One of the fun but challenging parts of running this business is there’s so many decisions to make.

  • What should the prospect process look like?

  • How many formal meetings a year?

  • How should you charge?

  • What do you need to be aware of with the latest tax law changes?

  • What should client service look like?

And there’s not necessarily a right answer to any of these questions, but it can be really hard to figure out on your own. So the AGC has been a tremendous resource for me to ask questions and talk with other advisors and business owners how they tackled (or are tackling) different scenarios.

Released our financial planning white paper for Procore employees

This took a long time, but I’m so proud of it!

Because many of our clients are current and former Procore employees, we wrote a white paper that pointed out some of the unique financial circumstances and opportunities available to Procore employees, then explored those opportunities and potential action steps that they could consider.

I know I’m biased but I think it turned out really well. And it’s not just fluff - it dives deep into the 401k program, ways to think about Procore equity, minimizing risk, and a whole lot more.

Funny note on the 401k program. We had just about finished the white paper when Procore announced two pretty significant changes to the Procore 401k, which means there was a lot of editing that section towards the end.

If you’d like a copy, reply to this email and I’ll send it your way.

Looking forward to Year 5

In a lot of ways, I view year 5 similar to year 4. Continue to grow the firm and build/improve the foundation and set the stage for years to come. It feels like a lot of the first 3 years was a lot of figuring stuff out, at least from a direction perspective. Who we wanted to work with, how to do sales and marketing, service model, all that fun stuff.

And right now is about executing. I’m sure some of that “direction stuff” will pivot and change in the years to come, but for now it’s about serving our clients well and growing the company.

Continue to grow the firm and serve more tech professionals

So far we’ve brought on 5 clients this year, and we have room for another 10-15 new families this year. I really like the pace of 1-2 clients a month. Sure, it would be nice to grow faster, but it comes at a cost. The beginning takes a lot of time - in meetings, in data gathering, in prep and follow up, and implementation. And if we bring on too many families at once, that takes away from our ability to help current clients.

Quarterly webinars

Like I wrote earlier, LinkedIn has worked really well to generate business for us. But that doesn’t mean it will work forever, or it’s the only way. One new avenue I’m excited to try in the second half of the year is to start doing a quarterly webinar. Likely, it will be specific for financial planning for Procore employees.

I’ve seen other firms grow their businesses tremendously by targeting a similar strategy. One advisor in particular has done an incredible job doing webinars for Intel and Nike employees. And since I’ve already written so much content for Procore employees, I know I can use that and turn it into different webinars.

I’m sure the first couple will be a big learning curve, but I’m excited to experiment.

Finish implementing Quivr

The last few weeks we have really started to figure out the system, and so I’m looking forward to really starting to use its full capabilities and seeing how it can impact our business. Because it’s not client facing, a lot of this will be “behind the scenes.”

A lot of what we do is behind the scenes. Meg Bartelt recently wrote that “If you’re a financial planner, you know that for every hour of “obvious” value (time in a meeting, analysis you send via email, etc.), there’s 10x the number of hours behind the scenes you did to enable you to have that meeting or do that analysis.”

That really resonated! The goal is that we get even better at the behind the scenes stuff.

Putting it all together

4 years in, I can’t believe I get to do this every day. It’s so rewarding and challenging (in a good way) and most of the time it’s a lot of fun.

It helps that we work with awesome families. And it’s really cool that I get to be part of their lives - both good and bad. Buying houses and getting promotions, but also losing jobs and navigating tough family situations.

When I talk to prospective clients, I tell them my hope is that we work together for the next 30 years. And that is truly my hope! The best part of my job is being there for all that life holds, and I want to see them get married or have kids or take that trip they always wanted or move into that forever home or quit that job that pays really well but they don’t like all that much.

It’s the best job I could possibly have, and 4 years in, starting this company with Chris is still one of the best decisions I’ve made.

On to year 5!


If you’re looking for a planner and read this and think, hey, this is the type of firm I’d like to work with, reach out and schedule a free consultation