With Werthstein, another digital asset manager is entering the race for customers' savings. In our 7 questions, Chief Representative Felix Röscheisen explains what sets the young company apart from its competitors and how the international founding team chose Munich as their location.
1. Who are you and what do you do? Please briefly introduce yourself and your services!
Werthstein is a Munich-based digital wealth manager that I founded together with Giles Keating and Bastian Lossen in 2016. We all have extensive management experience at international banks. And that's precisely why we thought: Why are investors so often sold something that reflects the wealth manager's interest in high returns rather than the client's wishes? We want to make it easier for investors to create a portfolio that reflects their personal interests and beliefs while being professionally managed and cost-effective.
2. But that's been around for a long time!
Our clients have a much broader range of investments and far more interesting opportunities to influence their own portfolio than with other asset managers, whether digital or traditional—at least for investment amounts under one million euros. For the first time, we're making this experience of being able to set a rough direction without having to worry about the details accessible to ordinary mortals.
In addition to a broadly diversified core portfolio, our Zeitgeist investments make the latest economic, technological, and social trends investable. Examples include biotechnology, 3D printing, the battery market, and even pets—a niche market, but one with significant growth potential. We also value comprehensive client information. To this end, we have established an independent panel of renowned economists and investment experts, the Werthstein Institute, which engages in highly controversial discussions on current investment ideas and conveys this discussion in journalistically prepared articles and videos.
Our approach thus combines the best of two investment worlds: the rigor of digital robo-technology with the assessments of experienced experts and portfolio managers who identify new economic trends and make them investable. By selecting the Zeitgeist The client can choose the direction in which they want to invest without having to worry about the details of implementation. Werthstein handles the individual investment decisions within the framework of client specifications and the daily monitoring of the portfolio.
3. What has been your biggest challenge so far?
I think that's only just beginning: proving ourselves on the market. Of course, we already gathered customer feedback during the development phase, but it's something completely different when suddenly thousands of customers are reviewing our offering, and each customer has different experiences and expectations. We have worked towards this moment for two years and it is a great experience to see how this work is received by customers.
“Munich is an ideal location”
4. Let’s get down to business: How is business going?
So far, everything's been going well. Approval from the financial regulator, the financing rounds, the development of our digital platform. But we only officially launched in January, so the business volume is still manageable. In any case, interest is high. More than 1,000 interested parties have registered for our information services and regularly follow Werthstein via newsletter or the videos on our website.
5. What does Munich mean to you?
For me personally, Munich is simply home—I grew up here and feel at home here. For Werthstein, Munich is an ideal location: it has the most asset managers in Germany and is also a startup hub. We find people here with extensive experience in portfolio management, others with expertise in online marketing and web technology. That's quite a rarity.
Our founding team is quite international, with locations from Zurich, London, and Munich. Therefore, we didn't have a predefined location and approached the location question very analytically, with the result that Munich was outstanding. This includes things like the airport and the fact that we can also recruit internationally, as candidates like to move to Munich because it's such an attractive city.
“My preference has changed to the Isar”
6. How will Werthstein GmbH become the next unicorn? Or will we see each other soon at Epic Fail Night?
With perseverance. Wealth management is a competitive market, and clients are very careful with their money—and that's a good thing! Therefore, it simply takes time to establish a new offering in the market.
7. Isar or English Garden?
That's a difficult question! As a student, I lived in Maxvorstadt, and the English Garden was naturally my favorite. With Werthstein in the Gärtnerplatzviertel, we're now in Isarvorstadt, and my preference has shifted to the Isar. I find it a bit more urban and at the same time more down-to-earth on the Isar, which I like — but I also always enjoy "visiting" the English Garden.
