
Episode 52: Michael Paulus - Founder of PCM Encore
From Generating Alpha Podcast by Amir Fischer
May 4, 2026 · 42 min
About this episode
Michael Paulus discusses his journey as a fintech entrepreneur and the founding of PCM Encore, focusing on fiduciary wealth management.
This week on Generating Alpha, I sat down with Michael Paulus — serial entrepreneur, fintech pioneer, and founder of PCM Encore, one of the fastest-growing fiduciary wealth management firms in the country. Michael earned his undergraduate degree in Economics and a Master's in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford, where he helped manage a portion of the university's endowment through the student-run Blyth Fund. He went on to consult at Boston Consulting Group and became a Partner at Andreessen Horowitz before co-founding Assurance IQ — an insurance technology platform he bootstrapped to a billion-dollar exit to Prudential Financial, making him one of the youngest self-made billionaires in the country. He also helped build Addepar, a financial analytics platform now reporting on trillions in assets. But PCM Encore is his most personal bet. Frustrated that no wealth manager could deliver the conflict-free, sophisticated solutions his own family needed, he built the platform himself — then opened it to the world. The firm crossed $1.2 billion in AUM within six months of launching to outside families, operating as a 100% employee-owned fiduciary with no commissions, no…
People in this episode
Host: Amir Fischer
Guest: Michael Paulus
Topics covered
- wealth management
- entrepreneurship
- fintech
- fiduciary responsibility
- portfolio construction
- business exit strategies
Keywords
- wealth management
- fiduciary
- fintech
- entrepreneur
- portfolio construction
- billion-dollar exit
- AUM
- employee-owned
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: PCM Encore, Boston Consulting Group, Andreessen Horowitz, Assurance IQ, Prudential Financial, Addepar
Places: Stanford
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