Justin Wisz

Justin started Thicket Ventures as his vehicle for angel investments and consulting. Seed investments included Robinhood, Yogi, and Kumospace and projects initially focused on the intersection of media, AI, fintech and business intelligence. Today Thicket is a group of entrepreneurs partnering with corporate ventures to seed outstanding companies together.

Before forming Thicket, Justin was the co-founder and CEO of Vestorly, the first content marketing platform to leverage artificial intelligence for the financial services industry.  As CEO of Vestorly from 2012 to 2018, Justin conceived and designed the Vestorly software platform, raised $12 million in venture capital, recruited engineering, data science, sales and marketing talent, and built a Software-as-a-Service revenue model that grew 752% in its last 3 years. Customers included financial institutions such as BNY Mellon, Pershing, MetLife, TD Ameritrade, Charles Schwab, Northern Trust, Jefferies, Goldman Sachs, and others. In 2018 Justin led the company to profitability and a coveted position on the Inc. 5000 list before exiting, and assisted Vestorly in corporate development as a Strategic Advisor in 2020-2022 to facilitate the company’s acquisition by FMG.

Before Vestorly, Justin was founder and CEO of AdvisorLeap, a digital marketing and sales operations firm which serviced fast-growing wealth management firms with digital content marketing strategy, lead generation processes, and sales operations implementation.  Prior to AdvisorLeap, Justin started at Fisher Investments where he was initially exposed to the wealth management industry and digital content marketing and raised over $60 million in assets under management for the firm. 

Justin has been featured on the “30 under 30” list by Investment Advisor Magazine, the “10 to Watch” by Wealth Management Magazine, and has been a featured speaker on technology at numerous industry conferences such as Pershing INSITE, MarketCounsel, and the Tiburon CEO Summit.  His expertise is featured in the award-winning documentary on artificial intelligence “Do You Trust this Computer” directed by Chris Paine, and he is a contributor to the book Data-Driven Marketing with Artificial Intelligence by Magnus Unemyr.  

To serve Thicket’s portfolio companies, Justin leverages 15 years of experience as a tech startup CEO and venture investor with a background in software product ideation, practical applications of AI, competitive strategy, marketing, business development, capital raising, corporate governance and corporate development.

Justin earned his bachelor’s degree in English from Hampden-Sydney College as a Patrick Henry Honors scholar. He splits his time between New York City and the Rocky Mountains where he’s an avid snowboarder and fisherman.