About

Stirlingshire is an investment bank built to improve the Full-Service Broker-Dealer model developed by prominent banks like Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan, similar to how Robinhood and WeBull changed the Discount Broker-Dealer model developed by E*Trade, TD Ameritrade and others. In 2022, the bank passed FINRA and SEC approval and started its beta launch. The bank’s clearing firm, APEX Clearing (The leader in Fintech Clearing), impressed with Stirlingshire’s model, negotiated for a warrant to buy 3% of Stirlingshire in lieu of charging clearing fees. Stirlingshire use a specific trading process to shift a significant portion of the risk and liability off the firm. This process allows to slash overhead drastically, pay the advisors much more than any other firm in the industry, and operate in a 100% WFH environment while maintaining extreme regulatory compliance. A secondary benefit is that it improves client execution and allows it to tie compensation to performance more closely than other firms. Founder Steven Woods has a high understanding of every level of the asset management model, who went from being a young banking intern from Kansas City, Missouri, with limited network and only a GED, to becoming a multi-million-dollar revenue producer and Harvard Business School Alum. Along the way, while building Stirlingshire, Steven was able to attract some of the most prominent talents on wall street in its team, such as Former SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt, who served on its Board of Directors, and the bank’s CTO, who is the former Global Head of Technology at State Street and former Director of technology operations at The London Stock Exchange.

Fundraising Synopsis

Stirlingshire is raising 2 million USD for its seed round at a 20 million USD post-money valuation to have a full war chest for its mission to attract and recruit the best brokers in the country as well as be able to finance all of its regulatory expenses. The bank intends to grow its army of brokers to 40, 200 and to 2,000 over the coming years with potential subsequent fundraising rounds within each period, all while increasing its AUM to a target of $1 billion before 2027.

Why Are We Backing This Client

1. We strongly believe in Steven’s leadership, executional and strategic leadership to steer the company into the direction of its ultimate objectives; this will translate into Steven’s ability to recruit, retain and grow top brokers and investment advisors;
2. Stirlingshire offers an attractive working model for brokers that other banks do not, and hence we believe in its ability to attract the most talented, high performing brokers and advisors in the country; even if competitors follow on Stirlingshire’s trend, by the time they do the bank would have already built its large team and developed a moat around it to safely navigate through its growth stages and reach desired the desired size;
3. Stirlingshire generates revenue primarily through margin and stock lending, a transaction practice heavily relied upon by accredited investors, whether trading long or short; therefore, regardless in which direction the market moves, the bank’s revenue will remain unaffected as long as there is trading activity in the markets;
4. Stirlingshire’s team is strong, experienced and with deep-running connections with Wall Street, and we view that as an essential aspect for the management team to steer the ship in the right direction at all times;
5. One of the most prominent risk measures for a startup investment bank is regulatory; Stirlingshire’s compliance team has been built by prior SEC leaders and regulatory experts, and we have a strong conviction of their ability to maintain a good standing status with regulators at all times;

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