7 years ago today, Fran and I walked away from our broker-dealer to start Opulus. No mahogany office. No sales scripts. No suit-and-tie culture. We didn't have a plan so much as a conviction: we could build something better if we just stopped asking permission. A handful of clients said yes. So did some friends and family. About 50 people trusted us with roughly $12M. That was the whole company. Today we work with close to 200 families across 32 states. Median age 41. We're closing in on $115M under management. And somewhere along the way, the thing that used to get us in trouble became the thing that built the business. We went from being banned from social media at our old firm to sharing our thinking every single day, for free, so people can either use it themselves or bring us in to do it with them. Between me and Fran, that's grown into about 27,000 followers on here and 4,750 people who subscribe to our newsletter. I believed in 2019 that we were building something worth building. I did not believe it would look like this. I'm grateful for every client who bet on two guys with no track record and who didn't want to wear a suit and tie to the office. I'm grateful for the supporters, and honestly the critics too. You sharpen us whether you mean to or not. Most of all: my wife and our three kids gave me the room to take this risk in the first place. None of this happens without that. And Fran. Seven years in, he's not a business partner anymore. He's family. If you're an advisor, or really anyone, sitting on the idea that you could do this differently, betting on yourself is still the best decision I've ever made. Thank you 𝕏. — Ryan