One-on-One with Susan Lindeque
The Advisor with Stacey Chillemi engages with more than 1 million followers each month on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio and other popular platforms.
Stacey recently invited Avestix founder and CEO Susan Lindeque to join her on her podcast in an episode entitled “The Future of Business: Why Women Must Invest Now.” Below are key excerpts from the interview. You can listen to the entire interview here.
STACEY CHILLEMI: Welcome to The Advisor with Stacey Chalemi and I'm very excited because we have a special guest today, Susan Lindeque, the founder and the CEO of Avestix. She is going to talk about where we're headed in the business world.
Susan, I am intrigued by all your past accomplishments, and I'd love for you to share a little about yourself and what you do.
SUSAN LINDEQUE: Stacey, thank you so much, and thank you for having me on the show.
I was born in South Africa. My investment journey started when I was only seven years old through my dad's sister, who was in the financial world and gave me a little bit of pocket money and invested it in shares for me every month.
So, she enticed me into the financial world. And then, in South Africa, where real estate is very prominent, I got into real estate very early with my dad. I always knew that I wanted to be in finance and investing, so I started my career as a chartered accountant, completed that at a very early age, and then I had my first business and sold it when I was 23.
I worked for various international corporations where I learned a lot about systems, backend processes and technology. I had a strong knack for technology and completed nine SAP implementations throughout my lifetime. I then moved to Australia, and eventually moved to the U. S., which has been our home for five years. It’s here where we expanded Avestix, which we first launched 10 years ago.
Finance, Education and Investing
STACEY: That's pretty amazing how you started at such a young age and it’s wonderful that your dad kind of enticed you, you know, through teaching you and letting you interact and be a part of it.
SUSAN: I think education plays such a big role in everything that we do, and parents are pivotal in terms of development. I don't think there's enough education and enough knowledge out there that teaches people about finance, education and investing — especially for women. Women are always the last to get educated in investing because it's such a male-dominated industry where men almost always make all the decisions, control the credit cards and make spending decisions.
STACEY: Oh, most definitely. It is a male-dominant industry, but I think you can dive into it at any age and start learning about finance.
SUSAN: I agree with you. I think if you've got a really good role model and if you've got a really good mentor, you can go to so many places. I was very fortunate. We got into Bitcoin very early in 2012, and I got to mentor my eldest son in digital currencies. Now he’s Chief Investment Officer [for Avestix]. This was like 15 years ago, and now he understands the landscape so well.
STACEY: Before the show, you were talking about [artificial intelligence] and how other areas in business are changing, like cybersecurity. Where do you feel we will be in the next 10 years?
SUSAN: Over the next 10 years, we will see more changes happening than what we've seen in the last one hundred years, just in terms of technology. We already see that with Chat GPT and with AI. But it's more to do with how we interact with our payments, our finance, and cybersecurity is going to be a massive big thing. And Web3, which is what everyone is talking about, in terms of interaction with AI.
“These are some of the major changes coming, and they will affect every single person on Earth. Those people who don’t embrace AI, unfortunately, may get left behind, so you have to learn and study more about AI and interact with it. ”
STACEY: Sometimes, people are afraid to change. Do you have any advice for these people?
SUSAN: I would say the most important thing is to educate yourself, first of all. I think it's really important to start reading. Or just start navigating the space to learn more. AI is becoming the center of business in terms of automated workflows or backend or integration.
You absolutely will have no business by 2030 [without AI]. These are not my words, this is coming from people who are at the forefront of technology and innovation. And we haven’t even spoken about quantum computing, which is going to be another whole new disruption. My strongest advice is really to just get out there and start to educate yourself. Understand what blockchain technology is. Understand how your financial investments will change in the future.
Finding Balance
STACEY: Sometimes, people get scared when it comes to investing, but if you have enough knowledge, you start to feel capable of making some decisions on your own.
SUSAN: And that’s particularly true for women. And, when something tragic happens, like my husband passing away recently, it has such a big impact on [my] personal life and all of a sudden are in the center of it; you don't have the support and you have to take care of your children and all the arrangements around it.
Or so many women go through a divorce. There are so many changes that happen in the life of a woman, so how do you embrace all of those changes and end up in a good place? It’s not just about money and investments; it's also about your health and your wellness and finding a balance in your life.
STACEY: I think you have to take it one day at a time, and, you know, you try to move forward the best you can. You created a company, Avestix. Can you tell us a little about the company, what it's about, and what you do?
SUSAN: It’s an investment company. We provide investment opportunities for family offices, women, next-generation investors and retail investors as well. We provide an integrated financial portfolio solution for them so they can invest in real estate, venture capital, public markets and digital markets. I strongly believe that this is the way the future is to have an integrated investment portfolio between public and private markets. And that's what we're building.
“And education will be at the very center of it because we believe that the new world we’re going into will be all digital. It is so important to be educated on what new products are out there because the old days of having your money for 25 years into an annuity are gone forever. I am a very big advocate for diversification of your assets.”
STACEY: I think it is great that you're focusing on educating women to help them understand it so they can take charge and they can make some decisions.
SUSAN: It's a big wave in terms of family offices, which are predominantly run by males. They estimate there will be trillions of dollars transferred over to women in the next 10 years, which is a phenomenal amount, but many of those women don't have the financial education. Their financial education is very different.
STACEY: What would be some of the things you'd like to emphasize today to our listeners?
SUSAN: I emphasize that women need to get educated. Women invest very differently [than men]. We invest for different reasons. We invest for good. We want to make sure that the planet is a better place to live in.
“Philanthropy, I think, is a really big thing as well. I think if we can give back, and women as a household or the main person to care for a household, I think there’s nobody better than women to do that. And just to make sure that women are financially independent when something happens to them, whether they’ve been left behind by their loved ones or whether they get divorced, that they’re in a financially secure situation.”
STACEY: I love that. I love that. Now, where can people find your website and all about you?
SUSAN: I'm active on LinkedIn. We have our website, of course, and I have a personal website as well.
STACEY: I think it's very important to get women to participate and invest in finance. They don't know what decisions are the right decisions to make.
SUSAN: I strongly believe we are entering the best wealth generation decade of our lives. The next 10 years will be pivotal for a lot of women where they can generate a lot of wealth, not even to speak about inheritance. If you educate yourself and start investing a small amount. You can just take $1,000 and start investing. It's taking small, little steps to create something a lot bigger for your better future and for the better good.
STACEY: One hundred percent! Thank you for coming on the show and sharing your story. There are a lot of women out there who need to hear it.
SUSAN: Thank you so much. I truly appreciate this.
Next Steps:
Want to learn more about Susan’s thoughts on what demographic and technological changes will mean to family offices?
Download The State of Play for Family Offices, 2025, a new eBook from Avestix. It delves into the changing face of wealth in the U.S. as well as how post-Boomer investors view technology, sustainability and what they want from their financial advisors.
