Why we built Slant

10th time's the charm

Max and Thomas met in college and quickly became co-founders in spirit—two people obsessed with building, experimenting, and figuring out how things work. Over the years, they launched all kinds of ventures, including a startup for at-home vehicle test drives, a music festival, and a hiring marketplace for interns, among others. Some made it to launch. Most didn’t. None of them quite worked.

But every project taught them something about distribution, user experience, markets, and momentum. They learned how to move quickly, listen closely, and create something people want. More importantly, they learned what it feels like when something does start to click.

That moment came with Pageport.

Pageport

Pageport started with a frustrating Zillow experience.

In late 2022, Max filled out a form on Zillow looking for a realtor. Within minutes, his phone blew up—texts, emails, and calls from what felt like dozens of agents. With such a flood, how are you supposed to know who is good? Max replied to each one with a simple question: “Do you have anything that shows you’re a good realtor?” Only one responded, albeit with an unhelpful 40-page PDF on local housing trends. The rest? Crickets.

That moment sparked a question: Why do so many professional service providers struggle to show their value in the first critical moments of a relationship?

At the same time, Thomas was working at Whatnot, a massive live video sales platform. Between Max’s experience and Thomas’s background in video commerce, the idea for Pageport was born: a tool that helps service professionals make a strong, personal impression—instantly.

Pageport’s early days were scrappy. We sold into every industry imaginable—from boudoir photographers to pet sitters. But when we found financial advisors, everything changed. Advisors who purchased leads from programs like SmartVestor Pro and SmartAsset began using Pageport to personalize their follow-up. Adoption exploded. Today, over 1,300 advisors use Pageport to convert leads with personalized video landing pages and automated outreach.

As we worked more closely with advisors, we fell in love with the space. We integrated with thousands of advisor tech tools. We listened to the problems, the workarounds, the wishlists. And we started to see something much bigger: financial advisors don’t just need better lead follow-up—they need better systems, period.

Payton

As we sought to serve more advisors than just those buying leads, our next stage of exploration brought us to Payton—a bold idea to democratize Facebook ads for financial advisors.

Named after Peyton Manning (because every good team needs a quarterback), Payton was built on a simple premise: most advisory firms can’t afford a full-scale marketing department, but that shouldn’t stop them from running world-class ad campaigns. We envisioned a platform where any advisor, regardless of firm size, could launch high-quality Facebook ads with just a few clicks. We’d handle the creative, targeting, and optimization—advisors would just press “go.”

With Payton, we aimed to give advisors the advantages of a big-budget marketing team without the cost. The football references ran deep—playbooks, commissioners, routes—but the real goal was clarity and control: take the mystery out of digital advertising and put power back in the hands of advisors.

But as we dug deeper, we started to hit some walls. Running ads effectively still required more input than most advisors had time to give. Creative fatigue was real. Compliance reviews added friction. And many firms wanted automation, not just access. Payton was a great idea, but it was only part of the solution.

Still, Payton taught us something important: advisors don’t just want tools—they want leverage. They want software that works like a teammate. And that insight helped point us toward what came next.

Slant

And that brings us here.

After building Pageport and exploring Payton, we spent months deep in conversation with financial advisors—hundreds of them. We delved into their workflows, their frustrations, and their tech stacks. We heard the same thing again and again: “I have all these tools, but none of them really help me do the work.”

CRMs were bloated or underpowered. Automation was rigid. Advisors were stuck stitching together too many systems just to keep up with client needs.

We saw an opportunity to build something better.

We kept the football theme alive and named it Slant—a nod to one of the fastest, most efficient routes in the playbook. That’s the kind of experience we want to create: log in, get smart suggestions, take action, and get back to what matters. No fluff. No bloat. Just forward progress.

Slant is an AI assistant built for modern advisory firms. It helps advisors:

• Know who to talk to and when, based on life events, review cycles, and tiering

• Prepare for meetings, follow up automatically, and move projects forward

• Eliminate repetitive work and stay proactive, not reactive

  
  

We believe every advisor should have a world-class assistant—Slant is our way of making that happen through software. Not just a place to store notes and tasks, but a partner that helps you get the right things done.

This is just the beginning.