Published October 8, 2026
Every investment starts with an idea. Perhaps you notice that the cost of your morning mocha has steadily increased over recent weeks, and after reading reports that Brazil is experiencing an unusually dry season, you anticipate that global coffee prices will continue to rise. What do you do next? The answer depends entirely on how much you understand about financial products, and which specific instruments you have access to.
If your name happens to be Warren Buffett, you already know every instrument type and asset class. You know precisely when to use leverage and how to construct a cost-optimized trade. And you know how to think about what should trigger it. Is the entry point determined when the official crop estimate finally lands? Or is it triggered when rainfall in Minas Gerais crosses a certain critical threshold?
But good luck setting all of that intricate machinery up in your favorite online retail brokerage account. If you are not Warren Buffett, your options remain severely limited. You can either pay a traditional financial advisor or wealth manager to execute and manage the trade for you, or you can simply buy a few shares in a publicly traded coffee company and hope for the best.
Now, however, a new platform called Catalyst is changing that paradigm entirely. Instead of navigating the complex plumbing of the financial markets, you can simply use Catalyst to describe your investment thesis in plain language. Behind the scenes, Catalyst’s specialized AI agents gather and analyze real-time market signals, identify the most efficient path across various platforms and trading venues, and help users backtest and deploy sophisticated strategies complete with clear limits and strict safety controls. For the first time, everyday investors can begin with clear intent rather than getting bogged down in the intimidating mechanical plumbing of the market.
Co-founders Dylan Iskandar and Justin Zheng recognized a fundamental paradox in modern finance: while retail investing has evolved dramatically over the decades from the telephone era to web-based platforms and mobile apps, this massive leap in accessibility has done remarkably little to help everyday users trade richer, more nuanced investment ideas with genuine confidence. Today, advanced artificial intelligence agents are capable of writing full-scale software applications and proving novel mathematical theorems. Financial trading itself has become increasingly automated and algorithmic. Yet, despite these technological leaps, investing for the vast majority of people remains largely manual, fragmented, and strictly do-it-yourself.
This industry-wide problem has persisted for so long precisely because the underlying solution is exceptionally difficult to engineer. To build Catalyst, Dylan and Justin needed deep, specialized expertise in high-performance trading systems and robust backend infrastructure. However, technical prowess alone was not enough. They also needed the unique ability to bridge the persistent comprehension gaps that everyday investors face. For Catalyst to truly succeed, it had to bring its users along for the journey, ensuring they fully understood their available options and the broader implications of their trades. The platform needed to be intelligent enough to ask the right questions, provide precise and actionable feedback, and build enduring trust at every single step of the investment process.
The team behind this ambitious endeavor is an exceptionally talent-dense group of true outliers who possess the rare multidisciplinary skills required to pull off such a feat. Co-founder Dylan Iskandar was a globally recognized classical pianist by the age of four, conducted advanced cybersecurity research for the U.S. Department of Defense throughout his high school years, and arrived at Stanford University as a prestigious Jane Street scholar before ultimately leaving his studies to build Catalyst. Meanwhile, fellow co-founder Justin Zheng raised his first venture capital seed round at just 16 years old, earned a coveted Pioneer grant for his pioneering work in biometrics and crypto synthesis, and made history as the youngest IDEO CoLab fellow—a distinction he achieved twice.
This founding duo is surrounded by an equally formidable cohort of high achievers, including former founding engineers from Palantir, the very first engineering hire at Scale AI, and top-tier technical leads hailing from elite quantitative trading firms and market makers such as Citadel, Citadel Securities, Hudson River Trading, and Jump Trading. This team is deeply thoughtful not only about the elegant architecture of their product, but also about the profound ethical responsibility of breaking entirely new ground in the realm of agent-driven finance.
Early backers are already recognizing the transformative potential of the platform. Leading Catalyst’s seed round has been described as a privilege, and industry observers note that this milestone represents merely the opening chapter of a much larger shift. Early users of the platform have been vocal in their praise, describing the experience as "unparalleled" and "a perfect experience." As the broader financial world races to catch up with this technological wave, Dylan, Justin, and the entire Catalyst team are pursuing an ambition that is nothing short of building the universal orchestration layer for turning complex financial ideas into real-world reality.
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