David Lin is CEO and founder of fintech company Linvest21. Photo credit: Supplied.
U of T computer science alum David Lin is bringing decades of Wall Street experience to his new startup, Linvest21.
After 22 years at JP Morgan, where he rose to managing director and chief technology officer of its global investment platform, Lin has branched out with a fintech, Linvest21.ai. The company offers AlphaCopilot, an autonomous investment platform powered by specialized AI agents.
In his new role, Lin applies insights gained from his career experience and his formative time at the University of Toronto.
“The tenacity, dedication and attention to detail I learned at U of T gave me a lot of early success, and it made me persevere and eventually come out better,” says Lin, who earned his honours bachelor of science in computer science as a member of University College in 1995, and went on to complete his MBA from Columbia University.
“U of T pushes the boundaries in theory and innovation,” he says. “It’s one of the very best universities.”
The decision to attend U of T was an easy one for Lin, who immigrated to Canada from China in 1990. His parents were visiting scholars in Toronto, his father affiliated with U of T’s Department of Physics.
Still, the path to Canada was rocky. In the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, Lin was one of many students looking to leave the country. He waited in line at the Canadian embassy for four days before eventually being rejected for a visa.
“That experience taught me a lot,” he says. “I felt like if I could get out, I would do something worthwhile.”
Help came from an unlikely source. A pastor who lived across the street from Lin’s parents in Toronto wrote a letter to the Canadian embassy in China, and Lin and his sister were admitted.
He did not speak much English at the time, and money was tight. He was awarded bursaries and worked three jobs — as a Canada Post part-time worker, at University College’s computer labs and at a butcher shop.
Lin’s time at U of T remains a bright spot. “I loved every inch of my U of T experience,” he says.
After graduating, Lin was headhunted for a role in New York, where his career in American finance began. He eventually landed at JP Morgan where he spent more than two decades in increasingly senior roles, and eventually establishing himself as an innovator in FinTech with six patents in financial technology and applied AI.
When it was time for a change, his background in computer science and commerce gave him the right tools to leverage the growth in AI and apply it to the world of finance.
“I realized, after 22 years, if I wanted to do something truly revolutionary, it had to happen from the outside in,” Lin says.
At Linvest21, Lin and his team are using AI to democratize institutional grade investment technology for medium and small-sized companies.
“Most people are using AI piecemeal, writing a letter here or an ideation there,” Lin says. “AlphaCopilot takes it from ideation research to portfolio management, risk management, performance analysis and customized client communications. End to end and autonomous."
Though he had many of the requisite technical skills already for his current role as CEO, launching Linvest21 forced him to learn a lot about leadership — such as thinking like a CEO and business owner rather than a chief technology officer.
Through it all, Lin has kept the perspective and gratitude of his teenage self who waited days outside of the embassy in the hopes of starting a new life.
"I feel like the luckiest guy because few people get to experience what I have gone through as a complete foreigner to a Canadian dream," Lin says. "I can be the global CTO for JPMorgan, or I can go back to the butcher shop tomorrow. Either way, I’m grateful for a life full of colour and perspective."
Original story by Coby Zucker for A&S News