I’m Sierra L. Smith​

​

I started my career helping entrepreneurs navigate purpose and prosperity. That experience showed me there's a whole world of talented people building wealth in ways traditional systems don't recognize or support yet. I watched brilliant Black women creatives, Gen Z visionaries, and BIPOC founders attempt to move mountains in their industries, yet freeze when the conversation turned to money. Not because they didn't care. Because no one had ever made wealth feel like it was built for them.

​

I’m here to build for those communities. This isn't just about serving a massive, underserved market, it's about making space for generational opportunity for people who've been historically excluded from these conversations is how we build the future of finance. I want to partner with financial innovations to serve Gen Z women and Black creatives who are rewriting what wealth means in their communities. Right now, there's no seat at the table for them. My goal is to help firms like Goldman recognize that building space for people like us isn't charity.

​

It's the smartest market opportunity the industry is missing.

​

Flora came from me watching this pattern repeat. Gen Z women taking real financial initiative are being overlooked by an industry designed for passive clients. I built three personas Luna, Maya, and Robin based on real behavioral research. Luna saves $50 a month on a modest income because she needs to feel safe. Maya manages volatile freelance earnings and wants control. Robin thinks systematically about money but needs clarity without judgment. All three were actively trying to start investing, but felt invisible to traditional finance.

 

They weren’t hard to convince; they just needed a platform that made starting feel possible. Through 10-year wealth projections, I modeled what happens when you actually capture these motivated individuals where they are. Lifetime advisory relationships. Paths to $2M to $5M by their 50s. For firms like Goldman, Flora proves that the real opportunity is meeting this motivated segment exactly where they're taking initiative to begin.

​

My strategy is grounded in analytical rigor. I am currently pursuing my CFA Level 1 in May 2026, building strong analytical foundations while grounding it in marketing insights and design thinking from my time at HubSpot. Here’s what matters: Entrepreneurs make financial decisions under pressure based on one thing: trust. I’ve spent years learning the language to communicate complexity in ways that actually close the gap between what people fear and what’s possible.

​

When business owners and creatives sit across from me overwhelmed by numbers, I know I can't just throw more data at them. I listen. I translate. I make them feel like someone finally sees them. That’s where the real work happens. I identify patterns across markets, understand how people actually make decisions when it matters, and translate psychological insight into strategy that works.

 

The wealth management industry is being reshaped by Gen Z's expectations for transparency, authenticity, and AI-enhanced personalization. Goldman gets this. I believe your strategic investments position you to lead this shift, and what excites me most is your Asset and Wealth Management expansion into emerging demographics and your embedding of AI across client-facing operations.

​

This is where the future of Gen Z wealth management is being built. I'm ready to contribute by creating entry points that honor both rigor and humanity, and help Partners capture that opportunity. Because the firms that serve Gen Z at $50 a month today earn the right to manage their millions tomorrow. Let's build that together.