In this edition of Coffee with Calyptus, we sit down with Juwariah S, Head of Growth at Unlimited, and former growth leader at Vortyx. Juwariah shares her journey from investment banking to disrupting the financial services sector with AI. Get ready for insights on PMF, the AI revolution, and navigating the intersection of growth and innovation.
You spent nearly four years in investment banking at Truist building financial models and advising on M&A deals, then became the first growth hire at NYOUM, co-founded Vortyx, analyzed 10,000+ SMBs with AI, and now you're Head of Growth at Unlimited, automating financial services workflows. Can you please walk us through your fascinating journey?
In finance, I was grinding through brutal hours and cranking out Excel models. Eventually, I realized I wanted to build something of my own and dove headfirst into startups.
My first stop was NYOUM, where I joined as their first growth hire. Then came Vortyx, born out of frustration while trying to buy a small business. The brokerage industry was ancient, so we built an AI-native platform that analyzed 10,000+ businesses, interviewed 1,000 brokers, and ran GTM, fundraising, and product all at once.
After Vortyx, large AI companies started reaching out—since I sat at the unique intersection of finance and AI. That led me to Unlimited, where we’re disrupting asset management and financial services with AI systems that automate complex workflows end-to-end.
The common thread? Obsessive learning. 4 years ago, I didn’t know too much about growth, AI, or product. Now, I’d put myself in the top 2% of AI-native operators. I saw the AI shift early and leveled up fast.
The future is binary now: you’re either a 10x AI operator or you build something of your own. Most of the other knowledge work jobs will get impacted in the long run.
You built Vortyx's proprietary AI segmentation engine for SMB deal sourcing while also handling GTM, fundraising, and product. Now at Unlimited, you're Head of Growth & Operations. How do you manage to juggle multiple roles, and what advice do you have for other founders looking to do the same?
The chapter with Vortyx is wrapped—I’m at Unlimited now. I’ve basically got front-row seats to the deep AI infrastructure wave that’s hitting finance. One day I’m talking to VC funds, the next it’s asset managers, banks, and other finance heavyweights—all trying to figure out how AI is rewriting their businesses in real time.
I’m a founder/operator at heart, always tinkering on the edges with side hustles and new ideas. Juggling multiple roles comes down to ruthless prioritization—outside of my full-time role, I give the rest of my time to experimenting, learning, and shipping. In the end, it’s about how badly you want it and how committed you’re willing to be.
How are you using AI agents or automation internally at Unlimited to scale your own growth and ops work?
I treat AI like my mini “team”—it handles the grunt work so I can focus on the high-leverage stuff.
That’s the leverage you have today: using AI to do the heavy, redundant lifting while you focus on the needle-moving work. I’ve got AI and agents auditing trending content, scanning competitive landscapes, running smart RSS/ keyword trackers, and even auto-scoring prospects right after ICP calls.
And here’s the kicker: AI isn’t here to replace you—it’s here to free you up. The edge is still in the human layer—building real relationships, building rapport, meeting clients face-to-face, and moving deals forward.
This is why growth today isn’t just marketing—it’s GTM engineering. Wire data, agents, and workflows like code, and your distribution compounds while you focus on the human touch.
If a founder asks you about PMF and growth strategy today, do you think about it through your investment banking lens, focusing on unit economics and defensibility, or have your experiences in AI startups given you a different framework for evaluation?
Banking gave me a healthy dose of cynicism—I always start with fundamentals: net income over vanity topline, pricing levers, CAC:LTV by segment, and campaign ROI broken down into months and quarters. That lens keeps me grounded.
But AI startups completely rewired my PMF framework. I’ve watched companies hit $100M ARR by year four, and lean teams of under 9 hit $10M ARR without raising a dime. Product development just isn’t the bottleneck anymore.
Defensibility now lives outside the product—in distribution, storytelling, brand identity, and sales. That’s why operators who can blend fundamentals with AI-native execution will hold the real superpower—because today, it all comes down to two types of people: AI-native builders and AI-native marketers/sales experts.
We hope you enjoyed this edition of Coffee with Calyptus. Stay curious, stay inspired, and keep building what matters. Explore more editions and insightful articles at
