After launching their first ETFs earlier this year, a startup's team is prepping more products and adding another partner. Yet they're not expanding the team further, at least for now.

Sean Dillon Metaurus Advisors Founding Partner

"We've tried to build some intellectual property around some structural things that we'd like to do around some basic indexes," Sean Dillon, senior managing director and founding partner at Metaurus Advisors, tells MFWire. "We already have patent protection on our next couple of products that we're trying to create."

New York City-based Metaurus launched its first two ETFs — the Metaurus Advisors' US Equity Cumulative Dividends Fund — Series 2027 (IDIV) and the Metaurus Advisors' US Equity Ex-Dividend Fund — Series 2027, commodity pool ETFs (not investment companies) designed to break apart the S&P 500's performance into one fund that tracks the S&P 500's dividend cash flow only and another that tracks price performance only — in February. SEI is the funds' distributor and administrator, BBH, is the custodian and transfer agent, Morgan Stanley is the clearing FCM (futures commission merchant); and Wilmington is the trustee. Metaurus is named after a battle between Carthage and Rome in 207 B.C.

Senior managing director and partner Michael Hirai joined in June, and partner Rick Silva joined last month. The ten-person team also includes: Donald Callahan, senior managing director and partner; Brendan Greenwald, vice president; Jamie Greenwald, co-CEO and founding partner; David Haynes, managing director; and Rick Sandulli, co-CEO and founding partner.

"With AUM will come a need for different roles. We're still in that asset accumulation phase," Dillon says. "We're probably at the right size for right now. That can change quickly."

The Metaurus team comes from the structured product world, and new hire Silva is no exception. He most recently spent more than 13 years at Wells Fargo Securities, where his roles included: global co-head of equities and investment solutions; president of Wells Fargo Portfolio Risk Advisors; and global head of investment solutions. He also worked at Morgan Stanley, Imperial Credit Assest Management, Merrill Lynch, and Dean Witter.

"He's had some very senior roles with some of the major banks," Dillon says. "We really have a lot of financial engineers."

Metaurus is independent and has no institutional backers so far.

"We've raised money through friends and family," Dillon says. "We haven't partnered with anybody so far."

"At this stage, being a startup, you never say 'Never' to anything," Dillon adds. 

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