Sylvia Jablonski, Defiance ETFs

And thanks for having us. Sure. So why don't we just talk a little bit more about Defiance? As you mentioned, the firm launched in 2018, you've crossed $13 billion in assets. So for listeners who know some of your individual tickers, but might not know like the full story, what is the kind of philosophy at Defiance? And what is the product mix look like today? And as you've mentioned, it's

Changed so much. Yeah, so I would say that we've been pretty consistent with our theme, right? We try to be first to market with disruptive, new, innovative, disruptive technologies, or just, really new ideas and things that don't exist in the market that investors are very much talking about and looking for access to. So, a great example is the quantum ETF that came to the market in 2018. It was the first of its kind. And, kind of lo and behold, it takes some time for disruptive technologies to become commercial opportunities, right? And so, we like to be ahead of the curve with some of the themes and some of the products that we come to market with. And on the single name leverage stocks, there's just been this massive

To innovate and keep the product lineup relevant. I'm kind of curious what that process looks like, inside the walls of defiance, you've been right on a lot of themes. And what is the process like, behind closed doors when the team's deciding, what themes or single stock names are worth building around, what's not. And you guys have to move fast. So, I'm sure, there's not a lot of, the Western Pennsylvania is going to come out of me, the him hauling around, deciding what to do. You got to move fast. So, what's that process look like?

I think you answered the question actually really well with it, like, just with your intro there. There is no hem hawing at all, right? And I think that this year, we see, we see the, the speed, the veracity, the volume of ETF filings and launches from all issuers. So, it's very much a competitive world amongst us issuers out there in the market. When we have a good idea, we obviously think things through and we do all of the due diligence and the research and the, correct type of R&D prior to building an ETF. We're working with an index provider to build an ETF in some cases, but it's very much doing that quickly and efficiently and trying to gain

Well, let's get into one of the more recent launches, which is, an impactful fund. And I think for you guys, kudos to you and we want to talk through this, but let's get into ASD, which is the Defiance Autism Impact ETF. It's just been launched on June 2nd and this is the first ETF of its kind. At a very high level, what is this fund and what is the mission behind it?

Yeah. So, the birth of this ETF actually comes from, something that's very much close to all of our hearts here at Defiance. So, Matt Belsky and Gabrielle Azan Belsky have a son who is, on the autism spectrum and they've really spent his childhood supporting him and finding the right services to, help him grow, develop and thrive. And through that, they've, kind of met other people and seen how autism affects different families and what the financial constraints are, what the educational requirements are, the behavioral challenges are, the pharmaceutical challenges are and things like this. And it's really been something where, they've thought that through and wanted to create a fund that invests in the companies that just are

Yeah. So, you mentioned just, this is kind of touch Matt personally, and he's not on the show today. So, I don't know, how much we want to get into this, but how much do you think, Matt's lived experience like shapes this fund? it seems like it's purely index driven, but the philanthropic piece is probably has a lot to do with Matt's personal experience.

The philanthropic piece is 100% based on Matt's personal experience and the experiences that, we've all been exposed to with other families that are, either know someone, and if you talked to just about anyone, they'll say, my cousin, my nephew, my so-and-so, my friend's son is struggling with autism. So, this is just a very prevalent issue. But yes, very much the philanthropic aspect of it is 100% to, to really leave a mark and do something good in this world and advance autism research and hopefully autism cures. And yes, it's, the point about it being index based, right? We also want a good product. And if you think about what the autism ETF is, it's, again, it's a disease that impacts one in 31 people. This is a massive population

Allocation. Yeah. So, you touched on this slightly there, but, there are no FDA-approved medications for kind of the core symptoms of autism at this time. So, the full ecosystem is touching pharma, it's touching diagnostics, it's touching, behavioral therapy, education, even assistive technology. So, can you walk us through kind of the three core segments you're going to see

Inside of this fund? Sure. I think I can give you something. I can talk about some segments and also give you some examples, but it's going to be, drug development, genetic testing, diagnostic tech, behavioral therapies, educational tools, assisted technologies. Just to give you some examples, though, it's like Bright Spring. They do behavioral health and developmental disability. It's LifeStance. They do mental health and behavioral care utilized by individuals with autism. Shred and Pearson, educational platforms, Revity is diagnostics and genetic testing. But there are all sorts of pre-IPO companies also working on cures for autism. there's a company called, Yamo, for example, that is one of the, biotech companies out there that has a really good medical solution for children with autism that apparently, doesn't have side

Yeah. So we, we touched on the philanthropic piece, like super briefly, but it is, it's genuinely important and it's a, it's a massive differentiator for this product. So Defiance is donating a hundred percent of net advisory profits during the first two years, and then no less than 50% thereafter to autism causes. So can you kind of talk about how that came together and, what organizations you see, these donations will support? Yeah. so again, I think a lot of ETFs are

Created because there's a popular trend as we talked about before, but this was really created because autism affects real families every single day. And the experiences that these families have with raising profoundly autistic children are essentially, harrowing. And I think that with the personal connection and the philanthropic donation here, there's just a level of authenticity, let's, let's say with this fund. It's something we really believe in and we'll hold true to our word and donate to different autism organizations. in terms of who we'll donate to, that, that is something that could potentially change over time, right? We want to make sure that we're working with different charities and organizations that are doing the things that we believe in. And so, when the time is appropriate, we'll kind of disclose who those, who and what those,

This fund has as much success as your other funds and we can help propel that space forward and get families and people to help and the innovation that they need. And so with that, we are going to drastically shift gears away from this fund to, um, a, June 12th, maybe is a massive day. Um, SpaceX is slated to go public 1.75 trillion valuation, which would be the largest IPO in history. And you guys are launching SPCU, which is a two X long space S space X ETF the same day. Can you walk us through what this is going to offer to investors? Yeah. So, um, the,

The ETFs it's, it's, it's to be determined, um, in terms of the launch date in terms of, um, that, when it'll come out into the market, but, certainly after SpaceX IPOs. Um, so I would say that next week you'll see all of these ETFs trading is, is the most likely story, but we just think that, SpaceX has transformed, um, the, the buzz of SpaceX is, is just transforming the market, but the company itself has transformed space by basically reducing launch costs and increasing frequency. You have Starlink and the Starlink network, which has recurring revenues. You have these contracts with Google that bring in billions of dollars, but I think this is, this is just something where space is becoming a commercial industry.

Going to be no shortage of ways to get SpaceX exposure on day one. And the single stock two X from defiance and pro shares, a wave of buying, from index funds, space themes, ETFs, right? So why does defiance want to be in this category? And how do you think you're, maybe positioned a little bit differently than the rest? I think we have a great moat, right? We're,

We're going to have a two X long product, a two X short product. We have a basket of space, space names like, um, SPCL. We have, um, thematic one beta funds that hold it. We have other lever ETFs that are related to space. We've already put a lot of ETFs out there. you can see our, um, some of our two X single names like rocket labs is one of them. So I think that we've already been in space. We're one of the ETF companies that's known for our space exposure. And if you look at some of the other, even related stories, like you can look at a Jedi, which has, drones and satellite, the future of military warfare space is a huge,

Economy has gone from like niche theme to like mainstream, like rather quickly, I was just talking to, uh, Tema ETFs. They launched the NASA ETF gathered a hundred million in like a week. Yes. Uh, UFO crossed a billion. What's driving, what do you think is driving that demand from

Investors right now? Yeah. UFO X also crossed a billion too. Um, that's that one's ours, but yeah, I just think that investors are very much engaged in, where the puck is going for technology. Um, this was a word that a lot of people were using years ago and it's kind of died down because AI is the new buzzword, but, um, the fourth industrial revolution is, is, is here. We're living in it. Right. And with the growth of AI, quantum computing, super computing, um, if you think about, what is kind of needed for that and what grows from that, it's, it's connectivity, it's communications, it's moving data, it's, finding different ways to, to, to grow and support AI. And I think that space is just a natural, um, kind of

Sometimes feel like they go hand in hand. Yeah, I can definitely see that. So we talked, um, we talked earlier about, the prolific growth of defiance. And so you've had launches in autism and drones and single stock letter plays, like what's the broader vision as we head into the back half of 2026. Do you think we're going to see more from defiance?

Oh, for sure. Um, we have been launching products almost weekly at this stage and you'll, you'll see a mix of things. You'll see new thematic products that represent, untouched subsectors are some of the major themes we've discussed today. So far, um, you will see more single name leverage funds coming out from defiance. We have, um, all sorts of innovative and creative filings that, that we have out there. And I think what you'll see from us is, is more disruption, more innovation. And I think you'll, you'll see us hopefully winning on bringing some new, um, disruptive and exciting themes to the market that investors want to trade.

So Sylvia, as we think about maybe the last 24 months, defiance is, is ballooned, personally for you, how's your life changed, I guess. And what's the company, what's the company look like today compared to 24 months ago?

Yeah, great question. So, um, as you can imagine, we're all a whole lot busier, right. And, and there's a lot of excitement that has come with that. And, I'll say just like on a personal note, like we're, we're super grateful, right? we, we started in 2018. It took a really long time to get to the point where we were able to put this many products into the market and see, some of the success that we have seen in the products that we put out there. It's just, a matter of time and, and, introducing yourself to the markets and, and, people kind of trusting in what you're building and doing. And so we've been so lucky to

Was that just curious when you're sitting around the table with a small team in 2018, was the idea always to get to a point where you guys are launching a product every week, or is that almost like a pivot or, uh, a business decision that happened another time after you started having success in some of these spaces? And it's like, Hey, let's just, let's just keep

Launching product. Uh, well, there's, there's obviously always a chicken and egg. You need, you need, balance sheet and growth to, to justify launching additional products. But yeah, we always, we had always planned to, to grow and to, to put products into the market and, um, to get our good ideas out there as fast and as often as we can. Right. So we're certainly very thoughtful in what we're putting into the market and everything that you see us launching and filing for is something that we very much believe in. And, not every ETF that's filed for ends up getting launched. So we're certainly selective, but, um, we, we have very high conviction in the things that we put out into the market.

Well, Sylvia, I always enjoy my time with you. Um, before I can, before I let you go, where can people learn all about defiance, get information on ASD and all of your ETFs?

Uh, that's defiance ETFs.com. And thank you, Brad, for having me.

All right. We'll talk soon. Thanks. Thank you.