Spotlight Article: Manooj Mistry

Interview with Manooj Mistry: Lessons from 25 Years of Building ETF Businesses

Every ETF launch begins with optimism. A new investment idea, a compelling thesis, and often months of planning before the opening bell. Yet while some businesses become permanent fixtures in investor portfolios, others quietly disappear within a few years.

So what separates the businesses that endure from those that don’t?

Few people are better placed to answer that question than Manooj Mistry. Over the past twenty-five years, he’s helped shape the European ETF industry from several different perspectives – from Europe’s first UCITS ETFs at Merrill Lynch, to helping build one of Europe’s leading ETF platforms at Xtrackers, and now helping the next generation of issuers through HANetf.

Going into our conversation, I expected we’d spend much of our time discussing innovation, market growth and where ETFs might be heading next. We did. But only after Manooj challenged a belief many people have long held about successful ETF businesses.

It turns out that launching an ETF is the easy(ier) part.

The biggest misconception: Launching isn’t the hard part

Rather than answering my question directly, Manooj went back twenty-five years. I hadn’t expected that.
Instead of talking about product innovation or market growth, he wanted to talk about something much more fundamental.

“One thing people often forget,” he said, “is that we weren’t simply launching ETFs. We were introducing an entirely new investment vehicle. Before we could talk about performance or investment strategy, we first had to explain what an ETF actually was, how it traded and why investors should even consider using one.”

It’s easy to forget just how different the industry looked twenty-five years ago. Today, ETFs are part of everyday investment conversations. Advisers, institutions and private investors understand how they work and where they fit within portfolios. Back then, none of that could be taken for granted. The challenge wasn’t convincing investors to buy one ETF rather than another – it was convincing them that the ETF structure itself deserved their attention.

What struck me was how little Manooj romanticised those early years. He wasn’t reminiscing about building a new industry. He was remembering how difficult it was to convince investors to trust something they’d never seen before.

So what do people still misunderstand about those early years?

Looking back, he believes many people assume the industry’s success was driven primarily by product innovation. His experience was very different. The real challenge wasn’t launching products; it was changing investor behaviour.

“Education wasn’t optional,” he explained. “It was fundamental. Before investors could appreciate what an ETF offered, they first needed to understand what it actually was and why it was different.”

That thought stayed with me because it’s tempting to assume those challenges disappeared as the market matured.

So has the job actually become any easier?

Manooj gave an interesting overview:

“The conversation has changed,” he said, “but the challenge really hasn’t. Investors already understand ETFs. What they don’t automatically understand is why this ETF deserves a place in their portfolio. People spend so much time thinking about launch day. Launch day is important, but it’s only the beginning. After that, you have to build awareness. You have to educate. You have to support distribution. You have to keep telling the story.”

It’s a perspective that quietly turns one of the industry’s biggest assumptions on its head. Launching an ETF has arguably never been easier. Regulation has evolved, technology has improved, and white-label platforms have lowered many of the barriers to entry. Yet listening to Manooj, it became increasingly clear that building a successful ETF business remains every bit as demanding.

The industry naturally celebrates launch day because it’s visible. It’s measurable. It generates headlines. That’s where Manooj believes the real work begins. Successful ETF businesses aren’t built through a single listing or an opening bell. They’re built patiently, through years of earning credibility with investors, advisers and institutions – one conversation at a time.

Great ideas are common. Great execution isn’t

Almost every answer Manooj gave came back to the same distinction. Launching an ETF and building an ETF business were two completely different challenges. It made me wonder whether, despite everything the industry has learned over the past twenty-five years, new issuers are still making many of the same mistakes. His answer came without hesitation: “People often think that once the ETF is listed, the hard work is done,” he said. “Actually, that’s when the real work starts.”

It’s an understandable assumption. Months of planning go into a launch. Product design, regulatory approvals, seed capital, service providers and exchange listings all build towards a single day that naturally feels like the finish line.

For Manooj, however, it’s simply the point where the real challenge begins.

“You can have a great product,” he continued, “but if investors don’t understand why it exists, or how it fits into a portfolio, it’s very difficult to build momentum.”

So what separates products that attract attention from those that build lasting investor support

Manooj believes the industry sometimes asks the wrong question. Rather than asking whether a product is innovative, he thinks issuers should start with something much simpler.

“The first question shouldn’t be, ‘Is this different?'” he said. “It should be, ‘What problem does this solve for the investor?'”

I pushed him on that point – surely every ETF issuer believes they’re solving a problem?

To which Manooj replied. “Yes… but can they explain it simply?”

That wasn’t the answer I’d been expecting. We spend a lot of time in this industry talking about innovation. Manooj was talking about clarity.

Over the past two decades, there has been no shortage of clever ideas. Some have reshaped the way investors build portfolios. Others generated excitement at launch before quietly disappearing. In Manooj’s experience, the difference rarely comes down to the investment strategy itself. It comes down to whether investors immediately understand why the product deserves a place in their portfolio.

Is innovation enough on its own?

For Manooj, the answer is clearly no.

“You have to keep telling the story,” he said. “You can’t assume that because you’ve launched a product, people will automatically find it.”

It’s a simple observation, but perhaps one that’s easier to overlook in today’s increasingly competitive market. Visibility isn’t guaranteed, neither is trust, and both have to be earned over time. When I asked whether that was something experience had taught him, this is what Manooj had to say:

“Probably,” he admitted. “When you’ve been through different market cycles, you realise that businesses aren’t built by one good launch. They’re built by consistently delivering, continuing to educate and staying close to clients.”

By now, I’d realised something I’d completely missed at the start of our conversation. We’d spent the best part of an hour discussing the ETF industry, yet Manooj had spent remarkably little time talking about products.

Instead, he kept coming back to people. Understanding investors. Building relationships. Solving genuine problems. Perhaps that’s why the most successful ETF businesses don’t begin by asking,

“What can we launch?”

They begin by asking something much more important.

What does the investor genuinely need?

The biggest surprise: The fundamentals haven’t really changed. By this point, we’d covered everything from Europe’s first UCITS ETFs to investor education, distribution and the challenge of building businesses that last.

One question, however, remained with me.

The ETF industry Manooj entered more than twenty-five years ago bears very little resemblance to the one we know today. Assets have grown exponentially, product ranges have expanded into almost every corner of the market, and active ETFs are reshaping the conversation once again.

So after all that change, has anything fundamental actually stayed the same?

Manooj paused for a moment before answering.

“The industry has evolved enormously, but I’m not sure the fundamentals have changed as much as people think.”

We spend so much time discussing wrappers, regulation, product innovation and market structure that it’s easy to assume every new development changes the rules. Manooj sees something rather different.

“Investors still want to understand what they’re buying,” he explained. “They still need confidence. They still need to trust the people behind the product.”

That brought us almost full circle.

At the beginning of our conversation, we’d been talking about Europe’s first ETFs and the challenge of introducing an entirely new investment vehicle. Twenty-five years later, the products may be different, and the market has evolved beyond recognition, but the questions investors ask remain remarkably familiar.

Why this product? Why now? Why should I trust it?

Technology has evolved. The infrastructure has evolved, and the ETF wrapper itself continues to evolve. What hasn’t changed is the importance of building confidence with investors.

So where does the industry go from here?

When I asked where the industry goes from here, I was almost certain we’d end up talking about artificial intelligence, tokenisation or the next wave of product innovation. We didn’t. Manooj barely mentioned the technology. Instead, he brought the conversation back to investors.

“Innovation will always continue,” he said. “But innovation only matters if it solves a genuine problem. That’s always been true.”

It struck me that, despite discussing the ETF industry’s remarkable growth in detail, we’d spent surprisingly little time talking about ETFs themselves. Instead, we’d talked about understanding clients, listening to investors, building relationships and earning trust. In many ways, the conversation had become less about products and more about the principles that underpin any successful business.

Perhaps that’s why Manooj’s perspective feels so relevant. Markets will continue to evolve, new products will come and go, and technology will continue to reshape how investors access financial markets. But if our conversation reinforced one lesson above all others, it’s that the businesses which endure don’t begin with products.

They begin by understanding people.