The financial world is a confusing place and often it is easy to get lost in this limbo. The one thing that frightens folks from investing their hard earned cash in the market is lack of clarity on various financial mumbo jumbos. For a novice, there is generally way too much information to digest and we do not blame you if you are already at your wits end.
Well the good news is that you no longer have to be a financial pundit to make smart investment choices as Nvestly is here. This app is a one of a kind blessing that helps you grow your investment network and see top investments from real portfolios of friends and experts.
Meet The Power Team That Made It Happen!
Conceptualized and co-founded by Otávio Dalarossa and Chris Tung, Nvestly is here to help you make better financial decisions.
Otávio grew up in Brazil and moved to the US as a teenager. Though he studied engineering, in 2008 he became infatuated with the financial markets because of the crash. Seeing all the damage that took place, he felt a deep desire to have positive impact in the markets and to the people affected by the financial crisis.
After a failed startup in 2008 in light of the recession, he went on to work in the financial industry and quickly garnered deep experience. When the idea for Nvestly hit him, he was leading the efforts for Latin America and Real Assets at a $5.5b private markets institution. Otávio saw an opportunity to introduce the concept of investing by making it simple, social and transparent. In 2013 he left his job and joined forces with long-time friend, trader and coder Chris Tung.
Initial Nvestly was envisioned to be just an investment dashboard that aggregated all your accounts in one place and lets you share certain things. It was akin to Foursquare of investing – instead of checking in to let people know where you are, you could post a trade to let people know what you’re investing in.
However, today, Nvestly is morphed into something even more amazing. Now it is a robust platform that lets you share real portfolio information without revealing dollar amounts. Otávio and Chris built a team and integrated with the largest US brokerages using Intuit technology and bank-level security practices.
Know The App Better!
Nvestly is here to give you the most reliable investment network. This app is all about cutting through the bullsh*t and making better investment decisions together. It lets you see all accounts in one simple, beautiful dashboard and visually explores your portfolio’s returns. You can also see metrics that only hedge funds generally have access to, like your portfolio beta, IRR and a comparison between your portfolio and the S&P 500. What’s cool is that if you insert cash or withdraw cash, your performance doesn’t jump up or down. It’s the most comprehensive picture of your investment portfolio.
Unique Features!
What sets Nvestly apart from other financial apps in the market is the social aspect. In this app, you can see other people’s real portfolios, including all the investments that someone currently has. People like to use this feature to have deeper discussions about investments and learn together. Nvestly has a leaderboard showing the top investors ranked by investment returns. It also shows what top investors are holding. It’s also fun to compare your performance with friends and see what’s working for them.
One of the coolest features of Nvestly is that it lets you post trades to outside social networks. For the traders out there, this app automatically detects when you make a trade and lets you post to Twitter, Stocktwits or even Facebook. The “trade post”, as Nvestly calls it, lets you write down why you made a particular trade. This acts as a helpful “investment journal” of sorts, as you can later revisit your thoughts and see what went right or wrong.
On The Problem The App is Solving!
Over half of millennials are saving for retirement, and over half believe the stock market is a viable vehicle for long-term investment. Yet only 10% of this group has started investing. This shows a dire need to get young people involved in the investment world.
The main problem that is responsible for this trend is that people often perceive investing as confusing, complex and daunting. For someone who is starting off, there’s generally too much information to digest in a dry, boring website with confusing lingo. Ultimately, people have to dig through this information alone. Even with the new robo-investing sites, there’s a general lack of understanding as to what each one does and how.
Nvestly solves this very issue. This app is a simple and a beautiful investment dashboard that also lets you see what others are doing.
“We focus on simplicity and design to build the best experience possible for people interested in investing. By integrating with the largest US brokerages and providing deep analytics, we also offer a robust enough platform to please power users. Ultimately we aim to build technology that empowers people to become better investors”, adds the team.
The Driving Force!
Otávio’s prior role involved screening pitches from private equity and venture capital firms raising funds. He noticed that all the top funds on the planet had investment committees that had regular meetings and conversations. A highlight of these meetings was the open exchange of information.
It is here that Otávio saw an opportunity to build a platform for information exchange for everyday people. No fancy lingo, no complex charts, no overwhelming numbers but just a beautifully designed, simple and intuitive platform where people can talk about investing. Most importantly, he saw an opportunity to let people talk about real portfolio information to “cut through all the bullsh*t”.
The Road Blocks!
The biggest hurdle for the team was explaining to the older generation what social media really is. While Gen Y and Gen Z grew up with social media, Baby Boomers didn’t. It was difficult to explain how to share a picture on Facebook, let alone why they would post a trade on Nvestly. The problem is that it is not intuitive to them until they actually use it.
Another huge hurdle was adhering to all the security requirements to get Nvestly up and running. The team spent almost a year building out deep security features to integrate with each institution. They ultimately leveraged some technology from Intuit. But they have regular third party audits and security is a continuous process, so this is a constant challenge and one that the team personally loves to take head on.
On a separate note, one of the funniest yet serious hurdles was coming up with the name. The duo had a horrible name for the project before and they couldn’t find a better one. Otávio even offered a $1000 prize to anyone who came up with a great name. They had hundreds of submissions, but not a single winner. The Nvestly name ultimately was born from a day-long meeting with the core team.
“We took the “I” out of investing and focused on the “N”, which stands for power in numbers. We really believe in our name – N also stands for the fact that numbers don’t lie. And the “ly” – well, I originally wanted Nvest.co, but we A/B tested that vs. Nvestly and Nvestly won by a longshot,” adds Otávio.
The Contenders!
The most notable social investing site that poses as the app’s potential competitor is StockTwits. Curiously, in spite of being a competitor, they’re also complementary to Nvestly because the team lets people post their trades through Nvestly to StockTwits.
EToro has a similar concept in Europe, but they are a social brokerage focused on FOREX and Futures. In the US, DittoTrade has a social brokerage concept, as does SprinkleBit.
On The Journey Ahead, Intended Users & More!
The team presently is focused on growing in the US first. After establishing a strong footprint they plan on expanding to other developed nations. Further, at the moment, Nvestly is mainly targeted at young people who have a brokerage or retirement account, or are interested in opening one.
In terms of monetizing plan, Nvestly is free for anyone to use for a limited time. They team is working on certain pro features that will give users new insights into the financial markets and into their portfolio. To know more about these awesome features, stay tuned!
To sum it up perfectly, Nvestly is probably the first of its kind to integrate social media to an investment network. With this app, see top investments from real portfolios of friends and experts.
Special Offer For Our Readers!
First person to sign up and post a trade wins a $50 Amazon Gift card. To win, post a trade to Twitter, tag @Nvestly and write “Startup Dope!” in the post.
Note: Nvestly only lets you post new trades, not historical trades.
To sign in and to know more about the app, do visit: nvestly.com
