Business Name and what it does
Investingintheweb.com is your guide in the complex world of investment platforms. It is a website that helps people find, learn, compare and choose from the hundreds of different investment platforms available. Avoid scams, get unbiased reviews, tips and recommendations, and choose the services that best suit your needs.
The founders’ vision is to help people make better-informed financial decisions. That vision has brought Investing in the Web to life, and two other upcoming projects in the areas of Robo-advisors and Fintech.
Founder’s/Owner’s story and what motivated them to start the business
Well, this is an exciting story! Back in 2019, when the spread of a virus was a good tail for a fiction movie, Pedro was doing an internship in a Sports Betting Fintech Firm, and Franklin was working in a Wealth Management company. Both were in Portugal, in the same city, and even studied at the same university but had never met. Then Covid-19 stroke.
Pedro was exploring several business ideas in the Fintech space, and Franklin began a YouTube channel about Financial Literacy. One day, Pedro discovered Franklin’s YouTube videos while searching for PPRs (the closest Portuguese version of an IRA). Pedro reached out to Franklin and shared his struggle to find and differentiate the numerous financial services available out there.
During their conversation, they realized that the lack of transparency in the financial industry made it hard to separate scams from legitimate choices. Among those legitimate choices, it was challenging to assess which of these would best fit the specific needs of any particular investor. They knew they were on to something.
After a little convincing by Pedro, Franklin was on board with the idea of coming together to create a website that helps investors find, learn and compare the different platforms to save and invest online – that’s how Investing in the Web was founded!
For the past two years, both have worked full-time on the project, expanding the team and working closely with financial freelance writers.
The challenges the business/market is facing
Running websites brings a lot of challenges. The path to a successful business model is not linear, so we must be flexible in molding our approach. Adapting Porter’s five forces analysis to our area, we face the following challenges:
- The threat of new entrants: it is relatively easy to start a blog, so the entry barriers are pretty low.
- Competition: The fintech industry, particularly Online Brokers, is quite a competitive landscape. We need to constantly reinvent ourselves to create more and better content and tools.
- Dependency of Google’s algorithm: As a content creation website is crucial to be found by Google and, consequently, by everyone else. Combining high-quality content and SEO expertise reduces the likelihood of being adversely impacted by changes in Google guidelines, but the risk is always there.
In the market as a whole, we notice a positive correlation with stock market performance. There is a tendency for people to search for investment platforms in up-trending markets and lose interest when the sentiment of the retail investor is low. We try to mitigate the possible drop in traffic by adding new content consistently.
Moreover, some companies display information in different ways, differ in terms of the regulatory environments, lack transparency, and some of them are even scams, and get hard-earned savings of the people who decided to invest through them. For someone who wants to invest their money in one of these platforms (an independent investor), finding and comparing the different alternatives available is very hard and time-consuming.
To make it worse, many of the existing comparison/review websites lack transparency, as their revenue model is reliant on affiliate partnerships, and there is an incentive to recommend the companies that pay more. This results in bad platform recommendations, little or biased education and as a consequence, bad investment decisions from investors.
As a result, it may be hard for beginner end users to separate the wheat from the shaft. The content about the same topic is widely available, and knowing which review and blog post provide the best analysis and accurate information may not be easy. We put great effort into the expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (known as “E.A.T.”) by hiring CFA writers and other financial experts to help us build credibility and a long-term user focus.
The opportunities the business/market is facing
The search for investment platforms exploded when the covid-19 pandemic hit. People were working remotely or simply staying home, stimulus checks were down the road, and a lot of free time pushed the interest in investing. And it also contributed to the significant appreciation of the stock market.
Besides, the increase in the financial literacy of the overall population has fuelled the importance of investing for the long-term (e.g., retirement). People are becoming more and more aware that they need higher savings for unexpected expenses during retirement, keep up with inflation which tends to erode their parked money over time and even leave something to there inherients. We believe that investment platforms market is an ongoing trend with no end in sight.
Thus, there is an opportunity to explore, test, and iterate on possible solutions to turn the process of investing through online investment platforms, a better and more transparent reality.
Advice to others about business
Just do it. Honestly, that phrase may look too vague, but it may be the difference between having a successful business and not having one at all. One of the main problems with entrepreneurs is overthinking every aspect of their idea. Take the chance, you never know the outcome of our efforts unless you do it.
Start by focusing on something you like or have some expertise in. You may underestimate your knowledge, but we bet you have something valuable to deliver. Your life experience, your work experience.
Surround yourself with link minded-people that are as motivated as you are in the daily operations of your business and you will see how natural things will rollout.
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MS, University of Latvia
I am deeply convinced that each patient needs a unique, individual approach. Therefore, I use different psychotherapy methods in my work. During my studies, I discovered an in-depth interest in people as a whole and the belief in the inseparability of mind and body, and the importance of emotional health in physical health. In my spare time, I enjoy reading (a big fan of thrillers) and going on hikes.
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