TradeAlike: “Inception” can happen
I am going to start this by quoting from the movie Inception because I think it is highly relevant to how TradeAlike came into being and what it means to us.
Cobb: An idea is like a virus. Resilient. Highly contagious. And even the smallest seed of an idea can grow. It can grow to define or destroy you.
The Start:
So me (Yasir) and Talib (co-founders) both went to school together and became friends. Over the years we have stayed in touch. While Talib went the Software Engineering route, I stayed in the financial world of stock trading. It all started when I called Talib one day and asked him, “I use these stock trading newsletter services and am thinking of starting my own. How much time do you think it takes to build a site with email newsletter functionality.” Talib asked me some questions about how this stuff works and what I needed.
But then he asked me a very fundamental question which changed my thinking for the next few years. “Beside generating income for yourself, what problem are you trying to solve and how are you different/better than what’s out there.”
This got me thinking as to what problem exists with the current service providers out there. I realized that a lot of newsletter services only convey about “when to buy” but never tell you when to sell, and their returns are hypothetical based on “what if you had sold it at the high point”.
I discussed this with Talib and we came up with our minimum viable product. We started GoOptionsPro newsletter service. Our proposition was that for every recommendation, we will not only send you the Entry Alert but also the Exit Alert. The service did well and people loved the idea that our returns are based on actual entry/exit alerts and not just hypothetical “what if’s”. They loved the “transparency”.
The Realization:
GoOptionsPro had a good run, and was generating recurring revenue. During this time, we looked at the Stock Newsletter industry as a whole and our thought was:
“Looks like this Industry is still stuck in 1999 tech model. It’s very arcane”
We got together for a weekend and started thinking what is Next?
During the course of normal business, we were constantly getting great feedback from our fellow traders as to what is “Not working” in the current Newsletter based model. Following are few of the main things we learned:-
1. People don’t like subscription models. For example, there could be periods where they don’t want to trade, so they could end up cancelling the service. Plus we learned that once a user has cancelled the subscription, all that marketing budget to acquire them just went out the window.
2. Email based alerts are inefficient. They are not timely. The information in them (because it’s an email) can be hard to consume. Plus there was always a case of “I did not get your email”.
3. We had members who were themselves idea generators. They were pretty good in generating their own Trade Alerts, but did not know where & how to start their own Newsletter Service. Provided them a standardized platform with an ability to measure their performance in real-time.
The Leap:
With the information above, and at the end of our brainstorming weekend, we decided…..
“Let’s shutdown GoOptionsPro and focus on building a Mobile First platform where successful traders can capitalize from their trading ideas/skills by publishing it for other trades to benefit from.
And at the same time give control back to receivers so they can decide when & what to Trade. Also introduced a feature that incentives senders to share quality trade ideas instead of mass publishing.
This was the “Inception” of TradeAlike as a platform. A very daunting moment for us.
We had a service that was generating earnings for us, so why kill it. But we knew in our heart that TradeAlike is the right way to go because it solved real problems that traders were having with the existing model. Following are the features we launched with respect to some of the pain points above:
- It is a Pay-As-You-Go model. User receives real-time alert whenever a Sender publishes a Trade Idea. It is at that moment the User can decide whether to trade along or not. If they want to trade (The app provides as much information as possible, without revealing full details), they claim an alert right there and then. No Subscriptions :)
- The alerts are all instant Mobile notifications, thus no need for emails.
- It’s a true Platform. Any user can now become an Alert Sender and we can track their performance. If other traders like his/her trade history, they can start following them and monetize for themselves.
- As with GoOptionsPro, TradeAlike enforces Trade senders to provide Exit alerts for open trades. This ensures real returns and makes it very simple for users to know when to exit the position after they have decided to participate in the trade.
Summary:
This has been a remarkable journey for both of us. We never thought that a simple phone call would turn into a powerful platform that solves real user pain points. This is just the beginning, as we are actively working on bringing new features/capabilities based on user demand. But one thing is for sure, we will always keep the App simple, transparent and do what is right for our fellow traders.
So “inception” can happen… once you pickup an idea and have the passion for solving a problem. Before you realize it, the idea will define what you do in the next few years and turn into a live product.
Feel free to checkout tradealike.com for more info.
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