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About us
Total 39 companies invested
2020
Total 79 companies invested
2021
Gainy: How Not to Get Overwhelmed with Your Investment Strategy
The ability to make winning investment decisions is what sets successful investors apart from the rest. The right tools enhancing decision-making and streamlining operations make the difference. Over the past decades, we've seen the emergence of various aids, from analytical teams with robust processes to automated deal-making. However, today's cutting-edge tools often become tomorrow's commodities.
In today's data-driven world, investors are overwhelmed with information and signals to process and the intricate analyses they need to undertake. Despite advancements in AI and digitalization, the best solutions on the market are either too complex to comprehend or lack clarity about the potential outcomes of investment actions.
Today, we're speaking with Boris Dus, the founder of Gainy, a full-service wealth management platform. He sheds light on the industry's demand for a simpler, more intuitive solution. The answer they've developed is a smart portfolio constructor that suggests personalized investment strategies, much like Spotify curates music playlists based on your preferences.
That’s what he said:
In today's data-driven world, investors are overwhelmed with information and signals to process and the intricate analyses they need to undertake. Despite advancements in AI and digitalization, the best solutions on the market are either too complex to comprehend or lack clarity about the potential outcomes of investment actions.
Today, we're speaking with Boris Dus, the founder of Gainy, a full-service wealth management platform. He sheds light on the industry's demand for a simpler, more intuitive solution. The answer they've developed is a smart portfolio constructor that suggests personalized investment strategies, much like Spotify curates music playlists based on your preferences.
That’s what he said:
The Gap in Decision-Making for New Investors
As a successful retail investor myself, I explored the demand for augmented decision-making with my friend, Mike Stukalo, who has expertise in the financial sector and asset management. By the time I conducted the customer analysis in 2021, investment decision-making relied on existing digital tools. The best-performing solutions were complex, with a high entry threshold, making it challenging for average investors to understand all available options, potentially losing money while learning. Another option was to invest passively by buying into an index like S&P500, but this did not give retail investors a sense of control over their portfolio and just average market returns.
Our idea was to create a unified environment that would enhance decision-making and allow users to actively manage their portfolio without spending too much time on research. We found that there were no robust solutions on the market to close this gap.
Our idea was to create a unified environment that would enhance decision-making and allow users to actively manage their portfolio without spending too much time on research. We found that there were no robust solutions on the market to close this gap.
Looking for the Solution
We didn't simply decide on the solution's design ourselves. Instead, we interviewed potential users, knowing that without digging deep, we could easily create a product that nobody would use.
User feedback was highly contradictory. Most retail investors we spoke with claimed one thing but did the complete opposite. They might say they wanted to be conservative, but they invested in risky stocks. They might express a desire to grow their capital but would keep their entire allocation in one ETF. To achieve one goal or another, you need completely different tools.
This discrepancy led us to develop a product capable of advising users on any strategy they might want to follow while also enabling them to act on these recommendations immediately.
User feedback was highly contradictory. Most retail investors we spoke with claimed one thing but did the complete opposite. They might say they wanted to be conservative, but they invested in risky stocks. They might express a desire to grow their capital but would keep their entire allocation in one ETF. To achieve one goal or another, you need completely different tools.
This discrepancy led us to develop a product capable of advising users on any strategy they might want to follow while also enabling them to act on these recommendations immediately.
Introducing Gainy
In 2022, we launched Gainy, with myself as CEO and Mike Stukalo as CIO. We define Gainy as a full-service wealth management platform for thematic investments. Our goal was to provide flexibility and control without requiring users to spend significant time or possess expertise in extensive stock research and portfolio optimization. We lower the entry barrier for newcomers, empowering them to feel confident and in control, bypassing the often-daunting learning curve. At the same time, we simplify the trading process for seasoned investors.
Gainy primarily serves retail investors in the US, 60% of whom invest in ETFs and safe stocks. The ETF market in the US is among the largest and most developed in the world, having tripled in size over the past decade.
Gainy offers the following features for investors:
Our vision for Gainy is to create a single environment for everything an investor needs in decision-making and execution. It helps users diversify their risk, invest in themes they believe in, and increase their gains. In short, we're building something we wish we'd had when we just began as investors.
Looking ahead, our long-term vision is focused on the creation of a brand new financial product category: Thematic Trading Fractionals (TTFs). In five years, we want retail investors and funds to have TTFs as a solid investment option, in addition to the traditional choices of stocks and ETFs. It's our aim to pioneer this new asset class, much like how Blackrock revolutionized the market with the introduction of ETFs.
Gainy primarily serves retail investors in the US, 60% of whom invest in ETFs and safe stocks. The ETF market in the US is among the largest and most developed in the world, having tripled in size over the past decade.
Gainy offers the following features for investors:
- Deal execution directly on the platform.
- Portfolio optimization and capital allocation using proven algorithms, allowing users to define their strategy, with the platform allocating investments optimally.
- Execution of theme-based strategies using optimized model portfolios of stocks and ETFsrelated to 80+ themes, such as electric vehicles, green energy, AI and Machine Learning, and an inflation-proof portfolio to name a few..
- A recommendation engine that assists users in deciding on relevant strategies (thematic trading fractionals, TTFs) or regular stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). It recommends unique sets of financial instruments tailored to your investment style, just like Spotify suggests tracks based on your listening habits.
Our vision for Gainy is to create a single environment for everything an investor needs in decision-making and execution. It helps users diversify their risk, invest in themes they believe in, and increase their gains. In short, we're building something we wish we'd had when we just began as investors.
Looking ahead, our long-term vision is focused on the creation of a brand new financial product category: Thematic Trading Fractionals (TTFs). In five years, we want retail investors and funds to have TTFs as a solid investment option, in addition to the traditional choices of stocks and ETFs. It's our aim to pioneer this new asset class, much like how Blackrock revolutionized the market with the introduction of ETFs.
Advice for Fin-Tech Startup Founders
If you're a fin-tech startup founder, my advice is find a niche that can disrupt the current status quo on the market and conduct a lot of customer interviews to check if this solution is in demand.
At the same time, although the industry is heavily regulated, you don’t need to plan everything before you start. Your perspective on compliance will likely change after your project begins, as you reality-check your assumptions. Moreover, compliance rules are always evolving, so overthinking that part might mean wasted time when new regulations emerge. Be reasonable, come up with a great product idea, keep regulations and compliance in mind, but remember the saying “if there is will, there is a way.”
This is something we experienced ourselves. When we started Gainy, a financial company in the US, we questioned every single legal term. We tried to be perfect and lost valuable time. But we learned that you can never predict all potential complications. But in the end, compliance is flexible; its enforcement is not about adhering to every letter of the law but ensuring that you reasonably follow the rules to make your business legal and transparent.
So, it's fine to address compliance issues as they arise. In most cases, there are multiple legal ways to find a solution and maintain compliance.
At the same time, although the industry is heavily regulated, you don’t need to plan everything before you start. Your perspective on compliance will likely change after your project begins, as you reality-check your assumptions. Moreover, compliance rules are always evolving, so overthinking that part might mean wasted time when new regulations emerge. Be reasonable, come up with a great product idea, keep regulations and compliance in mind, but remember the saying “if there is will, there is a way.”
This is something we experienced ourselves. When we started Gainy, a financial company in the US, we questioned every single legal term. We tried to be perfect and lost valuable time. But we learned that you can never predict all potential complications. But in the end, compliance is flexible; its enforcement is not about adhering to every letter of the law but ensuring that you reasonably follow the rules to make your business legal and transparent.
So, it's fine to address compliance issues as they arise. In most cases, there are multiple legal ways to find a solution and maintain compliance.
