Roboinvest has officially launched
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Michael Giles
Jan 31, 2012, 4:25:09 PM1/31/12
to Silicon Beach Australia
G'day Silicon Beachers,
Some here will know me, most probably wont.
I wanted to tell the community that my startup Roboinvest (http://
roboinvest.com) has officially launched. This recent article summed
us up pretty well - http://www.mybanktracker.com/bank-news/2012/01/29/social-investing-matures-roboinvest-thinks-recipe/.
I founded the company 18 months ago in Melbourne, then 12 months ago
did a stint at RPI (college in upstate New York - http://rpi.edu),
then 6 months ago moved the company to New York City where i am
currently based. I have raised a small amount of funding and have an
E-2 visa.
To give you a quick elevator pitch, Roboinvest is a US based social
investing platform, with direct integration to E*TRADE, that allows
self directed investors (we call followers) to "look over the
shoulder" of verified top investors (we call leaders) in real time,
using a subscription based pay-to-follow model, that's statistically
proven to increase profitability by 66%.
Essentially followers get to see what leaders are investing in, the
second the leader does a trade.
If finance and investing is your thing, please check it out and send
me your feedback - i would love to hear it!
Also, for any fellow Aussies in NYC that i havent met or any Aussies
coming over to NYC feel free to reach out to me.
Cheers
Michael "Mike" Giles
http://twitter.com/harland
#TradeResponsibly
Some here will know me, most probably wont.
I wanted to tell the community that my startup Roboinvest (http://
roboinvest.com) has officially launched. This recent article summed
us up pretty well - http://www.mybanktracker.com/bank-news/2012/01/29/social-investing-matures-roboinvest-thinks-recipe/.
I founded the company 18 months ago in Melbourne, then 12 months ago
did a stint at RPI (college in upstate New York - http://rpi.edu),
then 6 months ago moved the company to New York City where i am
currently based. I have raised a small amount of funding and have an
E-2 visa.
To give you a quick elevator pitch, Roboinvest is a US based social
investing platform, with direct integration to E*TRADE, that allows
self directed investors (we call followers) to "look over the
shoulder" of verified top investors (we call leaders) in real time,
using a subscription based pay-to-follow model, that's statistically
proven to increase profitability by 66%.
Essentially followers get to see what leaders are investing in, the
second the leader does a trade.
If finance and investing is your thing, please check it out and send
me your feedback - i would love to hear it!
Also, for any fellow Aussies in NYC that i havent met or any Aussies
coming over to NYC feel free to reach out to me.
Cheers
Michael "Mike" Giles
http://twitter.com/harland
#TradeResponsibly
Shane Greenup
Jan 31, 2012, 8:11:46 PM1/31/12
to silicon-bea...@googlegroups.com
Great work Michael,
as a lay-investor, this sounds like a perfect way for me to get in to investing when I am ready to do so again.
I have only had one brief experience buying shares in the past, and it was in a company I knew was going to do well. I was right, but a larger company bought it out, leaving me with a bit more money sitting in my trading account which I was then left with the choice to either withdraw my moderate profit, or re-invest in something. And that was when I realised how much I had no idea who or what to invest in, and just wanted someone to tell me where to put it (I had already put this amount of money aside for the purposes of investment, so as far as I was concerned, it may as well have been gambling money).
This would have been a service I would have happily used at the time, and would definitely look at using now if I was to put some more money aside for investing. I have more important things to do with my time than study company information, share performance, market volatility blah blah blah. Copying someone who wastes their own time doing that sounds perfect :)
Shane
-------------------------
http://www.ImmortalOutdoors.com
http://www.SportsArbitrageGuide.com/
http://www.TravellersTrade.com
http://www.ShaneGreenup.com
as a lay-investor, this sounds like a perfect way for me to get in to investing when I am ready to do so again.
I have only had one brief experience buying shares in the past, and it was in a company I knew was going to do well. I was right, but a larger company bought it out, leaving me with a bit more money sitting in my trading account which I was then left with the choice to either withdraw my moderate profit, or re-invest in something. And that was when I realised how much I had no idea who or what to invest in, and just wanted someone to tell me where to put it (I had already put this amount of money aside for the purposes of investment, so as far as I was concerned, it may as well have been gambling money).
This would have been a service I would have happily used at the time, and would definitely look at using now if I was to put some more money aside for investing. I have more important things to do with my time than study company information, share performance, market volatility blah blah blah. Copying someone who wastes their own time doing that sounds perfect :)
Shane
-------------------------
http://www.ImmortalOutdoors.com
http://www.SportsArbitrageGuide.com/
http://www.TravellersTrade.com
http://www.ShaneGreenup.com
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Geoff McQueen | AffinityLive
Jan 31, 2012, 10:44:12 PM1/31/12
to silicon-bea...@googlegroups.com
Congrats mate - well done. Now the real learning begins!
Chris Were
Jan 31, 2012, 11:52:42 PM1/31/12
to silicon-bea...@googlegroups.com
Great work Michael.
I have considered building something similar in the past. I assume you're well aware of http://profit.ly/ which was founded by a well known US trader. The limitation with profit.ly is the focus on cash profits, rather than solid portfolio performance over time - which roboinvest looks better placed to achieve. However, profit.ly is designed to work across multiple platforms though, not just Etrade. (As an aside, I strongly suggest you connect to Interactive Brokers - most of the big traders use IB and they have an easy to use API).
Good luck with the project and I'll signup when time permits.
Chris.
David Truong
Feb 1, 2012, 6:17:12 AM2/1/12
to Silicon Beach Australia
Great idea and execution! Do you plan to open it up for Australian
trades? I'd join! :)
On Feb 1, 7:25 am, Michael Giles <m...@roboinvest.com> wrote:
> G'day Silicon Beachers,
>
> Some here will know me, most probably wont.
>
> I wanted to tell the community that my startup Roboinvest (http://
> roboinvest.com) has officially launched. This recent article summed
> us up pretty well -http://www.mybanktracker.com/bank-news/2012/01/29/social-investing-ma....
trades? I'd join! :)
On Feb 1, 7:25 am, Michael Giles <m...@roboinvest.com> wrote:
> G'day Silicon Beachers,
>
> Some here will know me, most probably wont.
>
> I wanted to tell the community that my startup Roboinvest (http://
> roboinvest.com) has officially launched. This recent article summed
>
> I founded the company 18 months ago in Melbourne, then 12 months ago
> did a stint at RPI (college in upstate New York -http://rpi.edu),
> I founded the company 18 months ago in Melbourne, then 12 months ago
Matthew Ho
Feb 1, 2012, 6:18:28 AM2/1/12
to Silicon Beach Australia
Great stuff Mike!
Looking forward to trying it out.
Cheers,
Matt
On Feb 1, 8:25 am, Michael Giles <m...@roboinvest.com> wrote:
> G'day Silicon Beachers,
>
> Some here will know me, most probably wont.
>
> I wanted to tell the community that my startup Roboinvest (http://
> roboinvest.com) has officially launched. This recent article summed
> us up pretty well -http://www.mybanktracker.com/bank-news/2012/01/29/social-investing-ma....
Looking forward to trying it out.
Cheers,
Matt
On Feb 1, 8:25 am, Michael Giles <m...@roboinvest.com> wrote:
> G'day Silicon Beachers,
>
> Some here will know me, most probably wont.
>
> I wanted to tell the community that my startup Roboinvest (http://
> roboinvest.com) has officially launched. This recent article summed
>
> I founded the company 18 months ago in Melbourne, then 12 months ago
> did a stint at RPI (college in upstate New York -http://rpi.edu),
> I founded the company 18 months ago in Melbourne, then 12 months ago
Rogers Andrew
Feb 1, 2012, 7:29:37 PM2/1/12
to silicon-bea...@googlegroups.com
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Andrew Stewart
Feb 1, 2012, 7:35:08 PM2/1/12
to silicon-bea...@googlegroups.com
My wife's cousin's husband works for these guys: http://covestor.com/ interestingly they also use the term "leaders".
Andy
Matthieu Stone
Feb 1, 2012, 7:44:01 PM2/1/12
to silicon-bea...@googlegroups.com
Hi Mike,
Great to see you get over the line & launch
Not meaning to smother you with competitors or anything.. two more sites in this space.
etoro.com => Follow FX traders
Interesting space this, with lots going on. Even Bloomberg has just open-sourced their API (but not their content!).
Interesting space this, with lots going on. Even Bloomberg has just open-sourced their API (but not their content!).
One of these days I'll finally get my product out.
rgds,
rgds,
- matt.
Vinko Grgic
Feb 2, 2012, 1:08:48 AM2/2/12
to Silicon Beach Australia
Hey Mike,
Site looks great and what a great concept. I tried dabbling in
investments a few years back, signed up for a Westpac Online Investing
account (they've been my bank for ages) but then as mentioned by other
people just didn't know how to begin. I am excited at the prospects of
being able to use a site like yours to get started. Basically you have
reignited my interest in investments. I do think the site functions
beautifully well (account, profile and social integration are smooth
and classy), but like Chris Were stated - I would like to see more
platforms available other than e*trade (which is American?). I am not
sure what platform Westpac OI uses but if Roboinvest supported it and
I could connect the two accounts, I would have likely already put some
money in.
Great work mate, all the best
Vinko Grgic
www.arribaa.com
On Feb 1, 7:25 am, Michael Giles <m...@roboinvest.com> wrote:
> G'day Silicon Beachers,
>
> Some here will know me, most probably wont.
>
> I wanted to tell the community that my startup Roboinvest (http://
> roboinvest.com) has officially launched. This recent article summed
> us up pretty well -http://www.mybanktracker.com/bank-news/2012/01/29/social-investing-ma....
Site looks great and what a great concept. I tried dabbling in
investments a few years back, signed up for a Westpac Online Investing
account (they've been my bank for ages) but then as mentioned by other
people just didn't know how to begin. I am excited at the prospects of
being able to use a site like yours to get started. Basically you have
reignited my interest in investments. I do think the site functions
beautifully well (account, profile and social integration are smooth
and classy), but like Chris Were stated - I would like to see more
platforms available other than e*trade (which is American?). I am not
sure what platform Westpac OI uses but if Roboinvest supported it and
I could connect the two accounts, I would have likely already put some
money in.
Great work mate, all the best
Vinko Grgic
www.arribaa.com
On Feb 1, 7:25 am, Michael Giles <m...@roboinvest.com> wrote:
> G'day Silicon Beachers,
>
> Some here will know me, most probably wont.
>
> I wanted to tell the community that my startup Roboinvest (http://
> roboinvest.com) has officially launched. This recent article summed
>
> I founded the company 18 months ago in Melbourne, then 12 months ago
> did a stint at RPI (college in upstate New York -http://rpi.edu),
> I founded the company 18 months ago in Melbourne, then 12 months ago
Michael Giles
Feb 2, 2012, 2:33:25 PM2/2/12
to Silicon Beach Australia
Hey thanks everyone for all the comments. The activity has been
interesting - check out this college kid http://www.roboinvest.com/mitchmeabe/
and this leader runs a newsletter who is also doing great in only a
few days - http://www.roboinvest.com/SmarTrend/
I'm interested to know what would make it more interesting to you, as
a beginner investor, to use the platform? Would you like to know how
the leader does it? (ie, their trading/investment strategy?) More
communication from the leader to their followers? Or just more
education on investing in general?
@Shane thats good feedback thanks.
@Geoff spot on!
@Matt thanks!
@AndrewR & co - RE competition - I'm familiar with the competition and
know most of the founders and CEO's personally as i've met them around
the traps, which is the awesome thing about working on a startup like
this in New York City.
@David @Vinko We're focused to the US market right now, but we've
built the platform to be broker-neutral and will add more brokers
soon. The Australian market is in the roadmap however it is quite
small comparatively - for example, E*TRADE has 2.8 million online
investing customers, and the entire Australian market (CommSec,
E*TRADE Australia, Westpac, etc) is about 2.5 million. However,
Australian's can still follow a leader and trade CFD's over US listed
stocks that our current users are trading, so check it out if you are
into it.
@Chris on Profitly - Roboinvest has direct real time integration which
others don't - but Tim is a great bloke (and great marketer!) and we
speak often.
@Andrew small world hey, ill hit you up about that.
Thanks for all the feedback.
Cheers
Mike
On Twitter? Follow me at http://twitter.com/harland
interesting - check out this college kid http://www.roboinvest.com/mitchmeabe/
and this leader runs a newsletter who is also doing great in only a
few days - http://www.roboinvest.com/SmarTrend/
I'm interested to know what would make it more interesting to you, as
a beginner investor, to use the platform? Would you like to know how
the leader does it? (ie, their trading/investment strategy?) More
communication from the leader to their followers? Or just more
education on investing in general?
@Shane thats good feedback thanks.
@Geoff spot on!
@Matt thanks!
@AndrewR & co - RE competition - I'm familiar with the competition and
know most of the founders and CEO's personally as i've met them around
the traps, which is the awesome thing about working on a startup like
this in New York City.
@David @Vinko We're focused to the US market right now, but we've
built the platform to be broker-neutral and will add more brokers
soon. The Australian market is in the roadmap however it is quite
small comparatively - for example, E*TRADE has 2.8 million online
investing customers, and the entire Australian market (CommSec,
E*TRADE Australia, Westpac, etc) is about 2.5 million. However,
Australian's can still follow a leader and trade CFD's over US listed
stocks that our current users are trading, so check it out if you are
into it.
@Chris on Profitly - Roboinvest has direct real time integration which
others don't - but Tim is a great bloke (and great marketer!) and we
speak often.
@Andrew small world hey, ill hit you up about that.
Thanks for all the feedback.
Cheers
Mike
On Twitter? Follow me at http://twitter.com/harland
Avis M
Feb 7, 2012, 2:28:39 AM2/7/12
to Silicon Beach Australia
Hey Mike
Congrats on the launch, the site looks great.
I'm actually also a qualified financial advisor so I think it's a
great platform and I'd definitely use it for my own personal
portfolio.
My only question is, what is your feedback from 'leaders' - ie. the
transparency of the site in seeing peoples trades is awesome from an
end user/follower perspective, but I'm not too sure that if I were a
sh*t hot broker that I'd want everyone knowing my trading history/
strategies...so I guess I'm just curious to see what your feedback has
been from professional/regular traders.
Cheers
Avis
@avismulhall
On Feb 3, 6:33 am, Michael Giles <m...@roboinvest.com> wrote:
> Hey thanks everyone for all the comments. The activity has been
> interesting - check out this college kidhttp://www.roboinvest.com/mitchmeabe/
> On Twitter? Follow me athttp://twitter.com/harland
Congrats on the launch, the site looks great.
I'm actually also a qualified financial advisor so I think it's a
great platform and I'd definitely use it for my own personal
portfolio.
My only question is, what is your feedback from 'leaders' - ie. the
transparency of the site in seeing peoples trades is awesome from an
end user/follower perspective, but I'm not too sure that if I were a
sh*t hot broker that I'd want everyone knowing my trading history/
strategies...so I guess I'm just curious to see what your feedback has
been from professional/regular traders.
Cheers
Avis
@avismulhall
On Feb 3, 6:33 am, Michael Giles <m...@roboinvest.com> wrote:
> Hey thanks everyone for all the comments. The activity has been
> and this leader runs a newsletter who is also doing great in only a
> few days -http://www.roboinvest.com/SmarTrend/
Michael Giles
Feb 7, 2012, 10:30:30 AM2/7/12
to Silicon Beach Australia
Hey Avis,
Thanks for your comment.
I get that question a lot. Our goal initially is to attract leaders
that are already sharing what they are trading & investing, so the
concept of allowing others to see this information isnt new to them.
I believe the 'social' paradigm shift now reaching investing and more
people are already comfortable sharing this information and see the
value in sharing, and they're discovering that they won't lose their
edge by doing so, and i believe this is trend will continue.
Currently we don't allow leaders to reveal their strategy, just what
they bought or sold. They can, however, communicate to followers why
they bought or sold something. We built the Trade Notes feature based
on feedback from leaders. We're working on other features to allow
leaders to better control who can follow them (who they share with),
but i think this is a feature and not a change of concept.
Cheers
Mike
http://twitter.com/harland
#TradeResponsibly
Thanks for your comment.
I get that question a lot. Our goal initially is to attract leaders
that are already sharing what they are trading & investing, so the
concept of allowing others to see this information isnt new to them.
I believe the 'social' paradigm shift now reaching investing and more
people are already comfortable sharing this information and see the
value in sharing, and they're discovering that they won't lose their
edge by doing so, and i believe this is trend will continue.
Currently we don't allow leaders to reveal their strategy, just what
they bought or sold. They can, however, communicate to followers why
they bought or sold something. We built the Trade Notes feature based
on feedback from leaders. We're working on other features to allow
leaders to better control who can follow them (who they share with),
but i think this is a feature and not a change of concept.
Cheers
Mike
http://twitter.com/harland
#TradeResponsibly
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