We quit our jobs overnight to take on Robinhood
I co-founded Alinea with Anam Lakhani in Dec 2020 after getting into Y Combinator. Anam was in Investment Banking at Citi at the time and I was working under the CEO of ContentSquare on their upcoming IPO.
After two years of being frustrated by how many of our friends were carelessly investing in the stock market through Robinhood, we decided to build out Alinea.
Alinea means something new and we are on a mission to create a new chapter in investing that is more inclusive and educational.
Here's our app - we would love to get your feedback and ideas ✨
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/alinea-insightful-investing/id1554623825
We have an ambassador program on 10 campuses with 25 ambassadors in the US and are looking for other ways to grow :)
Congrats ! I wonder how do you plan to strongly differentiate yourself from RobinHood and other platforms ? It's a crowded space and I believe being highly different from others might be the way to get in the market.
I see on your page FRACTIONAL SHARES, this is what strikes me the most for now
Hi Abelinga - nice to meet you & I'm also originally from France btw :) !
Most women and minorities in the US still do not invest so when you look at the market it hasn't been addressed for everyone's needs.
We differentiate through - impact scores (ESG) + more financial education in insta stories format + focusing on STACKS (ETF's we rebranded) + impact investing + social profiles
Happy to show you what the app looks like one day!
Very clear, thanks for your answer! I think education is key indeed. I don't know if you have any yet, but building a specific community with these personas of yours (i.e. minorites and women) might be a way to tackle the market. Communities, even simple FB groups are way too much undervalued these days.
Keep up the good work at Alinea!
Great stuff! I took a look at your website (https://alinea-invest.com/) for more info. Please note that it takes a while to fully load. I just have a few questions.
Great app! I see that you offer 3 advantages: present securities by category, transparent pricing and concise research. This will help many retail investors entering the market for the first time.
I actually did a different approach. I feel that comprehensive research can work together with bare-bone trading platforms like Robinhood.
So I built Company 360 for research based on my work in investment firms.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/company-360/id1464857130
Then I got a lot of requests for a specialty app to look for potential short squeeze. So I built Super Investor: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/super-investor/id1441737952
Interesting! Thanks for sharing. What problems do you hope to solve for users that Robinhood doesn't solve?
Hi Basil would love for you to actually try out the app and tell me how you think it differentiates.
Most women and minorities my age in the US still do not invest .. and apps like Robinhood don't appeal to that demographic that much especially to women. As female founders we've studied the space and customer needs for over two years and have worked on a product with more bite sized education + impact scores for our users. We also focus on STACKS which are ETF's we rebranded and a way safer and more diversified financial tool for beginners.