Social media has changed everything from eating shopping news. Now, Dub He believes that he can do the same for investment through an influential -based market, where users can follow the transactions of top investors with a few taps. Think about it as Tiktok meets Wall Street.
Founded by 23-year-old Steven Wang-a Harvard’s abandonment that began investing in the second grade with the blessing of his parents-Dub bets the future of investment is not about receiving stocks but receiving people. The application allows users to follow the strategies of traders, mutual risk capital and even those who mimic high profile politicians. Instead of making individual commercial decisions, DUB users can copy entire portfolios.
The idea has hit a string. DUB has already exceeded 800,000 downloads and lifted $ 17 million In seed funding – with a new round seemingly in the projects. It is less clear whether Dub can avoid the traps of previous newly established businesses.
Inspired by gamestop
The retail investment has evolved dramatically over the last two decades. The days of the $ 7 Commercial Trade Committees and the unstable interface brokers were fired about a decade ago by mobile first platforms such as Robinhood who called on people to market free. At the same time, social media removing the way people, and especially members of the Gen Z, make financial decisions.
As a Harvard student during the pandemic-someone who was negotiating from the dormitory hall “because you couldn’t really do anything at school”-Wang came to believe that these two trends, retail investment and decision-making that They are based on influences, they were on a conflict lesson. Among Saga Gamestop, Elon Musk’s ability to “move Dogecoin and Bitcoin with every tweet” and people’s willingness to “really follow ideas and people on a completely new level”, Wang decided to leave 2021 and to Start building DUB.
At the moment, the average platform user is between 30 and 35, says Wang, though the New York -based DUB finds clearly in front of an even younger audience. In recent weeks, this 15 -year -old author has asked more than once to “invest like Nancy Pelosi” after marinating in Dub ads on Instagram.
Pelosi does not personally negotiate in Dub. She is just a trader on the platform that reflects her revealing moves. Still, the idea has caught fire. “Nancy Pelosi has increased by 123% on Dub with real capital,” says Wang, “and we have made our customers millions of dollars since the portfolio started on the platform.”
DUB is not free. Wang was determined to produce revenue from the beginning and Dub is doing it today through a $ 10 subscription model. Wang further reports that some “top” portfolios in platform charge management fees and DUB receives 25% of these fees.
In the meantime, DUB has been partially escalated through organic development. “The creators who are good traders in the application are motivated to bring their audience,” says Wang, whose parents migrated from China and grew up in Detroit.
DUB also invests aggressively in advertising, which is largely leaning in post -advertising, especially to obtain users, including Instagram. “We are really lucky where I think the wider American population really believes that there are other people out there who have an advantage over them when it comes to the investment world,” says Wang.
Battles
The question now is whether DUB will follow a similar course to other fast -growing Fintech companies, many of which have been found in the crosshairs of regulatory authorities. RobinHood interrupted funding by free negotiation, but also faced regulatory control in front of the IPO of 2021, eventually removing a feature that governs users with confetti Whenever they trade.
Dub says he is willing to avoid the same mistakes. The company spent more than two years with Finra and SEC before starting, ensuring that its model complied with financial regulations. ‘Don’t just browse the regulation on Dub – we hugged it;“Says Wang. (Like RobinHood, Dub is a fully authorized broker-transient.)
A great distinction, Wang argues, is that the Dub is designed to train users, not only to encourage blind speculations. The platform shows risk scores, returns at risk and portfolio stability measurements to help investors make documented decisions, he says.
Suggests that it is safer for Robinhood investors. Says Wang: “I have a lot of respect for what [CEO] Vlad [Tenev] has done to do trade free. But at the end of the day, making it extremely easy to trade without the guidance of experts, without training, is really only gambling for the wider population. ”
To emphasize his point of view, Wang points out Robinhood’s decision – along with Coinbase and other exchanges – to make Meme Coin Trump available for customers in front of President Donald Trump. While initially increased in price, its price has fallen since then. Wang says, “I think the motives are fundamentally aligned among these big platforms that are public companies now that they have to make money” and that “generally” their customers “probably lost money”.
(It is worth noting: In a separate, recent conversation with RobinHood Tenev for Dub, Tenev suggested TechCrunch that the copy transaction could be more interesting for regulators and that Dub may not be below the “magnifying glass” because of its comparatively smaller size.)
Either way, not everyone is sold in Dub’s vision. The biggest hit against Such platformsIt says critics, is that the choice of inventory downgrades the passive investment in the long run, with studies showing that the most active management funds fail to beat the S&P 500.
It is a review that Wang is familiar with – and in which it is quick to push back. For one thing, he argues that many such studies are “cherry”. (“Certainly many of them are funded by the passive investment index companies,” he says.)
In addition, Wang says, there is one reason that the chapters that are actively operating as the Acropolis are flourishing. “If you look at what the extremely wealthy can do, give their money to Ken Griffin of the Acropolis, [because] They firmly put unnatural returns every year by year, “he says.
If one more widely “examines the development of the hedge fund space and the asset management area,” Wang continues, “there is one reason for which it is growing. It’s because they make money for their customers.”
