https://www.wired.co.uk/event/wired-money-2016
Motif lets 11-year-olds create investment packages.
Five years ago, after taking a break from working at Microsoft, Hardeep Walia decided to relax in the only way he knew how - by trading stocks. “It forces a state of zen on me,” Walia told an audience at WIRED Money, speaking from San Francisco after a intense game of bubble football left him unable to travel to London.
After reading an article about the rise of mobile internet in 2009, he decided to invest. Looking for advice, he contacted friends on Wall Street, friends in Silicon Valley, and they all said the same thing. Invest in Apple.
At a loose end in, Walia noticed a gap in the market.
“Whether you’re a newbie or experienced investor, people think conceptually about their investing, and the hard part they have is acting on those expressions”. He wanted to create a shortcut for this. “I wanted somebody or something to track the markets and buy stocks for me.”
Motif was started as a way to allow anyone to invest creatively via concepts, democratising the process of making money in stocks. The company creates packages based on themes - for example artificial intelligence or coffee - and allows users to invest amounts small or large. These “intelligently weighted basket of stocks” give you more control over security when compared to an exchange-traded fund, and are far cheaper.
The company now allows its customers to build their own motifs, monopolising on the shared expertise of those keen on investing. “It took our PhDs a year to build 100 of these motifs. When we handed it over to our customers, we had 85,000 in the first year.”
Motif is allowing anyone and everyone to invest in concepts that interest them. They’ve been on the market for over three years, have 250,000 happy ‘Motifers’, and are beginning international expansion. They’re even moving into trading in risk. And, says Walia, the technology also helps to make a once bewildering process simple. “I even teach my 6 and 9 year old girls how to invest using my product. There is a motif for everything.”
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
