I can hardly believe it's been a whole year! But WOW, what a year it has been.
12 months ago to the day, George Zhao and I pulled back the curtain and brought TickerHound.com to life...
...and within 15 minutes the site crashed.
Needless to say we've come a long way since then.
Instead of the single cheap-o box we were running on when we launched, the site is now 100% hosted "in the cloud" on Amazon's EC2/S3 platform.
Thousands of investors have asked thousands of questions and submitted thousands of answers to the site. Our members are the best in the world - and I can say that because I've personally met and had drinks (alcoholic and non) with dozens of them this year.
We've forged partnerships with a handful of financial media companies such as Investor Place Media, Agora Financial Publishing, Business Financial Publishing, Tycoon Publishing and the list goes on.
And the best part is, we're just getting started!
We made our 3rd hire only 2 short months ago -- welcome aboard Lou!
We have our largest partnership to date launching in a few weeks -- you won't want to miss this one -- which is why we've been absent from most of the NY Tech events for the last 2 months.
So it goes without saying that we're VERY excited about TickerHound's prospects for 2009.
But this won't be an easy year. Then again, when is it ever easy running a start-up? :)
Our country is entering one of the most challenging economic times we've ever faced. The crisis before us started in the financial markets, so for a financial-tech company like TickerHound the impact of these tumultuous times becomes apparent very quickly.
We're witnessing a fundamental shift in the financial services industry and I'm excited to be a part of it, but at the same token it's certainly added a level of complexity to our business that we hadn't aticipated when we first launched. However, the important thing to remember is that in times like these we're presented with once in a lifetime opportunities to really make in impact on our market. Some of today's greatest companies were forged in the fires of the last downturn.
I firmly believe that now, more than ever, individual investors need to become better educated investors. Relying on stock brokers and money managers (and even $50 billion-dollar-stealing hedge fund managers) has to become a thing of the past.
With tools out there like Covestor, StockTwits and Wikinvest, an individual investor can level the playing field and manage their money as they see fit. They have unprecedented access to data, stock ideas and educational material that was once trapped behind high-priced pay walls.
Times they are a changin' and I'm proud and honored to be playing a small part in it.
Here's to another 12 months of sleepless nights, tumultuous markets and some of the most exciting times of my life!
Happy Birthday TickerHound!
