October 7, 2025 • 29 mins
In this conversation, Anthony Weaver interviews Justin Kuyper, the CEO and founder of OpenVest, a fintech platform designed to help the sandwich generation build strong financial habits. Justin explains how OpenVest democratizes access to investment opportunities typically reserved for elite hedge funds, allowing users to start investing with as little as $300. The discussion covers the company's customer-centric approach, innovative pricing model, marketing strategies, funding methods, and future expansion plans. Justin emphasizes the importance of user trust and the mission to provide better investment options for everyday Americans.
The platform being highlighted in this recording is Openvest — a fintech platform offering actively managed, institutional-grade investment strategies to retail investors for just $3/month for individual accounts.
In addition, Openvest now offers IRA and 401(k) options, making it a comprehensive, low-cost solution for both everyday and long-term investors. The platform is currently live in 11 U.S. states and expanding
Takeaways:
- Wealth is not just about money; it's a freedom enabler that allows us to pursue our passions and enjoy life to the fullest.
- OpenVest makes investing accessible for everyone, starting with a minimum of just $300, which is a game changer for many.
- The platform aims to democratize wealth building, giving users access to the same investment opportunities as elite hedge funds, but without the hefty price tag.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to OpenVest and Its Mission
02:42 The Value Proposition of OpenVest
05:16 Building a Customer-Centric Business
08:22 User Growth and Marketing Strategies
10:45 Funding and Investment Strategies
13:40 The Inspiration Behind OpenVest
16:39 Future Plans and Expansion
19:15 Final Thoughts and Advice
Website:
Thank you for listening!
Be sure to check https://aboutthatwallet.com for more podcast episodes and many more resources!
Disclaimer:
The content provided in this episode is for informational purposes only and should not be considered as financial advice. Please consult with a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
This episode is sponsored byopenvest Co.
Wealth is honestly just a toolthat enables you to do what you want
to do in life.
So I would call it a freedomenabler, but in the sense that it
just gives you the wealth orthe freedom to basically pursue your
(00:21):
own passions and hobbies.
So I think that's ultimatelywhat wealth is and that's what we
aspire to provide for our youth.
Welcome back, everybody, toanother exciting show with the about
that what a podcast where wehelp the sandwich generation build
strong financial habits sothat they can talk about money, spend
money, and enjoy their moneywith confidence.
(00:43):
Today we have a person who wasin the fintech platform.
And you know, I love havingfintech people on the show because
it's always showing the futureof where banking can actually go.
And this person is the CEO andfounder of OpenVest.
So welcome to the show, Justin Kilber.
Thank you, Anthony.
It's great to be here, really, with.
(01:04):
My audience being the sandwichgeneration and fintech being the
way to kind of ease everythingto make life easy for most of us,
how is open invest reallymaking that happen for people who
really just don't have thatmuch money?
Yeah.
So thank you, Anthony, for the question.
I can dig into that andexplain exactly how this.
So I'll talk a little bitabout openvest first and then explain
(01:27):
how exactly it makes it easierfor people, especially on the investing
front.
So essentially what we've doneis we've built on a platform, so
it's live on the iOS appstore, on the Google Play Store.
It's available in 11 states.
You can check the websiteOpenvest Co for all the states.
Live in New York, California,Florida were the first three.
(01:48):
And now we've expanded toeight other states, we're expanding
to others.
And we will, we expect by endof the year, early next year, we'll
be live in all 50.
But anyway, the point is thatwe've taken what the elite hedge
funds and the private equityfirms are doing in New York and based
off of their our proprietaryalgorithms, where we've figured out
(02:09):
how to get these sources ofinformation that they are using to
make their investments, we'regiving that to the user who can start
with as little as $300 to invest.
The key thing here is we'reallowing users to participate in
the types of investmentreturns that they would not get anywhere
else.
So if you look, you can go onthe platform and even while you're
(02:32):
signing up, you can see thehomepage that shows you what the
previous Three years, theprevious five years, the previous
three years are on thehomepage so you can see what those
returns would have been andit's anywhere at least on the longer
term options ranging from 120%up to I believe it's about 300 in
some other cases at least overthe past three years we do expect
(02:53):
some performance like that to continue.
So think of it as basicallybaking in 30 to 40% annualized returns
as long as you leave yourmoney in there for let's say a year,
a little more than a year.
So it's a good way to multiplyyour wealth and build especially
for, for yourself and even forthe next generation if that's something
that is a concern to people as well.
(03:14):
The key thing in terms of pricing.
So usually to get into thosetypes of funds you have to pay a
steep buy in amount.
Usually it's in the millions,usually tens of millions of dollars.
You have to pay them amanagement fee and a performance
fee.
So you're basically givingthem sort of of the, of those large
buy ins a certain amount thatthey're taking off the top.
(03:36):
Here we're giving it to youflat, no more than $3 a month maximum
on the retail accounts andEven on the IRA accounts that we've
now recently launched.
IRA and 401k we're notcharging more than a flat fee.
So I think it go it goes from$5 if you have less than 10,000 in
assets per month up to Ibelieve it's 40,000 if you have over
(03:58):
half a million or somethingthen it's.
But the most common amount hasbeen $10 a month.
So it's still less than an ETFif you do the math on it and you're
getting the higher performance.
So what we've basicallyfigured out how to do is build this
platform in a way where theuser gets more value now but also
over time while they're investing.
(04:18):
Because if you're only gettinga flat fee, a small flat fee deducted
the compounding amounts,especially even when you're starting
with small amounts will justmake a massive, massive difference.
I mean those numbers reallyballoon, especially years 4, 5, 6,
7.
I mean you know, really makesa huge difference.
So, so that's the valueproposition that we have.
(04:40):
And like I said, we'recurrently live on the app store,
Google Play, anybody candownload it.
And yeah, we encourage people.
We have seen some user growthso far and some network effects but
we're just at the point nowwhere we're trying to get the word
out and obviously give thisvalue to the users that we've built.
Yeah.
And one of the things when itcomes to the bigger banks, because
(05:01):
you talk about a flat fee andmost of them usually charge you based
on the amount that's under management.
Yes.
Or the value under management.
And because of the flat fee itseems like how are y' all making,
is this still making moneyjust from a flat fee perspective
instead of, you know,percentage space?
Why did you guys decide to dothat though?
So that's a great question.
To answer your question, wewant to build a customer centric
(05:25):
business.
So what that means is we donot want to charge users more than
just the small amounts that weneed just to cover simple costs.
So we're actually happy tobreak even at least at this stage
in anticipation of adding morevalue over time.
Base.
Basically what I'm saying isdon't worry about us not making money.
We have ways to make money inother ways without charging the user.
(05:48):
User.
And so, so that's why we don'tnecessarily, we're not looking to
take money from the user's pocket.
We actually want people tostart using this like we said.
And again the minimuminvestment amount to start is just
300.
So all we're telling people ishey, try this.
Because what we've seen is ourinitial users that tried it just
two months back, they'vealready fully bought in and more
(06:08):
than 80% of those individualshave already reinvested in just in
a two month span.
We, we, we are very confidentthat our value proposition is working,
meaning people that see andhow little they're paying, they're
basically switching very, atleast relatively quickly within,
you know, a short time period.
So, so we're more than happyto, to give that to the user in anticipation
(06:31):
of basically we will makemoney in other ways.
There's, there's no way toworry, no need to worry about that.
But what we want is to builduser trust at this stage.
Yeah.
And when it comes to tryingout something new, how old is the
company?
Because most people ratherinvest with a younger mean an older
company than a younger one.
So why would they.
Right.
So what I will say is thatjust in response to that, it's, I
(06:54):
wouldn't look at it as oldversus new, at least in this case
because we're taking what thetop managers are doing and distilling
that for you.
So we may be a new company,but we're not going bankrupt anytime
soon.
We do have a large partner onour back end who's I think they're
100 billion more or lessmarket cap company.
They decided to enroll with us.
(07:15):
We are talking to Visa aboutpartnerships currently.
So I don't think there's any.
There shouldn't be any fear oflike us going bankrupt or anything
like that.
We're built on top of a verylarge infrastructure and are well
supported in that regard.
So the other thing I would sayis, yeah, they may go with the brand
name like the, let's say theFidelities, the Schwab's, the what
have you.
(07:35):
But if you, if you actuallyread the prospectuses and you look
at what they're offering you,it is a far inferior product relative
to what we're giving you.
Just both on the flat fee sideand just look at the performance
over the last three years.
Compare, compare our results.
Like go into the app, go onthe home screen and just compare
it and you'll just see it's.
(07:56):
It's a world of difference.
And so, you know, I wouldn'thave taken time out of my life to
build something like this if Ididn't think this was something that
would add tremendous value topeople's lives and ultimately the
consumer base that we're going after.
I really think that the fees.
Also.
The other point I will bringup is the fees that the Fidelities
(08:17):
and the Schwabs are charging you.
Sometimes they'll just layerin the expense ratio.
So give you an example.
I was reading a Schwabprospectus within the last month
and it was showing how theystill technically have the legal
right to charge youintermediary fees without disclosing
them to you upfront.
So if you.
I can, I'll find theprospectus and I can share it with
(08:38):
you.
But, but there is.
There are sometimes embeddedfees that are more than just those
ETF expense ratios, at leaston the ETF side, where they can still
layer.
So all I'm saying is we'reupfront about our pricing, we're
flat, we're simple, and we'regiving you the outperformance.
Just try it for a few months,see how it really kicks up your value.
And once you see it going up,which you will, because it just.
(09:01):
We know it works.
It will.
People, everybody that's triedthat so far has, has bought into
it.
And so the other thing I'llmention is that, like I said, we
also have 401k and IRA accounts.
So our initial users that havealready started using this, they've
now switched over their IRAand 401k accounts because they're
they're fully bought in.
So I, I just think it'ssomething again, worth trying.
(09:21):
And again, if you only have toput in 300 bu to start, it's.
We're not asking you for alarge commitment.
We know it works.
So we're willing to havepeople come in for small, small amounts
just to try it out.
And so, you know, that's all,that's all we're asking.
Try it out.
There's no risk really.
I mean, other than your 300bucks is still there, it's not going
anywhere, it's still in yourname, you know, so it's that kind
(09:42):
of thing.
Yeah.
And because like some of thepeople that, like the person that's
listening to this could bestarting out just from a business
perspective, just starting outand they trying to figure out how
to get new customers and trynot to do the traditional route of
marketing.
So how are you all doing it?
Yeah, so, so right now we are.
So what I'll say is in the twomonths that we've started, we've
(10:05):
gotten over 120 users withoutany marketing.
So that's relatively good signs.
Strong natural network effects.
The other thing we're doing isobviously podcasts like these to
get the word out.
And then we're slowly dialingup as we're seeing more user growth.
More user growth, meaning justit's happening right now.
We'll get to a point wherewe'll have to do some paid marketing
(10:27):
as well.
But I'm saying we'retransitioning from that pure word
of mouth and sort of podcastor larger media stages to then doing
some paid marketing to reallyget the word out.
So we're approaching thatstage is what I'm saying.
That's awesome.
Yeah.
So did you do.
Because I'm thinking about,from a business perspective of, you
know, especially at a youngbusiness in the financial industry,
(10:49):
when it came to findinginvestors, was that something that
you just kind of thought of onyour own saying like, hey, mom, dad,
or family and friends, do youmind supporting my business?
Or did you have to go througha route of like, hey, let me go and
send some venture capitalists for.
Okay, so that, that's a very good.
So I'll tell you exactly howwe're thinking about that for this
(11:10):
around that we're currently raising.
We're, we're halfway throughthe round, so we're making good progress
on it.
I think we're targeting a 1.2million dollar raise.
But even if we don't reachthat full amount, we'll still have
more than enough to operate.
That would just be a trade offagainst like speed of operations
like escape Velocity in termsof, you know, getting the growth
(11:32):
versus not.
What I'll say is we have thecommitted amount of capital we need
today to I'd say runoperations for let's say almost 18
months, let's say between 16and 18 months.
So we're okay on that front.
We haven't called it in yetjust because we're still at the tail
end of that call it thenatural network effect stage.
(11:52):
Getting the word out kind of a thing.
Just dialing in a little moreon the like.
We've added a few features butnow I think it's working to a point
where the actually on the apptoo, there's a referral link now.
So what people are actuallyincentivized to do is start with
300 bucks, get invested,meaning start with 300 and then send
(12:13):
it to their friends.
Because we're giving $10rewards per referral, meaning per
user that signs up, it's up toa cap.
But I still think you can makeup to 3,500 at least on the $10amounts.
And then the top prize foranybody who refers at least 10 people
who also invest, meaning theycan invest 300 or a few hundred bucks
or more, they will get afifteen hundred dollar reward at
(12:35):
the end of November.
So we're, we're incentivizingpeople to kick off and well get rewarded
for just sharing, you know,something that should be pretty easy
for most people.
But going back to yourquestion, we would prefer to not
have a venture capitalist inthis round only because we're building
for the longer term and youcan, you can take money from a VC
and that's, that's great.
(12:56):
But you are giving up.
The sort of taking that moneycomes with its own caveats.
And especially at this stage,you can give up control, especially
later down the line if you'regiving up too much equity now to
a venture capitalist.
So we've, we have angelsactually and to be honest with you,
most of it has come from angelcommitments where it's people I've
(13:19):
known from work, you know,worked in New York City before, people
I've known from school.
I did my MBA at Columbia andso just people I've met who are,
honestly, some of them don'teven fully understand the business.
They're just banking on me ifI'm, if I'm being quite honest.
Sometimes that's the case.
Other times it's people whosee the opportunities.
(13:39):
See what I'm doing and whatI'm ultimately offering to hardworking
Americans who I think justdeserve more.
Because what I've seen,especially in the prior generations,
people, whether it's their401ks, their IRAs, their brokerage,
if you're not invested in theright asset classes or you're not
invested in the rightcompanies at the right time, you
are not going to get to thatpoint where retirement or paying
(14:04):
for your child's education or,you know, any of those things will
be met.
We've seen a lot of peoplewho've just kind of, their, their
IRA or their 401k is just kindof flatlined, maybe gone up a little
bit, but it's really not doing anything.
So we decided to just create asolution that works much better.
And it's already startedworking, at least in the time period
(14:24):
we've started.
But I guarantee you, if youhave, if you're a longer term investor,
this will work very, very wellfor you.
And again, it will always staylow cost.
Very, very low cost.
It's just, to me, this is a nobrainer, you know, it's just.
Yeah, so that's.
So do you allow people?
Because I know if you don'tangel investors, is there like, so
(14:45):
say the person listening tothis, you're like, you know, I'm,
I'm hearing what he's doing.
This is a great opportunity.
I want to get in before youguys take off and possibly go public.
What could they do?
Is there like a different avenue?
Are you guys acceptingadditional funding or investments?
Oh, in terms of investment,meaning on the, like investing in
the business?
Yeah, yes, absolutely.
Yeah, we're open to that as well.
(15:07):
So anybody who's willing tocome in, I mean, as long as the.
I'll just say because we're ata point where we've had about half
of the target raised alreadyand enough for operations.
I would say the check sizeswould have to be.
Meaning it can't just be likea 5 or a 10k check would have to
be a little bit bigger.
But anybody who's willing tocome in for those amounts, I'm happy
(15:27):
to discuss with, with anyone.
So we're still open foraccepting investor capital at that
point?
Yes, perfect.
And the reason why I wanted toask that, because it's like, you
know, this is new, just, youknow, not often that a lot of people
actually get to listen to howstartups actually work.
And I often know, like, okay,what are you doing for the community?
(15:48):
And one of the things that youalready hit in both parts, which
is, hey, for the community,we're trying to understand that investments
are expensive and that you'recoming in with a three dollar cap
for right now, which is on the retail.
Yeah, on the retail side, theIRA is like 5 or 10, but still way
less.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
And so you're looking atabout, you know, $36 a year.
I mean you could spend thatgoing out to eat, so.
(16:11):
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, yeah, just stay in one night.
You know, and so, you know,just take us back a little bit just
so we can know a little bitabout you, which is like, how did
you even come with theconcept, like what was going on?
So I think we'll have to goback a little bit to my work history.
(16:31):
So.
So I'll, I'll touch on thatand sort of how this idea came about.
So basically I was working inNew York, you know, one of those
kids fresh out of collegegetting a job on Wall Street.
What I learned there, I workedat one job where I had basically
access to all of this, what Iwould call exclusive, meaning just
because it's not out in theopen type of hedge fund private equity
(16:53):
data.
And it was literally all thebig funds you could possibly think
of and like, like every big name.
And so I had this.
Basically one of my jobs wasjust working there and analyzing
the data and working as aconsultant essentially to these big
groups.
What I realized was howdifferentiated access to the investments
those guys were getting,meaning the people in those funds
(17:15):
and everybody else.
When you look at thefidelities, the Schwab's, the vanguards,
all of that, it's just like,it's a world of difference, A world
of difference in terms of notjust access, but also the performance
they're getting over time.
So I was like, hold on, wait a minute.
There's this huge gap, right?
And I saw this every day justgoing into work and whatnot.
And so I thought there has tobe a way to close this.
(17:35):
So that was the first sort oflight bulb moment, at least trying
to figure out how to do this.
Then I spoke with, meaningour, our current backend partner
who is like I said, a hundredbillion dollar public market cap
brokerage who they'reproviding the back end infrastructure
and we're just layering insort of we're built on top of them.
Interactive Brokers is thename, meaning they're fully vetted,
(17:57):
public, fully licensed, allthe licenses, custody.
Sometimes people ask, oh, areyou SEC ready?
Yes, we have SEC registrationon our side.
So don't worry about fraud oranything like that.
It's not going to happen.
The bar is pretty high.
So basically what we did is wefigured out a way with this partner
to make this happen.
So then I was like, okay, nowI have to build it, right?
(18:19):
So I saved my own money.
I was working, you know,working my way up and doing all those
things.
Then I decided, all right, Ithink there's a way to do this.
And actually I found a team ofa few engineers in India of all places.
So what I did is I booked aticket, flew there, worked with these
guys for a few months just tobuild this fully.
(18:41):
I sat there every day, Iworked with these guys.
They're a core part of the team.
And I still work.
We still work with them tothis day.
They're ultimately the guysthat, you know, they see what I'm
building.
So we're not.
We're launching in the USfirst, right?
Because obviously, I mean,homegrown, I want to give the value
to Americans, but we're alsolooking at launching into India.
So we're currently doing theregistration for that right now.
(19:03):
So over the next one to three months.
So what we're trying to do isagain, be customer centric, but give
that value to the user basethat wants it.
Right.
People that want to grow, wantto try again, just try small amounts,
see it work for them and growin a way where they're not going
to get that sort ofopportunity at any other place because
they're going to charge the fee.
(19:23):
Fees and layer in the, youknow, it's not just the fees.
I would argue the performanceis better.
And I can give you all the.
Anybody who wants the, thecharts and the data and to, to prove
that out, I can give that to you.
But, but the idea is thecompounding will be much higher too.
Look at a hundred grand even ahundred GRAND Compounded at 20%,
I believe it's over 20 yearsthat that turns into $3.8 million.
(19:46):
Wow.
That, that's a lot of money, right?
That makes a huge differencefor most people.
And all you have to do isconsistently invest small amounts.
We're not, we're not doanything crazy or like, you know,
become a professional athleteor do whatever.
It's like all you got to do isjust click a button, just put in
that little amount thateverybody's got and just see it work
for you.
So.
(20:06):
Sorry.
That in terms of how the ideacame about, sorry, circling back
is just.
It started with where I worked.
It started with seeing thebroad differences in access.
And then it was ultimatelywhen a solution came up with a partner
for how to go do it, and thenit was just a matter of building
it.
So I think that was sort ofthe iteration of how it came about.
(20:27):
Yeah, that's nice.
Is your parents, like,inspired you or anything like that
to kind of go down this path or.
Or was it just some, like, youknow, buddy.
So both.
Both my parents are lawyers,but in the tech field.
So I guess I would say I had alittle bit of an understanding from
that.
But I wouldn't say that theyveered me in one direction or another.
(20:48):
It was just kind of what.
I mean, I knew I wanted towork in finance coming out of college
and all of that becausethat's, you know, I was.
I was very, very good at.
I'm a strong math guy and, youknow, numbers always interest me.
And so that.
That was sort of where myinterest guided me.
Right.
So then I was there.
But I didn't necessarily knowat that time that I was going to
launch this business.
(21:09):
Right.
It was more after working inthat environment and learning about
the gaps and what was flawedabout the current system and the
way it works, and then lookingat every competitor, Fidelity, Schwab,
Vanguard, Betterment, allthese other guys, and how they're
all effectively doing the samething, but just marketing in a slightly
different way.
And I was like, no, we'regoing to do something different here.
(21:31):
We're actually going to givepeople the value that they're not
getting access to using the.
Again, the resources that wehave, and we're just distilling that
for the user.
So all they got to do, even ifthey went on the platform and clicked
their thumbs around, theycouldn't possibly go wrong because
it's already curated for you.
So you can't.
You can't possibly mess it up.
And because of that, like,most of these bigger banks actually
(21:54):
do have, like an education portal.
Do you guys have somethinglike that so they can learn more
about it?
We have a website right now,so we'll work on the education part
of it.
But what I can do, I guess,yeah, so we don't have an official
education part portal yet, butthat is something that we're working
on at the moment.
I think what you can see, atleast on the website, distillations
(22:16):
of what we've done.
And like I said, if you signup on the app, you can see the performance.
I think ultimately what drivespeople in is they see the numbers
and they're like, okay, I'Mwilling to try 300 bucks or 400 bucks
or whatever and try see howthis works.
And then once they see itworking, usually what's happened
is they've come back and thenthey've started putting in a lot
more.
(22:36):
Nice.
So for the future of thebusiness, like what skills that you
need to take this to the nextlevel, just one level up from where
you're at now.
Yeah, I think the next levelis honestly just expansion.
So in the sense of acquiringmore users, the good news is that
we've already prepared,especially on the technology side
of the platform to scale tovery large amounts and being able
(22:59):
to handle that even if therewas a sudden influx of users.
But, but where, where I seethis going is ultimately we will
expand beyond the 11 stateswe're in.
So we're either going to goanother 10 states at a time or we'll
just do all 50 and that'll bejust pending on depending on how
the round continues to evolve.
But in the worst case we'llmaybe add 10 states sequentially.
(23:22):
So may in the next threeiterations we should be there in
the coming months fairly soon.
Even in that case we willultimately we're doing international
expansion as well.
So the way I see this going isI anticipate this being a very big
business and I plan to pursuethe international market as well
as the US And I think moreexposure, more user adoption.
(23:44):
I already have, meaningindividuals other than the team I'm
working with.
There are people that areinterested in joining this mission
and so it'll just be a matterof hiring out more people as we're,
as we're building out.
I think a sales team would beanother key component obviously.
So hiring one or two guys onthat front, it's especially over
the coming, let's say, youknow, two to six months, that'll
(24:05):
be top of agenda as well.
And is there anything for you yourself?
Like do you feel, is theresomething that will take you personally
to the next level, like habitsthat you want to work on?
Habits, yeah.
So I think, I think oneelement would be like delegation
and especially now where it'slike there's so much on my plate
just in terms of just, I meanjust to get it this far without raising
(24:27):
a dollar has been quite a challenge.
But I think that's good aswell because what it means is we
get, I get to keep control ofthe business.
Right.
And basically shape the longerterm outcome.
Because I think Peter Thielhad this quote and I think he's right
is like ultimately the biggestbusinesses, the ones that become
the biggest businesses, theyjust don't sell their stake.
(24:48):
Meaning, like, there are timeswhere being acquired is a good thing.
Well, is there anything forthe person that's listening right
now?
Is there something you want tosay to them before we dive into the
final four?
Yes.
So I just want to emphasize the.
So there's the retail side,which again, anybody can try for
as little as $300 if you alsohave an existing IRA or 401k account.
(25:09):
We have seen our initial usersjust being onboarded into that.
I think that is something thatwould be very appealing for most
people just because thecurrent 401k and IRA plans.
At any employer where anindividual has started working, they
usually only let you putselect one of, let's say, a few investment
options.
And if you look into any ofthose options anywhere across the
(25:30):
country, I've seen hundredsand hundreds and probably thousands
of examples of this.
They're all the same.
They're all overly diversifiedbundles of garbage, in my opinion.
But, but like, my point isthat that's not the way to do it.
That will crucify you to thatsort of flatline growth.
And it's like.
Whereas if you actually moveyour accounts over like, you know,
our initial users have, youwill be able to retire fully guaranteed,
(25:54):
full stop.
Nice.
So, you ready for the finalfour questions?
Let's do it.
All right, so these final fourquestions are four questions that
I ask every guest at the endof the show.
So just to kind of wrap up theshow, these questions may alter as
(26:14):
I go forward, you know,depending on how I feel.
So, number one, what doeswealth mean to you?
Wealth is honestly just a toolthat enables you to do what you want
to do in life.
So I would call it a freedomenabler, but in the sense that it
just gives you the.
The wealth or the freedom tobasically pursue your own passions
(26:37):
and hobbies.
So I think that's ultimatelywhat wealth is and that's.
That's what we aspire toprovide for, you know, our users.
Number two, what was yourworst money mistake?
I don't know if I've had aworst money mistake, to be honest
with you.
But what I will say is, like,the biggest mistakes are honestly
the ones where you knowsomething about a particular investment
(26:59):
and you don't make a decision.
So it's like, it's usually theones you missed out on.
So I've had a couple of those.
But yeah, other than that, Imean, but those would just be, you
know, specific investments atA specific time where I thought,
okay, we probably should haveinvested something and we decided
to pass for one reason or another.
Yeah.
Because I've done that with Facebook.
(27:21):
When I first IPO, then I waslike, that's only like $20.
Who want to invest in a social platform?
I've done, though.
I've done that with Facebookas well a little bit later on, but.
But still.
Yeah, I've done that.
Yeah.
Facebook was a big one, so that.
That would be the example Iwould give.
Yeah.
A big airball for that one.
Yeah.
Number three, is there a bookthat inspired your journey or change
(27:43):
your perspective?
Yes, if there's one book thatI would recommend, this is usually
the top book that I recommend.
It's always at the top of my list.
But it really changed mythinking was it's called the Everything
Store by Brad Stone.
I think it's a really good read.
And if you.
You should read it fully,meaning cover to cover, because it
really gives you the insightsand details of how a company is built.
(28:06):
So basically it goes into theAmazon story, but it gets.
It provides really granulardetails that you're not going to
find anywhere else.
Number four, what is yourfavorite dish to make?
Favorite dish?
Food.
Like, I don't cook.
That's tough.
I don't cook that often.
But honestly, I'm a prettysimple guy.
(28:27):
I'll usually go with the.
With the steak and eggs.
Like, protein diet is more.
More my thing.
So.
Yeah.
Nice.
That's.
That's my go to.
Okay.
All right, so this is the verylast question of the show is where
could people find out moreabout you?
Yeah.
Uh, so you can go on thewebsite for the business.
I'll give that.
So that is OpenVest co. Youcan find OpenVest on Twitter.
(28:52):
So at OpenVest1, there's aLinkedIn as well.
LinkedIn page for OpenVest.
I think we're on Instagram as well.
And OpenVest1.
And then otherwise, honestly,anybody has any questions, whether
it's on the business front oranything, you can honestly just email
me.
I'll.
I'll drop that as well.
So it's J a k@openvest.coAgain, that's J A K at Openvest.
(29:14):
All right, man.
Thank you so much, Justin, forsharing with us about OpenVest.
And really, I commend you on your.
Your mission on really makingsure that this is something that's
simplified and reasonably done.
Because usually when you lookat these investments, you're getting
that 1% or even 2%, eventhough there's some free ones.
(29:35):
But also those are limited aswell, depending on which brokerage
you go with.
Correct.
Thank you so much for withthis platform and please you as a
listener listening and sayinglike, hey, you know what, I want
to try this know leave acomment down below, inside Spotify
or even on YouTube just let usknow how did that work out for know.
We actually curious to seewhat's going on.
So thank you so much and y'all be safe.
(29:57):
We out.
Peace.
This episode is sponsored byopenvest Co.
Wealth is honestly just a toolthat enables you to do what you want
to do in life.
So I would call it a freedomenabler, but in the sense that it
just gives you the wealth orthe freedom to basically pursue your
(00:21):
own passions and hobbies.
So I think that's ultimatelywhat wealth is and that's what we
aspire to provide for our youth.
Welcome back, everybody, toanother exciting show with the about
that what a podcast where wehelp the sandwich generation build
strong financial habits sothat they can talk about money, spend
money, and enjoy their moneywith confidence.
(00:43):
Today we have a person who wasin the fintech platform.
And you know, I love havingfintech people on the show because
it's always showing the futureof where banking can actually go.
And this person is the CEO andfounder of OpenVest.
So welcome to the show, Justin Kilber.
Thank you, Anthony.
It's great to be here, really, with.
(01:04):
My audience being the sandwichgeneration and fintech being the
way to kind of ease everythingto make life easy for most of us,
how is open invest reallymaking that happen for people who
really just don't have thatmuch money?
Yeah.
So thank you, Anthony, for the question.
I can dig into that andexplain exactly how this.
So I'll talk a little bitabout openvest first and then explain
(01:27):
how exactly it makes it easierfor people, especially on the investing
front.
So essentially what we've doneis we've built on a platform, so
it's live on the iOS appstore, on the Google Play Store.
It's available in 11 states.
You can check the websiteOpenvest Co for all the states.
Live in New York, California,Florida were the first three.
(01:48):
And now we've expanded toeight other states, we're expanding
to others.
And we will, we expect by endof the year, early next year, we'll
be live in all 50.
But anyway, the point is thatwe've taken what the elite hedge
funds and the private equityfirms are doing in New York and based
off of their our proprietaryalgorithms, where we've figured out
(02:09):
how to get these sources ofinformation that they are using to
make their investments, we'regiving that to the user who can start
with as little as $300 to invest.
The key thing here is we'reallowing users to participate in
the types of investmentreturns that they would not get anywhere
else.
So if you look, you can go onthe platform and even while you're
(02:32):
signing up, you can see thehomepage that shows you what the
previous Three years, theprevious five years, the previous
three years are on thehomepage so you can see what those
returns would have been andit's anywhere at least on the longer
term options ranging from 120%up to I believe it's about 300 in
some other cases at least overthe past three years we do expect
(02:53):
some performance like that to continue.
So think of it as basicallybaking in 30 to 40% annualized returns
as long as you leave yourmoney in there for let's say a year,
a little more than a year.
So it's a good way to multiplyyour wealth and build especially
for, for yourself and even forthe next generation if that's something
that is a concern to people as well.
(03:14):
The key thing in terms of pricing.
So usually to get into thosetypes of funds you have to pay a
steep buy in amount.
Usually it's in the millions,usually tens of millions of dollars.
You have to pay them amanagement fee and a performance
fee.
So you're basically givingthem sort of of the, of those large
buy ins a certain amount thatthey're taking off the top.
(03:36):
Here we're giving it to youflat, no more than $3 a month maximum
on the retail accounts andEven on the IRA accounts that we've
now recently launched.
IRA and 401k we're notcharging more than a flat fee.
So I think it go it goes from$5 if you have less than 10,000 in
assets per month up to Ibelieve it's 40,000 if you have over
(03:58):
half a million or somethingthen it's.
But the most common amount hasbeen $10 a month.
So it's still less than an ETFif you do the math on it and you're
getting the higher performance.
So what we've basicallyfigured out how to do is build this
platform in a way where theuser gets more value now but also
over time while they're investing.
(04:18):
Because if you're only gettinga flat fee, a small flat fee deducted
the compounding amounts,especially even when you're starting
with small amounts will justmake a massive, massive difference.
I mean those numbers reallyballoon, especially years 4, 5, 6,
7.
I mean you know, really makesa huge difference.
So, so that's the valueproposition that we have.
(04:40):
And like I said, we'recurrently live on the app store,
Google Play, anybody candownload it.
And yeah, we encourage people.
We have seen some user growthso far and some network effects but
we're just at the point nowwhere we're trying to get the word
out and obviously give thisvalue to the users that we've built.
Yeah.
And one of the things when itcomes to the bigger banks, because
(05:01):
you talk about a flat fee andmost of them usually charge you based
on the amount that's under management.
Yes.
Or the value under management.
And because of the flat fee itseems like how are y' all making,
is this still making moneyjust from a flat fee perspective
instead of, you know,percentage space?
Why did you guys decide to dothat though?
So that's a great question.
To answer your question, wewant to build a customer centric
(05:25):
business.
So what that means is we donot want to charge users more than
just the small amounts that weneed just to cover simple costs.
So we're actually happy tobreak even at least at this stage
in anticipation of adding morevalue over time.
Base.
Basically what I'm saying isdon't worry about us not making money.
We have ways to make money inother ways without charging the user.
(05:48):
User.
And so, so that's why we don'tnecessarily, we're not looking to
take money from the user's pocket.
We actually want people tostart using this like we said.
And again the minimuminvestment amount to start is just
300.
So all we're telling people ishey, try this.
Because what we've seen is ourinitial users that tried it just
two months back, they'vealready fully bought in and more
(06:08):
than 80% of those individualshave already reinvested in just in
a two month span.
We, we, we are very confidentthat our value proposition is working,
meaning people that see andhow little they're paying, they're
basically switching very, atleast relatively quickly within,
you know, a short time period.
So, so we're more than happyto, to give that to the user in anticipation
(06:31):
of basically we will makemoney in other ways.
There's, there's no way toworry, no need to worry about that.
But what we want is to builduser trust at this stage.
Yeah.
And when it comes to tryingout something new, how old is the
company?
Because most people ratherinvest with a younger mean an older
company than a younger one.
So why would they.
Right.
So what I will say is thatjust in response to that, it's, I
(06:54):
wouldn't look at it as oldversus new, at least in this case
because we're taking what thetop managers are doing and distilling
that for you.
So we may be a new company,but we're not going bankrupt anytime
soon.
We do have a large partner onour back end who's I think they're
100 billion more or lessmarket cap company.
They decided to enroll with us.
(07:15):
We are talking to Visa aboutpartnerships currently.
So I don't think there's any.
There shouldn't be any fear oflike us going bankrupt or anything
like that.
We're built on top of a verylarge infrastructure and are well
supported in that regard.
So the other thing I would sayis, yeah, they may go with the brand
name like the, let's say theFidelities, the Schwab's, the what
have you.
(07:35):
But if you, if you actuallyread the prospectuses and you look
at what they're offering you,it is a far inferior product relative
to what we're giving you.
Just both on the flat fee sideand just look at the performance
over the last three years.
Compare, compare our results.
Like go into the app, go onthe home screen and just compare
it and you'll just see it's.
(07:56):
It's a world of difference.
And so, you know, I wouldn'thave taken time out of my life to
build something like this if Ididn't think this was something that
would add tremendous value topeople's lives and ultimately the
consumer base that we're going after.
I really think that the fees.
Also.
The other point I will bringup is the fees that the Fidelities
(08:17):
and the Schwabs are charging you.
Sometimes they'll just layerin the expense ratio.
So give you an example.
I was reading a Schwabprospectus within the last month
and it was showing how theystill technically have the legal
right to charge youintermediary fees without disclosing
them to you upfront.
So if you.
I can, I'll find theprospectus and I can share it with
(08:38):
you.
But, but there is.
There are sometimes embeddedfees that are more than just those
ETF expense ratios, at leaston the ETF side, where they can still
layer.
So all I'm saying is we'reupfront about our pricing, we're
flat, we're simple, and we'regiving you the outperformance.
Just try it for a few months,see how it really kicks up your value.
And once you see it going up,which you will, because it just.
(09:01):
We know it works.
It will.
People, everybody that's triedthat so far has, has bought into
it.
And so the other thing I'llmention is that, like I said, we
also have 401k and IRA accounts.
So our initial users that havealready started using this, they've
now switched over their IRAand 401k accounts because they're
they're fully bought in.
So I, I just think it'ssomething again, worth trying.
(09:21):
And again, if you only have toput in 300 bu to start, it's.
We're not asking you for alarge commitment.
We know it works.
So we're willing to havepeople come in for small, small amounts
just to try it out.
And so, you know, that's all,that's all we're asking.
Try it out.
There's no risk really.
I mean, other than your 300bucks is still there, it's not going
anywhere, it's still in yourname, you know, so it's that kind
(09:42):
of thing.
Yeah.
And because like some of thepeople that, like the person that's
listening to this could bestarting out just from a business
perspective, just starting outand they trying to figure out how
to get new customers and trynot to do the traditional route of
marketing.
So how are you all doing it?
Yeah, so, so right now we are.
So what I'll say is in the twomonths that we've started, we've
(10:05):
gotten over 120 users withoutany marketing.
So that's relatively good signs.
Strong natural network effects.
The other thing we're doing isobviously podcasts like these to
get the word out.
And then we're slowly dialingup as we're seeing more user growth.
More user growth, meaning justit's happening right now.
We'll get to a point wherewe'll have to do some paid marketing
(10:27):
as well.
But I'm saying we'retransitioning from that pure word
of mouth and sort of podcastor larger media stages to then doing
some paid marketing to reallyget the word out.
So we're approaching thatstage is what I'm saying.
That's awesome.
Yeah.
So did you do.
Because I'm thinking about,from a business perspective of, you
know, especially at a youngbusiness in the financial industry,
(10:49):
when it came to findinginvestors, was that something that
you just kind of thought of onyour own saying like, hey, mom, dad,
or family and friends, do youmind supporting my business?
Or did you have to go througha route of like, hey, let me go and
send some venture capitalists for.
Okay, so that, that's a very good.
So I'll tell you exactly howwe're thinking about that for this
(11:10):
around that we're currently raising.
We're, we're halfway throughthe round, so we're making good progress
on it.
I think we're targeting a 1.2million dollar raise.
But even if we don't reachthat full amount, we'll still have
more than enough to operate.
That would just be a trade offagainst like speed of operations
like escape Velocity in termsof, you know, getting the growth
(11:32):
versus not.
What I'll say is we have thecommitted amount of capital we need
today to I'd say runoperations for let's say almost 18
months, let's say between 16and 18 months.
So we're okay on that front.
We haven't called it in yetjust because we're still at the tail
end of that call it thenatural network effect stage.
(11:52):
Getting the word out kind of a thing.
Just dialing in a little moreon the like.
We've added a few features butnow I think it's working to a point
where the actually on the apptoo, there's a referral link now.
So what people are actuallyincentivized to do is start with
300 bucks, get invested,meaning start with 300 and then send
(12:13):
it to their friends.
Because we're giving $10rewards per referral, meaning per
user that signs up, it's up toa cap.
But I still think you can makeup to 3,500 at least on the $10amounts.
And then the top prize foranybody who refers at least 10 people
who also invest, meaning theycan invest 300 or a few hundred bucks
or more, they will get afifteen hundred dollar reward at
(12:35):
the end of November.
So we're, we're incentivizingpeople to kick off and well get rewarded
for just sharing, you know,something that should be pretty easy
for most people.
But going back to yourquestion, we would prefer to not
have a venture capitalist inthis round only because we're building
for the longer term and youcan, you can take money from a VC
and that's, that's great.
(12:56):
But you are giving up.
The sort of taking that moneycomes with its own caveats.
And especially at this stage,you can give up control, especially
later down the line if you'regiving up too much equity now to
a venture capitalist.
So we've, we have angelsactually and to be honest with you,
most of it has come from angelcommitments where it's people I've
(13:19):
known from work, you know,worked in New York City before, people
I've known from school.
I did my MBA at Columbia andso just people I've met who are,
honestly, some of them don'teven fully understand the business.
They're just banking on me ifI'm, if I'm being quite honest.
Sometimes that's the case.
Other times it's people whosee the opportunities.
(13:39):
See what I'm doing and whatI'm ultimately offering to hardworking
Americans who I think justdeserve more.
Because what I've seen,especially in the prior generations,
people, whether it's their401ks, their IRAs, their brokerage,
if you're not invested in theright asset classes or you're not
invested in the rightcompanies at the right time, you
are not going to get to thatpoint where retirement or paying
(14:04):
for your child's education or,you know, any of those things will
be met.
We've seen a lot of peoplewho've just kind of, their, their
IRA or their 401k is just kindof flatlined, maybe gone up a little
bit, but it's really not doing anything.
So we decided to just create asolution that works much better.
And it's already startedworking, at least in the time period
(14:24):
we've started.
But I guarantee you, if youhave, if you're a longer term investor,
this will work very, very wellfor you.
And again, it will always staylow cost.
Very, very low cost.
It's just, to me, this is a nobrainer, you know, it's just.
Yeah, so that's.
So do you allow people?
Because I know if you don'tangel investors, is there like, so
(14:45):
say the person listening tothis, you're like, you know, I'm,
I'm hearing what he's doing.
This is a great opportunity.
I want to get in before youguys take off and possibly go public.
What could they do?
Is there like a different avenue?
Are you guys acceptingadditional funding or investments?
Oh, in terms of investment,meaning on the, like investing in
the business?
Yeah, yes, absolutely.
Yeah, we're open to that as well.
(15:07):
So anybody who's willing tocome in, I mean, as long as the.
I'll just say because we're ata point where we've had about half
of the target raised alreadyand enough for operations.
I would say the check sizeswould have to be.
Meaning it can't just be likea 5 or a 10k check would have to
be a little bit bigger.
But anybody who's willing tocome in for those amounts, I'm happy
(15:27):
to discuss with, with anyone.
So we're still open foraccepting investor capital at that
point?
Yes, perfect.
And the reason why I wanted toask that, because it's like, you
know, this is new, just, youknow, not often that a lot of people
actually get to listen to howstartups actually work.
And I often know, like, okay,what are you doing for the community?
(15:48):
And one of the things that youalready hit in both parts, which
is, hey, for the community,we're trying to understand that investments
are expensive and that you'recoming in with a three dollar cap
for right now, which is on the retail.
Yeah, on the retail side, theIRA is like 5 or 10, but still way
less.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
And so you're looking atabout, you know, $36 a year.
I mean you could spend thatgoing out to eat, so.
(16:11):
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, yeah, just stay in one night.
You know, and so, you know,just take us back a little bit just
so we can know a little bitabout you, which is like, how did
you even come with theconcept, like what was going on?
So I think we'll have to goback a little bit to my work history.
(16:31):
So.
So I'll, I'll touch on thatand sort of how this idea came about.
So basically I was working inNew York, you know, one of those
kids fresh out of collegegetting a job on Wall Street.
What I learned there, I workedat one job where I had basically
access to all of this, what Iwould call exclusive, meaning just
because it's not out in theopen type of hedge fund private equity
(16:53):
data.
And it was literally all thebig funds you could possibly think
of and like, like every big name.
And so I had this.
Basically one of my jobs wasjust working there and analyzing
the data and working as aconsultant essentially to these big
groups.
What I realized was howdifferentiated access to the investments
those guys were getting,meaning the people in those funds
(17:15):
and everybody else.
When you look at thefidelities, the Schwab's, the vanguards,
all of that, it's just like,it's a world of difference, A world
of difference in terms of notjust access, but also the performance
they're getting over time.
So I was like, hold on, wait a minute.
There's this huge gap, right?
And I saw this every day justgoing into work and whatnot.
And so I thought there has tobe a way to close this.
(17:35):
So that was the first sort oflight bulb moment, at least trying
to figure out how to do this.
Then I spoke with, meaningour, our current backend partner
who is like I said, a hundredbillion dollar public market cap
brokerage who they'reproviding the back end infrastructure
and we're just layering insort of we're built on top of them.
Interactive Brokers is thename, meaning they're fully vetted,
(17:57):
public, fully licensed, allthe licenses, custody.
Sometimes people ask, oh, areyou SEC ready?
Yes, we have SEC registrationon our side.
So don't worry about fraud oranything like that.
It's not going to happen.
The bar is pretty high.
So basically what we did is wefigured out a way with this partner
to make this happen.
So then I was like, okay, nowI have to build it, right?
(18:19):
So I saved my own money.
I was working, you know,working my way up and doing all those
things.
Then I decided, all right, Ithink there's a way to do this.
And actually I found a team ofa few engineers in India of all places.
So what I did is I booked aticket, flew there, worked with these
guys for a few months just tobuild this fully.
(18:41):
I sat there every day, Iworked with these guys.
They're a core part of the team.
And I still work.
We still work with them tothis day.
They're ultimately the guysthat, you know, they see what I'm
building.
So we're not.
We're launching in the USfirst, right?
Because obviously, I mean,homegrown, I want to give the value
to Americans, but we're alsolooking at launching into India.
So we're currently doing theregistration for that right now.
(19:03):
So over the next one to three months.
So what we're trying to do isagain, be customer centric, but give
that value to the user basethat wants it.
Right.
People that want to grow, wantto try again, just try small amounts,
see it work for them and growin a way where they're not going
to get that sort ofopportunity at any other place because
they're going to charge the fee.
(19:23):
Fees and layer in the, youknow, it's not just the fees.
I would argue the performanceis better.
And I can give you all the.
Anybody who wants the, thecharts and the data and to, to prove
that out, I can give that to you.
But, but the idea is thecompounding will be much higher too.
Look at a hundred grand even ahundred GRAND Compounded at 20%,
I believe it's over 20 yearsthat that turns into $3.8 million.
(19:46):
Wow.
That, that's a lot of money, right?
That makes a huge differencefor most people.
And all you have to do isconsistently invest small amounts.
We're not, we're not doanything crazy or like, you know,
become a professional athleteor do whatever.
It's like all you got to do isjust click a button, just put in
that little amount thateverybody's got and just see it work
for you.
So.
(20:06):
Sorry.
That in terms of how the ideacame about, sorry, circling back
is just.
It started with where I worked.
It started with seeing thebroad differences in access.
And then it was ultimatelywhen a solution came up with a partner
for how to go do it, and thenit was just a matter of building
it.
So I think that was sort ofthe iteration of how it came about.
(20:27):
Yeah, that's nice.
Is your parents, like,inspired you or anything like that
to kind of go down this path or.
Or was it just some, like, youknow, buddy.
So both.
Both my parents are lawyers,but in the tech field.
So I guess I would say I had alittle bit of an understanding from
that.
But I wouldn't say that theyveered me in one direction or another.
(20:48):
It was just kind of what.
I mean, I knew I wanted towork in finance coming out of college
and all of that becausethat's, you know, I was.
I was very, very good at.
I'm a strong math guy and, youknow, numbers always interest me.
And so that.
That was sort of where myinterest guided me.
Right.
So then I was there.
But I didn't necessarily knowat that time that I was going to
launch this business.
(21:09):
Right.
It was more after working inthat environment and learning about
the gaps and what was flawedabout the current system and the
way it works, and then lookingat every competitor, Fidelity, Schwab,
Vanguard, Betterment, allthese other guys, and how they're
all effectively doing the samething, but just marketing in a slightly
different way.
And I was like, no, we'regoing to do something different here.
(21:31):
We're actually going to givepeople the value that they're not
getting access to using the.
Again, the resources that wehave, and we're just distilling that
for the user.
So all they got to do, even ifthey went on the platform and clicked
their thumbs around, theycouldn't possibly go wrong because
it's already curated for you.
So you can't.
You can't possibly mess it up.
And because of that, like,most of these bigger banks actually
(21:54):
do have, like an education portal.
Do you guys have somethinglike that so they can learn more
about it?
We have a website right now,so we'll work on the education part
of it.
But what I can do, I guess,yeah, so we don't have an official
education part portal yet, butthat is something that we're working
on at the moment.
I think what you can see, atleast on the website, distillations
(22:16):
of what we've done.
And like I said, if you signup on the app, you can see the performance.
I think ultimately what drivespeople in is they see the numbers
and they're like, okay, I'Mwilling to try 300 bucks or 400 bucks
or whatever and try see howthis works.
And then once they see itworking, usually what's happened
is they've come back and thenthey've started putting in a lot
more.
(22:36):
Nice.
So for the future of thebusiness, like what skills that you
need to take this to the nextlevel, just one level up from where
you're at now.
Yeah, I think the next levelis honestly just expansion.
So in the sense of acquiringmore users, the good news is that
we've already prepared,especially on the technology side
of the platform to scale tovery large amounts and being able
(22:59):
to handle that even if therewas a sudden influx of users.
But, but where, where I seethis going is ultimately we will
expand beyond the 11 stateswe're in.
So we're either going to goanother 10 states at a time or we'll
just do all 50 and that'll bejust pending on depending on how
the round continues to evolve.
But in the worst case we'llmaybe add 10 states sequentially.
(23:22):
So may in the next threeiterations we should be there in
the coming months fairly soon.
Even in that case we willultimately we're doing international
expansion as well.
So the way I see this going isI anticipate this being a very big
business and I plan to pursuethe international market as well
as the US And I think moreexposure, more user adoption.
(23:44):
I already have, meaningindividuals other than the team I'm
working with.
There are people that areinterested in joining this mission
and so it'll just be a matterof hiring out more people as we're,
as we're building out.
I think a sales team would beanother key component obviously.
So hiring one or two guys onthat front, it's especially over
the coming, let's say, youknow, two to six months, that'll
(24:05):
be top of agenda as well.
And is there anything for you yourself?
Like do you feel, is theresomething that will take you personally
to the next level, like habitsthat you want to work on?
Habits, yeah.
So I think, I think oneelement would be like delegation
and especially now where it'slike there's so much on my plate
just in terms of just, I meanjust to get it this far without raising
(24:27):
a dollar has been quite a challenge.
But I think that's good aswell because what it means is we
get, I get to keep control ofthe business.
Right.
And basically shape the longerterm outcome.
Because I think Peter Thielhad this quote and I think he's right
is like ultimately the biggestbusinesses, the ones that become
the biggest businesses, theyjust don't sell their stake.
(24:48):
Meaning, like, there are timeswhere being acquired is a good thing.
Well, is there anything forthe person that's listening right
now?
Is there something you want tosay to them before we dive into the
final four?
Yes.
So I just want to emphasize the.
So there's the retail side,which again, anybody can try for
as little as $300 if you alsohave an existing IRA or 401k account.
(25:09):
We have seen our initial usersjust being onboarded into that.
I think that is something thatwould be very appealing for most
people just because thecurrent 401k and IRA plans.
At any employer where anindividual has started working, they
usually only let you putselect one of, let's say, a few investment
options.
And if you look into any ofthose options anywhere across the
(25:30):
country, I've seen hundredsand hundreds and probably thousands
of examples of this.
They're all the same.
They're all overly diversifiedbundles of garbage, in my opinion.
But, but like, my point isthat that's not the way to do it.
That will crucify you to thatsort of flatline growth.
And it's like.
Whereas if you actually moveyour accounts over like, you know,
our initial users have, youwill be able to retire fully guaranteed,
(25:54):
full stop.
Nice.
So, you ready for the finalfour questions?
Let's do it.
All right, so these final fourquestions are four questions that
I ask every guest at the endof the show.
So just to kind of wrap up theshow, these questions may alter as
(26:14):
I go forward, you know,depending on how I feel.
So, number one, what doeswealth mean to you?
Wealth is honestly just a toolthat enables you to do what you want
to do in life.
So I would call it a freedomenabler, but in the sense that it
just gives you the.
The wealth or the freedom tobasically pursue your own passions
(26:37):
and hobbies.
So I think that's ultimatelywhat wealth is and that's.
That's what we aspire toprovide for, you know, our users.
Number two, what was yourworst money mistake?
I don't know if I've had aworst money mistake, to be honest
with you.
But what I will say is, like,the biggest mistakes are honestly
the ones where you knowsomething about a particular investment
(26:59):
and you don't make a decision.
So it's like, it's usually theones you missed out on.
So I've had a couple of those.
But yeah, other than that, Imean, but those would just be, you
know, specific investments atA specific time where I thought,
okay, we probably should haveinvested something and we decided
to pass for one reason or another.
Yeah.
Because I've done that with Facebook.
(27:21):
When I first IPO, then I waslike, that's only like $20.
Who want to invest in a social platform?
I've done, though.
I've done that with Facebookas well a little bit later on, but.
But still.
Yeah, I've done that.
Yeah.
Facebook was a big one, so that.
That would be the example Iwould give.
Yeah.
A big airball for that one.
Yeah.
Number three, is there a bookthat inspired your journey or change
(27:43):
your perspective?
Yes, if there's one book thatI would recommend, this is usually
the top book that I recommend.
It's always at the top of my list.
But it really changed mythinking was it's called the Everything
Store by Brad Stone.
I think it's a really good read.
And if you.
You should read it fully,meaning cover to cover, because it
really gives you the insightsand details of how a company is built.
(28:06):
So basically it goes into theAmazon story, but it gets.
It provides really granulardetails that you're not going to
find anywhere else.
Number four, what is yourfavorite dish to make?
Favorite dish?
Food.
Like, I don't cook.
That's tough.
I don't cook that often.
But honestly, I'm a prettysimple guy.
(28:27):
I'll usually go with the.
With the steak and eggs.
Like, protein diet is more.
More my thing.
So.
Yeah.
Nice.
That's.
That's my go to.
Okay.
All right, so this is the verylast question of the show is where
could people find out moreabout you?
Yeah.
Uh, so you can go on thewebsite for the business.
I'll give that.
So that is OpenVest co. Youcan find OpenVest on Twitter.
(28:52):
So at OpenVest1, there's aLinkedIn as well.
LinkedIn page for OpenVest.
I think we're on Instagram as well.
And OpenVest1.
And then otherwise, honestly,anybody has any questions, whether
it's on the business front oranything, you can honestly just email
me.
I'll.
I'll drop that as well.
So it's J a k@openvest.coAgain, that's J A K at Openvest.
(29:14):
All right, man.
Thank you so much, Justin, forsharing with us about OpenVest.
And really, I commend you on your.
Your mission on really makingsure that this is something that's
simplified and reasonably done.
Because usually when you lookat these investments, you're getting
that 1% or even 2%, eventhough there's some free ones.
(29:35):
But also those are limited aswell, depending on which brokerage
you go with.
Correct.
Thank you so much for withthis platform and please you as a
listener listening and sayinglike, hey, you know what, I want
to try this know leave acomment down below, inside Spotify
or even on YouTube just let usknow how did that work out for know.
We actually curious to seewhat's going on.
So thank you so much and y'all be safe.
(29:57):
We out.
Peace.
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