Startups

Imbibing financial literacy across the globe- Following Trade Brains on their journey to decipher stock market

• ByStartupStory     |    February 11, 2022

“In India, savings have always been associated with fixed deposits and people are often mistaken to believe that the stock market is a gamble. I have been trading for more than 8 years and have made massive returns on my investments in the stock. Through my venture, I wished to eradicate the common misconception that people had about the secondary market and therefore promote a wave of stock market investment by common people through promoting financial literacy,” said the founder and CEO of Trade Brains, Kritesh Abhishek in an exclusive interview with Startup Story Media.

With the rise of the internet and the increasing accessibility of smartphones, stock trading has become easier than ever before. Furthermore, the technologically compliant norms made by the regulatory authorities and multiple online stock brokers make it immensely accessible for a common man to take a leap into the stock market. However, while the recent developments in technology have aided individuals to pick up trading, Indians still rely on the conventional method of investment which is fixed deposits due to lack of adequate knowledge about the secondary market. In an attempt to fuel the minds of the individuals with the concept of financial literacy, Trade Brains was born.

Incorporated in 2018, Trade Brains is a stock analysis and financial education service platform based in India. The startup aims to simplify the stock market through enriching content and courses for its audience. Furthermore, the startup also offers investors a fundamental analysis platform called Portal by Trade Brains, providing stock market data following which users can make righteous decisions about their investments.

Leaping into the market

An electric engineer from NIT Warangal, the founder of Trade Brains, Kritesh Abhishek is an entrepreneur at heart and began his entrepreneurial journey while he was in college. In his second year, he began an entertainer startup with his friend and later on went to become a Manager at Tata Motors following his graduation.

During his days at Tata Motors, he was profoundly interested in investing in the stock market. In 2017, he launched a financial education blog and website to educate people about the basics of stock market as a side-line business which is now known as Trade Brains.

Talking about his journey since inception and the inspiration behind the startup, Kritesh revealed, “I had always been inclined towards entrepreneurship since my college days. After being associated with Tata Motors, I invested my savings in the stock market and earned a sizable return on the same. However, it was not a go-to option exercised by my colleagues which is also true for more than 90% earning population of the country and that’s when I decided to start my entrepreneurial journey with Trade Brains. It initially started as a side hustle with just me writing blogs to educate the general public about the basics of the stock market but now we have a team of 30+ individuals who work across multiple functions. We have progressed extensively and have reached lakhs of people in India.”

Decoding the domino effect

Based upon the ideology of DIY (do-it-yourself) investing, Trade Brains was conceptualised to offer its audience a simplified elaboration about investing so that they can take well informed decisions and earn more returns on their stock market investments. The platform has also integrated services such as Stock’s fundamental analysis, portfolio analysis, stock comparison and screener amongst others to help retail investors.

Highlighting the business strategy along with the unique proposition that the startup is based upon, Kritesh stated, “When we launched our website, it was simply to allow end users to gain knowledge about the stock market. Once the website gained traction, we started earning revenue which was then utilised to fund the expanding team size. A lot of the traction was brought forth by my incredible team. We currently provide services ranging from fundamental data analysis of stocks to trading courses and lessons for working professionals. Furthermore, our website also publishes multiple articles which are free of cost for the general public. In furtherance to our goal of DIY investing, we have tied up with multiple leading stockbrokers like Zerodha to allow our users to open their demat accounts to apply their knowledge into the practical world of stock market.  What sets us apart is that while players today focus profusely into the field of stock broking we are simply a financial literacy and fundamental analysis site which has partnered up with these stock brokers that in turn gives us an opportunity to stand out.”

Adding on, the founder emphasised that his team played an integral role in binding the organisation and increasing the traction of the website. He highlighted that his team consists of highly experienced and professional individuals who have helped augment the growth of the organisation. The collaboration with stock brokers has also allowed us to garner revenue from our operations along with traffic on our website. Till date, the startup has received a phenomenal response for its services from all its clients.

Overcoming hurdles and assessing Covid

Every startup faces numerous obstacles during the course of their journey and Trade Brains was no exception to the same. From financial constraints to onboarding obstacles, the startup faced it all and conquered the challenges as they came.

Elaborating upon the challenges that the startup faced since inception, Kritesh said, “While our journey has been incredible we have faced multiple ups and downs along the way. One was the biggest challenges that we faced were that of talent acquisition and finding the right team. Furthermore, since we were a bootstrapped company we faced multiple constraints to grow and buy Stock quotes & financial data of companies for building our fundamental analysis vertical. We were quickly able to overcome these challenges through effective strategies and cost optimizing.”

With the onset of the global pandemic, multiple businesses faced shortcomings in their revenue and were subsequently shut down. However, the impact of Covid on Trade Brains was quite the contrary. Kritesh reveals that the pandemic helped in aiding the growth and expansion of the venture and brought massive traction to their pre-existing site. Therefore Covid played a key role in driving traffic for the website.

Pacing towards future and a word for readers

When asked to share a word of advice with budding entrepreneurs, Kritesh Abhishek stated, “Through my experience I have been able to derive the lesson of patience and persistence. Entrepreneurship is a hard battle field and the start is probably the hardest part to survive. However, if you survive the first 2 years, the coming years only get better and people start supporting your venture. It is important for one to be patient, persistent as well as passionate about their venture to reach massive heights.”

Since inception, Trade Brains has grown exponentially in terms of its customers and repeat rate. The startup recently launched its app version of its stock analytics portal for both android as well as iOS due to massive customer demand. Going ahead the startup intends to add more features and widgets into the app as well as drive more customer acquisition in the coming year. Further, Trade Brains also intends to expand its team size to meet the increasing demand as well as improve service quality for the customer.

With a clear vision ahead, Trade Brains is ready to make financial literacy and stock trading a norm in the country.

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