Thanks a zillion to the cup that was full to the brim, it helped me find a co-founder for my venture.
The TRHS community has truly been worth what it was started for –inspiring, sharing, networking, helping, learning, and connecting entrepreneurs.
It was last August that I began my entrepreneurial journey to bridge the gap I found in the services offered in the Personal Finance Domain. Our everyday decisions are related to our money and yet understanding personal finances can be such a daunting task to most of us. Lack of Financial Knowledge and a huge information asymmetry between buyers and sellers in this space has made things worse.
Here are some conversations on money I occasionally overheard:
- Where should I invest my money? All I care is getting the highest returns.
- Which credit card should I buy?
- I’m confused over which loan to pay first!
- How do I trust this insurance guy?
- What? Mutual Funds? What are they? I just remember that disclaimer that comes during the ad commercials – Mutual Fund investments are subject to market risks..
- My dad asked me to start something called SIP and opened an account for me… my money just goes into that automatically every month. That’s all I know.
- It’s February now & come to think of it I haven’t thought of any tax saving thingie. I’ll probably just buy that insurance my neighbor uncle was discussing the other day..
- OMG! And, finally I get my coveted degree… but who knows that I still stand financially illiterate today.
So while I was learning a lot of stuff from the net, from different books, via friends & family a co-founder is whom I truly needed. I was faltering at many places and was looking for the right guide to help shape & present my thoughts better. I had many interactions with different people and though each was a learning experience in its own way, however there was no concrete result.
It was the 27th of December, and I had decided to seek help from Abhik. After a brief discussion with him and a mail along with the Business Idea presentation sent to him we agreed to meet on the 31st. During the first meeting itself, the initiative resonated with him completely and another couple of meetings and we were in the same boat.
What a way to start the New Year! I’m sure Abhik will agree…
After a lot of brain storming we settled on Finqa (we decided to rename GreynGreen ). Finqa is short for Financial Questions Answered among other things 🙂 Along the way, we found our third partner in the Finance domain. Ankur who had begun his tread on a similar path a year ago used to co-work from Abhik’s office initially and when he heard about the plan for Finqa, he was equally excited.
Our mission is to improve financial literacy and awareness in India, and disrupt the financial advisory business a bit. Today, its a bit disorganized with very few fee-only players and mostly banks and agents pushing products which earn them the most commission. So without further ado, we present the beta version of Finqa(for your comments, feedback, bouquets / brickbats).
It will be great if you could have a look and let us know what you think of it.
Ohh, just BTW, we could soon start TRHS series on “How I met my co-founder/ my programmer/ my first client/my VC”
Thanks a ton to Alok Sir, Asha and all the members who make this community such a vibrant and interesting space.
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