HN Explorer

Apply with Me to YC W24 in the Next 100 Days and Build the OnlyFans of Trading

12 points by Afrah123 ↗ HN
As a non-technical founder I'm on the lookout for a passionate and driven individual who is all about engineering and design. I believe in a no-nonsense approach and value someone who doesn't require constant management. I appreciate honesty and clear communication about the expectations of hard work. I want to work with someone who is all about shipping code, someone who can make quick and informed decisions, iterate rapidly, and isn't interested in wasting time on unnecessary meetings or impressing journalists or VCs. Ultimately, I'm seeking a like-minded individual who just wants to roll up their sleeves and build a remarkable product together. So, what is the idea?

Think of Patreon but for Trading. A membership platform for users to discover and subscribe to verified top-performing traders. By following these traders, users can gain valuable insights into the markets, discover new trading strategies, and potentially profit from these trades.

A bit about me:

I recently had an eye-opening experience as the moderator of a crypto signals group on Discord. This group had a staggering 8,000+ paying members, all following the trades of a self-proclaimed trading expert who promised successful returns. However, the reality was quite different, with most of their trades losing money. This firsthand exposure to the world of social trading and its pitfalls has given me a unique insight into the challenges and opportunities that lie within this space.

But here's the twist: My expertise lies in not having expertise. I readily admit that I don't possess extensive knowledge of trading, financial markets, or sophisticated investment strategies. And you know what? That's actually an advantage. Why? Because I'm building this startup for people like myself — individuals who may lack the knowledge or experience to make well-informed trading decisions. I understand the struggles, and I'm determined to create a platform that empowers traders of all skill levels to succeed.

So, what will the solution be?

I've identified a unique way to verify the success of traders before users join their paid community. I believe in transparency and want to ensure that our users have access to top-performing traders who can provide valuable insights and strategies. With this innovative approach, we'll empower our users to make informed decisions about who they follow and engage with.

Why you should join me:

• Build a platform that matters: This is not just another social network. It's a mission-driven platform that aims to level the playing field and democratize trading. By joining me, you'll have the opportunity to make a meaningful impact on the lives of thousands of aspiring traders.

• Bring your technical expertise to the table: As our technical co-founder, you'll play a pivotal role in designing and developing our platform from the ground up. You'll have the autonomy to shape our technology stack and implement innovative solutions that solve real-world challenges.

• Be part of an ambitious vision: We're not here to create a small, niche product. Our vision is to disrupt the trading industry and become the go-to platform for traders seeking insights, education, and community. This is an opportunity to be at the forefront of a fast-growing sector and build something truly remarkable.

• Y Combinator awaits: We're gearing up to apply for the next YC batch.

If you're a talented programmer, I want to hear from you. Email me at ishipcode@gmail.com and include the following:

1. Share examples of your exceptional work, such as projects you've built.

2. Explain why you're excited about this opportunity and how your skills align with our mission.

3. Provide me with a way to contact you.

19 comments

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tempaccount988
Wow, this is exactly what I've been waiting for! GAME-CHANGER.
Afrah123
Great to hear that you're excited about our platform! We're thrilled to have caught your attention. If you'd like to learn more and share your thoughts, please reply back with your email so we can set up a chat.
ArtWomb
Signals are important. Not the trader. I always thought a standardized protocol for publishing executed orders on $TWTR would be the way to go. Ticker symbol, entry, price target, size, timestamp. That's the API ;)
Afrah123
Absolutely, I agree that signals play a crucial role in trading. However, it's important to recognize that the trader behind those signals also brings their unique expertise and experience to the table. At our platform, we believe in creating a win-win situation for both traders and subscribers. Simply sharing the details of a trade without acknowledging the trader wouldn't be fair.

That's why we go beyond just providing signals and give traders the opportunity to monetize their knowledge and expertise. By allowing them to build paid communities and share their insights, we empower traders to showcase their skills and earn money from their valuable knowledge. This not only benefits the traders but also provides subscribers with access to verified traders and the potential to learn from their expertise.

atmanactive
Isn't that https://collective2.com ?
Afrah123
• Our platform focuses on social interaction, learning, and community-building, in contrast to the automated replication approach of the platform you shared.

• We showcase actual trading performance rather than relying on simulated or hypothetical results.

• Unlike the platform you mentioned, we do not require any initial investment into a brokerage account, we have no financial prerequisites for both traders and subscribers on our platform. We provide a unique (free) opportunity for traders to monetize their expertise. At the same time, subscribers can learn, engage, and potentially benefit from the invaluable expertise of our traders, without the burden of a large upfront financial commitment.

peschu
https://www.darwinex.com/ Also Teamviewer and all the others have a community if you want that...

My opinion: In the end in trading no community will help you to become profitable. Communities can be helpful for bloody beginners...but the rest of the journey, you are on your own, and all this social stuff and pseudo positive blabla will distract you from resolving the real issues. Trading is a numbers game, not a social one ...

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diffstrokes
There are a couple good services for finding a co-founder: starthawk and YC has its own matching service that is free.
max_
A platform for exchanging trading strategies will never work.

Trading strategies can only be profitable if used by a limited Minority.

Look up the El Farol bar problem [0]

The best execution of such an idea i ahve seen is Numer.ai I was a participant in 2016 and made some good money back then. But now its just too competitive — but still a great approach.

I now do algo trading. You can check my bio for the email incase you would like to talk some more.

[0]: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cub21ueWNvbnR...

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TheAlchemist
A bit crude feedback here, but I very strongly advise against it. You are trying to solve the wrong problem. The problem is not that people should become better traders - the problem is that people should NOT trade at all. They should invest.

Trading as you describe it is not profitable - and it's almost by definition impossible for it to be profitable through some well known signals that one could share on a platform. So if your goal is to sell snake oil, then go for it. But if you want to really help people, then make a platform to teach them how to invest.

dieselgate
How do you differentiate trading and investing - do you consider them different by long/short term outlook? They can certainly have overlap but curious what you mean on a more granular level.

I think you make a great point, though.

TheAlchemist
I differentiate it mostly by the long/short term outlook indeed. Although there may be some other differences.

For instance, when somebody says he's trading - I understand - looking at the charts, momentums, indicators and who knows what else. When your mindset is one of investing, you don't really need that. The price a stock had a month ago, a day ago etc is irrelevant. All you should care about is what's the price you need to pay to buy one share, and what's the estimated value of this share - which you can try to evaluate based on the financials of the company, maybe even by being very optimistic about their business prospects, etc.

Now, it could happen that you buy shares of a company that you feel is 'cheap' (ie value >> price) then the price skyrockets in 3 months, and you decide to sell. That's fair - and it definitely doesn't happen very often. My point is - if you trade, you may buy / sell if the share price move 5-10%. When you invest, you know that 5-10% is just random walk of the market. It doesn't change at all your position (or shouldn't at least - unless you think that your valuation is so precise - in which case you're a fool !)

colesantiago
So basically speculation, financials alone doesn't cut it.

I don't see a difference.

I think it is more blind luck more than anything.

notahacker
And to add to that, the fundamental problem with novices relying on signals in financial markets is that past performance is not a guarantee of future results, and that applies particularly in short term trading where the "picking up pennies in front of a steamroller" strategies that generate superficially impressively consistent results do so because they're trading against a risk which will wipe out most of traders' capital and all their gains when it occurs every few years...
gtani
Interesting... full time trader here and consider myself expert on trading vids/books/educational materials. The good traders i know have 2 things in common, they lost a lot of capital starting out (even after doing lots of sim/paper acct/replay trading) but logged mistakes and avoided repeats and (2) they understood that this is similar to learning violin, tennis, Russian or C++ in 1 respect, you have to read a little and practice a lot, reading Galamian by itself won't give you good intonation or RH technique on violin.

I was thinking about this yesterday, whenever i need to learn specifics about futures, options or commons, I go to /r/futures /r/options etc and read a lot of threads but what do i do if they're not there? So i'll be watching this if it develops further. I do see problems getting "experts" to divulge broker statements or trading live.

mchannon
Excellent post, but we know very little about you.

What do you bring to the table as a founder? Can you bring in money, can you sell? Is your pitch to YC all set to go, just need the validation of a tech cofounder on your team?

Your idea, which I can see working, is far less important than your ability to make it happen. Can you sell yourself as a partner to a top dev to build your machine and share it with you?

As to the naysayers, the reasons they say this'll never work are identical to the reason OnlyFans would never work. Except it does work. Well.

Afrah123
Due to the limited word count in the Hacker News submission, I couldn't include all the details I wanted. To give you a better understanding, this is my first startup venture. I hold a Bachelor's degree in Commerce with a focus on accounting. During my university years, I successfully started and ran a tutoring business that generated revenue to support my lifestyle throughout that time.

As I am non-technical, I am still in the early stages of product development, and thus do not have revenue at the moment. However, I have been actively engaging with potential users since April of this year. My efforts have resulted in collecting 500 email addresses from individuals who have shown keen interest in joining our waitlist. Additionally, 10% of our waitlist have come together to raise $5,000 in support of our MVP development. These supporters will make up our early adopters and are testament to the demand for our product.

I have identified the necessary MVP specifications and have set a specific launch deadline to deliver the very first version of our platform.

I hope this provides you with a better understanding of my background and the progress I have made so far. If you have any further questions or would like to discuss the startup in more detail, I would be happy to connect.