
Becoming a Real Company - brault
http://hardba.co/becomingacorp
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jstanley
It sounds like you're a startup in some sort of financial industry.

Why do you even _have_ company snapchat and instagram accounts?

They can surely be nothing but distractions from your goal of actually doing
financial stuff.

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ontoillogical
They're building an audience for a mass-market investment educational product.

Instagram and snapchat makes perfect sense here.

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benmarks
"I believe that management processes are a tax on organizational obesity."

Fantastic metaphor.

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pauljohncleary
it's a tax on organizational size

and well spent taxes aren't a bad thing, in fact, they're a great thing

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brennebeck
Exactly. Essentially, it's an investment into the future of the company and
will increase the chances of maintaining your culture and productivity.

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simonbarker87
Nice post and congratulations on the progress, my only suggestion on the
growth metrics is to only include ones that actually directly, or will soon,
affect turnover/profitability.

Facebook likes, Snapchat followers etc are not that useful for you guys right
now I wouldn't think. Newsletter subscribers are valuable to a point, if you
don't know the conversion rate to paying in some manner (hopefully via some
kind of automation campaign) then that is also just a vanity metric.

I'm enjoying the series of posts to keep it up

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kowdermeister
Is this per minute? "Revenues: $150 (total: $1400, growth: 12%)"

That way I could understand the title.

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StavrosK
No, the million is the goal. They're at $150 now.

Got you to click, though.

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kowdermeister
Yeah, I hope my click will add to their success and growth :) I also don't get
how can they have 6 people working on this full time with no investment and
marginal revenue.

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runako
> company was officially incorporated on August 28

It's a new company.

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kowdermeister
But they still need the 3000$ / month / person pocket money to burn.

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fpaboim
My 2 cents: \- I don't like the logo, it looks like you just picked a font on
google fonts \- The whole brand identity seems completely disconnected from
'hardbacon'. It's a strong name, why have it then? \- I don't get it, are you
a content site for financial advice? With comparators? What's the business
model, referrals?

Don't mean to be a dick, just trying to offer my sincere view. Good luck!

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n00b101
I think this is useful. You have researched brokers and robo-advisors serving
Canadians and presented it as a comparison. Some suggestions that I have:

1\. It would be useful to include info on what APIs are offered for automated
electronic trading. Similarly, what real-time data, tools, and research is
offered by each broker?

2\. Info about options and futures trading would be useful as well

3\. You cover robo-advisor and brokers ... consider adding fee-based and
commission-based investment advisors / private wealth managers.

4\. Consider adding comparisons of bank savings products, like GICS, notes,
mutual funds, etc.

5\. Consider adding life insurance company wealth management products, like
seg funds, annuities, etc.

6\. The "compass" is kind of gimmicky ... I think it puts credibility at risk,
and I think that it adds no value to your apparent mission of connecting
people with brokers/robo-advisors/[other?]

7\. Don't try to educate people on picking individual stocks (P/E ratios,
etc). Promoting stock picking and trading is something a broker might do to
increase trading volume commissions, but you don't have the same incentive to
do this. There are also already a ton of resources on this topic, including
the entire equity research industry. You can't compete here and you don't need
to. Listing some useful books and websites would be valuable, but your
original content on this topic is lacking and taking away from the real value
in your site (the comparison tables between brokers, etc)

8\. What you should do is educate people on financial literacy. What is a
broker? ETF? Mutual fund? Robo-advisor? How and why should I pick a provider
from your lists? There is a need for this and it fits more naturally with your
site's core service. I have seen wealthy family members (with non-financial
backgrounds) talking to an advisor at their bank and coming back completely
confused and bewildered about basic things, like what is a mutual fund, how do
I choose, what is safe, etc. These are intelligent people (eg doctors) but
they have not had time or knowledge to deeply understand this stuff. And the
advice they get from their bank is never balanced (the advisors at banks are
barely qualified to advise on investing and just push their higher fee mutual
funds). If you add life insurance agents pushing wealth management products
and talking up tax efficiency then it gets complex enough for even
sophisticated investors to be confused. The marketplace is very confusing and
it is far from transparent, and is being disrupted. If your can properly
captivate a young audience and become a "digital" distribution channel then
you have a lot of leverage.

8\. Consider a name change. You are alienating people who don't eat or like
bacon.

9\. Clearly state what your site does at the top, in one clear sentence. I
visited it on mobile and it took me a long time to understand what you are
offering. You burried the lede by putting the robo-advisor list at the bottom
(and all then compass/stock picker fluff at the top) ... and I didn't even
realize you had a broker comparison list until I found I can click a button to
switch from "robo-advisor mode" to "broker mode" ... look up a UI design
concept called "no modes"

