Equity and asset management apps are some of the most popular fintech applications today. Trading and investment apps use a combination of blockchain, artificial intelligence algorithms, and big data analysis, all together these advanced technologies help to dramatically increase trading efficiency. Algorithmic trading is free of human error and emotional factors, makes smart decisions based on data, reacts instantly to changing market conditions, and enables entrepreneurs to operate with multiple accounts at once.
Many successful trading and investment apps offer users information about investing and trading. AI allows users to quickly explore potential investments and make thoughtful decisions.
One trading app that has gained traction in the U.S. market fairly quickly is Robinhood. This investment and trading app is valued at more than $7.5 billion.
If you wish to become a member of this fintech entrepreneur society, think about a reliable development team to support your project from the beginning. And here I’ve collected the step-by-step plan which will lead your idea to the winning fintech application.
Stage №1: Idea
At the very beginning, you have to come up with a startup idea. Before creating a new idea, you need to determine the profitability of this idea and whether this direction is relevant in your region.
Stage №2: Team
Gather an audience who will like your idea: At the beginning of the business, the greatest value is the employee capacity and the “burning eyes”. To a large extent, the success of the project depends on which partners you involve in the work on the project. It is not difficult to identify such people from the masses.
Stage №3: The market
Try to calculate the size of the market for your services. If the marketplace for the services you offer has not yet formed, try to analyze the performance of similar and related departments. To determine the usefulness of the investment in your project, you need to understand the number of possible customers. Research your competitors, identify their strengths and weaknesses and based on that, build your unique strengths.
Stage №4: Concept
At this stage, you briefly describe the primary utterance about your business. You should start with a statement of purpose: what, why, and, most importantly, for whom you want to create.It is necessary to get acquainted in detail with the representatives of the target audience and based on this information to create a portrait of your future client for yourself personally. This will give you the opportunity to clearly identify their needs and desires, and then correctly formulate an offer. The conversion rate of a user into a regular customer depends on the right choice of the target audience.
To accurately predict the behavior of the potential consumer, try to detail a day in your life, dividing it into parts of 15-30 minutes. Pay particular attention to the time you spend online.
You must realize that in addition to the primary audience – the one you will be targeting, there may also be a secondary (indirect) audience – individuals who are potentially interested in your product. Describe how you represent the customer from
each group. An important point is to estimate the size of the audience willing to pay for your product. This group of customers is usually much smaller than the aggregate number of potential users. You should pay special attention to the study of the strategic prospects of the project (SWOT-analysis), as well as the best ways to monetize it. Describe how you plan to change the company’s revenue over the next three years? What attendance rate do you need to achieve in that time to achieve your goals? Once you have an understanding of revenue, start projecting costs for the same period. Based on this, calculate the possible profits. If you are going to involve investments, determine their share of the project in advance.
Stage №5: Terms of Reference
There is no point in the detailed design of a startup at this stage. In real-time the project develops and grows, taking into consideration the wishes of consumers and the new view of the author, up to the full realization of his idea within the original idea. It is reasonable to start developing the terms of reference by dividing the entire project into separate, integral stages.
Be sure to provide deadlines! And it is better to allocate twice as much time for each stage as you planned initially.
Stage №6: Prototype
Do not start attracting investments in a startup until you have built a prototype. Create a product project with the inclusion of basic characteristics. The prototype should be easy to understand and apply. These can be page diagrams showing what information and controls should be located in the sections of the site. This way you can see how a startup will work before programming it. If you slow down at this stage, ask for a free consultation from a mature IT company, it helps.
Stage №7: Testing
As soon as the prototype is ready, ask your friends to start using it. Your task is to determine whether you have identified the problem correctly and whether the solution you offer meets the needs of a potential consumer. Just testing the prototype allowed us to improve many elements of the service.
Stage №8: Alpha version
This is the stage at which the project is already ready, but has not yet been tested. In the process of internal tests, some minor adjustments are added to the interface that was not noticed during the development and creation of the technical task. Negotiations with the first clients begin.
Stage №9: Closed Beta
The project has a small number of followers attracted for the first use of the product. After testing, work is carried out to correct unaccounted errors. During the closed beta testing, we analyzed the audience’s color preferences and realized the complete need for a redesign of the site.
Stage №10: Public Beta
This is where you see fairly active participation of consumers interested in the services you quote, or those who are in constant search of something completely new and unusual. The first priority at this stage is to turn the creators’ initial assumptions about the market and its consumers into real facts. At the same time, work is being done on the bugs.
Beta-testing of the service showed that the targeted gamification features were not actively picked up by the target audience. We assumed that the female population would have a competitive interest. We gave them a rating for their online activity, but we didn’t post it anywhere. It didn’t arouse interest. Because of this information, it was decided to coordinate a change in the project. We began to introduce ratings on the main page, and after seven dates we added leaderboards. We have changed the rating mechanism a bit: original users were rewarded for the links published in the answers, now the points are rewarded only if a person goes by the necessary link and makes a purchase. Further, these points can be used to pay for purchases in online stores of partners.
Stage №11: Launch
The start of the project launch, its promotion, and registration of a package of legal documents. Even after the initial idea is fully implemented, a successful startup continues to develop: technical and ideological factors are being improved, pop-up errors are being corrected. The question of trademark registration also appears here.
It makes sense to apply for trademark registration if you have invested any funds in your name, realized that it is workable, but it has not yet become popular. A trademark has a territorial limitation: if it is registered in Russia, then it is protected only in Russia. It is possible to register a trademark in the USA only if you have used it for two years.
Stage №12: Search for investors (can often follow the prototype creation stage)
First of all, it is important to understand what part of the business you are willing to cede to the management of the investor. For the project to have a chance of prosperity, some experts advise giving no more than 15-25%. Arrange meetings with many investors, find yourself enough potentially interested partners, and proceed to negotiations on the terms and subtleties of the transaction and its closure. Do not be afraid to challenge the proposals of investors that seem doubtful to you, and offer your terms. Clearly define the boundaries of the investor’s control and options for exiting the business. Be sure to write down and say these questions.
