A reflection on the creation of Investa’s Morning Note
This semester, in my Startup Sprint course at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York, I had the opportunity to create, for the very first time, my own media product. It’s called Investa’s Morning Note, and the goal of the product is to help those ages 18–39 get the information they need to invest in technology companies that they are interested in.
Despite the fact that they make up the largest portion of the workforce, millennials own less than 5 percent of U.S. wealth, according to data from the Federal Reserve. Many of these millennials have grown up during two of the greatest economic crises in recent memory (the Great Recession and the current coronavirus pandemic), and have been strapped with student loan debt unlike any that was seen in previous generations. These young people are living in a time where their financial fortunes have been hurt tremendously.
My goal with Investa’s Morning Note was to create something that helps this group obtain information about some of the most important companies on the stock market today so that they can make sound investment decisions. If used correctly, the stock market can be an incredible tool for gaining wealth. My hope for this product was that it would help inform millennials of the value of investing in the stock market and give them some insight that would help them go about investing in the right way. According to Yahoo Finance, 43 percent of millennials are not investing in stocks, bonds, real estate, and more. Yahoo Finance also says that 21 percent of millennials have invested less than $500 dollars in their lifetime.
The reason I chose technology companies specifically was because of how important technology stocks are today. Currently, the FAANG stocks (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google) dominate many of the investment headlines of the day. They are all technology companies, and each plays an important role in society. In fact, their roles have been increased even more by the recent pandemic.
My goal was to show millennials this and to help them to invest in technology companies as soon as possible so that they could build wealth. I studied data from news sources and spoke to millennials to find out what they wanted in this product, and how it could best serve them. When I first started, I thought I would make a product with general financial advice, but my professor, Jeremy Caplan, recommended that I narrow it down. I’m glad I listened.
The produce is a newsletter that will be emailed one day a week and will highlight what’s going on at three tech companies that millennials are likely to invest in. Right now, I think the biggest strength is how concise the product is, and how easy it is to consume for someone without an investment background. I think its biggest weakness is that it currently does not have an audience.
For revenue, one of the things that I’d like to do is to create an exclusive Slack channel for the newsletter’s subscribers. While receiving the note itself would be free, being apart of the Slack channel would require payment. The benefit of this is that it would give like-minded investors the chance to discuss their thoughts. It would also give Investa’s team an opportunity to see how consumers of our newsletter communicate, and how we might better serve them.
As a 24-year-old male, who studies business and economics journalism at CUNY, I felt that I was the right person to make this. I find the topics of money, the stock market, and the technology business to all be incredibly fascinating. As a sports fan, I think the stock market is really interesting. Each day on the market is like a new round of games, and different companies are winners and losers. As the day goes on, early winners on the market may start to extend their lead, or reverse course and fall. Early losers might turn around and start winning, or instead their losses. For me, tracking these changes and developments is fun, and the task of seeing the factors around the world that influence stock prices is exciting. Helping people understand what it all means, and giving them insights and tips on what to do, is what I really enjoy.
I realize that Investa’s Morning Note will probably face challenges, with one of the main ones being the heavy competition. So many news sites are vying for consumers' attention, and I am continuing to work on what would make someone subscribe to my product over others.
One thing that I learned throughout this process was that developing a product really needs to be about serving the needs of the consumer. So often in the past, I thought I had to develop some crazy, original idea in my head that had never been thought of, in order to make a product. But now I understand that a successful entrepreneur should look to solve a specific pain point that a group has.
If I continue developing Investa, I’d like to gain sponsorship for it. I’d also like to get the Slack channel off the ground, and possibly get some volunteer help to make the product better. Finally, I’d like to create an official domain on the web for the product and gain our first actual subscribers.
Even if Investa’s Morning Note does not take off as I might hope, I’m incredibly thankful for the opportunity I had to create something alongside my classmates. The knowledge that we shared with one another was so valuable, and getting to learn from Jeremy our professor was very insightful. Whatever the future holds, I hope that this class will serve as a launching point for my subsequent entrepreneurial endeavors.