Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Launch HN: Fintual Inc. (YC S18) – Automated Wealth Manager for Latin America

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 49 posts

Re: Launch HN: Fintual Inc. (YC S18) – Automated Wealth Manager for Latin America

#21

Post by conanbatt »

Hola Agustin. Este es un mercado que necesita soluciones urgentes.

Entiendo la mayoria de las decisiones que tomaron ya, desde el diseño hasta el armado de perfil de usuario.

Se vienen varios problemas a mente, que me pregunto como resolvieron: el costo de transferencias entre bancos desde sudamerica a estados unidos para los montos que se transfieren terminan comiendos e mucha rentabilidad. (i.e. no podes depositar de a 500 dolares por mes, por ej). Otro gran problema es lo legal: argentina por ejemplo siempre termina poniendo restricciones de algun tipo. Hay mucho riesgo monetario tambien entre que se deposita en la cuenta y se compran los correspondientes ETF.

Mi pregunta es: mas alla de posicionamiento de mercado, como van a lograr ser competitivos considerando todas estas desventajas de infraestructura? Donde esta la innovacion?

Porque no usar fondos al estilo Vanguard de una? Super low costo y revender esos paquetes?

Muy bueno igual, y voy a estar mirandolos.

Re: Launch HN: Fintual Inc. (YC S18) – Automated Wealth Manager for Latin America

#22

Post by agustinf »

bbrunner wrote: post #20

Hey, I just went through your signup questionnaire to test it out (I work in a similar space in the US). It felt very long to me in comparison with most services I've looked at. I'm not sure what the regulations in Chile require you to ask, but for what it's worth, Betterment entirely skips doing a risk questionnaire and let's you immediately choose a goal/portfolio. The signup funnel for financial services is long a…

Thanks! well even though the answer is 'yes the law does require a risk questionnaire' what we've seen with our users is that they actually enjoy answering these questions about themselves. Almost like personality quiz or something ;) You might still be right though, I guess once we get a wider upper funnel we will be able to test this further.

Re: Launch HN: Fintual Inc. (YC S18) – Automated Wealth Manager for Latin America

#23

Post by agustinf »

conanbatt wrote: post #21

Hola Agustin. Este es un mercado que necesita soluciones urgentes. Entiendo la mayoria de las decisiones que tomaron ya, desde el diseño hasta el armado de perfil de usuario. Se vienen varios problemas a mente, que me pregunto como resolvieron: el costo de transferencias entre bancos desde sudamerica a estados unidos para los montos que se transfieren terminan comiendos e mucha rentabilidad. (i.e. no podes depositar…

Buenas preguntas, gracias! Para hacer frente a los costos fijos de transferencia lo que hicimos fue juntar el dinero de la gente en 3 fondos:

- Fondo Mutuo Fintual Risky Norris - Fondo Mutuo Fintual Moderate Pitt - Fondo Mutuo Fintual Conservative Clooney

Y asignarle a cada cliente una combinación de estos tres. De esta manera, se pagan comisiones como si fuera un gran cliente. Esto compite muy bien con las alternativas: al menos en Chile estamos listados como la solución retail más económica según El Mercurio Inversiones.

El gran costo inicial que tuvimos que asumir con este approach es el de la regulación, pues como creadores de Fondos Mutuos debemos cumplir con una serie de exigencias, y justamente ahí está la innovación: somos capaces de cumplir con ella sin arrastrar con el costo operativo porque automatizamos casi todos los procesos y la generación de los documentos que requiere la autoridad en nuestro caso no depende de personas.

Re: Launch HN: Fintual Inc. (YC S18) – Automated Wealth Manager for Latin America

#24

Post by diegoserranoa »

Will this only work for Chileans? +1 for localization. I got confused with the amounts and currencies. Great work though!

Also, I'm getting a 422 error when trying to sign up. The error page doesn't say much, just:

¡Ouch! El cambio que intentaste hacer fue rechazado. A lo mejor trataste de cambiar algo para lo que no tienes acceso.

Re: Launch HN: Fintual Inc. (YC S18) – Automated Wealth Manager for Latin America

#25

Post by agustinf »

diegoserranoa wrote: post #24

Will this only work for Chileans? +1 for localization. I got confused with the amounts and currencies. Great work though! Also, I'm getting a 422 error when trying to sign up. The error page doesn't say much, just: ¡Ouch! El cambio que intentaste hacer fue rechazado. A lo mejor trataste de cambiar algo para lo que no tienes acceso.

It currently works for Chileans and foreigners that have at least a bank account there. We might get good news from the "Alianza del Pacífico" treaty this year though. Otherwise, we will expand once we get to certain milestones in the current base.

Re: Launch HN: Fintual Inc. (YC S18) – Automated Wealth Manager for Latin America

#26

Post by mlevental »

i see you guys are hiring. i'm a us national with interests in emigrating to latin america. i doubt your rates are competitive with us rates but i'm curious what they are anyway (since you seem to have yc funding?). how can i reach you? y por supuesto hablo espanol (como un gringo pero sin embargo hablo).

Re: Launch HN: Fintual Inc. (YC S18) – Automated Wealth Manager for Latin America

#27

Post by agustinf »

mlevental wrote: post #26

i see you guys are hiring. i'm a us national with interests in emigrating to latin america. i doubt your rates are competitive with us rates but i'm curious what they are anyway (since you seem to have yc funding?). how can i reach you? y por supuesto hablo espanol (como un gringo pero sin embargo hablo).

Yes we are, thanks for your interest! Please take a look at https://fintual.com/steve to see open positions and application instructions. Cheers!

Re: Launch HN: Fintual Inc. (YC S18) – Automated Wealth Manager for Latin America

#28

Post by hosueingf »

agustinf wrote: post #27
mlevental wrote: post #26

i see you guys are hiring. i'm a us national with interests in emigrating to latin america. i doubt your rates are competitive with us rates but i'm curious what they are anyway (since you seem to have yc funding?). how can i reach you? y por supuesto hablo espanol (como un gringo pero sin embargo hablo).

Yes we are, thanks for your interest! Please take a look at https://fintual.com/steve to see open positions and application instructions. Cheers!

Can we know you rates? :)

Re: Launch HN: Fintual Inc. (YC S18) – Automated Wealth Manager for Latin America

#29

Post by anonu »

Nice post. Best of luck in what you're doing!

My thought is people are averse to fees - but there needs to be a bit more of an impetus for someone to switch to your platform. Will you be using ETFs to gain exposures? If so, a lot of the marketing could be focused on diversity of investment or saving for retirement.

A lot of the reason the robo's have taken off is that some provide "fractional ownership". So you can invest as little as $1. There is some legal and compliance issues you would need to iron out in your home country. The "Acorns" approach is a good one in my opinion. Helps you get many small accounts quickly.

Ultimately, performance is what a lot of people go by. You need 5 years. Once you have 1 though - with 7% fees - you can easily start showing expense ratio drags on portfolios...

Re: Launch HN: Fintual Inc. (YC S18) – Automated Wealth Manager for Latin America

#30

Post by agustinf »

anonu wrote: post #29

Nice post. Best of luck in what you're doing! My thought is people are averse to fees - but there needs to be a bit more of an impetus for someone to switch to your platform. Will you be using ETFs to gain exposures? If so, a lot of the marketing could be focused on diversity of investment or saving for retirement. A lot of the reason the robo's have taken off is that some provide "fractional ownership". So you can i…

Thanks for your thoughts! Cool insights there. In fact, we do use global ETFs so we do offer diversified exposure. As a regulated entity we are able to allow investment for as low as US$1. We haven't conducted our marketing as Acorns' does, though, because we feel the biggest problem (opportunity) right now is the one that relatively successful professionals in their 30s face: they are able to save money but they have no time to invest it right. You may be right suggesting that getting many small accounts quickly can be a good strategy though, thanks for that idea, will think it through.

About performance, I agree, it will take some time until regular people start noticing the difference.

Post reply on HN