I also posed several questions to forum sites, hoping them to critically evaluate some of these competitors. What I discovered was the the financial barrier to entry into the markets is not as high as I thought. Zecco provides stock trades for $4.95/trade. However, value propositions still remains for my business.
1. The market power of the average investment from a user in my target demographic using a service like Zecco remains small
2. The educational and cultural barriers to entry remain - and this is key
3. A disconnect remains between publicly traded companies and their shareholders
A pitch to Luke Reid revealed that I need to spend more time on my product development. I have been focusing largely on customer development; these two processes must grow symbiotically. I need to determine the legal frameworks in which I can grow my business. This means talking to securities law experts, among other people. I need to conduct more research in this area tomorrow morning.
Legal concerns:
1. How much disclosure is permitted? Do I show the percentage of users voting to sell / hold to the public, to only the investment group or to no one?
2. How much information required of the user to invest? SIN?
3. What about the international barriers and various stock market exchange regulations? How do these apply on the internet and with a proxy investor?
4. Where should the proxy investor be stationed?
In addition, Luke suggested a very interesting Bitcoins application - one that I will consider seriously tomorrow morning.
All in all, a very productive 5 first days. I eagerly await what the next 25 bring!
