By allowing users to “copy the trade,” that is, following the successful financial moves of people like Warren Buffett and Nancy Pelosi, Dub bets that the financial future will blend social media with investment.
The company was launched in 2021 by 19-year-old Stephen Wang and launched as the only regulated copy trading platform in the United States that allows users to reflect transactions of politicians and hedge fund managers. Now, it has grown to over 1 million downloads by providing users with the opportunity to become financial influencers.
“It's like Tiktok encountering Wall Street,” the king told me. “I grew up in an age when my product decisions were shaped so heavily by social media consumption.”
And Wang targets his companions, which have been shaped heavily by social media. According to the Schwab Modern Wealth Survey, Gen Z is investing at a younger age than ever. The average Zoomer adults began investing at age 19 compared to the millennials who started at an average age of 25, or the baby boomer generation at age 35.
About 50% of all DUB users are under the age of 28, and Wang explained that they are the most active on the platform.
Part of this is because Dub aims to meet users where they are. As the King says: “Dubs represent opportunities that are familiar to them [a social media like app] And it's not scary to take part in America's dream of growing your assets. ”
The app uses a subscription model that charges $89 a year or $10 a month to connect users to well-known traders and access a platform that runs trading through brokerages. Individual traders who want to earn a follow can share their moves and charge other dub users a fee to view their portfolio.
While grabbing headlines for famous names, Wang says he oversees more than 200 creators (the hundreds of millions of hedge fund managers and Startradars from platforms like Twitter and YouTube), and drives 80-90% of the app's top-performing portfolio.
Wang believes that making trading a social experience will help democratize the industry and create a new ecosystem that rewards traders who share success.
“Starting a hedge fund usually means that it's part of the connection between Wall Street's elite boys clubs, top schools and insiders,” he said. “But what about great Midwest investors with no pedigree? A dub-level arena. We're not just helping Americans invest, but we're building a market for money managers.”
The idea of Dub hit the king in his freshman year at Harvard, amid the rise of “meme stocks” like GameStop. He saw the online community gathering influential people and moving through the market. “It was a little guy riding a big hedge fund. It was an incredible feeling that we wanted to capture with our products,” he recalls.
Just eight months into college, he dropped out to launch a Dub with the goal of creating a “new capital allocation paradigm for regular investors.”
Since its launch, he has secured funding from venture companies such as Tusk and K5 Global, and has acquired well-known supporters including Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, Tiaa CEO and partners from Sequoia and A16Z.
This story is part of Nynext, the essential insider insight into innovation, moonshot and political chess moves that are most important for NYC power players (and aspiring people).
Part of the appeal to investors is that it's not just another app where people choose stocks. “87% of investors are performing the market, so we're going to stop picking stocks and start copying people.”
The King bets his AA is much more reliable model.
“The super wealthy people don't choose their stocks. They either hire a wealth manager at Goldman Sachs or invest in hedge funds,” he said. “They are already betting on smart people to deploy their capital. We bring that experience to ordinary Americans in familiar and accessible ways.”
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