Austin Omala and Kobena Idun instantly clicked when they met by chance at the Curry Student Center during their freshman year at Northeastern.
Now in their fourth year, Omala and Idun – business administration and computer science majors, respectively – are inseparable after discovering a shared passion for the intersection of finance and data science.
The two men frequently pitched ideas to each other over the years, while gaining experience at cooperatives like Fidelity Investments and Morgan Stanley. In May 2023, Omala and Idun came together with the same idea: an easy-to-use financial investment app.
The idea stuck and it quickly grew from a simple resume builder to a profitable business vision. They called their app Fineas.Aiwhich stands for Financial Enterprise Analysis Software.
Omala said the idea of making investment information accessible had been on his mind since he learned about investing at the age of 14.
“I remember how difficult it was to find information. It was almost impossible,” Omala said, adding that it was even more impossible to figure out what to do with the information he managed to find.
Omala and Idun created Fineas.Ai to solve this very problem and help users who are just starting to invest. Although their target audience is beginning investors aged 18 to 30 – not college age when Omala started – both believe there is a gap in the market for investor information that ‘they can fill.
Their application has streamlined the process of gathering information about a potential investment. The app asks the user to enter an asset, giving examples such as Microsoft and Apple. Once the asset is entered, the application generates details and analysis on five factors: price, news, technical data, financial data and description.
Using generative AI, the software then combines multiple sources to create an easy-to-understand overview of all the stocks and companies the user is interested in, citing its sources so the user can do more in-depth research on their own. even. The application also offers a chatbot to answer questions and offer solutions, helping the user think about the next steps for their investments.
“There is a significant barrier to entry for people who don’t really understand financial information,” Omala said. “We wanted to find a way to distill that information, put it in front of them and help them transact or at least be better informed before making an investment decision.”
Omala and Idun said their evolution from friends to co-founders was seamless and both naturally approached what excited them most about the project. Idun is responsible for development, while Omala focuses on finance and marketing.
“I like meeting people. I like to know what’s going on,” Omala said. However, he said, Idun is “the opposite.”
“He’s the type of guy who says, ‘OK, I know what I have to do… Don’t call me until I’ve done it,'” Omala said as Idun laughed and nodded.
For students looking to create something of their own, Idun said they should start now.
“Go out there and try to meet as many interesting people on campus as you can, because they are there,” he said.
Although the app has the potential to be profitable, Omala said he sees it as an opportunity to “democratize financial information” in an area with excessive barriers to entry.
“We want people to be individually accountable for how they control their own finances,” Idun said.
The couple’s belief in freedom of information is not only a philosophy of what the app offers, but also how the app itself works. Fineas.Ai is open source software, meaning the public is free to reproduce and distribute the code.
Omala said the team’s guiding principle is “doing well by doing good.” For both, this involves using open source technology.
Fineas.Ai is not the first app to offer services to new investors. But major competitors like Bloomberg Terminal can cost more than $24,000 a year, and less expensive options like ChatGPT or simpler chatbots don’t give the same straightforward analytics presentation, Omala said. Fineas.Ai is currently free, but by early 2025 the founders hope the app will become profitable by pricing it between $14.99 and $24.99 per month, with the possibility of discounts for students.
“It’s important to note that we’re not doing anything that hasn’t been done,” Omala said. “We’re just doing it for a different target market.”
Omala and Idun’s mutual friend Antwan Fisher, a fourth-year business administration student, is working with them to further develop and “gamify” the app. While Fisher was involved in the initial ideation phase, he withdrew from the project to focus on cooperative work and his studies, but returned to the team this year.
“We’re combining professional training, experience with the platform itself and this topic, to create what we think is a really good product that will sell and be in high demand,” Fisher said. “Our main advantage is to really think about who a retail investor is, what their needs are and how the market responds to them. »
Fineas.Ai has six staff members currently working pro bono to create and market the app. Although the project is still in its early financing, or “pre-seed,” stages, Omala and Idun are accelerating thanks to the investments they have secured through programs such as the Northeast Prototype Fund.
“Information has a lot of power, whether it’s good or bad,” Omala said. “We know that the intersection of finance and data science can lead to truly revolutionary applications. »
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