Anam Lakkhani and Eve Halimi, Co-Founders and Co-CEOs of Alinea, join ChedHER to discuss how they are building an app to make investing more accessible for Gen Z and women by taking a social media, community-first approach.

chedHER

'Alinea' App to Make Investing More Accessible

joining us now is an umbrella. Honey and Ive Halimi, their co founder and co ceo of Alinea. So thank you so much for joining us. So Ive, can you break down how this app will work. Thank you for having us today. Um, yes. So the app, when you get on it, we personalize your experience from the get go. We ask you what your risk tolerance is, what your interests are, what companies you love. And based on that we're going to create a portfolio just for you Now, of your users are first time investors and 68% are female. Why do you think these investors are gravitating towards your app? I think previously none of the apps have really built for these populations in mind. So that could be woman. You could be a first gen college student. You could just be, you know, a child of immigrants who have never had these conversations and I think people want a space a digital space in a community where they feel like they have the support of people who are going through a similar experience as them. And that's the feedback we get when people are joining the linear app. Now, what are some of the ways that you're closing that gender investment gap? You know, what still needs to be worked out to close this gap as well. So it actually starts with the problem a nominee faced when we were in college, no one talked to us about investing our money even though we both interned on Wall Street, we went to Citibank Goldman Sachs really high institutions, but we still didn't know how to invest our personal money. We were seeing our guy friends doing it, but none of our girlfriends were having these conversations and that's the biggest problem today. We're not having conversations about how to invest our money, how to build our financial independence, and how to grow our wealth together. Now, in on, let's talk about something that's been a little shaky the crypto market, but why is it so important for gen z women in particular to get involved in crypto? I mean, we saw so such a boom of wealth happened during the crypto run of the market. And it's important that populations like women, first gen students and minorities aren't left behind when there's another crypto boom in the market and when wealth is created. So it's important to have exposure to these assets even if it's riskier. And we allow you to diversify your investments from the get go on the linear at. So you can still have exposure to crypto but simultaneously have a very safe portfolio. And I want to congratulate both of you because you guys raise 2.1 million in seed funding, which is not an easy task, especially as we see a lot of female founders struggle with raising seed funding. So, eve, what has been your experience as two young female founders raising capital. What's been most challenging is being in front of someone, 98% of the people we spoke with were old white men. Um, so it was very hard to get someone like that to understand the problem we were solving and the pain point we were we were building for. Um, but you, I mean you have to be persistent in this industry and, but that's what we did. We were persistent until we got our first yes, which was why Combinator and y Combinator gave us that first Chance and check essentially, which made it easier for us to raise our seed round. So speaking of having to pitch yourself, um, how did this whole app get started and how do you raise that for? I guess 98% of white men. So they understand the need for this app, which helps young women invest. You know, it really started as you've said, our college campus, even I were partnered for a class and we started talking about how we had no idea how to invest. And it wasn't just us, it was our friends, it was our classmates. And so whenever we're out to investors, we always ask them like, go talk to your daughters, your nieces, your nephews, and you'll see the problem all around you. Um, and so that's how like bringing it back to real people. And that's why Alinea has always been about community. It's fully community driven from the ground up now and again, younger generations, let's say gen z in particular, they like to put their money where their values are. How are you making this easier for people to find those companies? 100%. So we're making it easy with playlist. So that's our primary offering on the linear app. They're essentially collections of investments based on a theme or idea. So we have fighting climate change, we have green tech, we have L G B T Q plus empowerment. And so instead of having to go through that grunt work or that research process of finding companies that align with you, you can come to Alinea and we'll find the right fit for you now, Eve what's next for millennia? So focusing on personalization, we really want to solve the pain point of what do I invest in? How can I get started with investing? So we're hyper focused on providing better personalization for users, but also building more of our community, building more of these discussions. Like we talked about, uh it's important for this generation to have more conversations around money. Well, thanks me and Eve Halimi, co founders and co co Ceo of Alinea. Thank you