Funny enough we launched one of the first free options data tools for self directed investors in 2020. After many cease and desist letters from exchanges and price reporting authorities we grew into a company which worked with many of the top brokers in the USA.
In 2021 we set out to build an international Robinhood but we didn't have the $3m we needed to get through licensing and more importantly we had zero clue if there was any demand.
So we decided to work with TradeStation on their API and in return we could use it to MVP our idea.
That MVP grew to 16,000 customers and processed hundreds of thousands of trades monthly.
But TradeStation wasn’t totally happy. Their customers started logging in to TradeAries with their TS login and getting commission-free trading on our app. It was eating on their commissions paying revenue base which meant it was time to move out of our parent’s house.
We needed our own broker dealer license. So we went to our customers and asked them to invest in us. And they responded, we raised more than $1m via crowdfund on start engine.
So we started working to get our licenses and building software.
But we quickly came to a Y in the road.
We could either build really cool cutting-edge brokerage software OR we could build really cool cutting-edge brokerage software AND totally open source the whole project.
We thought about all the developers in our space and the hurdles we all face. We thought of all of the (80+) developers that we helped onboard to the TradeStation API.
Many fintech ideas die spending millions on market data, licensing, and infra before they ever get to launch. If we could solve that with Engine it would be cooler than just building another brokerage, so we ended up here.