About InvestingMinds
What is InvestingMinds?
InvestingMinds is a collaborative community of insightful investors with the common goal of enhancing overall investment performance by engaging the collective wisdom of the group for the sharing and exchange of investment ideas and expertise. Our goal is to create an online resource and user experience that encourages the interactive exchange of information and ideas among our community of networked investors.
Our Approach to Investing?
InvestingMinds was founded with the simple philosophy that “together we stand, divided we fall” and that the “whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” Simply stated, we believe that a collection of goal oriented investors equipped with varying degrees of knowledge and expertise can benefit from being a part of the collective wisdom of an interactive community of investors.
Why InvestingMinds?
To enable investors to share their ideas we have created the only truly comprehensive “social” investing site on the web allowing investors to form investment clubs and communities for the purpose of exchanging investment ideas and research. In addition, we provide the tools to manage clubs and resources to perform collaborative investment research. Since an informed investor is a successful investor, we have created forums, resources, and tools to share information and demystify the investing process, giving you everything you need to become a better investor, preserver, and builder of wealth.
How it works?
Membership is free. When you join (sign-up) you create a profile that summarizes your investment style and experience (we can help you with this). Your profile helps you find and be found by friends, colleagues, and other investors with similar goals and styles. Once you become a registered member, you can create or join an online investment club or groups, join forums and stock chats, and contribute to blogs, educational forums, and stock research. InvestingMinds rates the recommendations and advice of individual contributors based on the following and feedback of the membership.
How did InvestingMinds get started?
InvestingMinds’ founders were looking for a better way to share and communicate ideas about their existing and prospective investments. There are over 40,000 domestic and international publicly listed companies. The universe of potential investments far exceeds the time and resources available to any one individual, or for that matter any Wall Street brokerage firm, for efficiently making intelligent portfolio selections. As passionate investors with a preference for managing their own investments, the founding partners decided there had to be an easier way. They decided that if they knew more about what each other was investing in, they could divide the labor, share their information, and expand their universe of potential investments. And while they were at it, why not extend the model to other like-minded investors?
Who are the Founders?
Brian, Gary and Jay. Each first met at the Kellogg School of Management some 20 odd years ago and have remained friends ever since. Although pursuing different paths upon graduating from Kellogg, all three had a passion for investing, the markets, and entrepreneurial ventures. In 1999, Brian and Gary left their real jobs and decided to pursue their entrepreneurial dream. They united to form one of the first online ad circular services and sold it in 2004 to a group of newspapers. For most of his career, Jay was employed as a securities trader or portfolio manager at Wall Street firms and for high net worth individuals. Believing there is a need for an integrated investor community on the web, Brian, Gary and Jay agreed to get together to build a comprehensive web-based investor community. The confluence of their passion and experience for building, managing and running internet businesses, managing investments, and seeking better and more efficient means of conducting securities research, naturally led to their teaming up to create InvestingMinds.
Brian Hand
In late 1998, Brian had the idea to bring local retail promotions online via a searchable Web site. In early 1999 he founded SalesHound.com, Inc., the predecessor to ShopLocal.com, and shortly thereafter twisted Gary’s arm to join the company. Working out of Brian’s basement with a handful of technology and development folks, they built a system to allow local merchants to post local sales and deals, and for consumers to search for them locally by simply entering their address or zip code. In 2001, the company developed a pioneering service for digitizing local sales circulars and catalogs for clients such as Target, Home Depot, Circuit City, Whole Foods, CVS, Walgreens, Pep Boys, Sears, and Kohl’s, and today provides this service for the vast majority of all major US retailers. In 2004, the company was acquired by Gannett, Tribune and Knight Ridder, the three largest newspaper companies at the time, and ShopLocal.com was launched shortly thereafter. ShopLocal.com was named Best Internet Shopping Service by the EPpy Awards (sponsored by Editor & Publisher and Mediaweek) later that year.
Prior to founding ShopLocal, Brian has 16 years of experience in the venture capital and investment banking industry with First Analysis Corporation. As Vice Chairman of the firm for the last three years, he was responsible for co-managing day-to-day activities of the company’s investment research, investment banking and venture capital activities. He was also responsible for identifying, investing in and managing portfolio companies as part of the firm’s $500 million family of venture capital funds. He has served on the board of directors of numerous companies. He had previously held positions of Managing Director of Investment Research, Vice President of Corporate Finance and Research Analyst. Prior to joining First Analysis, he worked briefly as a robot engineer for IBM. He received BS and MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and an MBA from the JL Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University where he met Jay and Gary.
Gary brings over 20 years of experience in information services, customer service, operations, and retail and has an obsessive passion for investment management and financial planning. Gary helped Brian found ShopLocal, one of the leading providers of Web shopping services for retailers, where he served as the President and Chief Operating Officer. Gary started as the 8th employee and was responsible for operations, technology, client services, and analysis. His team built the company to more than 150 employees serving many of the top retailers in the country.
Gary’s prior work experience includes 7 years at Circuit City Stores as Director of Inventory Productivity and Extended Service Plans, where he was responsible for the company’s $500 million warranty program and led Circuit City’s first supply chain initiatives. In addition, Gary was a Corporate Business Development Manager at General Electric, worked in the strategy practice at Booz, Allen & Hamilton, and in corporate finance at Sears, Roebuck and Co. Gary received a B.S. degree in math and physics from Duke University and an MBA from Northwestern University’s J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management, where he concentrated in finance and management policy. Much to the dismay of his family Gary spends much of his free time applying his quantitative skills to investment analysis. You can follow his investing adventures here.
Prior to founding Investing Minds with Brian and Gary, Jay was the Managing Director of Sharp Venture Partners, an alternative energy company. From 2000 to 2003, Jay served as the CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of ePacific, Inc., an electronic transaction payments company. Prior to ePacific, Jay was a portfolio manager and investment advisor for EJ Financial Enterprises, an investment holding company and was affiliated with Axiom Capital Management where he was an equity analyst and investment adviser to private clients and institutional investors. Jay spent more than ten years on Wall Street in a career as a government bond trader with the Discount Corporation of NY, Spear Leads and Kellogg, and Dillon Read. From 1987 to 1990, he was the Head Trader and Branch Manager for the Tokyo office of the Discount Corporation of New York.
Jay received a B.S. degree in Chemistry from Illinois State University and an MBA from Northwestern University’s J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management with a concentration in finance and marketing. He is a holder of the Chartered Financial Analyst designation of the CFA Institute and has served on the boards of ePacific, Inc. and Synaxis, Inc (acquired by First Horizon Insurance). Jay has been a member of the New York and Chicago Society of the CFA.
