Founders, Here’s Why Your ‘Next-Gen Investing App’ is DOA.”(Dead on Arrival) “Your Fintech Startup Isn’t Disruptive. It’s Just Redundant”
Real story: I attended a startup event recently.
Three different founders.
Three different pitch decks.
But. same idea, same gaps, same delusion.
All 3 said they were building the “next-gen wealth-tech platform for retail investors.”
Let me decode what they actually pitched 👇
📌 What they claimed they were building:
✅ “A 0-brokerage trading app for Bharat”
✅ “An app that simplifies investing for first-time users”
✅ “A modern platform for millennials to invest in stocks and mutual funds
✅ “Fast KYC, easy UI, 1-click SIPs”
✅ “Democratizing wealth creation”
Buzzwords. Vague differentiation. No edge.
When I asked, how are you different from Groww, Zerodha, Kuvera.in, INDmoney, Paytm Money, smallcase? they had no clear answer.
❌ What’s already done and done well by incumbents:
Zerodha: Already owns the trader segment. Industry-grade tech. Built for active users.
Groww: Already nailed the simplified UI for MFs + stocks. Great onboarding.
Kuvera/INDMoney: Already working on wealth + portfolio aggregation.
Upstox, Dhan, Paytm Money, Angel One: Already flooding the market with offers, gamification, UI tricks, and cashback models.
So unless you’re coming with:
🧠 New financial logic,
📊 Unique infrastructure layer,
or 🚀 Deeper value creation strategy
You're just re-wrapping an old product with new colors.
🧠 Why these clones feel useless (and disconnected from real problems):
Retail users don’t need another app to buy stocks.
They need guidance, context, & strategy. Not just access.
They’re not solving anything new just replicating workflows.
Everyone shows SIPs. Everyone allows trading. What now?
No infrastructure differentiation.Not a single founder spoke about:
Tax APIs
Risk engines
Personalized asset allocation
Intelligent nudges or planning tools
Financial product intelligence across the lifecycle
Even basic questions were unanswered:
What’s your unique data moat?
How will you acquire trust in a heavily regulated space?
How will you retain users who already use existing platforms with habits built over 5–10 years?
They’re building for the 5% of retail users who are already over-served.
Nobody is thinking about:
45-year-old first-time investors
Tier 2 professionals trying to plan retirement
Families with fragmented assets across PF, insurance, real estate, mutual funds
💬 My response to them:
“You’re not building a product you’re recycling a feature.
You’re not solving for India you’re solving for an investor deck”
Tough words. But someone had to say it.
🎯 If you're building in fintech, ask yourself
What’s truly missing in the current ecosystem?
Are you solving access,or intelligence?
Would I trust your product with my mother’s savings?
If the answer is fuzzy go back to the drawing board.
We don’t need another investing app.
We need a smarter financial brain for the next 100M Indians.
