In the most recent episode of “How She Got Here,” Cass Cross interviews Anam Lakhani, the co-founder of Alinea Invest, an app for Gen Z first-time investors interested in beginning their investing journey. The Alinea App boasts over half a million downloads and started as a class project for Anam and her co-founder, Eve Halimi.
The second episode of Cronix’s women in tech podcast features Anam opening up about her entrepreneurial journey and the barriers she and her co-founder overcame. For the curious, you will love to know the strategies that helped them connect with a younger audience!
Alinea’s story offers valuable insights into ecommerce startups, financial literacy, marketing to Gen Z, and the power of building a mission-driven business. Let’s dive in!
How Alinea Invest is Breaking Barriers in Finance
According to their internal data, the Alinea app has grown impressively, with monthly recurring revenue (MRR) and active subscribers increasing fivefold. Additionally, their app has garnered over 10,000 ratings on the App Store, maintaining an outstanding 4.7-star average.
The hashtag #Alineaapp has gained significant popularity, with over 405 million views. Their average user base underscores Alinea’s strong appeal to younger audiences, with 93% of their users identifying as female and 71% as Gen Z.
Turning a Class Project into a Successful App
During the interview, Anam explains that she and her co-founder Eve developed the idea for the Alinea app while attending Barnard College, a private women’s college at Columbia University.
As the young investor’s podcast episode continues, Anam relates that after completing internships on Wall Street, she and Eve felt left out. She saw that her male colleagues had a robust and supportive social network that encouraged business development and investing.
Anam notes the absence of a corresponding network of female entrepreneurs. While planning for a project in a small seminar class, Anam and Eve, the two trailblazing women in ecommerce, decided to address this absence.
Anam Lakhani Inspires the Next Generation of Investors
Cass and Anam discuss their shared experiences as children of immigrants. They point to broad paradigmatic axioms often attributed to first-generation immigrants, like focusing narrowly on strong work ethic and holding strict professional standards to secure a high-paying job.
However, Anam suggests that financial literacy is a glaring blindspot in this paradigm. Anam points to this blindspot as a motivator for her and her partner.
The mission of Alinea resonates with our tech for a good podcast. It is to empower women, young people, and people of color by providing them with accessible tools and knowledge to succeed in investing.
Anam explains that they saw the need for a platform that could break down barriers and open doors to financial literacy and growth for underrepresented communities, helping them confidently take control of their financial futures.
This commitment to inclusivity and education drives every aspect of the Alinea app, making Gen Z investing more approachable and equitable for all.
How Financial Literacy Helps Gen Z Overcome Barriers
Cass and Anam also outline successful marketing to Gen Z users. Anam highlights short-form videos as being particularly effective in marketing to younger demographics. She cautions that while marketing through short-form videos has a deceptively low barrier to entry, getting it right takes an unexpected level of finesse.
Anam explains that posts to sites like TikTok must be genuine and relatable because “people don’t want to follow brands in this day and age; they want to follow people.” As a result, Anam and Eve handle their own marketing content on TikTok.
Lessons from Alinea on Marketing to Gen Z
Alinea’s story is nothing short of inspiring for redefining how younger generations approach investing.
Tune into this financial literacy podcast episode for an inspiring look at how Anam and Eve built Alinea from a class project into a groundbreaking investment app. Follow How She Got Here on Linkedin, Spotify, Instagram, and TikTok. Also, don’t forget to subscribe and watch the conversations in Living Color on YouTube.
If you’re building an app or startup like Alinea, our ecommerce agency can help! With an in-house team of expert developers, designers, and marketers delivering industry-best ecommerce solutions, Cronix supports you in scaling your vision.
Let’s turn your big idea into the next success story. Contact us today!