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In an era where the democratization of financial markets is more than just a buzzword, the emergence of platforms like EquitySet is reshaping how retail investors approach the art of investing. At the helm of this transformation is Tony Zipparro, CEO of EquitySet, a platform that stands out in the crowded space of investment tools. In an exclusive interview, Zipparro shares insights into the core value differentiators of EquitySet, the genesis of the platform, and the challenges it seeks to overcome in the investment tool landscape.
EquitySet distinguishes itself by offering unparalleled customization and comparison tools, aimed at empowering investors with insights tailored to their individual preferences and investment strategies. Zipparro, drawing from over 15 years of personal experience with investment analysis, founded EquitySet out of a necessity for a platform that could offer more than the one-size-fits-all solutions prevalent in the market. His vision was clear: to create a platform that caters specifically to the needs of retail investors like himself, focusing on impactful investor insights and success.
What do you feel is one of the greatest value differentiators investors get from the EquitySet platform?
Tony Zipparro: We are building a platform for us and investors like us. We are not beholden to anyone in the marketplace but the users that we serve. We are a small, nimble team that cares about pushing the limits of what is going to create the biggest impact and achieve the most success for investor insights. That currently shows in our tools surrounding comparison and customization, but will extend far beyond that in better identifying what is meaningful to an individual investor and pairing that with investments they find attractive.
What led you to build EquitySet?
Tony Zipparro: For 15-plus years I had been using my own spreadsheets, models and very manual tools in order to analyze stocks and find insights I felt were very commonplace in what other investors would like to know. I figured it was inevitable that another platform was working on and launching the tools I had in my mind and my spreadsheets. But clearly I was wrong. So with the cross-industry expertise I developed in financial markets, platform development and design I figured why not just build it myself. I built EquitySet for me and other investors like me, to build tools that allow investors to more confidently research stocks and make decisions.
Can you tell us about some of the challenges with investing tools you faced yourself prior to building EquitySet?
Tony Zipparro: The primary frustration was that I couldn’t customize reports or compare stocks the way I wanted to. My research was inundated by tab after tab open, clicking between them to try to retain information about one company’s fundamental prospect and apply it to another. It was browser tab madness. I couldn’t choose what information I wanted to see specifically in a view, and I couldn’t easily add or remove stocks I wanted to see against each other.
In order to help glean that data I would have to pull down the information manually and put it within my spreadsheets that helped to highlight certain aspects of data that were important to me.
On top of that I was never able to customize views or build my own reports. It was a one-size fits all analysis that even if I knew I didn’t want to see certain data points because they weren’t important to my investment style at the time, I had to just scroll past them creating an overwhelming user experience.
Which features on the platform can give investors the greatest insight into a company?
Tony Zipparro: I believe that a stock and a company, while often referred to interchangeably, are actually two very different things that are extremely beneficial to understand separately. Because of this belief we have looked to build features that help to “tell the story” of who and company is and what a stock is doing in relation to those underlying fundamentals of a company.
Therefore the two most impactful features we have built in order to help identify these components are known as our Company360 feature and our Stock Analysis tab. The Company360 feature sits on the Overview tab of an individual stock and looks to cover qualitative aspects and connections of a company such as company overview, products & services offered, competitors, dependencies, partnerships, historic events, executives and more. This is a simplified and segmented view of who a company is that is currently the most comprehensive dataset available to retail investors. It’s an easy read and within minutes can heighten someone’s understanding of what a company actually does.
On the flip side of the coin is the Stock Analysis tab also located in a company report. This helps to delve into the 7 different dimensions of a stock that could and do influence price at any given point of time. It produces an overall alignment score and allows diving in to dimensions to better understand what factors are at play. Paired together we are trying to hammer home the narrative that understanding both who a company is and how a company’s stock price is influenced by those factors leads to the most successful investment decisions.
How might the investing and research habits of investors be changing among young investors?
Tony Zipparro: They will evolve over time to seek out more meaningful data not just as it relates to assessing a potential stock as an investment, but in truly trying to understand what a company does and how that ties to other supply and demand dynamics that drive its price. Younger generations of investors might be inexperienced in the traditional sense of financial knowledge, but they are beyond sharp. They are willing to put money at risk for the stocks that they believe in, and as they mature they will continue to seek out information to help hone decisions that better diversity and de-risk their portfolios.
Young investors know just buying a stock because its P/E is low isn’t a worthwhile strategy in most markets. They understand that price action swings to extremes because of momentum and other market participants pushing it there. What they are going to want to understand is how to take aspects of traditional approaches to investing and apply those with supply and demand ones to come out with a winning strategy.
What excites you about the future of EquitySet?
Tony Zipparro: Our ability to truly customize views, insights and data to what matters for investors and traders. Investing is hard, but the tools and insights we can build will simplify it in a way that the equity research market has never seen before. And in the end boiling that down to finding the companies that matter to you and presenting potential investment opportunities. To us it’s about combining the art of investing with the passion of what you know and love.
