I built this over 10 months as a solo founder because I was frustrated with how hard it is for beginners to learn investing. Most platforms either overwhelm you with jargon or oversimplify to the point of uselessness. What makes this different: 1. VARK Adaptive Learning – The platform figures out how you learn best (Visual, Auditory, Reading/Writing, or Kinesthetic) and adapts all content to match. If you're a visual learner, you get infographics and videos. If you're kinesthetic, you get hands-on portfolio simulations. The AI tracks your engagement and retunes your learning style if it notices a mismatch. 2. Risk-free portfolio simulation – Every user gets $100K in virtual capital to practice with real market data. You can back test strategies ("What if I bought Amazon in 2010?"), run Monte Carlo simulations, and get AI feedback on every trade before risking real money. 3. Institutional-grade analytics in plain English – I calculate all the metrics professional investors use (Sharpe ratio, VaR, beta, etc.) but explain them conversationally. Instead of "Your Sharpe ratio is 0.85," you get: "Your portfolio returns 12% annually, but with higher volatility than the market. When the S&P 500 drops 10%, yours typically drops 12%. Consider adding bonds." 4. AI behavioral coach – Smart nudges powered by vertex Ai that guide better decisions using behavioral psychology. Context-aware and never annoying (max 3 per day). Tech stack:
Frontend: Next.js , TypeScript, React , Tailwind CSS Backend: 14 microservices (2 Node.js, 12 Python) AI: Vertex AI garden, Infrastructure: GCP (Cloud Run, Cloud SQL, Redis) Portfolio analytics: Custom Python risk engine (VaR, Sharpe, Monte Carlo)
The demo is functional with mocked data. Have everything build for GCP just need pre-launch to train the engines first . Built this entirely on a 4GB RAM laptop with zero funding.
Would love some feedback
Would you use something like this when you were starting to invest? What's missing that would make this genuinely useful vs. just another investing app? How does the onboarding flow feel? (The VARK assessment happens right after you log in - is this too aggressive, or does it make sense to personalize immediately?) For the HN crowd who already knows this stuff: Would you recommend this to friends/family who are intimidated by investing?