Can we radically transform the stock market? Launch in T-3 days 🚀
This Monday October 1st, Sustain launches its beta fund. Months in the making, this is our first true test.
“Sustain is a sustainable investment fund that lets anyone invest $1 or $1,000,000. Then the members vote on the company behaviors, which in turn informs how the fund invests.”
The idea behind Sustain comes from Andre. Like many others, he had the observation that the stock market is broken. It rewards the rich and shuts everyone else out. Worse than that, financial markets incentivize public companies to chase profits above all else, often at the detriment of their employees, the environment, their local communities and society as a whole.
Unlike many others, Andre had a plan to transform it. When I met him in September of 2017 he laid out how his idea could bring transparency and accountability to the global financial system by empowering everyone in the community.
That idea has grown into Sustain. Sustain is a sustainable investment fund that lets anyone invest $1 or $1,000,000. Then the members vote on the company behaviors, which in turn informs how the fund invests. Think of it as true collective ownership with thousands or potentially hundreds of thousands of members, all with a subtly different take on what makes a stock good or bad for the world. But it’s more than that. Sustain is a content provider and aggregator that shares stock analysis from a sustainability perspective on its mobile and web app. It’s also place where members, who all seek a more sustainable future, can learn from each other and share perspectives.
Educating our members through this content is key, because our members come from all walks of life. A few may be finance professionals, but many have never invested before in their life. Many, in fact, have never even considered investing. “Investing is for soulless Wall Street people” — that’s what Wall Street wants you to think. “I just put any left over salary in a bank account, I don’t understand stocks” — don’t worry, we are here to help. We are here to guide you towards becoming a responsible owner.
The Vision
Ultimately, Sustain is an investment platform where the community can upvote, downvote, share and comment on different issues relating to different companies. From these viewpoints we aggregate which companies the community approves and disapproves of. We encourage members to invest into the Sustain Fund, and if they do then they are collectively investing with the people, a community dedicated to a more sustainable future.
It is through content on sustainability issues that we bring transparency to financial markets. It is through voting that we give members control over their investments. It is through investing that we reward companies that do good things and punish companies that do bad things. The Sustain Fund, once it reaches a critical size, will provide a powerful incentive for companies to do the right thing.
This is how we bring accountability to financial markets.
The Test
With the vision above, there are a number of assumptions. Firstly, do people want control over their investments? We think the answer is yes. Secondly, are people willing to engage with an app that provides content on sustainable issues. Again, we think the answer is yes.
We are not taking these assumptions for granted. We have created a beta test, starting this Monday 1st October. In the test, 100 participants will invest $100 for a period of 6 months. We have chosen 10 stocks that we feel meet a minimum level of sustainability, according to our definition of sustainable. Every week, we will send a newsletter to the 100 participants with information on what these 10 companies have been up to. Every week, we will ask the participants to vote on which of these company actions the participants agree with and which they don’t.
Every month, we will rebalance the fund such that we are invested in the stocks that the participants approve of the most. This is how we test if our assumptions are valid.
Wish us luck
We’ve been collecting $100 investments from those who have signed up at our website, sustaininvesting.com. We have nearly reached our 100 participant limit, with a small number of slots still available. Do submit your email address on our site or comment below if you are interested in being part of the test.
If you want to follow our progress but aren’t ready yet to participate in the beta test, you can read my weekly posts here on medium.com or submit your email address above to receive updates.
We are just starting our journey towards making financial markets more accessible and accountable; there is a long way to go. This is the first of many steps towards our ultimate goal and we cannot do it without your support.
We are excited for what can happen.
Call to Action
Do you have any thoughts on anything discussed here? Does anything anger you Excite you? Bore you? Let me know your uncensored reactions in the comment section below.
And seeing that you’ve read this far — don’t forget to long-click the applause button below!
