Show HN: Fulfilled – Non-custodial financial co-pilot for goal optimization

5 pointsposted 3 months ago
by mattglossop

7 Comments

sakib002001

3 months ago

Solid approach to a real problem. You're right that traditional portfolio models optimize for generic risk profiles when most people just want to hit specific goals by certain dates. The dynamic strategy that adjusts based on both time remaining and current portfolio value makes sense. One question on the execution side: since users keep their money at their own brokerages and you just provide recommendations, how do you actually get them to follow through on trades? Especially the hard ones like buying more stocks after losses when they're behind on a goal?

mattglossop

3 months ago

Great question, and we're still working on improving the process there. At the core what we do is break down all tasks into small achievable steps - with a reward system encouraging users along the way to continue taking action.

What we're also integrating is an "opportunity cost calculator" showing users how delaying or avoiding the action we're recommending would impact the achievement of their goal.

Call it a "carrot and stick" system.

This feedback loop, coupled with small achieveable steps, has performed well so far in keeping users on task and on track for their goals.

j_cmack

3 months ago

I like the continuous recalculation approach you’re thinking about - it would be helpful knowing that what I’m invested in is constantly being re-aligned towards my goals. Not sure if beginner investors will really care about this - it may be a bit advanced. But if the platform is targeted towards prosumers or people who are already investing, I can see the appeal. How is the no-custody aspect managed? Everyone makes trades on their own?

mattglossop

3 months ago

Totally fair point. We think that beginner investors already have a ton of resources at their disposal. There are a lot of platforms aimed at making it as easy as possible to start investing for the first time. We're focused on people who are already investing and who want to just have more clarity as to where they stand financially and whether their goals are actually on track.

The no-custody aspect is really a starting place. We wanted to eliminate the usual friction that investment platforms impose in asking people to transfer their assets before receiving service. We think this is one of the biggest points of friction in financial services, and one which drives up CACs across the industry.

Functionally, what happens with our platform now is that we show you exactly what to invest in with specific ETFs to buy and keep you on track with regular rebalancing instructions. You then make those trades wherever you're already investing. Trades sync to our platform through an API connection (Plaid/SnapTrade) so you can see your progress towards your goal.

Our aim is to add a custody solution as well, letting users trade on the platform, but we always want to offer the non-custody solution as an entry point for users, making it super easy to get started and gradually earn user trust.

tylerpress

3 months ago

Really interesting approach. How does your dynamic allocation engine weigh conflicting goals when users have multiple time horizons? Would love to understand how you solve that optimization problem.

mattglossop

3 months ago

That's a great question, as complex goals are often conflicting.

Right now, each goal uses a qualitative scale to establish an initial risk budget.

In the future, we will ask users to rank all goals (like a weighted priority list). This ranking allows our dynamic allocation engine to solve the optimization problem:

Prioritization: The ranking determines the importance of each goal in the final outcome calculation.

Continuous Recalibration: The engine doesn't use a fixed risk cap. Instead, it continuously adjusts the risk allocated to each goal based on its performance and time horizon.

Risk to Maximize Probability: Goals that are far from being achieved may temporarily take more risk to increase the chance of success, while goals that are ahead of schedule will de-risk immediately to protect gains.

This ensures the total portfolio risk stays optimal while maximizing the probability of achieving your goals in priority order.

workworkwork71

3 months ago

Other co-founder here. Really would love to hear some feedback on the approach, testing & general app use is free w/ no payments required!