These two reasons are why I founded Sharesight

This post is part of Sharesight's 10 year anniversary series. Scroll down to the Further Reading section for every post in the series or read Sharesight's 10 year fintech journey post to get started.

It seems like it was only yesterday that my son, Scott and I established Sharesight but it’s actually 10 years since Sharesight was incorporated. Doesn’t time fly when you are having fun?

Sharesight started with four of us, including two highly experienced software developers who gave us the technical backing to bring our ideas to reality.

With very limited finance available we all agreed to work for shares. You have to really believe in what you are doing to work for shares that are worth nothing in a new, unproven start-up company rather than getting paid a salary!

Sharesight cofounders Tony and Scott Ryburn in 2007

A father, a son, and a dream

Over our 10 year life we have built up a great team around us. Scott as our CTO manages a team of dedicated developers in Wellington and Doug Morris as CEO has assumed overall management of Sharesight and the committed, enthusiastic team in our Sydney office.

We now have over 30 shareholders who have provided the resources for us to reach out to a rapidly growing number of share market investors in Australasia, and to move further afield starting with Canada.

Sharesight is all about solving the problems I had as a hands-on share market investor and making the solutions available to everyone. Developing Sharesight as a web-based, online service enabled this to happen. We signed up our first paying customer in April 2008.

Sharsight - Our Story

For me as a hands-on share market investor there were two key problems that are solved for me by Sharesight. In the pre Sharesight days these problems threatened to drive me nuts (I’m sure some people would say they did!) and made me feel like giving up share market investing altogether.

If you are a self-directed investor who does not use Sharesight I’m sure you find that:

1. Record keeping for accounting and tax purposes is a nightmare and;
2. It is virtually impossible to calculate the true performance of each share and your total portfolio over the time period of your choice. Without this knowledge it is much harder to make sound investment decisions and become a confident share market investor.

Any professional help you get with these problems is likely to be expensive and fall short of what you need. And the fees you pay will impact adversely on your returns.

The great beard reversal in 2017

We have been working hard to bring about improvements in this area and we now count financial advisors, fund managers, and accountants as Sharesight professional clients. We've also developed ways for partner companies to leverage our portfolio technology to power their own solutions but that’s another story.

For self-directed investors we have spent 10 years developing Sharesight specifically for you. Sharesight offers you a unique and innovative product, including sophisticated corporate action processing.

You'll be amazed at the time you save and the wealth of vital information about your portfolio that you have at your fingertips when you start using Sharesight. But don’t take my word for it. The best way to see what Sharesight can do for you is to sign up for a free account.

If you’re one of the tens of thousands of investors who use Sharesight to track their portfolio -- thank you. We couldn’t have done it without you!

Tony Ryburn
Executive Chairman

Stay tuned for our next blog post where we'll share Sharesight in numbers.

FURTHER READING

• Sharesight.com -- Sign up to Sharesight for FREE
• Blog -- Sharesight's 10 year fintech journey
• Blog -- Power your business with the Sharesight API
• Blog -- Why you should partner with Sharesight