Success leaves clues. Finance Strategists sat down with Blain, Managing Partner of StockBrokers.com. He shared his thoughts on the past, present, and future of the company, as well as the insights he has gained from running the business. Q: Who are you and what’s your background? I am Blain Reinkensmeyer, a lifetime Michigander, happily married (12yrs!), and a proud dad of three. Growing up I was a nerd and competitive, world-ranked gamer in the era of dial-up connections and AOL chat rooms. With no money to earn from gaming back then, I pivoted to obsessing over finance and the stock market in my early teen years after watching the dot-com boom and bust unfold. In my late teen years, I managed to day trade and swing trade my way to a $100,000+ portfolio, then lost most of it in less than six months after one big trade went bad. Trading full-time taught me not only a lot about life and personal finance, but it also exposed me to the then-nascent activity of blogging. I blogged to burn time when the markets were slow, writing educational articles like 10 Great Ways to Learn Stock Trading and reviewing the most popular trading subscriptions, books, and brokers. When the 2008 market crash occurred, my blog traffic exploded, and what was once a hobby quickly turned into a full-time job writing content and helping everyday Americans navigate what became the Great Recession. Growing my blog led me to learn the inner workings of the web. The biggest takeaway was that my reviews were different than most other sites. In short, I was unbiased, and they weren’t. I was writing from a trader’s perspective, having placed several thousand trades. My opinion was strictly my own. Meanwhile, most sites were being paid off by the highest payout affiliate programs. “Pay-to-play” wasn’t a term back then, but it bothered me that people of influential reach would recommend inferior financial products and services just to make money. That led me to want to push harder on unbiased editorial and putting people first before profits. So, in 2009, I decided that I wanted to create a site that was fully dedicated to reviewing online brokers. That project later became StockBrokers.com. Q: Who has been your biggest influence, and why did they have such a significant effect on you? For money, investing, and trading stocks, books like How to Make Money in Stocks by William O’Neil and Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki influenced me the most. For blogging and the internet, religiously following the biggest bloggers at the time, including Darren Rowse and John Chow, really influenced me to keep writing and work to build a unique brand that stood out. Q: Knowing what you know now, what advice would you give your younger self? Trading taught me so much and I do not believe in regret. That said, knowing what I know now, my investment portfolio would be far better off if I would have just passively invested in low-cost index funds from day one! Q: What is StockBrokers.com? StockBrokers.com provides stock broker reviews and ratings to help investors find the best broker for them. Our content is written not just for everyday investors and beginners, but also seasoned traders and professionals. Q: What makes StockBrokers.com different from its competitors? First and foremost, we are 100% unbiased with all our ratings and reviews. We go really deep into the weeds of online trading. The writers and content team in general are all extremely passionate about the stock market and investing in general. We have some unbelievable experts on staff. We are also well known for our annual review of online brokers. Now in its 13th year, we’ve been able to help over 19 million readers to date compare brokers side-by-side. Our review is the most cited in the industry because of our multi-month process of collecting data, testing, and geeking out on all aspects of the online trading experience. Q: What led you to start StockBrokers.com? See above. :) Q: What has the experience of building the business taught you? Scaling is very hard! Q: Where do you see things headed for you and the company in the next 5 years? Our mission is all about making the world a safer place for investing. As one can imagine, the opportunities are endless to try and make a difference. For sites like StockBrokers.com, it is business as usual, doing what we’ve always done to help investors find the best trading platform. Outside of the US and especially in less developed countries, we are helping investors find an online broker they can trust. Beyond our core review sites, the work we are pursuing with investor.com has me really excited. We have built an algorithm that helps Americans quickly assess the trustworthiness of over 16,000 financial advisor firms. We are also pursuing educational content for personal finance in a unique way that hasn’t been done before. It’s going to be a fun next five years.
Introduction
Who is Blain Reinkensmeyer?
Business
True Tamplin is a published author, public speaker, CEO of UpDigital, and founder of Finance Strategists.
True is a Certified Educator in Personal Finance (CEPF®), author of The Handy Financial Ratios Guide, a member of the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing, contributes to his financial education site, Finance Strategists, and has spoken to various financial communities such as the CFA Institute, as well as university students like his Alma mater, Biola University, where he received a bachelor of science in business and data analytics.
To learn more about True, visit his personal website or view his author profiles on Amazon, Nasdaq and Forbes.
