Success leaves clues. Finance Strategists sat down with Prasad Lendwe, founder of FinnovationZ. He shared his thoughts on the past, present, and future of the company, as well as the insight he gained from running the business. Q: Who are you and what’s your background? I am an engineer and an MBA dropout from Malkapur, a small village in Maharashtra. I am an ardent follower of finances and the stock market who has always wanted to make some contribution to the larger community. In the past, I had the zeal to invest but could not do so because of a lack of financial knowledge. So, this was my endeavour to spread financial knowledge and make India financially literate. Q: Who has been your biggest influence, and why did they have such a significant effect on you? My biggest influence was Charlie Munger, the legendary investor from the US. His philosophy of ethical business and mental investment model truly influenced my professional behaviour. Q: Knowing what you know now, what would you have told yourself when you were in your twenties? When I was just starting out with this company, I was two failed startups old. The company I joined was an on call learning platform and later an apparel business. However, I utterly failed as I was not passionate about the work I was doing. So, I told myself that I must follow my passion, i.e. finance and investing. Q: What is Finnovationz? FinnovationZ is a stock market and mutual fund education platform that provides you with easily accessible and intelligible content. So far the premium stock market content is available in Hindi and Marathi and is destined to be curated in all the official languages in India. Q: What makes your company different from its competitors? FinnovationZ makes stock market learning accessible for all, irrespective of socio-economic background, and creates new learners through spreading awareness. Besides targeting existing customers, FinnovationZ also creates new ones who can feel the necessity of investing for a better future in terms of finance. Q: What led you to start Finnovationz? My love and passion for investment was used on a personal level when I was called on by my friends and relatives who wanted to learn stock market investment. I ended up giving them proper guidance. I eventually realized that people are interested in investing but they lack proper knowledge and direction. So, I decided to provide them with direction that could be realized once they would get educated. Hence, I started with my YouTube channel FinnovationZ and it was running well. There I used to curate free basic content on the stock market and other aspects of Finance. Later on, I monetized with some premium content. Q: What has the experience of building the business taught you? My experience of building has most importantly taught me that any business should bring a significant change to a broader community. So, I decided to make positive changes in people’s lives through teaching them finance through an easily accessible and intelligible platform. Q: Where do you see things headed for you in the next 5 years? Currently we have educated more than 1 million people. That’s our community on YouTube. In the next 5 years we are going to increase this community beyond the borders of our country, India. We are coming up with a mutual fund investment platform and in the next 5 years we are planning to provide our audience with all sorts of investment platforms to increase opportunities related to their financial upliftment. For more information, see finnovationz.com.In Pursuit of Making India Financially Literate
Introduction
Who is Prasad Lendwe?
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.
