Meet Finvesty: A platform that is making Indians financially aware and literate through entertainment

Mr. Rahul Jain, the founder of Finvesty aims to make learning finance interesting and entertaining so people know how to manage money.

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When we are in school, we study almost all the subjects in the world but there is a lot that we miss out on. Let’s fast forward to college and even then we get divided into Arts, Science, and Commerce. But have you ever wondered, who taught our parents how money works? Or how to save your money? What about investing?

It’s sad but true that no one of us has ever received guidance on what to do with the money that we earn. This is where Finvesty comes into the picture. Finvesty is a YouTube Channel that creates content to impart financial knowledge in a fun and entertaining way. 

After the channel was shut for some time, the Founder, Mr. Rahul Jain decided to restart it with a different approach. Here’s what the Founder shared with Sociobits about Finvesty:

Team Sociobits: Could you tell us a little about Finvesty?

Rahul Jain: We started Finvesty as a YouTube channel on financial literacy. Our idea is to make finance accessible to the Janta (people) of India. Over the course of time, we noticed that there is a lot of financial misselling in India. When I say financial misselling, I mean that if you look at any product like insurance, loans, mutual funds, and more, people are selling those things to you. After five to six years, you realize that you are not making any returns. A similar instance happened with my parents, which is why I started Finvesty.

Team Sociobits: Why did you choose your YouTube channel to be on finance?

Founder: I have found finance a very interesting subject and I used to enjoy studying it. So, the story goes like this: Once my parents went to the bank and a financial product was ‘sold’ to them. That investment tool had matured and they went to the bank expecting if they have saved one lakh rupee every year, so maybe they will get at least twenty lakhs. They were surprised that they didn’t even gain twenty percent in the span of ten years!

So we got in a spat with the manager and he was justifying that some other manager may have sold it to us ten years back. This went on for a while and I thought to myself that this is just wrong. Also, when I was talking to the bank manager, he was inquisitive about whether I also worked in a bank. I said no, I am just interested in the subject. He then told me that you understand a lot about this subject.

That’s when I realized that because of reading news and features related to finance and economics, I inculcated a lot of knowledge. So, things started coming very naturally. I also enquired other people around me whether they know all this too. That’s when I realized that in India, financial literacy is extremely low. This is a fundamental problem. We are not taught about finance in school. Schools and colleges only help us to get a job and earn money but nobody teaches us what to do with the money that we have earned. Also, parents are not able to teach their children about it because even they are unaware of it, and if they have the knowledge, then they don’t have time. I identified this gap and thought that someone has to do it; so we should do it!

We are not taught about finance in school. Schools and colleges only help us to get a job and earn money but nobody teaches us what to do with the money that we have earned.

We started the channel in 2017 and although we got the idea even before this, we were a bit scared and had a lot of questions in our heads. But we started figuring out things from the scratch and we always had that entrepreneurial spirit that we will figure out. 

Team Sociobits: You also stopped your channel in between, why did you restart it?

Founder: Yes, we took a halt in between because of a lot of reasons. I wanted to explore more opportunities and I also felt that it is not going anywhere. I felt that it is not creating the impact that it should be creating. But there was not one day when any of my subscribers told me that I should restart the channel. So I said okay, let’s give it a shot again.

Team Sociobits: Why did you choose Hinglish as the language of your content?

Founder: The base language is Hindi but we use a lot of English words in between. This is because the audience is from the metropolitan and tier-two cities, basically, the people that study in an English medium school but speak Hindi at home. The fusion of these languages helps us connect with our audience.

Team Sociobits: How do you decide what kind of content are you going to publish on your channel? And why did you shut down your channel in the first place?

Founder: This depends on a lot of factors. For example, if there is something that is popular right now and we can also teach it, we publish videos on it. We also get a lot of questions from our users so we decide our content by talking to them too. 

Team Sociobits: Speaking of crypto, what is your opinion on cryptocurrencies and digital currencies?

Founder: Crypto is not bad; all the revolutions come in this way. But personally, there are some things that I don’t like about crypto and there are some things that I love about them. So, I am still neutral.

But what I don’t like is that cryptocurrencies are not backed by anything. If you talk about any financial instrument, it is backed by something. Our currencies also have a ‘Sovereign body’ behind them. That’s not the case with crypto because it works on the basis of demand and supply. So, people are riding the wave.

I have personally met and spoken to a lot of crypto investors and everyone has their reason to invest in it. Some want to ride the wave while others feel that crypto is the future’s currency so they want to hoard it as much as they can.

Everyone has their reason but I would suggest that if you have a portfolio of multiple investments, then you should have crypto but it should not be above a particular limit. You should also take into account how your government is perceiving crypto. Recently, there was news that the government is looking to ban crypto because our government is not in the spirit to take up crypto.

You should also take into account how your government is perceiving crypto. Recently, there was news that the government is looking to ban crypto because our government is not in the spirit to take up crypto.

So, maintain a balance in your portfolio. Keep only that much amount of money that even if you lose it, you’ll be fine. 

Team Sociobits: Do you think that someone will be backing crypto in the future?

Founder: The whole idea is that we don’t need a body and that’s why we have crypto. So, the biggest benefit of crypto is also its biggest disadvantage. Suppose, a body starts controlling all the transactions that are happening in the crypto market, then the whole point of having crypto as a global currency will be questioned.

I personally don’t feel that a body of this sort is going to come any time soon, as every government has its own laws and of course, ride the wave.

Team Sociobits: Since you are restarting your channel now, what are you trying out this time? What’s new with Finvesty?

Founder: There is always a mental model that I try to apply which is, that whatever I am doing should 10x better than what the market is doing. Until and unless we do it 10x better than the others, we will not begin with it.

The channel that exists right now consists of whiteboards and animations with a basic voiceover and the whole idea is to teach people. So, our recent video was on recession and everyone has a lot of questions in their head with it comes to recession. But I have come to an understanding that information is a commodity. You can read 1000 articles about anything today. But the major problem is that no one wants to read now. Nobody wants education, they are looking for edutainment. So, they want to get educated but in an entertaining format. So, the animation will be replaced by a documentary form of videos with engaging scripts, voiceovers, etc.

Team Sociobits: You may have noticed that the attention span of people is reducing and long-form content doesn’t work as much as it used to. So how are you planning to grow?

Founder: One thing about content is that boring content doesn’t work. At some point or the other, all of us have binge-watched a web series in our lives and we don’t even realize how ten hours just flew by us. This is because it has been scripted and designed in a way that keeps you hooked. Your attention never diverts during this time and you just want to consume more of it. So, as someone who creates long-form content, if you don’t create content that will release dopamine or keep viewers hooked, then people look for a better alternative. So, this is a challenge for us and long-form content will work only if we can keep our viewers hooked.

As someone who creates long-form content, if you don’t create content that will release dopamine or keep viewers hooked, then people look for a better alternative.

The scope of short-form content is much more. Every platform is pushing short-form content.

Team Sociobits: What are your revenue sources? And your future plans?

Founder: As of now, it is brand placements, affiliates, and ad sources from YouTube and other platforms. These are our top 3 revenue sources. Currently, I am not looking to sell any courses as there are a lot of courses. Again, until and unless we make a course that is 10x better, we will not be selling it.

The idea is that once we set Finvesty completely, in terms of content and it starts working, we will multiply it with other channels. We are looking to put Finvesty at a particular level that it becomes THE channel for valuetainment, or edutainment in finance. Eventually, we are looking to start other channels as well.

After this interview, we can foresee ourselves sitting in front of our televisions or laptops and literally binge-watching finance. That’s the kind of education and entertainment we need to actually learn to manage our money and finances. 

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