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Scrappy macroeconomic analysis startup HiddenLevers bounces past 100-user mark

HiddenLevers, a fairly low-cost suite of web-based risk management and macroeconomic research tools, has surpassed the 100-user…

HiddenLevers, a fairly low-cost suite of web-based risk management and macroeconomic research tools, has surpassed the 100-user mark in its ongoing and very active beta.
Perhaps more importantly from a business/startup perspective these are mostly paying subscribers (yes, for a beta no less).
That, to me, is a good indication that the many financial professionals currently using the site’s suite find value and/or potential in them (and I have heard from several that are quite enamored of it too).
We first told you about HiddenLevers back in March when they had just a handful of users — whereas there are, as of today, a total of 124 folks hammering away on the site according to HiddenLevers co-founder Raj Udeshi.
He has pointed out in conversations that the subscribership represents a pretty eclectic mix and listed them categorically in a prepared statement announcing their numeric milestone.
They include both active and passive financial advisers, portfolio managers, hedge fund quants, private wealth managers, fund-of-fund managers, family offices, registered investment advisory investment committees, chief information officers, insurance company risk managers, and university endowment fund officers.
With the several dozen advisers now on the site HiddenLevers seems to have overcome my initial thoughts about how difficult it would be to convince that particular group of its applicability to what they do.
“They [advisers] need something to help their clients understand how looming economic headwinds affect their investments,” Mr. Udeshi wrote in the statement, which both mirrors and summarizes what he has said in several conversations.
Praveen Ghanta, HiddenLevers’s other co-founder reiterated in the statement something he has said before as well: “Even advisers from Merrill Lynch and Ameriprise have signed up, unsolicited. This lets us know that the large wire houses have failed at giving their Advisers tools to deal with current macro risks and the big picture.”
In terms of ongoing development, the HiddenLevers team continues to be focused on learning what it can from its users, adding features and making improvements at a fairly rapid clip.
There are major updates on a monthly basis and more minor tweaks added weekly.
I find that also to be impressive since it is really a two-man operation (with assorted interns and programmers hired here and there) split between the offices of a startup incubator here in New York and Mr. Ghanta, who lives in Atlanta.
HiddenLevers features include portfolio stress testing, macro scenario modeling, a macro scenario hedging screener, macro trend investment research and The War Room; an entertaining as well as informative monthly interactive webinar examining Macro Scenario outcomes.

For more information visit HiddenLevers online and for more on how it works visit the HiddenLevers How It Works page