"I want to say I stumbled into tech but really it was my desire to solve a need that directed me to tech", says Lydia Ofori. She trained as an investment executive and focused on analyzing investment strategies at large asset management houses and hedge funds in Europe for 12 years. "Part of the job of being an analyst is to read through tons of qualitative information on funds and companies, usually these are all unstructured and comes in different formats and forms. And it does take a lot of man hours to do this which is inefficient and very time consuming. I couldn’t find a solution to the problem which was what inspired me to Hunter Labs Tech. I guess the most challenging aspect of shifting careers this way has been relearning the playbook all over. Tech sector is different, different rules apply."
Lydia Ofori is the founder & CEO at Hunter Labs Tech, a company that develops automation tools and workflows amplifying investing and wealth creation. "Right now, we are focusing on helping Fintechs engage and retain their Millennials clients. Data shows that more than 65% of Millennials in the US prefer self-directed brokerage to robo-advisory platforms. That said, Fintechs who led the revolution of democratizing investing and money overloaded platform users with data. So, people are suffering from data fatigue and are not sure where to start when it comes to long term wealth creation. The other problem is that the proliferation of Fintech apps led to people having a lot of investing and money management apps on their phones without any idea how everything comes together to align with their long-term wealth creation goals", Lydia explains. "We’ve created a platform for Fintechs to simplify research and introduce wealth intelligence for their Millennial users on their own investing tech stacks. I am very excited to be working on a platform that leads the next wave of innovation – that is democratizing private wealth management. "
At Hunter Labs Tech, ownership culture is promoted. "Ownership culture simply means employees are owners of the company and owners of their projects. When you own something, you think and behave different and that culture transcends across the whole team".
"There is another wave of innovation happening within FinTech", and Lydia is proud that what her team is working on right now is at the fore front of that innovation. "We are moving from data to intelligence and to man and artificial intelligence working together to optimize how we look at wealth and wealth creation. That opens the conversation to a broader community for this, I highlight people of color for example that have historically been left out of the wealth creation conversations. "
More on Lydia
Where you currently live: I straddle between SF and London
Favorite part of your day: Mornings are great for me! That’s the team huddle time and I get to reconnect with our global team at that time too.
Favorite show to binge: Inside Man.
Can you tell us about a time someone encouraged you to try a task or take on a project you didn’t think that you would know how to do/or be good at?
Branching out to launch Hunter Labs Tech was a journey. I wanted to complete that multiple course before launching despite the fact that I already had a long tenured experience in the financial industry which is a starting advantage for the business. Eventually, I was encouraged to just go for it. You know the saying - just do it! You’ll soon find out if this is what you’re meant to be doing or not. Even if it isn’t it would lead you to the path of what it’s supposed to be! I’m glad I took that advice.
Daily Diary
My Monday - Thursday schedule looks something like this:
5:30am – wakeup
6:00am – on the bike (at the gym by the way). If I am on the West Coast, sometimes, this part is skipped as meetings tends to start from this time.
7:30am – 30mins meditation
8:30am – 1:00pm meeting teams, team huddle, clients calls
1:00pm – 2:30pm – Break (that is a walk around for fresh air, get lunch, take time to listen to a podcast)
3:00pm – 4:30pm – more team huddles on slack / video calls
5:00pm – turn to responding to emails that came through during the day
6:00pm – take a break with dinner with a friend or family member
9:00pm – quick look through on Netflix / Amazon Prime to see if there’s a new episode of my favorite show
11:00pm – meditate / gratitude prayers
11:30pm – Lights off!
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