Dan Raju on Tradier at FinDevR 2014 Conference

Tradier CEO Dan Raju shares his thoughts on the upcoming FinDEVr 2014, Tradier API and his talk during the conference. 

Dan: Hey Dominic, How are you?

Dominic: I'm good. How are you Dan?

Dan: I am doing very well. I'm doing great. 

Dominic: I know you're busy, so let's move forward. 

So, Hi Everyone, I'm Dominic. I'm going to catch up with Dan of Tradier, and we're going to talk about the upcoming FinDevr Conference in September 30th and October 1st. So Dan, Tradier is an open Brokerage Platfrom that offers an API for developers. Help us understand what the FinDevr event is all about?

Dan: We're actually fascinated by the FinDevr event. It's actually organized by the same team that organises another amazing event called Finnovate. This financial services sector has had a lot of conferences about back offices, middle offices, traders, trading services. but for the first time I think, there is an event focused on what I think is a very important segment - fast growingly - very important segment is the developer. So I think, this is the first time that we have come across an event focused on developers. 

So considering what Tradier does, developers are  an important segment of our offering. In fact, what we offer as an API for developers to build probably what we think as the most easiest way for people to build great trading applications and great trading systems. 

 So we are kind of fascinated that there is a conference just for that, and so we are looking forward to really attending the conference. And actually I think, we're also presenting this time, so I think it even makes more exciting. 

Dominic: Yeah. I saw from the agenda. I know you're presenting, so what's the topic of discussion.

Dan: So we actually picked an amazing topic which I think is very appropriate for the markets and appropriate for the developer community in the financial services sector in general. 

For a financial services or fintech developer, it is just about impossible to actually build a great end to end retail trading experience. And that is the reason why inspite of all the innovation that has existed or created got created in all the other sectors, the financial services side still suffers from a stagnation as it pertains to great innovation.

In the retail financial services, that's what Tradier focuses, and as you know we offer an open brokerage API, we have traditionally seen a lot of roadblocks and hurdles where people to actually build a great retail product. It's really difficult. You start off the journey with a great retail app. It can be a mobile, social web, algo, robotic, it can be from some of the most complex application, to some of the most simplistic mobile application.

At the end of the day, there is a common symptom of a problem. The problem is, that in order to deliver that most innovative last mile, you have to build, massive amount of platform and infrastructure behind it to basically enable that. So it actually goes ahead and creates this scenario, and we see this story again and again, where the goal and  want to build a great  end retail experience, but they end up trying to solve the problem that exists behind. It's almost like they started the journey to do X, and they end up doing Y.  And the Y is like pulling a mountain, so that's the dilemma that they're stuck in.

And so what we did, and Tradier, we are developers. And Tradier is a company that is the majority of us are developers, and we really really want to  actually create the most retail, developer focused platform where people can build great applications. So what we have done. is that we have abstracted a lot of the complexity, a lot of the infrastructure, a lot of the platforms, a lot of the software, a lot of what you would need to build a great retail product, and we have made that available with a simple API, so we are a brokerage API that is a single stop shop for trading, for data, and for all the complexities that you will need to build otherwise. So, we abstract all that out, as a simple REST based API that people can build. 

So we actually think that a product like this, fundamentally changes the way people think of how to deliver great trading experiences. The traditional paradigm that you have to deliver a product end to end, all the way from the most important trader mile, to the most complex back office, has traditionally been taught to have been built by one entity. 

So we abstract all that  complexity and make it available in a simple API for other people to build. But that's what we are going to talk about, I think at the time of the industry when a lot of innovation is coming, developers are actually becoming a prominent force in the way the innovation is delivered in the industry, I think we will help change, to some extent, how people think about building, so we are really looking forward to the conference. I think it will  be a different way for people to take a look at it, and you will see how today, some of the most advanced trading platforms, to some of the most innovative startups today are using Tradier. And the reason they are able to deliver products in such amazing pace, what usually takes them years in the past to do, they are now able to deliver within weeks, and sometimes even days. So we will talk about the product fundamentally changed the way people think about creating great systems, and I really really hope that at the end of the day, what we are trying to do, is to go ahead and abstract out what is the most important problem that exists for developers in this industry, and make it available to them so they could focus on what they enjoy doing the most and what is the most valuable thing to. 

Dominic: Yes. And considering that this is a developer focused conference, I think this would be a very interesting thing for financial developer communities. 

Dan: I think so too. I really really think so. I mean, we are focusing on the developer, it is a part of what Tradier does, and you know, we are, and we will show how easy for people to build, and I think at the end of the day, we think of ourselves as a company that enables innovation and our definition of enabling innovation is letting developers, and we define developers in a very broad term, it could be large companies that are connected to us, versus small companies. Tradier is a totally disintermediating, democratic platform that lets everybody have access to same common engine, a cloud engine that scales and having access to a set of services that let's all of them innovate on a common platform, in a common way, and I think that's what we believe and that's what we think of Tradier, as an engine that powers retail trading, and we enable our developer to deliver that most innovative last mile to the trader.

 Dominic: Well, that's sounds amazing Dan. I think it's going to be an exciting talk in the event. So thanks Dan, thanks for taking the time for this hangout. You have a safe trip!