By allowing users to “copy trade” — that is, follow the successful financial moves of someone like Warren Buffett or Nancy Pelosi —Dub is betting that the future of finance will fuse social media with investing.
The company, started in 2021 by then 19-year-old Steven Wang, launched as the only regulated copy-trading platform in the United States that lets users mirror trades of politicians and hedge fund managers. It’s now grown to more than 1 million downloads by giving users the opportunity to be financial influencers.
“It’s almost like TikTok meets Wall Street,” Wang told me. “I grew up in an era where my product decisions were heavily shaped by my social media consumption.”
And Wang is targeting his peers who grew up heavily shaped by social media. Gen Z is investing at a younger age than ever before, according to a Schwab Modern Wealth Survey. The average Zoomer adult began investing at 19 — in comparison to millennials, who started on average at 25, or Baby Boomers at 35.
Roughly 50% of all Dub users are under the age of 28 — and they’re the most active on the platform, Wang explained.
Part of that is because Dub aims to meet users where they are. As Wang puts it: “Dub represents an opportunity that is familiar to them [a social media like app] and makes it not scary to participate in the American dream of growing your assets.”
The app uses a subscription model that charges $89 annually or $10 monthly for access to a platform that connects users to notable traders and executes their trades through a brokerage. Individual traders who want to gain a following can share their moves and charge other Dub users a fee to look at their portfolio.
While high-profile names grab headlines, Wang notes that over 200 creators — real hedge-fund managers overseeing hundreds of millions and star traders from platforms like Twitter and YouTube — drive 80-90% of the app’s top-performing portfolios.
Wang believes making trading a social experience can both help democratize the industry and create a new ecosystem that rewards traders who share their successes.
“Launching a hedge fund usually means being part of Wall Street’s elite boys’ club — top schools, insider connections,” he said. “But what about the brilliant investor in the Midwest with no pedigree? Dub levels the playing field. We’re not just helping regular Americans invest, we’re building a marketplace of money managers.”
The idea for Dub struck Wang during his freshman year at Harvard, amid the rise of “meme stocks” like GameStop. He watched online communities rally around influential figures to move markets. “It was the little guy taking on big hedge funds — an incredible feeling we want to capture in our product,” he recalled.
Just eight months into college, he dropped out to launch Dub, with the goal of creating a “new capital allocation paradigm for the regular investor.”
Since the launch, he’s secured funding from venture firms like Tusk and K5 Global, along with high-profile backers including Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, TIAA’s CEO and partners at Sequoia and a16z.
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Part of the appeal to investors, Wang believes, is that it’s not simply another app where people pick stocks.The sales pitch: “87% of investors underperform the market—so stop picking stocks and start copying people.”
Wang is betting his a a far more reliable model.
“The ultra-wealthy don’t pick their own stocks. They hire wealth managers at Goldman Sachs or invest in hedge funds,” he said. “They’re already betting on smart people to deploy their capital. We’re bringing that experience to regular Americans in a familiar, accessible way.”
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[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
