Students run financial Web site

StreetSideInvestor.com, an Internet company created by IU students, provides online financial information for individual investors. Since its launch in June 2000, StreetSideInvestor.com has been producing financial content.\nHundreds of young entrepreneurs have failed to keep their dot-com businesses alive. The team at StreetSideInvestor.com learned from the mistakes of some of these unsuccessful ventures. Instead of spending their revenue on advertisements, they focused on developing quality information for online investors. \nThe organization's writing team includes four students, financial experts and two interns. They have published more than 90 interviews with credible sources, such as chief executive officers and business moguls from leading companies. \nThe team takes an active role in providing valuable financial information to individual investors. A large disparity exists between the type of information an investor with a 10-figure account receives and a first-time investor receives, said Danny Chan, chief executive officer and founder of StreetSideInvestor, Inc. \n"We're instruments for individual investors," Chan said. "We bring you Wall Street."\nNeither Chan nor his co-founders, some of whom are his roommates, buy or sell individual stocks so they can supply their readers with unbiased and objective financial information, he said.\nChan said his writing team plans to translate its CEO interviews into Chinese, an action he described as a milestone for his company.\nThe StreetSideInvestor team recently partnered with a global marketing company,e21corp.com, based in Silicon Valley. The e21corp will translate StreetSideInvestor's interviews. The Chinese version of the interviews will be published through Internet portals serving the Asia-Pacific region, such as Yahoo China and Sina.com. \n"Together with StreetSideInvestor, e21 will facilitate communication between the East and the West and promote globalization of business," said Joseph Sun, CEO of e21corp.\nThe companies united to distribute information to investors in the Asia-Pacific region, which is expected to house one-third of all Internet consumers by 2005, according to Jupiter Research.\nChan said this partnership is a major step for StreetSideInvestor. StreetSideInvestor has six employees and is based in Bloomington, while e21 has more than 300 employees with offices in Los Angeles, Mexico City, Beijing and Tokyo. \nStreetSideInvestor also plans to start using message boards to interact with individual investors and provide a service for them. Investors can ask questions about investing and managing their finances. They can also offer input by recommending questions for Chan and the team to ask CEOs. \n"At all times, we're looking to provide you with some sort of information," Chan said, "some sort of access to the CEOs."\nChan used message boards during his internship two years ago at Ragingbull.com, an Internet company that publishes financial content. Before interning at Ragingbull, a winning lottery ticket became his seed money for trading stocks. After doing 2,000 trades in 1999, Chan was featured in Money magazine. Noticing his success at day trading, Ragingbull offered Chan an internship.\nFinancial information was being posted without credible sources on the message boards, Chan said. He saw the need to develop a writing team to publish information from people inside the companies, such as the CEOs. \nWorking out of an apartment, StreetSideInvestor makes its dedication to the Web site a way of life instead of a part-time job. The entrepreneurs constantly look for breaking financial news and throw around ideas about who to interview, Chan said. \n"This is a lifestyle," Chan said. "It's an excitement at all times."\nThe students balance classes and managing the site by having one available to meet the demands of the company. Each student has a specific title and column to write. But their skills support one another's weaknesses, said John Henry, chief operating officer and co-founder.\n"We make things continue to flow where five people can work as well and efficient as a 20-person team," Henry said.\nProfessors and instructors from the Kelley School of Business assist the entrepreneurs. Terry Butler, a lecturer of accounting and information systems, serves as chief financial officer. Accounting professor David Greene and lecturer of accounting Rick Schrimper contribute their advice and support. \nThey advised StreetSideInvestor not to make the mistakes failed dot-coms made. StreetSideInvestor's first year was spent on developing quality content and credibility. The second year will be spent on marketing the financial content and forming the alliances that will bring in revenue, Schrimper said. \nThe students at StreetSideInvestor will be graduating soon, but they hope to leave a mark for other young entrepreneurs, Chan said.\n"What Danny has done has really opened up my eyes to all the possibilities that are out there," said junior George Gorney, a StreetSideInvestor intern who said he plans to start an Internet company.