No it’s not an idea they stole from anyone, nor has anyone done it to them this time. The Winklevoss twins have invested $1 million in an investor’s community website SumZero. SumZero is the world’s largest community of hedge fund, mutual fund, and private equity professionals.
Tyler Winklevoss and Cameron Winklevoss have been in the business news radar, since the Facebook incident. Their regular lawsuit hearings with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg have been all the news making. All this was popularized by the movie “The Social Network”. The twins last year decided to uphold their $65 million settlement by deciding to not appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The brothers shifted focus and started Winklevoss Capital in order to invest their personal capital, and their first investment choice was SumZero.
The website is an original idea of Divya Narendra and Aalap Mahadevia. Narendra has been their friend since in Harward and was an ally to the twins during their lawsuit against Facebook. In an interview Narendra describes the company,”SumZero was initially inspired by a need for a simple, centralized, and searchable platform in which professional investors working at hedge funds, mutual funds, and private equity funds could share rigorous investment ideas and network with one another. Since then the concept has expanded and SumZero is taking steps to bring a subset of high-level investment research to the investing community at large.”
SumZero.com as of now has 7,500 members and is akin to initial versions of Facebook including exclusivity. The website is focused on having the investors working at the “buy side” to become members, the “sell side” analysts are not allowed to get a membership. The idea is to keep the website professional and bring together investors to share ideas, and research.
The webpage is divided into three; SumZero basic, SumZero Elite, and SumZero Buyside. All which cater to the interests of various investors. By providing information regarding members of the website, free articles, exclusive research within the website, and becoming a buyer. It’s a complete networking website for the investors all over the world. The websites front page also has testimonials from investors, expressing their appreciation for a website that brings together like minded people, and provides great investment opportunities.
While the Winklevoss have found their own investing community website, Zuckerberg has been making billions in his own way. Even though the founder likes to work on Facebook from the inside out, his recent 30-minute appearance at a technology industry conference has translated into $6.785 billion in additional market valuation for his company; making this a great opportunity for him to make quick cash. People not only are fans of his work on the website, they also want to hear his take on the technological developments in the world.
All is well in the world of networking; it is the business to be a part of. And while Facebook makes its money, the Winklevoss brothers have found a great way to invest their personal money on SumZero.
