Hi Stock Card Investors and supporters,

Happy 4th of July to those of you in the U.S., and greetings to all of you from the rest of the world!

Today marks a new chapter in our product's history. In my April 23rd update, I mentioned how we are self-disrupting to succeed in the long run. I even spoke with quite a few of you who joined me in the 10-day office hours I held in May 2024. Today, I'm sharing the results of those office hours and our effort to build a better product and company.

Today, we've shared a custom GPT, Charlie, with our users, which will drastically change the experience of Stock Card. This AI-powered custom GPT, which we've been training for a while, replaces the old Stock Card visualizations. We plan to integrate Charlie into the website in the coming months while continuing to train it to perform better. In the meantime, you can start testing it by visiting OpenAI's website: Click Here

Advantages of this decision:

• This move drastically reduces the costs of running Stock Card because we do not rely on traditional data API purchases from expensive data sources. 
• If this model works, we can be profitable even with few subscribers. 
• This could ensure the company's future success. Our user and revenue growth has been slower than what I had wanted to see, especially after Covid's stock market boom. Staying on the old model wasn't a good trajectory for the future.

Risks of this decision:

• It takes us time to build the new product, integrate it into the website, and learn from our users what they like and don't like. For example, we heard users asking for a stock screener powered by GPT just today. We are excited to learn what else our users ask for. 
• We do not own the underlying model behind GPTs. It is owned by OpenAI. Changes to the OpenAI model and features will inevitably impact us. 
• Like all AI models, custom GPTs make mistakes, hallucinate, and make inaccurate assumptions. While we have spent significant time reducing these issues by setting boundings and definition rules for Charlie, our custom GPT, we cannot guarantee accuracy. It still makes mistakes. We can only inform our users of such issues but cannot fully eliminate them.
• Some VIP users may not like the new direction and tool and end up canceling their subscriptions. For example, those who used Stock Card screeners will be disappointed because we still need an AI-enabled screener.
• And at the end of our efforts, the GPT-enabled model may fail to attract new users.

I acknowledge that this is a risky decision. But we have to be bold! As they say, growth sits at the edges of discomfort and risk-taking. This is our way of growing the company. We have to innovate to succeed; otherwise, we won't be able to stay relevant in this rapidly changing market. 

I will keep you informed on our progress, including the possible launch of a new business unit focused on creators and B2B partnerships. 

Thank you and glad to have you with us!

Hoda Mehr - Stock Card's Founder

 P.S. Below is a letter I sent to Stock Card's VIP users, which I'd like to share with you, too! 

Special Letter to Stock Card VIPs - Sent on July 4th, 2024

Stock Card is self-disrupting

I'm writing this letter to our VIP Users to share a bit more about why we made this change and what it means to you. Your feedback over the years has been instrumental in this transition, and I want to ensure that you understand the reasons behind it.

For the last twenty years, I have invested in, built, and grown companies and studied some of the best and most well-run companies in history. The most important lesson I've learned is that those who can adopt and self-disrupt have a much higher likelihood of long-term success. That's why Stock Card is making this change.

Why we are doing this

Seven years ago, when I started Stock Card, buying financial data from various sources, aggregating and translating it into easy-to-understand investment research made sense. But, with the rise of generative AI, data aggregation and interpretation can be done for free and are much easier to do than the old way of building a data infrastructure.

Thanks to generative AI platforms such as OpenAI, what Stock Card used to do after spending thousands of dollars each month on data acquisition and processing is now available for free. It's important to mention that generative AI isn't perfect, and Charlie still needs a lot of training and testing. But it's time to put the old ways of delivering value aside and embrace the new ways of researching our investment ideas.

Important to consider

While we used Stock Card's methodology to train Charlie, the custom GPT, we do not have any control over how the underlying model operates. The underlying model belongs to and is run by OpenAI. Like all generative AI models, Charlie is prone to mistakes, hallucinations, and inaccurate information. As always, you should not make investment decisions solely based on Charlie's output.

How to use Stock Card now

• While we work on integrating Charlie into the website, you can start testing it on OpenAI's website: Click Here
• On Stock Card, you can still access the "Your Portfolio" feature to track your ideas and compare your investment return with the S&P 500 by visiting this page: Click Here
• You can join Stock Card's stock-picking contests and not only get new investment ideas but have a chance to earn a $1,000 prize: Click Here
• VIP users can continue to access premium portfolios and receive notifications for new stock picks the same as before: Click Here
• NEW Stock Card VIP users will soon get an invitation to my new Investment Memo - a regular detailed analysis of stocks I buy or hold in my real-money portfolio, exclusive to VIP users: Click Here

I hope you stay a VIP user and participate in creating our new generation of AI-powered platforms.

As always, you can manage your subscription on your account management page.

If you want to speak with me, email me at hoda@stockcard.io.

Thank you!

Hoda -- Stock Card Founder

July 4th 2024