Meet Sean
I’m Sean Tepper and I am the Founder & CEO at Tykr. It is an educational platform and stock screener all-in-one that aids you confidently handle your personal investments.
He accepted SaaSPirate request to an interview on stock investing and his role in Tykr company. We were privileged to have the chance to got the sort of in-depth discussion you will not find on the internet.
Without any further delay, let’s hear what he has to say!
Hi Sean, please introduce yourself to our audience and tell us a bit about your industry experience?
I’m Sean and I’ve been building businesses for close to 20 years. I built a marketing agency in my 20s and went through a merger in 2010. Thereafter, I got into IT Project Management where I was able to work with a few large companies including GE, Kohler, Kohl’s, and Direct Supply. At the same time, I also got into investing.
What inspired you to create Tykr and who its main users are?
When I started investing, I started the hard way. I got into angel investing which is the strategy of investing in the private market, in other words, new tech startups. Over 5 years, I made some money but also lost some money. My results were breakeven which isn’t very good.
Then I turned my attention to the public market, in other words, publicly traded companies. At this point, I knew guys like Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger were able to consistently beat the market. In fact, Warren has said if he were managing $10M or less, he could make 50% per year. For comparison purposes, the stock market (S&P 500) typically returns about 6% – 8% after inflation. I knew these gentlemen were not gambling men. They don’t use feelings or emotions to pick stocks which means they are starting with some sort of logic. The question was, what was that logic?
In 2015, I started working on an algorithm in Excel that would allow me to remove emotions from investing. Thanks to some of the logic provided by Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, and Phil Town, I was able to create a gamified point system between 0 and 100. The higher the score, the safer the investment. I then used that Excel sheet to generate annual returns between 15% and 50% for four years.
This brings us to 2019 when I started sharing the Excel sheet with other investors and their common question was, “When are you going to turn this Excel sheet into a platform so other people can use it?” That was the green light to create an MVP which took about one year. Fast forward to 2024 and we now have over 9,000 customers in over 50 countries.
How does Tykr differentiate itself from other stock screeners and investment tools available?
Tykr is different in three ways:
- Tykr’s calculations are open source. There is no “black box” or “secret sauce”. You can go to https://tykr.com/calculations/ to read the calculations and as we tell our customers, if you like you can go create your own version of Tykr.
- When you join Tykr, you can see my portfolio which gives investors a great starting point if they don’t know what to look for.
- Tykr has a Trustpilot score of 4.9/5.0. We’re the highest in the industry. I always tell people I could talk about Tykr and stocks all day but don’t listen to me. Go to Trustpilot and see what our customers have to say.
How does Tykr simplify the process of stock investing for beginners?
Most screeners have too many indicators which makes it very difficult to make a confident decision. Before I created Tykr, I needed to make something equivalent to a stop light. In other words, a Green, Yellow, and Red rating system. This is why our screener classifies stocks as either On Sale (good), Watch (neutral), or Overpriced (bad).
Can Tykr be used for all types of asset classes or is it focused on specific markets?
Tykr can be used on all stocks around the world. The reason is, Tykr looks at the fundamentals. We specifically analyze the last four years of the income statement, cash flow statement, and balance sheet. It doesn’t matter where a company is located because we cut through the noise and get right to the raw data, the fundamentals.
What do you believe is the most significant challenge facing individual investors today?
The biggest challenge retail investors face is their own emotions. I have dozens of case studies over the years of successful and unsuccessful investing and it all relates to emotions.
My favorite success story is that of a man named Ronald Read. He was a janitor who built up a net worth of over $8M. The question is, how does someone making close to minimum wage become a multimillionaire? The answer, he did NOT let emotions take over. He created a portfolio of about 10 strong stocks and kept buying those stocks every month without fail. He also was focused on buying not selling.
Too many new investors buy stocks and then ask the question, “When should I sell?”. Selling doesn’t make you money. BUYING makes you money. You need to control your emotions and keep buying more every month. If you can do that, you can make a lot of money in the stock market.
How has the rise of trading apps influenced traditional investment platforms?
Now there are more low-fee or free brokers than ever before. Within minutes, most people around the world can set up a broker, connect their bank account, and start buying stocks.
The problem is that brokers don’t show investors what stocks are good, what stocks are bad, when should you buy, when should you sell, and how you beat the market. We’re happy to see more brokers launching because it creates a higher demand for Tykr.
In your view, how important is investor education in achieving financial success?
Very important! Education is key. If you don’t get educated, then you’re essentially investing blind. You have no idea what to do which can lead to losing a lot of money in the stock market.
What are some books or resources you recommend to aspiring entrepreneurs?
Aside from Tykr, I highly recommend the books written by Phil Town including Rule #1 and Payback Time.
Did you enjoy our interview? Do you have anything to say to our community?
Thank you for the opportunity to be interviewed. You asked a lot of thoughtful questions. Thanks for doing the homework!
If anyone reading this wants to confidently manage their own investments, I invite you to give Tykr a test drive. We have a 14-day FREE trial (no credit card required).
