After following Swanest for some time, I finally accepted an invitation to test its beta platform. I had missed the first invitation; the second arrived at the right moment. A recent conversation with Spiros Margaris about the future of “robo+advisor”, rather than purely automated robo-advice, had made me curious about what a more hands-on investment experience could offer.
Swanest’s proposition was to put investors at the centre of financial services, giving DIY investors tools to build and manage personalised portfolios. I was used to leaving the work to my money manager, so I approached the beta with an open mind—and plenty of questions.
Testing the investment assistant
The personal assistant was a useful starting point. Having worked with personal-finance management products and mobile assistants, I found the guided approach intuitive. The “Yes, help me” questions made the process feel more accessible while leaving the investment choices with the user.
When asked about my appetite for risk, I chose level five: “I’m willing to lose some to make some.” The prospect of rebalancing a portfolio in line with my stated risk profile and tolerance for volatility was particularly appealing.
Exploring the portfolio
I expected the usual friction I had encountered when testing other investment platforms. Instead, exploring my proposed Swanest portfolio was surprisingly straightforward. Two features stood out:
- Learn Space. Presenting FAQs as a place to learn, rather than simply a help desk, made the experience feel more approachable and gave me a greater sense of ownership.
- Feature voting. The upvote system allowed users to influence which features Swanest would develop next. It was an unusually direct way to involve beta testers in shaping the product.
The customer-first approach seemed promising for both DIY investors and Swanest, provided the company continued to act on the feedback it received. I enjoyed the simplicity and engagement of the experience; it even made me question what I was paying my own money manager for. I planned to keep my Swanest account and see whether the company could deliver on its promise to put people back at the heart of financial services.
That first experience left me wanting to understand the thinking behind the product, so I approached Swanest for a follow-up conversation.
FOLLOW-UP INTERVIEW · ONE WEEK LATER
In conversation with Silvan Schumacher
About a week after testing Swanest’s beta, I spoke with co-founder and CEO Silvan Schumacher about the company’s origins, the feedback coming from its early users, its approach to product development and the question of monetisation.
Kevin Moseri
Silvan, thanks again for making time this week. First of all, what’s the history? How did you meet and arrive at the idea for Swanest?
Silvan Schumacher
Some time ago, I did an exchange semester in Belgium. I am originally from Switzerland. It was there that I got to know Nicolas. We attended the same class; international entrepreneurship. He was into finance a lot and because of that, we quickly connected. As we had to present a business idea, we proposed something around micro investing. We built up a team and wrote a business plan. After the end of the semester, Nicolas proposed joining forces. Because he already run a software development company together with Cyril and Youri, we had all the capabilities needed to launch the project ourselves.
Since then we have changed the idea many times, tested different value propositions and even participated in an accelerator program here in Belgium. We finally ended up with Swanest. The name is composed of “swan” and “nest”. The “swan” is a monogamous animal that does not change partners in its life. That is why swans are often associated with love. The “nest” is a symbol of someone’s financial nest egg. Hence, Swanest is about the long-lasting relationship with someone’s finances. The kind of relationship that traditional financial institutions seem to have forgotten.
Kevin Moseri
I’m sure you’re getting valuable feedback from beta testing. How are you incorporating it?
Silvan Schumacher
It is important to note that what you see currently online will not be our final solution. We tried to innovate from the very beginning and now started to understand everything that is actually possible … Importantly, we like to invest in whatever financial product we believe in; shares, ETFs or even funds. However, traditional robo-advisors will always sell you the same portfolio. This is why we decided to merge the liberty of an online broker with the kind of automated intelligence and ease of use you know from robo-advisors. This will create an entirely new experience … but we are currently just at the beginning of unfolding all this innovation.
To become what we really want, which is essentially the best investment management tool for people like yourselves, we will keep innovating quite a bit … We have plenty of ideas and we love involving our users in this process. Hence, the upvote system is just the beginning … we will soon unveil a lot more innovation on which we will seek input from our users. To innovate fast, we will not directly connect to a broker. Rather we prefer staying independent and letting our minds free room to reinvent online investing.
Kevin Moseri
From a customer’s perspective, what impact do you think Swanest will have on people’s lives?
Silvan Schumacher
We are currently focused on building an Investment Management Assistant with real-time tools and analytics. This is geared towards helping a DIY investor make the right investment decisions. We are initially going to concentrate on this customer facing aspect until we have a product with a frontend that’s 100% consumer-centric. Plugging in Swanest as it is now to the market would require a monumental shift of resources towards Security and the backend, leaving very little time to focus on the most important aspect, which is the frontend and the customers.
Kevin Moseri
So would it be premature to talk about monetization at this stage?
Silvan Schumacher
With the focus on the frontend and the customer engagement, it would be. Traditional robo-advisors make revenues through the investment management. However, as their portfolios are rather small, a user might generate a yearly revenue between €50 – €100. However, these businesses spend up to €400 – €600 to acquire a new customer. Hence, you will not become profitable for a long while. This requires investors with deep pockets and you would be forced to metamorphose into a marketing machine. All that will make you loose focus on what is really important; the needs and wishes of your users.
That’s not what we want. We believe the best product wins; loved by customers, built together with them. Fostering our community, creating a brand and re-inventing online investing is our top priority. Rome was not built in a day, but it is here to last.
Also consider that charging for the investment management is not the only way to monetizing such a solution. There are others too, we will opt for the one that makes most sense for our users.
Kevin Moseri
Since 2008, investment brokers have struggled with their reputation. Earlier this year, the Evening Standard described the City of London as having a decidedly antisocial reputation. Is it fair to assume that part of Swanest’s appeal stems from this sentiment?
Silvan Schumacher
This is what drives the people behind Swanest. Traditional financial services became disconnected from reality. They have built a system full of short-term incentives, non-transparent practices and hidden fees. All geared towards filling up the pockets of a certain elite. The more we engaged with the investment industry, the clearer their flaws became. We want to shift the power back to the people. We might be small, but we have a vision and technology is our weapon.
Even though our guns are loaded, we do not just shoot blindly. We meet quite a lot of people from the traditional financial industry and address our concerns. Some are surprisingly open to change … they are even frustrated with their institutions, but it is just so hard for them to change. This is also why talent is increasingly leaving the traditional financial industry to start working with financial technology startups.
Kevin Moseri
Thank you very much for taking the time to answer my questions. I’m looking forward to testing Swanest again as you unveil more features, and I’ll be participating regularly in the upvote system.
Silvan Schumacher
Thank you for your support. For those who haven’t tested Swanest, please do and let us know what you think.
If you took part in Swanest’s beta testing, I would be interested to hear what you thought.