Here's What Wall Street Doesn't Get About Young Investors, According To A Gen Z Founder

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• Eve Halimi cofounded Alinea, an investment platform geared toward young and first-time users.
• Halimi said their storytelling marketing resonated with young investors.
• "Institutional players are moving too slow, and I think that's the advantage we have," she said.

Gen Z founders have launched into the business world with a bang, and legacy brands have been trying to keep up ever since. Just ask Eve Halimi.

Halimi and Anam Lakhani created Alinea, an investment platform designed for the next generation of wealth-builders, in 2021. The pair began building Alinea after interning on Wall Street, where one thing became crystal clear: the rich were getting richer.

"The richer were getting richer through the stock market, and people who didn't have the means weren't learning about it elsewhere," Halimi, 29, told Business Insider. "We saw this really big gap."

For the uninitiated, learning to invest in the stock market can feel like a perplexing blur of hyper-specific jargon, oscillating graphs, and chasing after trends that may never pan out. Financially savvy folks have often relied on legacy institutions to manage their investments and assets, but not everyone has the know-how or access. That's where Alinea comes in.

"The institutional players are moving too slow," she said. "That's the advantage we have as a startup. We're able to move and innovate much faster."

While traditional, long-standing companies like JPMorgan had to adopt digital technology into their services, Alinea is part of the fintech wave built on it from the beginning. Alinea occupies the fintech space alongside companies like Robinhood and Coinbase, both of which went public in 2021 after shaking up the finance industry.

Although a relatively new company, Alinea has made serious strides. The company raised over $10 million in a funding round last year and received $22.5 million in user-acquisition funding from PvX Partners in February.

Halimi said that Alinea, compared to its Big Tech and fintech peers, has an edge in engaging new investors. The secret isn't glossy magazine ad campaigns and Super Bowl slots, though.

'Hey, girls'

In true Gen Z fashion, Halimi and Lakhani struck gold on social media, growing their brand through TikTok videos. Halimi said they weave storytelling into their content, offering users glimpses of themselves and their journey.

"People really resonated with us as founders, and talking about our own pain points," Halimi said. "That's been our secret to topping the finance charts and getting all of these users with so little capital compared to all of these other companies."

She added: "When you look at the marketing landscape for consumer fintechs, you're never going to see the CEO of Vanguard get on TikTok and be like, 'Hey, girls.'"

That personable approach helped Alinea gain over 2.5 million users. Initially, Halimi said their platform was geared toward Gen Z women, but that's changed over the last year.

"We actually realized this market is way bigger than we expected. Last year our user base was 92% female, and now we're 60% female," Halimi said. "That's because we're now getting men and all types of people who need this product."

It helps that Alinea is accessible at a time when investing has become popular with young people. A March 2025 World Economic Forum Survey reported that Gen Z begins investing earlier than previous generations. By the time Gen Z enters the workforce, over 80% will have learned about personal investing, compared with 47% of Baby Boomers, according to the survey.

"Everyone knows that they need to do it. Everyone is getting set up earlier. Everyone is investing more money in the stock market," Halimi said. "With the rise of social media, FinTok is popping."

Digital natives

Gen Z has earned the title of digital natives, or a generation that grew up with advanced technology at their fingertips. As such, it's not a surprise that Alinea embraces tech like AI.

Allie, an AI-powered copilot, helps users navigate their first investments. Allie can provide market recaps and help users make informed investment decisions.

"She's going to ask you a few questions about yourself, like your risk tolerance, income, and what job you're doing. Based on that, she's going to give you a portfolio to invest in and recommend an amount you should invest," Halimi said.

Alinea also aims to connect with its users through features like Investment Playlists. The playlists are curated collections of stocks and ETFs tailored to a user's specific goal or theme.

Alinea's wealth management service costs $120 a year, or $10 a month. The platform gives users access to stocks, ETFs, and cryptocurrencies.

"We think about the day one, day 18, day 30, day 60 experience," Halimi said. "We're leveling them up on this journey and helping them gain that confidence, so even though they're beginners when they're getting started, they're pros by year one."