On this episode of CFO at Home, Vince’s guest is Deon Hargrove, founder of Smart Investors, an educational investing platform designed to help people learn, practice, and grow their skills in a risk-free simulation before using real money. Deon shares how starting his investing journey during the 2020 pandemic led to him building a one-stop shop that combines research tools, strategy-based asset recommendations, and virtual portfolios that use real-world market data. He discusses investor mindset shaped by market crashes, the importance of research over “gambling,” and lessons from the dot-com bubble and today’s AI boom. For more info on the Smart Investors App, visit smartinvestorsapp.com
00:00 Meet Deon, Learn About his Mission
00:25 Origin Story Pandemic Investing
02:18 Early Wins and Doubts
04:09 Vince’s early investing disaster (PalmPilot!)
07:14 Millennial Investor Mindset
10:51 Dot Com Bubble and AI Parallels
16:36 Research Beats Gambling
18:28 Amazon From Books to Empire
20:17 How Smart Investors Works
22:22 Three Part Learning System
24:46 Fail Safely Before Brokerages
27:04 Financial Literacy Crisis Stats
30:07 401k and Fund Simulations
32:14 Smart Investor Tracks Case Studies
34:07 Getting Started and Pricing
36:20 Wrap Up and Links
Ready to become the CFO of Your Home? Learn more here! https://www.thecfoathome.com/coaching-and-education/
