KaChing hopes to be the sound of success

Monday, October 19th, 2009 343 views

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.bloggingstocks.com/media/2008/09/benjamin-franklin.jpgIt only makes sense to call a company a sound you like to hear. This is exactly what CEO and co-founder Andy Rachleff must have had in mind. His new company — kaChing, of course — is backed by Marc Andreesen (a name often associated with that sound) and Jeff Jordan, the CEO of OpenTable (NASDAQ: OPEN), two guys who usually do a solid job of backing winners. But, they’ve taken on a challenge by backing a company in the financial services industry.

Rachleff’s new venture is a for-pay website that will provide advice to investors that don’t really trust Wall Street any more. kaChing is a registered financial adviser that’s using an angle consisting of lower fees, transparency, and easy-to-use technology to attract users. Since many financial professionals are starting to come under attack because of the fees they’re charging, kaChing thinks there’s room to win by coming in cheap and overdelivering information.

According to Rachleff, in Reuters, “This is a $10 trillion industry with no innovation in 25 years,” continuing, “there are a lot of consumers that are upset and frustrated with their mutual funds. But how do you decide if your mutual fund manager is doing a good job? No one is quite sure.”

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