Hello there,
I am Austin Starks, the one-man army behind NexusTrade. I play multiple roles - developer, architect, marketer, operations associate, and chief executive officer. I co-founded StarksTech, alongside my identical twin brother, Justin Starks. If you're reading this email, you're probably familiar with our product and our mission, but perhaps not with the person behind it all. So, let me share a bit about myself, my motivations, and the journey that led to the creation of NexusTrade.
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🚀 Buckle Up, Here's My Story!
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Born and raised in Georgia, I'm a 25-year-old professional with a Bachelor's degree in Computational Biology from Cornell University. That's right, I'm talking Ivy League 😎 - an even better one than Harvard! 😉 During my time at Cornell, I developed a fascination for trading. I was convinced that there had to be a more strategic approach to trading than just impulsively making trades on Robinhood and letting emotions dictate decision-making.
In my quest for a better trading platform, I found most alternatives to be overcomplicated, visually unappealing, or lacking in functionality. Thus, in my senior year of college, I dived headfirst into the world of algorithmic trading. I enrolled in online courses covering Algorithmic Trading, Data Science, and the application of machine learning in the stock market, alongside a course at Cornell titled "Foundations of Artificial Intelligence". This marked the beginning of my love affair with the fusion of AI and the stock market. 🧠💹
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Post-Cornell, I pursued my Masters of Science in Software Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. If you didn't know, CMU is the world's best institution for computer science. I was awarded the prestigious GEM Fellowship, and was able to get my degree at $0 cost. There, I learned to design, implement, and test high-quality software systems. I also took a course called "Intro to Deep Learning", which provided me with the skills to implement state-of-the-art deep learning algorithms. I even conducted research on applying AI to the stock market.
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Using the knowledge I gained from a world-class institution, My brother and I developed the our first trading platform called NextTrade. Our mission was clear - create a platform to plan your next trade on a modern, sleek UI. However, it wasn't without its flaws. During multiobjective optimization, NextTrade was too slow. It also lacked the configurability to express any idea you could imagine on a no-code interface. I envisioned a platform where users could easily drag-and-drop AI algorithms onto our trading strategies.
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Fueled by the resolve to overcome these challenges, I utilized the lessons from NextTrade as a foundation to construct a superior platform. The goal? An unparalleled trading experience that was not only faster and more configurable but also tremendously user-friendly. I was firm in my refusal to compromise on either user experience or the capabilities of the platform. The outcome of this steadfast determination? NexusTrade - living proof that you can indeed enjoy the best of both worlds. 🎯
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Post-Carnegie Mellon, I took up a full-time role as a software engineer at a mission-driven health insurance tech company. Yes, you read that right; NexusTrade isn't even my day job! 🕰️ Compare the sophistication and functionality of NexusTrade with other algorithmic trading platforms and you'll see just how much we've achieved. And believe it or not, this is only the beginning of the NexusTrade odyssey! 🚀
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And that, my friends, is a glimpse into my journey. If you enjoyed this little trip down memory lane, feel free to connect with me below. You can also respond to this email and introduce yourself - I read every single one of them.
Thank you! 🎯🚀
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