If there’s one thing not lacking on Wall Street, it’s opinions. Everyone has their own feelings on which investments are worth it and which are not, and these opinions often inform how people trade.

Unfortunately, trading can be a lonely life, especially for retail traders. And while there are platforms for idea sharing like Twitter and StockTwits, one company is trying to change that.

That’s Peeptrade. A social network/news site/research platform that also connects to over 100 brokerages. How does it work? We caught up with co-founder and CEO Juan Mendoza to find out.

What’s the idea behind Peeptrade?

We want to be a social network for investors and traders. A one-stop shop where you can trade, interact, and learn. We have benchmarking, the chat, charts, recommendations, and news.

You don’t need to be opening 10 apps to get all the marketing information and brokerage information. You can go on Peeptrade and get all the information there.

How have you built up your user base in the year Peeptrade has been around?

We just added where now you can upload your portfolio from thousands of brokers and financial institutions. So pretty much anyone can join. And we’re seeing 50% more portfolios on the site in the last month because of their new contest.

And it’s not just for traders; it’s for any type of investors. It’s for anybody who wants to learn, and potentially monetize that knowledge. We’re also thinking of expanding in Europe.

You have a contest going on right now. What’s the goal with that?

It makes it more competitive with the users. But it’s not that simple. We don’t want people to take risks just for winning the contest. We make it so it’s not the person who has the best return, it’s the person who has the best return adjusted for risk based on the sharpe ratio.

We want them to invest smart.

You previously worked at BBVA. Is this your first startup?

This is my first startup.

What have you learned from running a company in this competitive environment?

First of all, I learned that it’s more complicated than a bigger company But it’ more fun. Entrepreneurs tend to always think ‘We launch, and you get thousands and thousands of users.’ But it takes a lot of work to get those users.

There’s so many things to learn for product management. And also how to be a lean startup. You need to say things before doing them, and try to do things without spending money. Resources are very scarce.

The deadline to enter Peeptrade’s Investor Trading Contest is September 9th. The contest runs until November 1st, and is determined by Sharpe Ratio. To enter, click here.

Photo courtesy of Peeptrade.