Max Rafaga

Founder & CEO, Finimize · 1 appearance on the record.

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founderexecutiveinvestorfinimize.com ↗

Max Rofagha founded Finimize, an investing insights platform and global retail investor community that grew to over one million subscribers before being acquired by abrdn plc in 2021. Prior to that, he co-founded DeinDeal, a Swiss e-commerce company acquired by Ringier in 2015, and was featured on Forbes' 30 Under 30 Europe list.

12statements → 7claims → 1claims resolved → 3.83/5average certainty → 1.17/5average debate potential →

0 supported 1 partly supported 0 contradicted 1 not yet assessed 5 not checkable as stated how the 7 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

7 assertions · 1 insight · 4 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 7 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 1 is resolved, 1 is not yet assessed, and 5 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Max argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Max Rafaga on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

What they said12 Episodes1

Everything Max Rafaga said on Top Founders that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Insight

Rofagha: Founders diluted to 7% become employees rather than actual founders

“Like seven percent of the business that you started then, and everybody else has the full control and you ultimately have become an employee. You're no longer the actual founder.”

Max Rafaga Jan 21, 2021 ▶ 16:20 Finimize Uses 1m Email List to Launch API SaaS, Grows to 30% of Total Revenue

Disclosure

Finimize derived 30% of 2020 revenue from B2B content licensing

“Certainly our fastest growing segment has been our subscriptions. And I would say it's roughly, it's maybe 70% subscriptions and advertising and then 30% licensing.”

Max Rafaga Jan 21, 2021 ▶ 11:16 Finimize Uses 1m Email List to Launch API SaaS, Grows to 30% of Total Revenue

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Finimize counts tens of thousands of consumer subscribers

“So we don't, we're not super keen on always sharing these numbers, but it's definitely in the latter count.”

Max Rafaga Jan 21, 2021 ▶ 20:31 Finimize Uses 1m Email List to Launch API SaaS, Grows to 30% of Total Revenue

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Engaging in member chat groups halves Finimize subscriber churn rate

“And as soon as you engage with a chat group, for example, we see in the data that your retention rate doubles or your return rate halves. Whereas if you're just a normal person consuming the content, you've still paid, you're still consuming, you're twice as l…”

Max Rafaga Jan 21, 2021 ▶ 22:28 Finimize Uses 1m Email List to Launch API SaaS, Grows to 30% of Total Revenue

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Finimize has around one million members worldwide

“So we have around about a million users members as we refer to them all over the world.”

Max Rafaga Jan 21, 2021 ▶ 2:53 Finimize Uses 1m Email List to Launch API SaaS, Grows to 30% of Total Revenue

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Finimize sees newsletter open rates between high 30s and low 40s percent

“So we have pretty high open rates between like in the high thirties, low 40%.”

Max Rafaga Jan 21, 2021 ▶ 3:34 Finimize Uses 1m Email List to Launch API SaaS, Grows to 30% of Total Revenue

Assertion Not publicly verifiable

DeinDeal reached 25% of Swiss households, topping British Airways in awareness

“So we were we were reaching 25% of all households within Switzerland at the time. We had a higher brand awareness than British Airways.”

Max Rafaga Jan 21, 2021 ▶ 12:38 Finimize Uses 1m Email List to Launch API SaaS, Grows to 30% of Total Revenue

Disclosure

Finimize raised £500k pre-seed in 2016 and single-digit millions total

“We did round about like half a million pounds then, and then we did we did something in the single digit million altogether. I don't actually have the exact number off the top of my head. So nothing by any means, nothing major.”

Max Rafaga Jan 21, 2021 ▶ 15:19 Finimize Uses 1m Email List to Launch API SaaS, Grows to 30% of Total Revenue

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Finimize did zero paid marketing until 2020

“We actually, we've never done paid marketing up until this year.”

Max Rafaga Jan 21, 2021 ▶ 17:51 Finimize Uses 1m Email List to Launch API SaaS, Grows to 30% of Total Revenue

Assertion Partly supported

Finimize ranks among the top grossing finance apps in US and UK

“In the US, we are usually in the top 15, top 20 highest grossing finance apps, and in the UK, typically in the top three.”

Max Rafaga Jan 21, 2021 ▶ 19:16 Finimize Uses 1m Email List to Launch API SaaS, Grows to 30% of Total Revenue

Disclosure

Rofagha: Finimize operates with between 25 and 30 total team members

“Including a couple of, like, part-timers I would say around about 30 between 25 and 30.”

Max Rafaga Jan 21, 2021 ▶ 8:48 Finimize Uses 1m Email List to Launch API SaaS, Grows to 30% of Total Revenue

Disclosure

Finimize scaled its platform with only four full-time engineers

“We have four, four full-time engineers with us.”

Max Rafaga Jan 21, 2021 ▶ 21:03 Finimize Uses 1m Email List to Launch API SaaS, Grows to 30% of Total Revenue

Appearances (1)

Episode	Date	Speaking time
Finimize Uses 1m Email List to Launch API SaaS, Grows to 30% of Total Revenue	Jan 21, 2021	14m

Max Rafaga

The record, in short

How they sound: not measured why? →

Appearances (1)

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