|
When he was 21, UCSD student Chris Agarwal founded Internet Stock News, an online financial community, at netstocks.com. Today the 23-year-old CEO has seen his venture blossom into a successful enterprise with more than 400,000 members. The Philadelphia-born Agarwal lived with foster families, an aunt and at boarding schools from age 11 after his Indian immigrant parents died. He decided to invest in Internet stocks when he received a small amount of money from his mother’s life insurance in 1997, but became frustrated by the lack of good information provided by prominent brokers. He learned to invest on his own, and launched an e-mail newsletter to help others like him. With a goal to provide an objective source about the Internet financial industry and the benefits of high-growth sector investing to individuals, Agarwal sent the premier issue to 3,000 people, 25 percent of whom requested a second issue. Spending around $100 a month and working from his college apartment PC, he built the weekly newsletter to a subscriber base of 35,000. After two years of fine-tuning the newsletter and its accompanying Web site, and expanding the user base, Agarwal’s company incorporated earlier this year. An anthropology major, he graduated from UCSD in June.  CEO Chris Agarwal (fourth from left) and his employees are proud of the company’s success. |
Home | Features | Info | Cover Story | About Us | Back Issues
