Forward Thinking Founders 023 - Yoshi Yokokawa (CEO of Alpaca) on Financial Markets
Sep 30, 2019
Yoshi Yokokawa, CEO and co-founder of Alpaca, builds developer-first APIs for commission-free U.S. stock trading. He explains how Alpaca lets anyone create Robinhood-like products, plans to add crypto and niche assets, and discusses the East-to-West shift in financial power and why fintech infrastructure is becoming core to consumer platforms.
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API First Broker Dealer For Anyone
- Alpaca is an API-first broker-dealer enabling commission-free US stock trading for developers and apps.
- Yoshi pivoted from targeting advanced investors to building infrastructure so many niche apps can create their own front-ends.
Brokerage Is A Supermarket Not A Unique Product
- Financial services are like supermarkets: the core product is the same, differentiation comes from targeting and product presentation.
- Yoshi concluded building a middleware layer (developer APIs) unlocks many targeted front-ends faster than one consumer app.
One API To Consolidate Diverse Asset Classes
- Alpaca plans to modularize asset management across many asset classes beyond US stocks, including crypto and security token offerings.
- Yoshi views US stocks as the anchor asset that makes niche asset classes viable when consolidated in one API.