2000 Press Releases
New Company To Offer Innovative Online Financial Products And Services To Benefit Individual Investors
03/02/2000
VIENNA, Virginia – FOLIOfn, Inc. (www.foliofn.com) officially launched today, announcing plans to develop an array of Internet-based financial services for individual and smaller institutional investors. At a news conference in New York City, company officials pledged to leverage the full power of the Internet to create innovative products and services to benefit these investors.
“Our goal is nothing short of a total revolution in individual investing,” said FOLIOfn founder and chairman Steven M.H. Wallman. “Until today, the Internet has been used primarily as a new distribution channel to offer existing services. We’re putting technology to work to create new and exciting financial services that weren’t possible before the Internet.”
FOLIOfn also today unveiled its first offering, FOLIO Investing, a revolutionary new investment tool that allows investors to buy and sell entire stock portfolios, known as Folios, with just a few mouse clicks. With FOLIO Investing, investors choose their risk or other personal investing preferences, then directly invest in whole portfolios that match those preferences.
FOLIO Investing helps eliminate the unnecessary risk, cost and guesswork that is inherent in investing one stock at a time. For example, to invest in the Internet industry, rather than trying to pick individual stocks, an investor can invest in the sector by buying an Internet Folio. Investors can also modify Folios any way they want. Perhaps most importantly, investing in diversified portfolios of stocks instead of just a handful of stocks can provide investors a lower level of risk for the same expected rate of return—or the potential for a higher expected rate of return for the same level of risk.
FOLIOfn was founded in 1998 by Wallman, who served from 1994 through 1997 as a Commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. During his tenure, Wallman was widely recognized for his advocacy efforts on behalf of individual investors. He played an integral role in setting policies at the SEC that paved the way for the widespread adoption of Internet and other technologies within the financial services industry. Wallman is also a senior fellow (non-resident) at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.
“While other brokers are using the Internet to let investors trade faster and cheaper, FOLIOfn is a brokerage founded to enable investors to invest better, smarter and easier,” Wallman said. “We will operate at the intersection of technology and finance, providing our customers with innovative, leading edge solutions made possible only by the power of the Internet. We intend our products and services to become the model for personal investing in the 21st century.”
FOLIOfn, with over 100 employees, and FOLIOfn Investments, Inc., its wholly-owned brokerage subsidiary, is based in the Washington D.C. suburb of Vienna, Virginia in the heart of the Northern Virginia high technology corridor.
The company’s major financial backers include PSINet, one of the nation’s largest independent Internet service providers, and Mayfield, one of the country’s elite capital partnerships, as well as numerous other investors including Jefferson Partners of Toronto.
PSINet, headquartered in Herndon, Virginia, is an Internet Super Carrier offering global e-commerce infrastructure and a full suite of retail and wholesale Internet services through wholly-owned PSINet subsidiaries. Services are provided on PSINet-owned and operated fiber, satellite, web hosting and switching facilities providing direct access in more than 800 metropolitan areas in 27 countries on five continents. William L. Schrader, founder, chairman and CEO of PSINet, Inc., and PSINet vice president John Muleta serve on FOLIOfns board of directors.
Mayfield, founded in 1969, is a private venture capital partnership that provides entrepreneurs with the experience, resources, teamwork and vision required to turn new ideas and technologies into successful businesses. Mayfield has $1.5 billion of capital invested in more than 300 information technology and healthcare companies that today represent a total market value exceeding $100 billion. Mayfield general partners Allen Morgan and George Pavlov serve on FOLIOfns board of directors.
Jefferson Partners and its predecessors have been successful private equity investors since 1984 and over that time have helped over 50 entrepreneurs build their companies in the information technology and Internet sectors.
Other members of the FOLIOfn board of directors and senior executives come from the U.S. Treasury Department, First Union Bank, JP Morgan, MCI Worldcom, GTE, Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown, Bankers Trust Corp., Coopers & Lybrand and American Management Systems.
About Folio Investing
Folio Investing, a division of FOLIOfn Investments, Inc., is an online brokerage that enables investors to manage stocks, ETFs, and mutual funds as integrated investment portfolios called “Folios” that deliver better control, greater transparency, and lower cost. Investors can create their own Folios, much like creating personalized ETFs or mutual funds, or invest in over 100 Ready-to-Go Folios representing market indices, sectors, geographical regions, target dates, and more. The Folio Unlimited Plan features unlimited commission-free trading in twice-daily windows for only $29 a month or $290 a year. Ready-to-Go Folios can be managed or unmanaged, are not registered investment companies, and are offered by FOLIOfn Investments, Inc., a registered broker-dealer. FOLIOfn Investments, Inc. does not provide investment, tax, or legal advice. FOLIOfn Investments, Inc., is a member of FINRA/SIPC.