Community Spotlight: Side Hustling

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By: Anam Lakhani & Eve Halimi / August 3rd, 2020

Community Spotlight: A series highlighting Aspire to Her community members and their experiences early in their careers.

Who we’re featuring this week: Anam Lakhani & Eve Halimi
Position: Co-Founders of Alinea Invest

Besides working two full-time jobs, you are co-founders of Alinea Invest: a social trading platform that focuses on empowering women to invest based on their beliefs & interests. Can you share more details on the decision process to start an organization that would improve the female investment experience?

Eve and I were tasked to develop a social action project in our senior seminar at Barnard College, Columbia University. After interning in the financial sector, we quickly came to realize many of our female friends, including ourselves, were intimidated by the idea of investing our own money. Yet, many of our male friends have been investing since the age of 16, and discussing it daily amongst their friends. After researching in depth, we found out that this lack of confidence combined with our tendency to shy away from conversations about money has a detrimental effect on financial freedom for women. It’s not that we don’t want to invest our money - in fact, most of the women we speak to want to invest, but don’t know where to start. Men have always had a community centered around conversations about money, but for women that has not always been the case. That’s why Eve and I founded Alinea Invest - a community empowering and fueling women+’s investment journeys. Currently, we are working on building the first ever social trading platform based on SRI (socially responsible investing). You can join our waitlist to get early access and our weekly newsletter.

What is your advice for anyone considering founding their own company and co-founding with a friend?

Our advice is to just get started! The everyday little steps contribute to big milestones. Often, people are intimidated by taking on large tasks and projects, but breaking it down into small tasks makes it much more doable. Our other piece of advice would be to ask around - many of our answers and asks lie in our close networks. Sometimes you don’t have to go as far out as you think, and when you do, don’t be afraid to reach out and send cold emails. When founding a company with a friend or classmate, communication is key. Be sure to communicate and discuss your visions, plans and ideas for the company at all stages. Trust and compassion are also crucial - your co-founder is basically your spouse in a business sense. And much like relationships, your co-founder should be someone who pushes you to grow and become better.