Hey everyone,
I’m Sanketh, a 19 year old engineering student near Bengaluru. I’ve spent the last 48 hours doing early research on a problem in India’s financial ecosystem and wanted to get honest feedback from this community before I go deeper.
The problem I keep coming back to:
India has 200 million demat accounts but there’s still no reliable way for retail investors to find and evaluate trustworthy independent brokers and RIAs. Everything runs on word of mouth. The only existing solution — feeonlyindia.com — is a static directory of 50 people with no verification, no reviews, no comparison tools.
On the broker side — I spoke to an active independent broker who told me she finds all clients through referrals only, manages everything over WhatsApp, and finds compliance the most frustrating part of her work.
I’m exploring a two sided marketplace — verified broker profiles, real performance data via Account Aggregator, genuine client reviews, compliance tools. Think Practo for SEBI registered brokers.
My honest questions for this community:
1. Is this a problem worth solving or have people figured out their own workarounds that work well enough?
2. Is the Account Aggregator framework mature enough today to power verified broker performance ratings?
3. What’s the fatal flaw I’m not seeing?
I have engineering exams until 20th June . But this problem isn’t leaving my head.
Thanks,
Sanketh