Kannur-based Ritvik Vipin was like any other kid in a Kerala neighbourhood, who finished schooling and went on to study engineering. But what stood out about him was that by the time he finished mechanical engineering from Vellore Institute of Technology in Tamil Nadu in 2018, Ritvik had made a fortune from trading in the stock markets and had co-founded Havenspire, one of India’s largest online stock trading communities with his roommate Akash Jayan.
Within the first few months of engineering, Ritvik Vipin knew that Mechanical Engineering was not his cup of tea. Speaking to TNM, he says that he realised that none of the placements would pay him very well either, at least in the first few years.
“During the first few months, I understood that what I was taught was not of my interest. When I looked around, it was clear that to get placed in a good company which pays well, one has to score very high grades which seemed very difficult. Even if one gets placed, during the initial years, I understood that people are paid very less salary,” he adds.
Ritvik Vipin
This is when he started taking interest in the stock markets and trading as he started to watch YouTube tutorials on them.
“During my school days I already knew that something called stock markets existed as I saw my father depositing money for long time investments. But I had no idea how to trade or that one could earn from it daily. But after reading a lot about trading, I understood that one could make money through this without working under another person as is the usual norm,” says Ritvik.
Excited about his newfound interest, he began to save as much as he could from the money his family sent for his expenses. He started following tutorials online and investing this money into stocks.
But Ritvik didn’t hit a jackpot overnight. He kept losing money for almost a year before he finally started making a profit.
“It was only by the end of second year in college that I finally started to make money. I did a lot of trial and error and finally chalked out a method of my own for trading. Then I started to make a profit and used that to trade further,” Ritvik recalls.
Soon, Ritvik was making good money in the stock markets and in no time, his friends and classmates started asking him to teach them as well. He then started taking classes for his friends on stock market trading.
As interest for his classes spread, his roommate Akash, a Thrissur native, suggested that they start a company together. That is how Havenspire was founded and Ritvik credit the entire idea of starting a company to Akash, who quit his corporate job to start Havenspire with Ritvik.
“It's not an easy life, but it's a life that I chose. I did enjoy my corporate days and had a great experience, but I couldn't stop myself from trying to pursue my passion. I took the bold step to quit without letting anyone know. I kept it a secret from my family for weeks. I still remember my mom bursting into tears when I told her,” Akash recalls.
From left: Akash and Ritvik
Havenspire is a trading education platform that teaches its members how to become a ‘mindful traders', develop a process of trading, while also becoming a part of a community of traders. It offers a membership package with learning modules that include over 30 hours of live training, an access to a WhatsApp group of traders, the community and a lot more trading material.
Once a person signs up, after their first live training session, they’re added to a WhatsApp group meant to discuss members’ trades, trade setups, share their knowledge regarding trading, etc.
According to Ritvik, Havenspire is more than just a training platform. Those who complete training and also others, can use Havenspire as a platform to interact live with other traders of the community while they trade. Today, over 1,700 people including homemakers and students use the community of Havenspire to trade. The startup has 13 employees and 15 mentors.
“Havenspire is the only platform in the country where this is possible. Once a person registers for the training, they will have lifetime access to the community. There are many users who consistently trade with us for the past two years and have been making a profit,” Ritvik says.
While Havenspire claims to have cracked the community-based trading platform with the aim of disrupting the old norms of the trading process, Ritvik says that ultimately, it’s the effort that matters.
“How much ever training one gets, unless they really invest time and effort, one cannot make a profit,” he says.
Watch Havenspire's co-founder Akash Jayan explaining about stock market: