Idea generation #24: Platforms for democratizing professional services

I always thought that blogging platforms are the end all and be all of democratization. However, coming across this article about Covestor really blew my mind away on the opportunities to build platforms that democratized different types of professional services.

What Covestor does is building a platform that allows the average Joe to become a fund manager. The fund management industry is paid with fat margins with no corresponding relationship with efficiency: an industry waiting to be disrupted by platforms such as Covestor.

So, the next question is to ask what other industries have a similar structure: fat margins, dependent on a selected 'professional' and relatively inefficient? We have seen journalism being democratized by blogging platforms, and now fund management by Covestor platform, what else is next? How about HR recruitments? Or research firms? or credit rating agencies?

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