TalkMarkets Shareholder Update: A Stellar Quarter

Our contributor base has grown drastically and we ended last quarter by surpassing 700 authors (and will surpass 750 in a matter of days).  To date, we’ve published nearly 70,000 articles from these authors and we recently hired two additional editors to help with the added work flow.  Our user base has grown as well and we are about to surpass 30,000 registered users.

Our long awaited partnership with Reuters has finally gone live and we’ve also closed numerous business development deals this past quarter including with Seeking Alpha, the leading site for sophisticated investors, and Investopedia, the world’s largest financial education site.  Both partnerships have already gone live and these sites are now hosting our headlines. We’ve also partnered with Scout Finance, a breakout new financial app (scheduled to go live today) to both be a contributor to TalkMarkets and to host our headlines on their site.  We're also developing a co-branded product with Investing.com, the 4th largest finance site in the world (launch date yet to be determined). 

Additionally we've partnered with Shindig Events to host a regular webinar series featuring TalkMarkets contributors. You can see a recording of the first such virtual event here. Lastly, we’ve begun an initiative to partner with numerous financial conferences worldwide by being a media sponsor.  As part of this collaboration, we help promote the conferences on our site. In exchange, they feature our logo and a link to TalkMarkets on their site and marketing materials. We’ve already set-up dozens of such sponsorships which cost us nothing yet gives us great exposure and access to our target audience.

We’ve been accepted into the Simpel & Associates Accelerator program.  This program gives us access to two-tier talent and advisors and we’ve already benefited from their high level analysis of our potential revenue streams, strategic vision, and marketing plan. They have also reached out to Rutgers University about a potential partnership. There is no cost to us, rather we are considered their flagship client and they are investing much time to help ensure our success and are leveraging that success to gain new clients. 

We’ve also been hard at work on the tech front with numerous bug fixes and enhancements throughout the site. Our mobile site is almost finished, we’re just putting on some extra spit and polish while simultaneously doing a minor site redesign for our homepage.  We also overhauled and streamlined our submission and publication system for content publication. It not only has a cleaner and tighter look that’s easier on the eyes, but it’s simply more efficient and has led to a marked increase in publication speed.

We are currently in the process of revamping our contributor equity center where authors can learn about the different ways of earning equity and track this in real time. The enhancements are a major undertaking since there are so many moving parts - over 700 authors, with new contributors added daily, numerous ways of earning equity, and their percentages fluctuating constantly. This upgrade should be completed before the end of the year.

Last year we won Business Economic’s “Best Stock Site of 2015,” and once again we have been nominated for the 2016 award. We have also been selected to be a Featured Company for IMPACT 2016 in Philadelphia and will be presenting at the event.  Four companies will go on to the next round called the “Lion’s Den,” a Shark Tank like experience. If selected, we will pitch to a team of Venture Capitalists ("The Lions") before a live audience, for a chance at substantial VC funding.  Wish us luck!

Looking forward to a promising Q4 and thank you again for your continued support.