Vest is an investment platform that allows Latin Americans to invest in the U.S. stock market.
Smart Vest made it easy for users to invest in pre-built portfolios matched to their investor profile.
As co-founder and CPO, I was responsible directing the user-interface and experience of Smart Vest, and of ensuring collaborative efforts to keep the feature compliant and in harmony with the path of our company
Our original goal was to democratize stock investments for Latin Americans offering a user-friendly tool with a twist of education.
We conceived Vest as a way to make investing in the U.S. stock market more approachable for Latin Americans. The U.S. market was more dynamic than Mexico’s Bolsa de Valores, and the existing platforms in our region weren’t beginner-friendly—they were tied to traditional financial institutions, had slow execution times, which didn’t support active or real-time trading.
Vest aimed to serve tech-savvy Latin Americans who wanted better access to U.S. investments. But while that was our initial go-to-market, we also designed with a broader audience in mind—people who had little or no experience investing.
Smart Vest was born out of that broader vision. It offered pre-built, managed portfolios, with the long-term goal of becoming a fully automated robo-investing feature. The idea was to create a “set and forget” experience. Constantly checking the market can be a source of anxiety—and when it comes to money, anxiety is one of the biggest barriers to action.
We assumed that the reasons people didn’t invest was the lack of options and information, and poor usability. That was just part of it.
We originally believed that Mexicans didn’t invest because they lacked the tools. So we built Vest—a beautiful, user-friendly platform for trading U.S. stocks. And while we saw some growth in account creation, it didn’t translate into assets under management (AUM), which was our most important metric.
As we kept digging, we uncovered deeper behavioral and cultural blockers. Many Mexicans don’t have a habit of saving—some live day-to-day, while others simply choose not to save even if they can. For those who do, investing often feels like gambling. And not just in terms of risk—some literally equate investing with betting on platforms like Caliente.
Others were afraid to invest due to perceived risks or lacked the knowledge to make confident decisions. Many preferred fixed-income securities, and even those interested in stocks didn’t know which companies to choose.
The insight was clear: most people didn’t want access to *the stock market*—they wanted access to something that made their money grow without stress, complexity, or loss.
We still needed to prove the product was a winner. Experienced users said Vest was one of the easiest stock buying experiences they’d had, but to reach a broader, untapped market, we had to hang the fruit even lower.
Picking stocks can be overwhelming and many users were familiar with fixed-income instruments.
We relied on both behavior data and interviews to inform Smart Vest.
From the data side, we saw that users were creating accounts—but very few were actually funding them. And when they did, it was often with modest amounts. It became clear that access alone wasn’t enough. People were reaching the door, but not stepping through.
In interviews and user conversations, we started to see why. Most users didn’t know what to do once they got into the app. Choosing stocks felt overwhelming. Many were more familiar with fixed-income instruments—the kind of products banks already offered—because they were simpler, more predictable, and felt safer.
Smart Vest tapped into that mindset. It offered something familiar: a guided, pre-packaged path. Something like a fixed-income experience, but with better potential returns. We saw the concept resonate in early conversations, and we felt confident we were addressing the real friction point—not access, but uncertainty.
Understand particular users’ profiles to move decision fatigue out of their investments.
Smart Vest was a group effort. I didn’t originate the idea, but I helped shape how it came to life—especially in terms of the user experience and how we communicated with our users.
From the beginning, we had to navigate regulatory constraints. We weren’t licensed to provide investment advice, so we had to carefully design the experience to avoid crossing that line. At the same time, we needed enough user input to generate a relevant portfolio recommendation without making it feel like a questionnaire from a bank.
I focused on helping to shape the profile-building experience: defining what questions we’d ask, how we’d ask them, and how we’d present the resulting investor profile back to the user. This meant bringing in ideas from our KYC process and adapting them to feel personal, simple, and non-threatening.
We asked about things like risk tolerance, income, investment horizon, and monthly contributions—but wrapped those questions in approachable language and logic.
It was clear early on that this was the right direction. Research consistently showed that people didn’t want to worry about choosing stocks. They wanted something that worked in the background—something that felt safe, guided, and low-effort.
Picking stocks can be overwhelming and many users were familiar with fixed-income instruments.
We used plain language wherever possible, focusing on clarity and reducing anxiety. We explained concepts in everyday terms, and stripped away unnecessary complexity or financial jargon. Visually, we leaned on our mature design system—reusing design tokens, components, and assets—to deliver a polished and consistent experience.
One of the most important aspects was trust. Many users felt more comfortable when they saw that their money would be insured, and that Vest was backed by solid institutions. That reassurance played a big role in making them feel safe enough to invest.
We also showed honest projections based on the user’s profile—how much they might earn over time, depending on their risk level and monthly contributions. These numbers weren’t inflated or hyped. For some users, it was 10%, for others, 8% or even less. But the tone was always realistic and grounded. That transparency helped us build credibility.
The feature unblocked, slowly but consistently, more AUM.
Smart Vest became the feature that drove the most consistent AUM growth. It didn’t take off exponentially, but it grew steadily—week over week, more people were choosing this path over selecting individual stocks. It was clearer, easier, and felt safer.
In hindsight, I believe Smart Vest should have been the core of the product. We could’ve kept direct stock trading for advanced users, but Smart Vest was the feature that truly delivered on our mission: making investing approachable for everyday people. It addressed the anxiety, the uncertainty, and the lack of financial literacy in a way that the original product didn’t.
It was more than a feature—it was what the market was asking for.
Deep knowledge of users’ motivations and decisive focus are the fuel of breakthroughs.
This project taught me that a product isn’t better because it has more features—it’s better when it solves a real problem in an elegant and helpful way.
At first, the problem seemed obvious: Mexicans don’t invest because they lack the tools or the information. But as we dug deeper through interviews and conversations, we uncovered underlying issues—emotional, cultural, and behavioral—that were just as critical. Discovery made the difference.
I also learned the value of focus. We tried to build a super app: stocks, crypto, in-app content, educational sections—each of which could’ve been a product on its own. Looking back, Smart Vest should’ve been the center. Everything else could have orbited around it. Instead, we treated it as one feature among many, when it was actually the one that delivered on our promise.
If I could go back, I’d start with Smart Vest—and build everything else from and around it.
