Success leaves clues. Finance Strategists sat down with Andrew Sather, founder of eInvesting for Beginners. He shared his thoughts on the past, present, and future of the company, as well as the insights he has gained from running the business. Q: Who are you and what’s your background? My name is Andrew Sather. I'm just an average investor with no background in finance who was trying to teach myself the ways of investing. When I started my journey back in 2012, there wasn't much online to help beginners, so I started blogging about the things I learned; today we have a great team that strives to be the resource I didn't have when I first started. Q: Who has been your biggest influence, and why did they have such a significant effect on you? 
Introduction
Who is Andrew Sather?
My podcast co-host, Dave Ahern, has been so influential in helping me craft my investment style. As neither of us has a traditional finance background, we ended up learning side-by-side some of the tougher concepts in finance, such as Discounted Cash Flow models. Dave helps open my eyes to new concepts and ideas and has shown me the immense value of staying curious and open-minded.
Q: Knowing what you know now, what advice would you have given your younger self?
I would say just get started with investing as soon as possible, to get skin-in-the-game, which is one thing I did get right as a beginner. I would also say don't get too big-headed if you happen to beat the market early. The market has a way of humbling you if you underestimate it and don't continuously learn, especially about what you don't even know you don't know.
Business
Q: What is eInvesting for Beginners?
We started as an online blog, which somehow evolved into a massively popular podcast that has gone way beyond our wildest expectations, The Investing for Beginners Podcast - Your Path to Financial Freedom. I'm dumbfounded that we've had millions of podcast downloads and blog views from everyday people who have questions about how to get started in the stock market, just like we did when we first started.
Q: What separates eInvesting for Beginners from its competitors?
I think we just have a team who is genuinely passionate about teaching finance and the language of money. We're nerds who love what we do.
Q: What led you to start eInvesting for Beginners?
It was really that I felt like nobody was doing much for beginner investors back in 2012. It felt like you had to be born privileged to participate in the market. I wanted to prove that concept wrong, which led me to also start The Sather Research eLetter-- the first investment publication to track a real-money portfolio for 40 years, trying to turn a small $150 per month into $1 million.
Today I'm blown away by all of the great resources out there for investors to get you started; "back in my day" paying $4.95 to buy or sell a stock was a great deal! Now it's free, and you can start with a few dollars through fractional shares!
It gives me a lot of hope to see how the personal finance world and investing are progressing and how many people are empowering themselves to pursue financial freedom and build a better life.
Q: What has the experience of building the business taught you?
I've learned that the power of two is infinitely better than the power of one and that business results compound as you add people to your team. It's also taught me that even if you feel like you have a super-power in your business, the best ideas will probably not come from you.
Q: Where do you see things headed for you and the company in the next five years?
I just hope we can be the resource that people know they can count on and trust no matter what happens in the market.
Please learn more at einvestingforbeginners.com.
True Tamplin is a published author, public speaker, CEO of UpDigital, and founder of Finance Strategists.
True is a Certified Educator in Personal Finance (CEPF®), author of The Handy Financial Ratios Guide, a member of the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing, contributes to his financial education site, Finance Strategists, and has spoken to various financial communities such as the CFA Institute, as well as university students like his Alma mater, Biola University, where he received a bachelor of science in business and data analytics.
To learn more about True, visit his personal website or view his author profiles on Amazon, Nasdaq and Forbes.
