It's officially been one full year since we've launched @SkylitAI.
What started off as a personal project and tool I used to run a free alert Discord server for a few years turned into a generational company that will shape the retail investing space forever.
Origin Story:
As a trader, I look to derive and utilize as much alpha and edge as possible. I've always looked for the best tooling available and have tried over 20 different products, but could never fully trust what I'm using.
They would have issues, and not tell their users about it. They wouldn't respond back to questions when I asked for help.
And most of all, I wouldn't even know who the Founder or the Lead Dev was.
The problem with this was transparency. If I'm throwing down thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars into a trade, I couldn't find myself depending on mediocre tools that didn't seem to care about their users.
So I embarked on my own journey around 3 years ago to develop the very first Skylit Heatmap. For those that have been around, we used to ONLY have SPX data, and it would only come to Discord every 15 seconds. This was our product for 2 years, because the costs to process, store, and run all the data was incredibly expensive.
Over time, I found less fulfillment in being successful alone, and wanted to explore providing the same edge and alpha to the rest of the retail community.
I let a few other traders try it, and they immediately fell in love. They said it just 'clicked' and the accuracy and effectiveness of the data BLEW other alternatives out of the water. Our very first users were people that were coming from $40/month tools or $60/month tools, and were willing to pay TEN TIMES the amount for Heatseeker.
Our initial pricing was an experiment, but also incredibly intentional. I never wanted the business to scale so fast in user base that I wouldn't be able to interact and work direct with every user, because it's not JUST about the tool, but how you use it and apply it as well, which requires a very high touch, white glove experience and service.
Since May of last year, we've grown to support over 2,000 active traders, with a team of 3 working on Trader Success (myself, @The_John_Wicks, and @nicog8_trading). We bust our fucking asses trying to answer every question directly, jumping on 1:1 Zoom calls, running office hours, and ensuring that after users take losing trades, they don't get discouraged, and they know they have someone they can reach out to.
We've grown to a team of 4 full-time Developers (including myself) that each OWN the product development lifecycle end to end for the products they own. They do code, they do design, they do product management... EVERYTHING.
And we have the best partners we could have ever asked for. Partnerships for us are not about marketing. It's about innovation. When you partner with the best traders in the world, naturally you are forced to innovate and build products that assist in raising their ceiling and trading skills/abilities as well.
While building @SkylitAI, we've heard it all. When it was just me, it was fine. I grew up bullied my entire life, people saying I'm not normal, people trying to kill and tear down my self-esteem. The banter on X and the shit-talking does NOTHING to me.
For anyone working with @SkylitAI, the noise and doubt will only grow worse. And that's because we're the first trading platform in the world that is TRULY changing the game, and disrupting the space. Don't ever let the inability for others to comprehend your vision become a doubt in your mind that what we are set off to do will come to fruition.
This post is for all of you believers, all of our supporters, and most of all, the team working tirelessly, endlessly behind the scenes at @SkylitAI.
There is no other team out there in the world that works as hard, with more purpose than we do.
There is no other team out there in the world that cares more about our users than we do.
There is no other team out there in the world that innovates as fast and effectively as we do.
Huge thanks to all that have made this journey possible, and the ones who are committed to the mission of pushing forth the retail revolution.
We may have started off as the underdogs, but that's not how the journey will end.
We will always find a way to serve you, whether you are a paying member, whether you are just a loyal X or Substack follower.
If you're on the verge of quitting, or giving up, don't lose hope yet. This rocket ship is still being built, and just taking off.
This next year for @SkylitAI will be 10x greater than the last. Thanks @The_John_Wicks for the incredible @SkylitAI trophy.