THE CHALLENGE. Statistics steadily reveal that the majority of startups fail — with data varying between a 60%-90% failure rate. Statistics also show that the number of businesses in the market has had a steady incline over the past several decades. A consequence of this high volume of enterprises is the increase of market noise and an increasingly disconnected network. As market indexes and benchmarks changed at a rapid rate, historical measures for assessing and generating alpha (an asset’s return on investment compared to the risk adjusted expected return) was becoming more and more difficult to calculate. There was a need for more collaboration and a tighter network, so that entrepreneurs, firms, and business owners from around the world could collectively garner more success. Additionally, when broken down by gender, the stakes were even higher for women entrepreneurs, with only 17% of startups having a female founder.

THE PROCESS. As a South African entrepreneur, Emma Margetts understood both the challenges facing entrepreneurs in general and women entrepreneurs in particular. Her first step was to create The Business Learning Network — the first accelerator for female entrepreneurs in the townships of South Africa. From there, she built upon her success and used her expertise to address the challenges to generating alpha. She realized that an organization that served as a kind of research network for participants in the capital markets could solve the problem or at least eliminate some of the challenges to generating alpha. She co-founded Alpha Exchange as a way to reimagine knowledge sharing for both South African and global entrepreneurs. Applying innovative technology to the way research can be managed, discovered, and shared transformed the way institutional participants interacted and discovered investment insight. Alpha Exchange helped investors cut through market noise to deliver intelligence that drives better-informed investment decisions.

THE RESULT. Alpha Exchange is the first open network and institutional knowledge exchange for the capital markets community. By creating a connected research network, existing businesses and new startups have more opportunities to generate alpha in efficient and effective ways. Recently acquired by Visible Alpha, the company now has a growing client base with $16 trillion in AUM, more than 450 banks contributing content, and over 400 employees globally. Visible Alpha allows people to cut through the noise and access internal and external research reports, corporate access events and analyst models — enabling them to be far more successful as a result. Margetts recently won the Women in Banking and Finance’s Young Professional Award at the 21st WIBF Awards for Achievement, positioning her to serve as an example of success for other women entrepreneurs entering the market.