Passfolio - US Stocks & Crypto Trading App
Role
Marketing Lead
Timeline
2019 - 2021
Location
São Paulo, Brazil / Miami, FL
Overview
In 2019, I joined a team building a global investment platform that allowed people to invest in US stocks using their local currencies. The goal was to create a Robinhood alternative focused on emerging markets.
People in developing countries couldn't easily hold dollars or invest in US companies like Apple or Tesla. Traditional brokers either didn't provide access to US stocks or made investing in them expensive and complicated.
We built Passfolio to solve this. Customers could buy fractional shares of their favorite US companies using currencies like BRL, MXN and NGN. Accounts could be funded with crypto or local payment methods like Pix (Brazil) or Flutterwave (Nigeria). We also provided responsive multilingual support in English, Portuguese, and Spanish.
My Role as Marketing Lead
I was responsible for brand marketing and business development, overseeing all communications and strategic partnerships across our target markets. With a small team and a tight budget, we had to be resourceful — as a result, over 60% of Passfolio's growth came from organic traffic and referrals, not paid ads.
The Referral Program was at the core of our growth engine. It offered stock rewards ranging from $1 to $100 for deposits over $100, with a 60-day lock-up period to ensure program integrity and deter short-term exploitation.
Influencer Marketing significantly amplified Passfolio’s brand awareness. By offering US stock and crypto trading, Passfolio operated in a distinct niche that didn't directly compete with local finance apps in Brazil, Nigeria, and Mexico — which primarily focused on domestic stock markets or fixed income products. Our positioning significantly streamlined contract negotiations with influencers because there was little competitive overlap with existing sponsorship arrangements. Some of the influencers we sponsored include Ana Laura Magalhães, Otavio Paranhos, Uriel Shark, Voepa Bitcoin, Investopi, and Damian Ruiz, among many others.
Local Partnerships were another key driver of growth. By collaborating with payment providers like FacilitaPay in Brazil, Flutterwave in Nigeria, and Bancolombia in Colombia, we provided convenient deposit and withdrawal methods, built trust in local communities, and expanded our reach. Portfolio aggregators like Status Invest and TradeMap allowed users to integrate Passfolio seamlessly into their financial portfolios, offering a comprehensive view of their investments. We also partnered with local solutions for practical tax reporting, which was essential given our product mix of US stocks and cryptocurrencies.
Content Marketing served two important roles: building authority and creating demand. We flooded Instagram and YouTube with educational content explaining US stock investing, crypto basics, and tutorials on how to use the Passfolio app (e.g. "How to place a limit order", "How to withdraw funds to your local bank account"). Our biweekly live AMAs on social platforms let customers ask tough questions directly, while our Telegram channel fostered ongoing dialogue and helped us keep a pulse on community sentiment.
Building Trust: How Passfolio Overcame Market Skepticism
Passfolio's launch taught me a harsh lesson: being first to market also means having to be the first to earn trust and credibility. We weren't competing against other apps — we were competing against fear, uncertainty, and doubt.
Comments on our ads and social media posts revealed a lot of skepticism. People questioned how we could offer commission-free trading, whether we were actually regulated, and if we were even real. Many potential customers simply didn't understand what investing in US markets meant or how our platform worked.
In response, we decided to address each and every concern head-on.
We placed our support phone numbers prominently on the homepage — a simple move that made it clear that "we are real people running a real business". Our revamped "About Us" page featured detailed team bios, putting faces to the company. We also created a dedicated page on the website with an overview of our fees, transparently showing that we made money from exchange rate spreads on currency conversions. On the website, we emphasized that we were members of the SIPC and regulated by FINRA.
A comprehensive FAQ section on our site and pre-populated watch lists on the app helped new customers feel confident from day one. We also redesigned our onboarding flow and added informative tooltips throughout the app.
Social proof was the cherry on top. Customer testimonials on our homepage showed real people succeeding with our platform, while strategic partnerships with regulated local entities like RB Investimentos added institutional credibility.
Feature Launches
Throughout my time at Passfolio, we launched a comprehensive suite of products designed to make investing as simple as possible.
US Stocks and Crypto: Customers could invest in a wide range of assets and diversify their portfolios across 6000+ stocks, ETFs, REITs, and cryptocurrencies all in one place.
USD Debit Card: PassCard was a USD debit card linked directly to users' investment accounts. This solved a major problem for emerging market investors: expensive international transaction fees and taxes. In Brazil, for example, the IOF tax made spending abroad costly. The card let users bypass these egregious fees and spend their investment proceeds in USD, creating a seamless bridge between investing and spending.
Smart Portfolio: Smart Portfolio addressed a common challenge – decision paralysis. With thousands of investment options available, new investors often struggled to know where to start. Smart Portfolio would recommend diversified portfolios based on risk tolerance (conservative, moderate, or aggressive) and automatically rebalanced them over time. This brought institutional-grade portfolio management to individual investors.
Passfolio Pro: Passfolio Pro was our premium subscription tier with benefits like interest on uninvested cash, margin loans, early access to new features, and advanced order types like trailing stops.
What really set Passfolio apart was our commitment to transparency and to the community. We made our product roadmap public and let customers suggest improvements and vote on their favorite feature ideas. Building in the open was a key aspect of our culture and overall brand.
Results & Acquisition
When I joined Passfolio, all we had was a waitlist. By the time I left two years later, we had over 200,000 users. Passfolio grew 3x in 2021, and the product was eventually acquired by one of Europe's largest banks in late 2022. Additionally, Passfolio's original client portfolio was sold to Sproutfi (now Vest.app), a social trading app backed by Y Combinator and Founders Fund.
Our relentless focus on building trust, educating customers, and addressing objections was critical to this success. The real challenge we overcame wasn't technical — it was psychological. We were asking people to invest in something completely new to them and trust us with their savings.
Traditional marketing wouldn't work when customers thought we were too good to be true and probably a scam. Instead, we built our entire growth strategy around earning trust. We made complex investment concepts accessible through localized content, addressed common concerns about security and regulations upfront, and built features like our "Smart Portfolio" that gave customers confidence to invest in something new.
This experience fundamentally shaped my views on customer centricity and is in part why I believe customer obsession is the best marketing strategy of all.
I also attribute Passfolio’s success to our ‘lean and mean’ team, which never surpassed 40 people. Carol Kowalsetskyj who led design was particularly great to work with. So were Fernando Tancredi and Bruno Pini, who set up our marketing analytics infrastructure and managed programmatic advertising.
"Will is a natural-born communicator and team player with outstanding people skills. He brings innovative ideas, executes tasks efficiently, and excels in team discussions. I've worked at many startups, across many teams, and from my experience people like Will are the kind that get businesses noticed and moving. Will is a valuable asset to any team."