Taran Singh Kainth has become famous in Calgary as one of the city’s most driven IT entrepreneurs. He co-founded and became the CEO of the fintech startup Flahmingo, which makes investments accessible to all people, writes calgary-future.
The defining role of education
Taran studied Economics at the University of Calgary and Business Administration at Calgary’s Mount Royal University (MRU), earning a B.Sc. Programming at the university allowed him to understand what it takes to become an entrepreneur. Also, at university, he learned to be patient in the process of programming a complex product.
This knowledge helped him win the 2019 JMH LaunchPad Pitch Competition hosted by the Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The purpose of this competition is to unite creative people who do not have high-quality equipment. Then Kainth received $35,000 for the development of his startup, part of which was allocated by the university. Kainth was named Student Entrepreneur of the Year among all Calgary entrepreneurs by the Entrepreneurs Organization, a non-profit organization.
After some time, he went to San Francisco, where he completed an acceleration program designed to help businesses launch and become global players in the market. He also met there with Silicon Valley specialists, including the CEO of Twitter. In the US, Kainth made important connections with other entrepreneurs.
Creation of Flahmingo
In 2020, Kainth co-founded Calgary-headquartered Flahmingo with MRU computer science graduate and company CTO Gio Moros Hernandez, as well as the University of Calgary and MRU graduate Kunal Seth. This city was chosen because it is one of the four largest financial centers in Canada and offers all the necessary resources for fintech startups.
The founders of Flahmingo have created a commission-free fractional investing application that allows almost anyone to invest in stocks. Users can start with as little as one dollar. The application uses a fractional share model called Pies and Slices. According to the founders, the goal of Flahmingo is to become a kind of catalyst for Canadians to improve their financial literacy and try investing. People can learn the ins and outs of investing in the company’s education center. This program is called Flahmingo Central.
Flahmingo has received a high level of support among Canadians, improving the Canadian investment market while exposing systemic flaws in the stock market. In June 2022, the startup already had more than 6,000 supporters and also attracted $3 million from investors. This startup showcases the rapid growth of Calgary’s innovation ecosystem as a place where smart people and big ideas solve global challenges.
In July 2022, the company already had 30 employees, including 6 students and graduates of Mount Royal University. Jamila Kanji, BA in Public Relations from Mount Royal University, was elected as a Director of Communications and Marketing. Her tasks were improving the brand, developing a marketing campaign strategy, creating copywriting texts, etc.
As Taran told the Calgary Herald, the most challenging part of working in a small team is solving complex problems with limited resources. On the other hand, this is also an advantage because a small team allows the company to remain flexible and nimble in decision-making, which large organizations can’t do.
