Abdul Al-Assad, a former Goldman Sachs trader, tried to buy one share of Tesla for $100 in 2017 but couldn't afford it at $420 per share. His coworkers laughed. He founded Basic Capital to let everyday investors buy stocks without needing thousands of dollars.
Why are you building Basic Capital in the first place? I'm building Basic Capital primarily for a problem that I identify with myself. Let me give you some context and some backstory. So I started my career at Goldman Sachs on the leveraged finance trading desk at Goldman. And, you know, when you are in the markets, in the trading culture, there is a big collegiate culture. And my boss looked at me one day and he said, Abdul, I never get a compliance clearance request from you to trade. Do you not trade in the PA? So I went and opened a PA, a personal account, and I did my first trade. This was in 2017. I bought $100 of Tesla. Tesla at the time was trading at $420, so I couldn't buy a single share of Tesla. And when that came through, my boss stood up, he rose his pants. He was like, hey boys, market-moving news. So all the traders like come around him. They're like, market-moving news? Like, what's going on? It's like a basketball team is gathering around him. Abdul Al-Assad buys $100 of Tesla and everybody basically like cracks out laughing. Like, $100 couldn't even buy a share. And that was basically when it resonated with me that like it takes money to make money.
