The problem.
ETFs were exploding in Australia, but coverage was thin and tangled inside generalist finance media. New funds launched without scrutiny. Existing screeners were clunky, paywalled, or aimed at institutions.
Retail investors needed a clear, independent home. Issuers needed an audience that already cared. Both could be served by the same product, if it was built right.
The approach.
Build the audience first, then the marketplace. Editorial brought people in. The screener kept them, because nobody else had one built around how retail investors compare funds.
- Daily editorial coverage of launches, flows, and the structural debates inside the category.
- A fund screener with the filters investors kept asking for: fees, structure, tracking error, holdings overlap.
- Commercial model layered on top: display advertising, clearly labelled sponsored content, and direct partnerships with issuers.
- A newsletter that became the place issuers wanted to be in front of.
The outcome.
A standalone, profitable business in a category the generalist media missed: over 30,000 monthly readers, many of them daily, and commercial relationships with the major issuers in the Australian ETF market.
A brand that journalists, issuers and retail investors trusted, run by a very small team.
I wound up ETF Watch in 2020 when family life got in the way. I had grown the contact list to over 15,000 subscribers, and was able to sell this for a profit. Keeping editorial content fresh and up to date is a lot of work, particularly in the pre-AI era.
What I learned.
Treat the screener like a SaaS feature, the newsletter like a CRM, and the editorial like the marketing department for both. Pick a niche narrow enough that you can be the best in it.
When I started ETF Watch there were about 50 ETFs worth around $20b, when I wound it up there were about 200 for about $90b. In 2026 there are over 450 ETFs worth about $330b. Patience can pay dividends, perhaps I could have had a bit more of it.