Business alumnus co-founds ‘we-do-it-for-you’ investment app

Gabe Hoffman co-founded Taylor Hoffman Wealth Management, a Registered Investment Advisor, in 2017 after being with a large Wall Street firm since graduating Campbell University in 2013.

Now, Hoffman and his business partner, Brandon Taylor, have launched an investment app, Avidus, that seeks to take the fear out of investing.

While attending Campbell, Hoffman was active around campus.. He served as a residence assistant in Murray Hall from his sophomore to senior year and as the GA of club sports during his time as a graduate student. After graduating in 2013, Hoffman and his now wife, Deidra, who he met during his senior year, married and moved to Richmond. As an alumnus, he is an active member of the Central Virginia Campbell Alumni Chapter, and helps organize several outings and events for the group.

When he is not working on the launch of an app, Hoffman enjoys spending time with his children, fishing, and woodworking.

Avidus, as described by Taylor, quoted in Richmond Biz-Sense, is “one of the few ‘do-it-for-me’ apps. If you want to invest in stocks but you want someone to do it for you, that’s us.”

The app was designed to help users streamline their savings and put their money to work for them. Users are able to do this by investing a minimum of $100 in the company’s current investment offering, which is built on stocks from 30 American companies across different industries.

According to Forbes, 78 percent of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. Hoffman thinks that at least some of that 78 percent could afford to save something, but may fear taking the initial step due to a lack of investment knowledge or the uncertainty of market changes. Taylor Hoffman created this new platform as a way to offer the services they usually reserve for multi-millionaires, and made them accessible to thousandaires.

Today, that accessibility is in the form of Avidus Premier, the company’s first investment offering — a combination of 30 publicly traded companies — all managed by investment experts on your behalf. The company’s partnership with APEX Clearing allows them to buy down to .0001 shares of any stock in their portfolio. So, Avidus manages the money of their clients, which allows the client to focus on what they want to do — not what the market is doing — that’s the expert’s job.

“Putting your investment savings on auto-pilot is the best way to build generational wealth. The biggest thing is having to start — we try to make that as simple as possible,” Hoffman, said.

The app is now available for download on Apple’s App Store.