20-Year Letter to GuruFocus Users

20-Year Anniversary Charlie Tian, Ph.D.
Founder, GuruFocus.com

This month marks the 20th anniversary of GuruFocus.

I began GuruFocus as a hobby during the Christmas holiday of 2004 while working as a scientist at a telecom company. I never imagined that I would still be working on it 20 years later, or that the website would one day serve millions of users.

Twenty years is a long time. It has transformed an energetic young man who used to work 16-hour days into a grey-haired man who now needs much more sleep.

Yet, twenty years is also a short time. We still operate like a new start-up. We continuously add new features and data to the website, use the latest technology to ensure it is secure and user-friendly, work hard to make every subscriber feel like they are our only subscriber, and get just as excited when we receive compliments from our users.

We work toward our goal of providing an unmatched full-scale research platform for fundamentally-oriented investors, with data that covers almost everything they need and tools that can do everything they want.

It has been an amazing journey! Over the course of this journey, I have learned tremendously from our users. I have learned much more from our users than they have learned from me.

My role at GuruFocus has also changed. Twenty years ago, I was the developer and webmaster of GuruFocus. Today, I am mainly a user of GuruFocus. For a long time now, GuruFocus has been the only place that I go for my own stock research.

As a user, here is how I feel GuruFocus has benefited my own research:

• A systematic way of finding stocks. 

The powerful GuruFocus screeners enable me to systematically find the stocks that satisfy the requirements of my investment strategies and are within my circles of competence.

No matter what your strategies are, systematically screening stocks with GuruFocus screeners instead of getting stock tips randomly will help you uncover the stocks that you would otherwise never be able to find. More importantly, it helps you stay within your circles of competence and build the level of confidence that you need to go through market ups and downs.

Once you set up the screener and save it, you can access it with one mouse click next time you come to GuruFocus. You can also receive email alerts once new stocks appear.

After being involved in the stock market for more than 20 years, I have settled on the strategy of investing in high-quality stocks, which I have described in detail in my highly rated book “Invest Like a Guru.” My investment results have been much more consistent and rewarding. 

• Save time

With all the tools and data in one place, you save a lot of time with your research. Our collection of tools and data allows you to find stocks you like and gain a deep understanding of the stocks you want to research quickly. 

We do a tremendous amount of data calculations and they are available to you so that you don’t have to do the calculations yourself. Even better, if you find something that you would like to have but we don’t have yet, be it a tool or data, let us know and we can usually add it quickly. Talk to us, and you will find that we work for you, and we want you to succeed with your investing endeavors.

• Avoid mistakes. 

The features such as the rankings of different aspects of the companies, the valuation tools, and the warning signs will help you reduce the mistakes you make during the investment decision process. Even avoiding one mistake a year will save you much more than a year of GuruFocus membership costs and your investments will become much more profitable. Over time, the added profits from using GuruFocus will be many times larger than the cost of the subscription.

Perhaps that is why many users who subscribed when I first got started 20 years ago are still with GuruFocus today. All of us have grown together and I certainly appreciate your teachings and support over the years.

***

If twenty years ago I hadn't foreseen that I would still be working on GuruFocus today, I can now see that I will continue working on it twenty years from now. I love what I do. I enjoy talking to our users. Without your trust and support, GuruFocus would not be where it is today. I love working with everyone on our team. They are the ones who added all the data, created all the tools, and embraced the new technologies. I appreciate their hard work.

If you haven't already, I strongly encourage you to start a Free Trial of GuruFocus. You will find that it helps you discover good investment ideas, save time, and avoid mistakes, making your investing more profitable and your life more enjoyable. You won't be charged if you cancel at any time before the end of the trial. Furthermore, if you are not satisfied and cancel within 30 days, we will issue you a full refund. This is our 100% money-back guarantee.

Sincerely Yours,

Charlie Tian, Ph.D.
Founder, GuruFocus.com

P.S. It's important to note that the subscription price may be tax deductible.