About
A Brief, But Impactful History
It started with a simple question in a San Francisco apartment back
in 2018:
“Wouldn’t it be cool if you could have a hedge fund in
your pocket?”
We were three co-founders—quants, entrepreneurs, and relentless
builders—kicking around an idea that felt both crazy and inevitable.
At the time, we were deep in the weeds, crafting sophisticated strategies
and chasing the vision of fully autonomous alpha. We had spent years
honing our skills, building models that could generate a true edge. But
the cost was brutal: stress, burnout, and countless hours lost to the
operational drag of high-alpha investing.
We knew how to win the game, but we couldn’t stop asking: Why
isn’t this easier?
Then it hit us. Time is the ultimate currency.
And when we looked closer at the investing world, it was worse than we
imagined—opaque, outdated, and still clinging to myths like the 60/40
portfolio. Robo-advisors and fund managers talked a big game while hiding
behind performance marketing, never sharing the metrics we lived by—Sharpe,
Sortino, volatility, drawdowns—because their numbers wouldn’t survive
the spotlight. We searched for a platform built on transparency and accountability,
but none existed. Not because it wasn’t possible—but because the incumbents
didn’t want it to be.
So, we built it ourselves.
Sidepocket wasn’t born just to democratize hedge fund-like tools.
It was a call to arms—to make elite, risk-adjusted strategies accessible,
and to force the industry to evolve. We weren’t here to sell fairytales.
We wanted to prove that hedging and cutting drawdowns could redefine
what smart investing looks like.
There’s a whole segment of investors—relatively sophisticated,
already in the game—who’ve realized that doing this well isn’t about
effort alone. You need the right tools. You deserve access to premium
strategies without institutional gatekeeping.
And beyond
that, we saw a bigger opportunity: to empower thousands of financial
education platforms, stock simulators, copy-trading apps, and creators.
Most can’t legally offer real investing—they’re not SEC-registered—but
they still shape how people learn and behave financially. We wanted to
power them with the same institutional-grade tools, backed by decades
of research and live-tested results.
We started by going directly to consumers, validating our tech
in the wild. We built Sidepocket as a deep tech company—focused not on
marketing fluff, but on research, algorithms, and user experience. Over
$10 million in human capital has gone into it. And through the chaos
of one of the roughest markets in a century—2022, the worst year for
the 60/40 in 100 years—we delivered. We didn’t just survive; we stood
out.
As a Registered Investment Advisor, we operate with fiduciary
duty. That means we act in our users' best interests, period. The clarity,
trust, and transparency our clients get isn’t just a tagline—it’s built
into the code, the design, and every touchpoint.
But here’s
the truth: Alpha isn’t infinitely scalable. This isn’t a mass-market
robo-advisor or some AI-flavored gimmick. It’s a platform for people
who know investing is hard—and know they’re better off with the right
partner. We don’t gate-keep by wealth or connections. We reward initiative.
Sidepocket is for strategic minds ready to move—creators,
educators, professionals—people who understand that the future of
wealth-building will be decentralized, creator-led, and powered by
tech that’s finally caught up.
We’re not just building for now.
We’re building the rails for the next generation of apps, educators,
and platforms that will carry this mission forward.
Because the world doesn’t need more funds. It needs a better
system.
And that’s what Sidepocket was built to be.
Meet the Sidepocket Team

CEO, Co-Founder
Daniel Idzkowski

CTO, Co-Founder
Shridhar Swaminathan

CPO, Co-Founder
Morgan McQuown

Financial Engineering
Maxwell Bradley, CFA

Security Officer
Travis Hassloch

Technical Operations
Yves Perrenoud

Infrastructure
Tomasz Pado

Partnerships
Artur Pawelko

Application Development
Sam Cabrera

Information Security
Joab Kose

Product Design
Christina Pena

Front-End Developer
Andrii Zakhariak

QA Engineer
Oleh Zakhariak

Research Advisor
PengCheng Zhu Ph.D. CFA