Investor
FAQ

Wayy Research is an AI quantitative research company building open-source infrastructure for systematic trading and proprietary investment products. We operate at the intersection of financial technology, machine learning, and democratized access to institutional-grade tools.

Wayy Research was established in 2024 and is headquartered in Buffalo, New York. The company is organized as a Delaware LLC with plans to convert to a C-Corp prior to priced financing.

The founder, Rick Galbo, brings 9+ years of institutional finance experience across trading floors, hedge funds, and investment banks including Crabel Capital Management, ICE, Uniper Global Commodities, Maven Wave/Google Cloud, and Citi. Credentials include FINRA licenses (SIE, Series 57), a B.S. in Statistics, and completion of an ML/AI intensive program.

We operate four distinct revenue streams:

1. wayyFinance Platform (55% Year 5) — SaaS subscription platform for quant tools
2. Wayy Funds (20% Year 5) — Quantitative investment fund with 2/20 fee structure
3. Consulting Services (15% Year 5) — Strategic advisory at $350-800/hour
4. Apps & Data (10% Year 5) — Custom AI development projects

This is the most common question we receive, and it reflects a misunderstanding of our structure. The hedge fund does not have a subscription model. Here's how the components work:

Wayy Funds operates as a traditional quantitative hedge fund: 2% annual management fee on AUM, 20% performance fee on gains above high-water mark, accredited investor requirements apply.

wayyFinance is a separate SaaS platform: $99-999/month subscription tiers, provides quantitative tools and strategy signals, users maintain full custody of their own capital, no accredited investor requirement.

The "subscription to strategies" on wayyFinance means users receive trade signals and research—similar to Seeking Alpha, TradingView, or Motley Fool—but execute trades themselves. This is financial publishing, not fund management.

Aspect	wayyFinance Subscription	Wayy Funds Investment
Who trades	You execute in your own brokerage	Wayy manages on your behalf
Custody	You maintain 100% custody	Fund holds assets
Minimum	$99/month subscription	Fund minimums apply
Accreditation	Not required	Accredited investors only
Fee structure	Flat monthly subscription	2/20 on AUM/gains

Diversification reduces risk while creating synergies:

• Open-source packages drive wayyFinance adoption
• wayyFinance users become consulting leads
• Consulting relationships generate Apps & Data projects
• All activities generate alpha research for Wayy Funds

By Year 5, wayyFinance represents 55% of revenue. The other streams are bootstrapping mechanisms that become optional as the platform scales.

We're raising $1.2M on a SAFE at a $12M post-money valuation, representing 10% of the company post-financing.

• 40% Product Development — Platform enhancement, data coverage expansion
• 25% Marketing & Sales — Customer acquisition, sales team
• 20% Infrastructure — Cloud computing, data feeds, compliance
• 15% Working Capital — Operational runway, strategic reserves

Month 17 with $942K maximum capital requirement. This capital efficiency stems from: open-source foundation already built, low customer acquisition costs (LTV:CAC of 79:1 blended), and recurring revenue model with low churn.

$47.3M in revenue with 83% EBITDA margin. This represents a 112% CAGR from Year 1's $1.02M.

The model is built bottoms-up from unit economics with conservative assumptions: wayyFinance growth rates decline over time (market saturation), consulting caps at sustainable capacity, fund AUM grows at 3% monthly (well below industry benchmarks), and churn rates at 4-5% (industry standard is higher).

We've stress-tested key assumptions. At 50% of projected wayyFinance growth, we still reach profitability by Month 24.

Three production-grade open-source packages:

• WRData — Market data aggregation from 32+ providers, unified API
• WRTrade — Event-driven backtesting framework with risk management
• FracTime — AI-powered fractal time series forecasting (novel approach)

All are available via pip install and actively maintained on GitHub.

FracTime implements the Fractal Market Hypothesis—a theoretical framework that views markets as self-similar across time scales. Unlike traditional time series methods (ARIMA, GARCH), FracTime computes Hurst exponents and fractal dimensions to classify market regimes as trending or mean-reverting, then applies appropriate forecasting models for each regime.

Open-source is the competitive advantage. It creates:

• Trust — Users can audit code, unlike black-box alternatives
• Distribution — GitHub reach exceeds any marketing budget
• Contribution — Community improvements compound our development
• Lock-in — Switching costs increase as users build on our stack

MongoDB, Databricks, and Confluent prove this model at scale. We monetize through hosted services, premium features, and enterprise support—not by hiding code.

The financial data and analytics market is $55B globally (TAM). Our serviceable addressable market—retail traders, prosumers, and small hedge funds—is $12.6B (SAM). With reasonable penetration assumptions, our serviceable obtainable market reaches $126M by Year 5 (SOM).

We face different competitors in each segment:

• Data layer: Polygon, Alpaca, Yahoo Finance (we aggregate all of them)
• Backtesting: QuantConnect, Zipline, Backtrader (we're open-source with cleaner API)
• Signals: TradingView, Seeking Alpha (we're quant-native, not retail-focused)
• Enterprise: Bloomberg, Refinitiv (we're 100x cheaper for core functionality)

Four reinforcing moats:

• Technical: 32+ provider integrations take 18+ months to replicate
• Community: Open-source contributions compound; network effects lock in users
• Regulatory: Financial publishing structure sidesteps RIA requirements
• Data: Proprietary alpha from Wayy Funds research feeds platform

Post-money SAFE (Y Combinator standard) with $12M valuation cap, no discount. Pro-rata rights for investments ≥$100K. MFN provision included. Minimum investment $25K, target check size $100-250K.

Based on comparable fintech exits at 8x revenue multiples:

• Conservative ($150M exit): 12.5x return
• Base case ($378M exit): 31.5x return
• Aggressive ($600M exit): 50x return

These assume Year 5 exit. Earlier exits at lower valuations or later exits at higher valuations shift the range accordingly.

• Execution risk: Single founder, early stage, unproven at scale
• Regulatory risk: SEC treatment of AI trading signals undefined
• Competitive risk: Well-funded players could enter the space
• Market risk: Trading volume declines could reduce TAM

See the Risk Factors section of the Prospectus for comprehensive disclosure.