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+slug: building-financial-software-users-actually-love
+title: Building financial software users actually love
+date: 2025-01-20
+image: /blog/2025-01-20-building-financial-software-users-actually-love
+tags: ['openbb', 'plg', 'pls', 'open-source', 'fintech', 'ux', 'sales', 'startup']
+description: In the financial software industry, there's a well-worn playbook - build proprietary software, deploy large sales teams, and leverage executive relationships. At OpenBB, we're taking a fundamentally different approach - creating open-source financial tools that users genuinely love to use.
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+---
+
+<p align="center">
+    <img width="900" src="/blog/2025-01-xx-building-financial-software-users-actually-love.png"/>
+</p>
+
+In the financial software industry, there's a well-worn playbook: build proprietary software, deploy large sales teams, and leverage executive relationships. At OpenBB, we're taking a fundamentally different approach - creating open-source financial tools that users genuinely love to use.
+
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+
+In the financial software industry, there's a well-worn playbook: build proprietary software, deploy large sales teams, and leverage executive relationships to close deals.
+
+While this approach has proven successful for many companies, we at [OpenBB](http://openbb.co) are taking a fundamentally different path – not to be contrarian, but because we deeply believe in a better way.
+
+## The status quo
+
+Traditional financial software companies follow a predictable pattern:
+
+- They maintain closed-source codebases while using "open source" merely as a marketing buzzword
+- They rely primarily on top-down sales processes and extensive outbound operations
+- They focus almost exclusively on C-suite relationships, often at the expense of end-user satisfaction
+
+This approach often results in software that users learn to tolerate rather than love, imposed from the top down rather than championed from the ground up.
+
+## Our open ecosystem
+
+At OpenBB, we've built something fundamentally different: a powerful, interconnected ecosystem where our workspace serves as the collaborative interface that brings everything together. While we maintain and continuously improve this essential interface – the heart of our user experience – we believe everything else should be open.
+
+#### Empowering financial teams through collaboration
+
+<p align="center">
+    <img width="600" src="/blog/2025-01-xx-building-financial-software-users-actually-love_1.png"/>
+</p>
+
+The financial industry has long struggled with siloed tools and fragmented workflows. Our workspace interface transforms how teams work together by enabling analysts to design workflows and dashboards independently, driving innovation without developer dependence. Teams can share and co-edit dashboards in real-time, enabling faster, data-driven decisions. This real-time collaboration, combined with secure on-premise deployment, ensures both rapid innovation and enterprise-grade security.
+
+#### An open ecosystem to unify data
+
+<p align="center">
+    <img width="600" src="/blog/2025-01-xx-building-financial-software-users-actually-love_2.png"/>
+</p>
+
+Our commitment to openness starts with data.
+
+Through our open source data integration framework (<a href="https://github.com/OpenBB-finance/backend-for-terminal-pro" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">open source repository here</a>), teams can seamlessly integrate proprietary, paid, and public datasets.
+
+This data-agnostic architecture supports everything from crypto to equity to macro data, or any custom datasets your team needs.
+
+We've built this system for scale, allowing teams to create and manage thousands of datasets while maintaining security through custom widget development for tailored data visualization.
+
+#### An open ecosystem for intelligence
+
+<p align="center">
+    <img width="600" src="/blog/2025-01-xx-building-financial-software-users-actually-love_3.png"/>
+</p>
+
+The future of financial analysis is AI-augmented, but it shouldn't come at the cost of security or control.
+
+Our open agentic framework (<a href="https://github.com/OpenBB-finance/copilot-for-openbb" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">open source repository here</a>) enables teams to deploy their preferred AI agents locally, maintaining complete data privacy.
+
+This isn't just about running models – it's about creating intelligent workflows that integrate directly with your existing datasets. Our specialized subsystems handle both structured and unstructured data, providing transparent reasoning with step-by-step explanations and citations that integrate seamlessly into your dashboards.
+
+#### One unified workspace
+
+All these components come together in our workspace interface, creating a seamless experience that makes complex financial analysis both intuitive and powerful.
+
+<p align="center">
+    <img width="900" src="/blog/2025-01-xx-building-financial-software-users-actually-love.png"/>
+</p>
+
+This integration isn't just about technology – it's about enabling teams to work better together. Users maintain unmatched control over their data flows and AI processing while building scalable solutions that keep sensitive data secure and enable team-wide insights and decision-making.
+
+## Blending user love with enterprise reality
+
+Let me share an analogy that illustrates our approach:
+
+Imagine two scenarios of introducing activities to children:
+
+1. **The traditional approach:** Parents buy a guitar and tennis racket and mandate practice times. The result? Often, children grow to resent these activities because they were forced upon them.
+
+2. **Our approach:** A child discovers soccer through friends, tries it out, falls in love with the sport, and becomes not just a participant but an enthusiastic advocate, eager to share their experience with others.
+
+<br />
+
+The financial industry predominantly operates like the first scenario. We're deliberately choosing the second path, but with a crucial understanding: while the child's enthusiasm drives the initial interest, parents still need to be convinced about the value, safety, and long-term benefits of the program.
+
+This is where our product-led sales approach comes in. We recognize that enterprise deals require executive buy-in and strong relationships – these are crucial and we don't shy away from them.
+
+However, we build these relationships differently:
+
+- Users discover and fall in love with our product organically
+- They become internal advocates, creating bottom-up momentum
+- Our team engages with decision-makers who are already hearing positive feedback from their teams
+- We partner with executives to understand and address enterprise-level concerns, backed by genuine user enthusiasm
+
+## Why this matters
+
+Our approach is already showing results. With a team ratio of 12 developers to 17 total team members, we've achieved what others do with massive sales forces. We've reached over 80,000 users through a combination of organic growth and strategic enterprise partnerships.
+
+We want users to become advocates for OpenBB before they ever pay us a cent. When companies choose to pay for our enterprise solutions, it's because both their teams love the product AND their executives see clear organizational value – creating a perfect alignment of bottom-up enthusiasm and top-down support.
+
+## Looking forward
+
+This is just the beginning. Our commitment to open source and product-led sales isn't a trend we're following – it's a fundamental belief in a better way to build and sell financial software. We're creating a future where financial tools are chosen because they're loved by users and trusted by executives.
+
+By maintaining our focus on building exceptional products and fostering genuine relationships at all levels of an organization, we're not just growing a company – we're transforming how the financial industry thinks about software.
+
+What are you waiting for to give us a try?