Bobby, the First Investment Deal Agent, Goes Live — A Conversation with Vakee on Its Birth and Investment Opportunities in Everyday Life

What if you had a "24/7 investment partner" that, through natural conversation, could analyze market movements in real time, generate personalized AI portfolios from everyday inspiration, execute stock and options trades with one click, and even offer rational strategies when you're feeling anxious — how would such an AI Agent redefine what it means to "participate in the world through investing"?

This week on Crossroads, we invited Vakee Lai, founder and CEO of Singapore-based fintech company RockFlow, to talk about Bobby, the financial trading AI Agent she just launched. This isn't just a product birth — it's the concrete realization of a mission to "make investing simpler": from buying her first stock at age 9, to working on Baidu's Phoenix Nest product and research, to becoming an early AI investor, and now to being an entrepreneur "using AI to reshape the investment experience" — every step Vakee has taken answers the question: how can ordinary people use the most natural methods to transform their life knowledge into investment action?

We'll explore three dimensions:

1. Bobby's "not-so-simple" story: Why did RockFlow spend two years refining this Agent? How does it solve users' pain points of "high barriers to investment awareness" and "complex tool operations"? How do real cases like UK users using Bobby to monitor and buy Circle stock, doubling their returns, validate the value of an "AI-native investment experience"?

2. Vakee's "investment worldview": From the cognitive advantage of Phoenix Nest advertising monetization to the "cognitive return amplification" of her 15-year NVIDIA investment, how does she navigate primary and secondary markets with the philosophy of "earning within your circle of competence"? As a rare female CEO in tech, how does she balance entrepreneurial challenges with the mission of "making investing accessible to everyone"?

3. The "rock spirit" of future investing: Why is "removing all GUI, keeping only Bobby" not radical but inevitable? When Gen Z uses investing to express attitudes and trading to communicate viewpoints, how does RockFlow build a "lifestyle investment playground" through AI Agent?

Finally, Vakee will combine insights from her viral Xiaohongshu post "How Ordinary People Can Spot the Next Big Trend Around Them" to share her unique perspective on capturing investment opportunities from daily life and work — perhaps the starting point for your next "cognitive monetization" is hiding in your everyday routine.

🟢 Part One: What Is a Trading Agent and How to Use It

02:41 RockFlow launches trading Agent Bobby — what is it?

03:41 RockFlow v.s. Bobby

04:36 In complex scenarios, the Agent + natural language approach better serves people's personalized needs

08:10 Booking flights for parents: traditional booking app v.s. relatively personalized travel needs

10:50 The decision to build an Agent came as early as April-May 2023

13:04 Agent capability boundaries: 2023 project launch v.s. now

15:07 First-mover advantage, but also massive delicate and tedious work behind it

16:27 The delicate work: first, you need to be a team that knows financial engineering

18:47 Deciding to build an Agent: experiment or bet?

20:23 Going all-in on Agent in 2025: believing Agents will replace apps, or following the Agent hype?

22:17 User stories from Bobby's beta period

26:32 For ordinary users, two barriers to using trading tools: psychological barrier, operational barrier

28:18 Using a trading Agent: interaction lowers psychological barrier, automated execution reduces tool friction

31:29 Bobby took 1.5 years to develop — what detours along the way?

33:48 Key beta metrics: activity indicators, problem-solving

35:09 Stories of users making money with Bobby

38:37 Future Bobby will proactively offer users trading inspiration/advice

41:48 How to reduce R&D costs during development, and what decisions proved correct in hindsight?

🟢 Part Two: Vakee's Personal Journey: Stock Trading, Baidu, AI

44:58 Influenced by those around her, exposed to stock trading from a young age

46:38 From Fudan to Imperial College: from advertising and finance to data science — the underlying nature of things is interconnected

48:10 Returning to join Baidu: had to join the mobile internet wave

49:58 Why did Baidu, with abundant AI talent, fail to achieve dominant leadership?

51:35 Baidu pursued businesses it wasn't good at, like the O2O era

52:41 Baidu performed well when AI was applied to recommendation algorithms, but made many unsuitable business choices before large models

56:01 What's most important in entrepreneurship: 1) what you believe in, 2) how to lead the team running in that direction

56:39 What inspired Vakee to start RockFlow: "Retail Investors vs. Wall Street"

57:47 How young people's investing has changed dramatically: using investment to express attitudes

59:11 Four dimensions for entrepreneurial decision-making

01:05:14 "I also earn within my circle of competence; the only extra effort is how to amplify the payoff ratio"

01:06:34 Recent viral Xiaohongshu post: "How Ordinary People Can Spot the Next Big Trend Around Them"

01:08:35 First, not everyone can make money investing; second, the key is observing from daily life

01:12:04 Primary investing, secondary investing, and entrepreneurship share one common ability: judgment

01:13:30 Hoping investing becomes accessible to all, letting more people participate in world changes through investment

01:16:27 Ordinary people may not be unable to notice investment opportunities; they also need rational voices to keep them in check

01:19:44 Investing is about staying at the table, waiting for your opportunity — risk management matters most

Welcome to subscribe to the "Crossroads" podcast 🚦 We follow the industry transformations and entrepreneurial opportunities brought by the new wave of AI technology.

🚦 Crossroads is Steve Jobs' metaphor for Apple — standing at the intersection of technology and liberal arts, where great products are born. AI is transforming every industry. We seek out, interview, and unite a new generation of AI entrepreneurs and active participants in the AI era. Together with them, we explore and embrace new changes and new possibilities.

👦🏻 Host Koji: I co-founded Jiepang / The Fair / Tangdao, and initiated AI Hacker House, a community space for a new generation of AI entrepreneurs. I believe technology, especially AI, is the greatest value creation opportunity of our generation. Welcome to chat with me, bounce ideas, and connect to the next possibility. Koji's Jike, Koji's website

👧🏻 Host Ronghui: I've worked at a USD VC and spent five years as a Silicon Valley correspondent, following tech development and business stories. Welcome to chat and exchange ideas with me. Ronghui's Jike

🎄 This podcast is supported by The Fair's Sound Forest Podcast Initiative.