"Don't overprice yourself. It's a lot easier to start a business by being a value provider as opposed to having premium prices."
The above statement made me curious to know more about the person who said it. His name is Rodger O. Riney. He is a self-made billionaire who believes cheap and good is the winning formula for a successful business.
This unique approach made him one of the richest people in the world. His network exceeds $3.6 billion, making him the fourth richest person in St. Louis, Missouri.
How did Rodger O. Riney make his money?
Rodger O. Riney is an American billionaire and the founder of Scottrade Financial Services, a stock brokerage acquired by T.D. Ameritrade in 2017 for $4 billion.
He grew up in Kirkwood and graduated from the University of Missouri with a Civil Engineering degree and an MBA. In 1965, while Riney was at school, he worked at Edwards Jones as an unpaid intern, where he connected with major players in the firm and learned a lot about the stock market.
So, when he graduated from college, he had an important decision: use his engineering degree and earn $12,000 per month, or join Edward D. Jones & Co. and earn $400 per month. His love for the stock market made his choice easy. He chose Edward D. Jones & Co. becuase he believed learning about stocks was the better choice for his future.
In 1980, Riney struck on his own.
After becoming a partner at Edward Jones, he left the company and created Scottrade Financial Services in 1980. The firm was one of the original "discount" stock brokers. As I stated earlier, he focused on two things cheap and good.
- Cheap: the term discount means that the firm charges less than the traditional stockbrokers who charge clients a lot of money per trade.
- Good: Rodger O. Riney wanted to provide the best customer service in the industry, and he credits the firm's success to his staff's ability to provide great customer service.
This focus allowed Riney's to open more than 500 branch offices and become one of the largest online trading firms. As a result, in 2001, J.D. Power and Associates named Scottrade Financial Services "Highest in Investor Satisfaction with Online Trading Services" for the first of many times.
Riney invested in cancer drug startup Arch Oncology.
Riney was diagnosed with blood cancer and multiple myeloma in 2015. At the same time, he kept growing Scottrade Financial Services until he sold it to T.D. Ameritrade in 2017 for $4 billion in cash and stocks and donated $200 million to charity later that year.
He has since invested $50 million in a company working to cure cancer, Arch Oncology. He also donated more than $40 million to Washington U. to fund research for neurodegenerative illnesses.
Have you heard about Rodger O. Riney before reading this article?
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