2023 Young Entrepreneur of the Year: Financial technology entrepreneur Maxwell Nicholson has a knack for DIY projects

Blossom is a social investing platform for new investors

For someone under 30, Maxwell Nicholson has already lived a surprising number of lives. At the age of 13, he opened a cupcake shop in his hometown of Grand Forks, receiving media attention and acclaim. He later attended the University of Victoria, where he served as director of external relations for the school’s student association, served as an instructor as an undergraduate, and wrote the ECON 103 textbook (I’m not kidding). Oh, and he has worked both as a full-stack developer at a San Francisco startup and as a business analyst for global management giant McKinsey & Company.

With the world basically at his fingertips, Nicholson decided to combine his practical skills with his entrepreneurial roots and in 2021 launch Blossom, a social investing platform. We have three pillars: community, education and portfolio analysis, explains Nicholson on a Zoom call while in New Orleans for a fintech conference. Seeing the big shift from financial advisors to DIY investing, the younger generation wants to do it themselves. That’s why they turn to tools like Reddit, YouTube and TikTok for educational purposes. There is a gap in the market for a platform that would help DIY investors connect and empower themselves.

Blossom had over 60,000 users using its app and was in the top 50 in the App Store in the finance category. The company also brokered partnerships with key financial institutions, such as BMO. That’s one of the biggest reasons for expanding into the United States, says Nicholson. There are only 30 million people in Canada. Currently, one in 1,000 Canadians has downloaded our app. We want to involve a million people in this.

Nicholson is currently in the midst of a $2.5 million fundraising round, 30 percent of which has already been committed. But despite everything he’s done, Nicholson is still a kid making cupcakes in Grand Forks. For me, business is very tangible, he says. I made cupcakes, brought them to the market, sold them to a customer and watched them bite into them right before my eyes. Even when I think about creating a product at Blossom, that’s the lens I have. It’s about building it for the customer, delivering it to them and making them happy.