TransparentShare Origin – The Story

The story behind TransparentShare

TransparentShare is an app for systematic stock valuation. It analyzes companies based on 12 key figures and provides clear buy or sell recommendations. In this article, I'll explain how the idea originated, how the valuation method developed, and how it evolved into a platform with over 1,200 analyzed stocks.

How did TransparentShare come about?

More than 30 years ago, I bought my first shares. I still vividly remember the euphoria when prices rose. A broad grin spread across my face. Like many others, I thought it would simply continue that way.

At that time, I certainly wasn't the only one who felt that way. Many of my friends and colleagues were also investing in stocks. It was a kind of frenzy. Everyone was talking about stocks, and everyone had a new recommendation ready.

But then the year came 2000, The dot-com bubble burst. The growth fantasies of many young technology companies were shattered within a short time. Many small investors lost a lot of money.

The DAX fell between 2000 and 2003 from over 8,000 points to around 2,200 points. Only in the year 2007 the old highs were reached again.

But the next crisis wasn't long in coming. In the year 2008 The Lehman Brothers collapse shook financial markets worldwide. Stock markets suddenly knew only one direction: down. Many investors lost all confidence in stocks for good.

I too suffered significant losses during this time and was close to giving up on the topic of stocks for good.

The beginning of a systematic stock valuation

In the year 2011 I began to delve more deeply into different approaches to systematic stock valuation. I was fascinated by the idea of evaluating companies not just based on gut feeling or recommendations, but using clearly defined key figures and verifiable criteria.

During this time, I read numerous books on different investment strategies. These included, among others... The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham as well as The relaxed path to wealth by Susan Levermann.

The different approaches helped me to better understand various valuation logics and investment principles. At the same time, I quickly realized that none of the methods fully met my own requirements.

Therefore, I began to compare the different ideas and key figures and adapt them for myself.

From Excel spreadsheet to your own evaluation method

To be able to analyze stocks systematically, I created my own Excel spreadsheet. In this spreadsheet, I entered the most important key figures I needed to evaluate a stock. Most of this data was freely available on the internet.

Back then, it took me about 20 minutes to fully evaluate a stock.

Whenever a stock was recommended on television (NTV) or in financial magazines, I opened my spreadsheet and checked whether the key figures actually supported a buy recommendation. In many cases, the result was: no buy recommendation.

However, some purchases turned out to be real hits.

However, manual data collection was tedious and difficult to reconcile with my busy professional life.

With every valuation and every investment decision, I gained new experience. Step by step, this led to the development of my own valuation method, which I have been continuously refining since 2011.

Automation of data analysis

In the year 2012 I had to take a short break from work for health reasons. I used this time to develop a program that automatically retrieves the necessary key performance indicators from the internet.

My programming skills as a software developer were a bit rusty at that point and needed to be refreshed. In the end, however, I managed to automatically collect around 80 percent of the required data.

I still had to enter some key figures manually. Nevertheless, the analysis time was significantly reduced. I now only needed about five minutes to evaluate a stock.

The system worked very well for my personal investments. Of course, there were also losses. Overall, however, the successful decisions clearly outweighed the unsuccessful ones.

My biggest problem, however, remained time. Even five minutes per share was too much in the long run.

The dream of automated stock analysis

For many years I had a clear dream:

I wake up in the morning, open my app and it tells me which stock has a buy or sell recommendation today.

In the year 2016 This dream became reality.

I was fortunate enough to meet Steffen. Steffen is an excellent and passionate developer who perfectly understands his craft. He was interested in my system, and I was looking for a developer who could help me with the technical implementation.

Sought, found.

Together, we developed the first version of the application in our free time. The original goal was only for my private investments.

Steffen and I have learned a lot from each other during this time and are now a well-coordinated team.

The first practical successes

Since January 2017 I use the app for my personal stock investments.

One example that particularly stuck in my mind was the buy recommendation for Lufthansa in January 2017. I bought the stock myself at €12.10 at the time. Within twelve months, the price rose to over €30.

Of course, not all recommendations were so successful. Overall, however, the system achieved very good results. In 2017, the return on our strategy was significantly higher than the performance of the DAX.

Whenever I showed the app to friends or acquaintances, there was a lot of interest. Many were surprised at how simply and clearly the stock valuations were presented.

Almost everyone asked me the same question at some point:

Why don't you make this app publicly available?

After much deliberation, I decided to take this step at the beginning of 2018. Alongside my full-time job in the IT industry, I started building a startup.

My goal was clear: I wanted to develop an application that makes stock valuations transparent, understandable and accessible to as many investors as possible.

Together with potential users, we conducted numerous interviews. We spoke with experienced investors as well as people who had no prior experience with stocks.

We spoke with people aged between 18 and 80, both with and without stock market experience. The result was clear: The app must be so simple that absolutely everyone can understand it.

Our objective was therefore clearly defined. The application should be so user-friendly that even people without stock market experience could easily use it. Essentially, it boils down to one simple question: Should you buy a stock, yes or no? And once you've bought it, the app should clearly indicate whether you should hold onto it or sell it.

We have consistently implemented precisely this simplicity in the development of TransparentShare.

Our first motto emerged from these discussions:

„"Transparent stock valuation for everyone."“

Ease of use became our most important design principle.

A highly experienced user experience designer helped us to make the application as intuitive as possible. Over several months of work resulted in more than 200 UI mockups, which we continuously tested and improved until the user interface was truly simple and clear.

The launch of TransparentShare

On January 1st 2019 The time had finally come. TransparentShare was officially released.

Previously, we had worked intensively with test users, analyzed their needs, and implemented many improvements.

The result was an application that even beginners can easily understand stock valuations.

Today, a dedicated team is working on the further development of TransparentShare. What began as a personal project has now become a platform that many people work on with passion.

Learn more about the people behind TransparentShare, our mission, and our values on our website: About Us page.

The development of TransparentShare

Since its launch in 2019, TransparentShare has been continuously developed. New features have been added step by step, and the number of analyzed stocks has grown significantly.

TransparentShare's origins: The most important milestones 

• 2019: The app launches with 150 German stocks.

• 2020: Integration of stock charts and international indices

• 2022: First optimization of the evaluation method

• 2023: Over 1,000 stocks analyzed

• 2024: Completely new app technology

• 2025: AI-supported optimization of the evaluation method

• 2026: More than 1,200 stocks analyzed worldwide

2019 TransparentShare initially launched with around 150 German stocks. I was already able to join in that same year. My first interview directly at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange to give. By the end of the year, the database had been significantly expanded to over 500 stocks.

2020 We expanded TransparentShare to include current news and stock charts. Users could now view the current price history for any stock directly in the app. With the inclusion of the S&P 500 and Euro Stoxx 50 indices, the number of analyzed stocks rose to over 600 companies.

2021 The database grew further to around 700 analyzed stocks.

2022 the first major optimization of our evaluation method. In a retrospective simulation of all recommendations, this adjustment led to an improvement in the average return per buy and sell transaction of 5.8 %.

2023 TransparentShare has exceeded the 1,000-stock mark for the first time. Companies from the FTSE, NASDAQ 100, and MSCI World indices have also been included in the analysis.

2024 was the Completely redesigned app from a new technological perspective. We implemented more than 20 improvements directly based on user feedback. The new technical platform allows us to develop and deploy new features significantly faster. At the same time, the number of companies analyzed grew to over 1,100 stocks, partly due to the inclusion of the Nikkei 225 and CAC 40 indices.

2025 followed the previous major advancement of the evaluation method. In particular for technology stocks, the valuation of several key figures was adjusted, including the price-to-earnings ratio (P/E ratio), the equity ratio and the price-to-book ratio (P/B ratio).

In a simulation of all buy and sell recommendations from January 2019 to September 2025, the new method would have achieved an average return of 13.88 % per trade – compared to the previous 11.03 %. This represents an improvement of 25.8 %, without taking dividends into account.

The optimization is based on the results of over 1,000 simulations conducted using artificial intelligence. This allowed us to further improve the evaluation logic and achieve more realistic analyses.

At the same time, TransparentShare's reach also grew significantly. Youtube channel It grew from around 500 to over 10,000 subscribers. We also launched the WhatsApp channel „Stock Buddy“, which is now followed by over 900 investors.

TransparentShare today

It is now the year 2026. TransparentShare has been on the market for seven years, and our valuation methodology has been continuously developed during this time. Today, TransparentShare analyzes over 1,200 stocks worldwide, including companies from the Hang Seng and ATX indices.

The following picture emerges for the period from 2019 to 2025:

• Average return per transaction: 14.12 percent excluding dividends
• Average holding period: 391 days

Taking dividends into account, we estimate the realistic return per transaction to be between 15 and 17 percent.

These figures are based on a simulation of several hundred buy and sell signals.

You can find more information about TransparentShare's return development since 2019 here.

You can find out exactly how TransparentShare's evaluation method works and which key figures are included in the analysis on our website. Concept page on stock valuation.

A glimpse into the future

I am very curious to see what the future holds.

Our goal remains unchanged: We want to help investors make better and more informed decisions on the stock market and make entering the stock market easier and more understandable.

If we succeed in taking away people's fear of stocks and giving them a clear basis for decision-making, we will have achieved a great deal.

Have I sparked your interest?

If you want to evaluate stocks more easily and systematically, you can try TransparentShare for free. The app shows you at a glance whether a stock is currently more of a buy, hold, or sell candidate.
Start using TransparentShare for free now.

I welcome any feedback that helps us to further improve TransparentShare.

Have fun and good luck with your investing!

If you'd like to follow my thoughts on stocks, investment strategies, and TransparentShare, feel free to follow me on LinkedIn.