The Story Behind YMI
Built from curiosity, conviction and a genuine interest in markets.
Young Minds Investing was founded by Burhan Sherdel — a business student who turned a growing passion for finance into a practical investment-focused company, starting at seventeen.
Burhan Sherdel
Founder, Young Minds Investing Ltd
Founder Story
Why I started YMI at seventeen.
I started Young Minds Investing because I kept asking a question nobody around me could answer: why does nobody teach young people how money actually works?
I was seventeen when I registered the company. Not because I had all the answers — I very much did not — but because I had spent enough time reading, researching, and sitting in rooms with people who worked at some of the world's leading financial institutions to understand that the gap between what young people are taught and what they actually need to know is enormous.
The more I learned, the more I realised that financial literacy is not a luxury. It is a foundation. Compound growth, risk, long-term thinking — these are not complicated ideas, but they are ideas that most people encounter too late, if at all. I wanted to change that.
YMI is my attempt to build something serious: a real investment company, run by young people, that also makes the knowledge I had to seek out for myself genuinely accessible to anyone who wants it. Not a school project. Not a simulation. A company that invests its own capital, does its own research, and takes the discipline of investing seriously.
I am still learning. That is the point.
Ka Matthew Cheng
Associate, Young Minds Investing Ltd
Associate Profile
As an Associate at YMI.
As an Associate at Young Minds Investing, we are a family investment company that invests its own capital, produces independent investment research, and develops financial education for a younger audience.
The company's work spans across four areas. It manages its own capital with a long-term perspective, basing decisions on research rather than sentiment. It studies businesses, sectors, and markets to understand what drives lasting value and how to identify quality. It measures success over years rather than quarters, treating patience as a genuine advantage. And it publishes plain-English education on topics such as compound growth, risk, and how markets work, alongside practical tools like a compound growth calculator.
Its investment philosophy combines fundamental analysis of business quality, financial strength, and competitive position with disciplined risk management. The company invests its own capital only and does not provide investment advice.
My approach to markets was formed through extensive independent study and regular engagement with practitioners from major financial institutions. That exposure shaped a conviction that core principles of investing, including compounding, risk, and patience, deserve to be understood far earlier than they typically are.
Industry Experience
Shaped by the industry's leading institutions.
Lloyds Banking Group
3 Insight webinars. In-person experiences, 4 days total, across two separate programmes. Achieved the highest profit outcome in a live pitch simulation across six competing teams, demonstrating the ability to apply financial decision-making under real-time pressure.
Morgan Stanley
2 weeks, virtual (Morgan Stanley Summer Academy). Built a practical understanding of global markets and financial modelling, completing the programme remotely while travelling through Southeast Asia.
Fulcrum Asset Management
1 week, in person. Gained first-hand insight into how a macro asset manager researches, constructs, and manages diversified portfolios at scale.
HSBC
Webinar (HSBC Infrastructure Finance insight session). Learned how large-scale infrastructure projects are structured and financed, and the role banks play in funding long-term projects.
Macquarie Group
9 months, mentored by the Head of Risk at Macquarie Group, an investment banker from MUFG, and the Head of Internal Audit at MUFG. Developed a rounded understanding of risk management, investment banking, and internal audit through direct mentorship across three senior professionals.
KPMG
Virtual insight session. Strengthened understanding of audit, assurance, and financial governance processes at one of the Big Four.
Schroders
Virtual insight session. Learned how institutional asset managers approach long-term investment strategy and client trust.
JPMorganChase
Investment Banking Job Simulation. Built practical M&A skills by identifying and evaluating a high-potential acquisition target, constructing a full DCF valuation model with sensitivity analysis, and producing a client-ready briefing on valuation rationale and auction strategy.
Barclays
Financial Analyst Work Experience. Strengthened financial decision-making by analysing and comparing budgeting strategies for cost efficiency, building a budgeting model in Excel, and presenting findings clearly to demonstrate analytical thinking and commercial awareness.
These experiences shaped the foundation I built Young Minds Investing on at seventeen: making the knowledge I had to seek out for myself accessible to every young person from the start.
What drives YMI
The principles behind the company.
Intellectual curiosity
Constantly reading, researching and questioning. The best investors are lifelong learners.
Long-term thinking
Measuring success in years, not days. Patience is one of the most powerful edges in investing.
Financial honesty
No exaggerated claims, no fake returns. Honest about what we know and what we are still learning.
Research-led decisions
Every view is backed by evidence. Analysis before action, always.
Interested in what YMI is building?
Whether you want to learn more about our approach, explore our investment tools, or simply start a conversation — we welcome it.