Bengaluru, Oct. 4 -- There was a time when becoming a stock market investor involved more effort than downloading an app.

You had to walk into a brokerage branch, open an account, meet a relationship manager and leave with a stack of research reports. Brokers printed sector reports, company notes and weekly newsletters in booklets.

For Angel One, founded in 1996 by Dinesh Thakkar as a traditional stockbroking house called Angel Broking, research was an acquisition strategy. By the early 2000s, it had research teams across over 100 branches, and at 8.30 every morning, they would hold a standing call with researchers across locations. The idea was that good research would bring customers through the door, and those customers would eventua...