It refers to the evolution of investing.
Some 200 years ago, the Dutch invented the mutual fund as a practical mechanism for small investors to participate in diversification benefits. Units of a mutual fund can only be purchased from the fund and redeemed at the fund, typically after the market closes.
More than 25 years ago, the first Exchange Traded Fund, where the ETF is set up as a financial management company with narrow investment goals imbedded in the company marketing and prospectus details and shares are sold to the public on the public exchanges, was established (SPDR S&P 100 ETF Trust (SPY)).
Since then, there really has’t been many new innovations for us small investor types, until now.
The new thing that is ‘Beyond ETFs’ is the SELF-DIRECTED FUND or Self-Directed Future. Owners of SDFs use information like found in an app (Beyond ETFs) to beat the Index, making it a superior investment vehicle than Exchange Traded Funds, just as ETFs were a superior investment vehicle to mutual funds.
On a more personal note:
My professional advisors by 2017 had recommended investments in mutual funds, index funds and bonds, which for me, in totality, delivered somewhat underperforming result. I fired my professional advisor when after one particularly large gap between the market performance and my portfolio’s results, I had had enough. I was going to convert all of that into an ETF to meet the Index, when my brother suggested that I deserved to beat the Index, not meet the index. And, the rest is history.
I didn’t buy that ETF, but instead built the BeyondETFs (the app) to enable my own Self-Directed Fund, which is what’s after exchange traded funds.