Aiming to draw a younger generation into the world of investments, two friends recently started a mutual fund that makes use of MySpace, YouTube, and fashion Web logs.

The founders of GendeX, James Perkins, 28, a Yale graduate, and Khalid Jones, 29, a Stanford Law School graduate, are targeting a demographic that “more established players have decided is not important enough to service,” Mr. Jones said. “We’re making something that was closed off to a certain ilk open to all.” The two met while attending high school in Little Rock, Ark.

GendeX is easily accessible to novice investors, because it requires just $100 for the minimum initial investment, with an additional $50 to be invested each month. Traditionally, mutual funds, companies that pool the money of many different investors and place it in an assortment of stocks and bonds, require initial investments of thousands or tens of thousands of dollars.

“We hope to convince young people that financial services can be integrated into their lifestyle,” Mr. Perkins said. In other words, he wants to “usher in an era of sexy responsibility.”

The GendeX Web site features fashionable 20-somethings, jazzy background music, and educational YouTube videos where Messrs. Perkins and Jones explain the complexities of investing in a style more akin to MTV News than CNBC.

Their investment strategy is also easy to understand: GendeX is buying stocks in companies that its target demographic is already familiar with, including Apple Inc., Gucci, and Volkswagen. The goal is a 10% to 15% annual return while charging its investors a relatively low 1% management fee.

The idea is “brilliant,” a professor of finance at Northeastern University in Boston, Harold Platt, said. “These guys have found a market niche that has been overlooked for way too long.”

The mutual fund grew out of a company launched by Mr. Perkins in 2005, Thrasher Capital Management, which he started after growing tired of slogging away as an analyst at Morgan Stanley and, later, Sanford Bernstein. After two years with Thrasher Capital Management, which offers investment advice to hedge fund managers, Mr. Perkins withdrew $100,000 from the company’s assets to seed GendeX. He brought in Mr. Jones, who was practicing securities law for the Washington, D.C., office of Mayer Brown, to be the chief operating officer.

Although GendeX is much smaller than other mutual funds, many of which manage billions of dollars in assets, Mr. Platt said he doesn’t see the fund’s small size as a negative. Smaller funds have more flexibility, he says: “It’s easier for them to get into positions and it’s easier for them to get out.”

Most mutual funds have had a tough time in recent months as a result of the subprime mortgage crisis, but the founders of GendeX remain confident. “November was good for us,” Mr. Jones said. “These are record lows, so investing now can be really positive.”

Mr. Jones is quick to explain that his fund managers will not act like day traders, who try to take advantage of short-term market fluctuations. “We are taking a long-term view,” he says. “There will be very low turnover in our portfolio management.”

Mr. Platt says the angle is smart. “All of the mutual fund companies are out there competing for business amongst one population right now, which is those people either approaching retirement or actually just retired,” he said. “In truth I think the cohort that Thrasher is going after is much larger.”

Mr. Perkins points out that GendeX’s offbeat marketing strategy is based on rigorous research. “We don’t just use technology because it’s cool and because it’s technology. We’re focused on serving this demographic as best we can, and that just happens to include having the materials in the places that they traffic.” Mr. Perkins’s fund has its own MySpace page, which boasts more than 300 friends, and uses the fashion blog Daily Candy to communicate with its target audience.

Don’t be fooled by GendeX’s hip image, either, he says. “We’re a younger firm and we have young managers, but it’s really an old-fashioned business. We’re priding ourselves on service, on having market relevance, and new products.”