Jason talks to Rishi Khanna, CEO of StockTwits. It is a social media platform for the retail investing and trading community, known for inventing the cash tag. Rishi talks about his vision involving horizontal expansion to become a global platform and vertical expansion into diverse asset classes, while leveraging the culture of money and markets and the significance of live interactions.
Episode Highlights
- 01:00: StockTwits has expanded beyond U.S. stocks to cover Canadian equities, Indian equities, cryptocurrencies, and other assets.
- 01:16: The company aims to provide a highly engaging place for global investors to connect, learn, and have fun while profiting.
- 03:10: Rishi Khanna got involved with StockTwits in late 2019 after knowing the company for several years. He was invited to help build the next phase of StockTwits' vision, expanding its value to the investing community throughout the investing life cycle.
- 03:35: Rishi mentions joining in January 2020 and how the world changed drastically during that time.
- 04:07: Jason suggests having a dedicated social media outlet for a specific community of interest.
- 06:08: Rishi discusses unlocking and utilizing unique data points, such as social sentiment data, trending activity data, and messaging bonds.
- 07:37: Rishi highlights the importance of enriching the execution experience and providing a comprehensive toolset for users.
- 08:57: Rishi discusses the challenges of the equity trading business model.
- 10:26: Jason mentions the monetization strategy of advertising on the social media platform.
- 20:45: The conversation touches on the introduction of trending streams and the importance of trust and quality conversations on the platform.
- 22:20: Rishi Khanna expresses his wish to change the default position of cynicism and distrust in communications.
3 Key Points
- Rishi talks about the importance of data and information in the investing life cycle.
- Rishi discusses the challenges of the equity trading business model, particularly in the US where it is highly commoditized and most big platforms offer free trading.
- Rishi explains how to facilitate and enable investors to explore and connect with different asset classes, find their tribes, engage in conversations, learn, and potentially build wealth.
Tweetable Quotes
- "Equity trading is not a great business model. It's very hard to generate revenue to cover costs." - Rishi
- "We're expanding globally to become the go-to platform for the retail investing community. Launching in India is just the beginning." - Rishi
- "Our goal is to expand the asset classes and cater to the diverse interests within the investing and trading community. There are many micro-communities within this space." - Rishi
- "Changing things is a challenge... users hate change, especially if they've been using [the platform] for 10 plus years." - Rishi Khanna
- "We punch way above our weight class... getting to take on these challenges and problems every day is fun." - Rishi Khanna
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