Ready? Let’s talk talk money, startups and spicy IPO rumors. Hey! It’s going to be a long weekend here in the US, which means this newsletter is in me and the work is coming to an end. So, we’re going to put more pressure on the subject as usual because I’m a glutton of both punishment and writing. But I repeat myself.
Something I really enjoyed this week was filing a Robinhood IPO. You can read our first look here and dig deeper into the numbers here. But today we are spreading culture. Observe the following parts, the first of the company’s target notes through its S-1 filing:
Over time, we strive to build Robinhood globally as the most trusted, least expensive, and most culturally relevant money app. Wonder if “culturally relevant” has turned it into a mix? Then check it out (emphasized) from the prospectus overview section:
Cultural influences. We introduced commission-free stock trading without any account minimum, which the rest of the industry imitated, and we continue to build relationships with our customers by introducing new products that expand further access to the financial system.
We believe that we have made investing culturally relevant and understandable and that our platform is enabling our customers to be long-term investors and take greater control of their finances. According to an internal brand study we conducted in March 2021, 18-44 year olds in the United States know who Robinhood is.
As a further indication of our relevance today, Robinhood reached number one on the Apple App Store more than once in the first quarter of 2021, and was often at the top of the Apple App Store’s finance segment between 2020 and the first quarter of 2021, whatever the arrogance of the App Store. The focus of culture grabs me.
I often see cultures evolving over time; Tiktok has further accelerated the trend. And among the youth of the world I am endangered, the line between brands and cultures is blurring as brands work to do more in the cultural realm. The Robinhood S-1 is ahead in a variety of ways, but it feels like the future for an organization to see the public discuss culture in this way.
