The Social x Money Integration

I think we're just starting to recognize that transactions are a major method we can and want to communicate with others

Hey All,

Part of the genius of Venmo was the social feed. Transactions involve two or more parties, so it makes sense that there is something inherently social about spending and investing your money.

What Venmo did was translate some of the social pressure and turn it into a reward. In a sense, they added a social layer to their transaction app.

If we're splitting a bill at lunch, it can be kind of awkward. But Venmo makes it fun, and it sort of tops off the exchange with an emoji rather than an awkward ask.

Boldly, they even opened up the feed to the public so that you can see how else money is moving around between friends.

I often feel kind of nice when I see old friends who have gotten together exchanging money of some kind, and tagging what they're up to.

It's like a status update, but prompted by a transaction.

I think we're just starting to recognize that transactions are a major method we can and want to communicate with others. So there are new apps that are broadcasting these transactions, baking them into the product, and combining social with money.

I believe we're heading into an economy where there is the rise of an investing class, where new tools greatly democratize investing of all kinds.

And I believe that we're only at the start of products that are making investing available, and social.

Another app that's similar I've been playing around with is Public (referral code if you're curious) https://share.public.com/dsherry.

Public is an investing app that allows you to broadcast your portfolio, and any gain percentages or losses, without specifically showcasing the value in your portfolio.

Essentially, Public is like a version of Twitter where you can post updates about stocks you're interested in, mixed in with showing the receipt of real loss and gain (by %) in your portfolio.

This allows investors to show "proof of work" and puts a type of "skin in the game" for their investments.

It also easily bundles group chat into the application for discussion about stocks, trends etc.

One hack that members of public are starting to use in the platform is to sell a bit of their stock, or even a fraction simply to realize gains which allows them to share publicly.

To make that clear: Members are trading stocks and then selling a bit, just so that they can use it as proof/update to other members.

This functions well in a world with Fractional Shares and bodes well for social media platforms that have a wallet baked in, using micro-transactions for certain types of features such as tipping and likes.

You can imagine a world where Twitter has a wallet baked in and charges .001 cents to like a post. This would cut down on Twitter's spam problem, and add a new incentive for creators who are publishing to capture some of the upside of their work on the network.

So, as the transaction acts as a point of record (I paid you for lunch via Venmo, or "my pick last year for x stock was smart") I think we'll increasingly see social apps bake in these feeds where possible.

You can imagine this extending into digital goods and NFT's, and I think this will be a prime use-case for Blockchain.

I have yet to share much or transfer over my portfolio to Public, but if you want to follow me on there here I am:  public.com/dsherry

I'm looking forward to a time where a currency is a more deeply integrated part of the communication stack.

I think we'll get there sooner rather than later.

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Hey, what’s up it’s David. I love brand communication and helping founders grow. I founded Death to Stock and help organize Jacuzzi Club. etc. etc.