Many companies/products use social (“multi-player”) as a way to get started, and then move more towards the financial (“single-player”) side of their offering.SoFi, again, built a tight community and then concentrated on lendingWealthfront, an investment firm, started out as KaChingRobinhood, started more social and then moved more towards transactionsProsper, another platform which started out more social

Single-Player and Multi-Player

Money is still private, so people are less likely to invite each other to a social product that involves moneyHowever, some companies are able to get past this by not blatantly linking to moneyRobinhood is one example. It functions more as a game and allows consumers to feel high class and adult since they have a portfolio

Why not stay social + finance?

Some emergent social trends stay niche (or subculture), but if stigmas drop for the trend, it could go viralCrypto is one socio-finance topic that has changed how we talk and think about moneyDebt is one of the hardest socio-finance topics to tap into, but Instagram hashtags are one place where this is changingProducts have focused on solving a functional/transactional part of a problem (changing the numbers).Now, products are also starting to focus on cognitive and emotional parts of problemsThere are also many offline socio-finance communities, which could be brought online

Examples of socio-finance topics, behavior, and formation…

Examples of companies doing this well:Joy – app to rate transactions by how you feelCredit Karma – making debt less scary and providing transparency so you can know how you stack up to othersExamples of not doing this well:Budgeting and personal finance apps. They have cognitive and functional value, but don’t tap into emotional aspectsPortfolio sharing products. Many try to be social, but too heavy into function

The emotional part of socio-finance needs to continue to be improved

Each new generation is sharing moreFinancial crises are driving people to talk about the elephants in the room (debt etc.)Hacker mindset is spilling over into finances; people want to beat the system

People are talking more publicly about their finances. Why?

Taking transaction to social (like Robinhood)From social sites, like those which have developed wallets etcFrom games, like Fortnite, which now has a token economyFrom platforms, such as Reddit (think WallStreetBets), which see crazy behaviors that could become mainstream…or not

New socio-finance companies/products could come from all areas

Interactions (emotional and cognitive things which occur between people) + transactions (the actual financial stuff going on). When these both work together, the results can be incredible. Examples:Venmo, which combined chat with money transfer (and an emoji)SoFi, does personal finance/lending, but made it cool to be one of their members with parties and an acronym

What is Social + Finance?

The intersection of social and finance—as well as shifting attitudes around what we share about money—have given way to a new wave of financial products.