Consumer finance has been marked by periods of drastic increases in access via technology. I’m convinced the next step change in access will come from making investing a social activity and here’s why...

Discount brokerages arrived in the 70’s. Schwab was the tech innovator at the time. They figured out how to enable lower cost trading via phone call. Imagine that?! That broadened access to markets significantly...

The incumbents at the time said “Thats irresponsible. Who on earth would buy a stock over the phone with a broker they’ve never met!?” Turns out, a lot of people. Incumbents said that was a bad thing. Meanwhile, Boomers got access to markets for the first time...

Fast forward to v1 of the consumer internet era and the eTrades of the world broadened access once again off the backbone of nascent web + PC internet access. Same bemoaning of “Thats irresponsible!” by “experts” trying to defend their castle wall...

And now you have the robos (Wealthfront) and mobile-first brokerages (Robinhood) broadening access once again. And same old story... the incumbents talking about how that’s bad for the average investor... blah blah blah ...

What’s laughable about the incumbent argument is they’re acting like there’s an alternative for the average investor, which there isn’t, because the incumbents have high fees and high minimums! It’s just hot air stemming from fear of new competition...

But if internet access is now ubiquitous and there aren’t fundamental technology barriers to market access, then where will the next big access leap come from? Some would argue that it’s via more financial education but that’s never proven to be true...

Rather, I think it will come from merging the world of fintech and social. A platform that will foster the creation of 1,000 Jim Cramers, enable one-click copy and sharing of trades, and broaden access through existing trusted relationships while creating new relationships...

If this is true, someday there will be an online brokerage with 100M+ MAUs that span multiple geographies and brings genz into markets. Eventually it will grow to manage $20T+ in AUM in the next few decades...

What’s cool is that it’s starting already. The big banks and brokerages need to buckle up since the next 20 years for them is going to feel like what the last 20 years was like for brick and mortar retailers...

And you’ll also see examples of vertical social networks that are large and very profitable, debunking the prior belief that vertical social networks can’t be big enough companies. They’ll be lucrative b/c they will merge social with another sector’s business model.