Originally published on Commonstock.
I recently joined Commonstock as a Community Product Manager and couldn’t be more excited about the massive opportunity ahead!
Commonstock’s on a mission to improve the world’s financial health through democratizing investing knowledge for retail investors, a mission that resonates deeply with me.
From a macro perspective, Commonstock is building a platform at the intersection of two topics I spend a lot of time thinking about: investing & community. I’ve spent the last 10 years learning about and working in investing across public/private markets and there’s never been more enthusiasm for retail investing. We’ve seen a surge in interest in owning assets and a fundamental shift in how we talk about money.
Why Commonstock
1 Alignment with my personal mission: Democratizing investing (and personal finance broadly) is a personal mission of mine.
Having started my career in asset management and learning the fundamentals of investing from the institutional perspective, I often wondered how folks outside of finance grappled with the complexities of portfolio positioning, risk exposure, and generally understanding the markets when they were fully immersed in another profession.
While there are classes of retail investors who have certainly generated impressive returns, there is a much larger population of folks (particularly women and underrepresented investors) who shy away from the markets given its opacity and the lack of access to high quality information. Rather than lock up investment knowledge to a certain group of investors, Commonstock is building a platform to surface the signal from the noise for the next generation of investors by verifying track records.
2 The rise of online communities: I’m bullish on the future of digital communities and firmly believe they’ll transform the way we build relationships and access knowledge.
Commonstock has been at the forefront of social investing, enabling experienced investors to share their expertise via high quality memos with new and experienced investors alike. As the platform evolves, our key focus is to bring transparency to the retail investing process and support creators in the investing space who provide valuable content for our community.
3 Lastly and most importantly, blown away by the stellar team: When thinking about how I want to spend my waking hours, my top priority is growing alongside a passionate, driven, ethical, and empathetic team.
I’ve gotten to known David over the last few months and am consistently blown away by his endless passion for executing on the mission that Commonstock has set out to achieve. His enthusiasm for the world we’re building towards is contagious.
A few months ago, David brought on Brenden to run product. I knew that I wanted to jump back into product management and learn from an inspiring product leader who has launched and landed products at all stages of the product lifecycle. Brenden fits that bill and more. He brings the intense focus and discipline to product that I’ve been searching for.
The team itself is made up of folks who have built out their own investing side projects, are deeply entrenched in the public markets as investors themselves, and are energized by building the future of finance together. Conversations with David, Brenden, and the broader team sold me. It’s been a blast getting to know this team and I feel immense gratitude for the opportunity to learn, grow, and build with them.
I’m psyched to be hopping on this rocketship to improve the world’s financial health with the Commonstock team.
If you’re excited about building a better future for retail investors — we’re hiring! My DMs are open. Let’s chat!
As I embark on this new adventure, a big thank you to the GV team for teaching me about the world of venture and early-stage startups. A huge shout out to Kate Aronowitz, Vanessa Cho, Candice Morgan, and Michael Margolis in particular.
And immense gratitude to Rick Klau, Deena Shakir, and Tracie Rotter for taking a shot on me two years ago and bringing me onboard at GV. Life’s never been the same — thank you for your unwavering support.
