Happy Wednesday, my Chers! For those who don't know, ‘Cher(e)' is French for ‘dear' and also pronounced as ‘shares’. Finance made social with some wit. Genius? We know.

Our new ‘buy low, sell high’ emails are going straight to your inbox on a weekly basis so you can keep up with our micro-communities, if you're not already part of our Alpha program. We'll keep you posted on our Beta roll-out this week, and our event with renowned economist, Professor Neubert, happening tonight on CH. 

In other news… Clubhouse becomes the next ‘IG Stories’ feature as Spotify and LinkedIn look at copycats, Coinbase releases their financials, and a veteran investor loses $10B in 2 days.

Cheres is where you can see your friends' trades, prompting the ‘why did you invest’ versus the ‘what are you investing in’ question. To break it down:

• ️We connect with your brokerage, so you don't have to spend time manually sharing trades with friends via Whatsapp, iMessage, Discord, etc.

• Keep up with your multiple friend groups, like your besties, colleagues, and family, by chatting about your investments and attending our events.

• Become a better investor, by having us provide personalized benchmarks to show you how you're doing compared to those most like you.

Micro-communities

We're powered by ‘micro-communities’ (MC's), a coined term, which means a collective of small private friend groups with shared identity. Thinking about our native New York, there's a plethora of colorful MC's.  

To name a few, there's the skateboarders by FiDi who love their Vans (NYSE: VFC), the Chromatica Oreo fans (Lady Gaga gang) in Hell's Kitchen (NASDAQ: MDLZ), the Williamsburg artists (~InSerT~ NFTs) and the Midtown uniform crew (Patagonia is a privately held company. Ultimately, you probably belong to a couple of micro-communities, yourself! 

Cheres is the collective, and we make home to you and your multiple micro-communities, while supporting your investing journey. Trust can only be instilled to the world of finance by those you care most about - your friends.

Another day, another Clubhouse

As audio apps continue to dominate conversation, the biggest question that remains is whether CH will be a neighbor's product play or an app's latest feature like Instagram Stories once was. Product Managers, we're looking to you.

Defensibility aside (a rant for another time), here's a quick ‘copycat’ timeline to catch you up.

• Discord adds “Stage Channels”

• Twitter creates “Twitter Spaces,” mobile-only audio-type stories / fleets

• Facebook reports they're working on their own version of Clubhouse

• Slack reports it'll soon add a range of audio features to its chat app

• LinkedIn works on its own audio feature based on professional identity

• Spotify acquires Locker Room to compete with Clubhouse around ~$50M

Growth tactics like ‘invite-only’ and shocking draws from its inception like Silicon Valley's biggest names hosting semi-private rooms can only go so far without a full fledged growth plan. According to notes reporter, Casey Newton, sign-ups at the audio social network were down 73% in February & March. Speculations as to why include increased vaccinations, event-based spikes like Elon Musk or the Biebs, and (wait for it), rivals have been able to easily replicate the technology. No tech moat, no love…

Quick News Bites

Coinbase releases its Q1 results ahead of IPO

As it prepares to go public on April 14 under COIN (Nasdaq), Coinbase reveals its first-quarter financial results and full-year outlook. Recently, the firm has been valued at $100B.

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner? Veteran investor loses $10B in 2 days

Bill Hwang was the financial force behind $20 billion in shares of ViacomCBS, making him the single largest shareholder. As the media company fell in March and lenders demanded their money, Hwang's firm Archegos, couldn't foot the bill. Assets were seized and the 57-year-old's personal wealth became a story as old as Wall Street, itself.

Social meets Finance

Cheres is also where Hinge meets investing ~ but a friendlier ‘crew’ version. When you opt into our ‘New Chers’ game, you're prompted to select 4 people you'd like to get to know. We'll match y'all up and have you collectively play WNRS, so you can deeply connect. Like the crew? Create a micro-community where you can see a feed of their trades and continue chatting.

About the game

“While the Instagram posts tend to spark introspection, the card game is proving to be a way for people to connect during this time of social distance. The game has even been played on Instagram Live during isolation by Hailey Bieber and Stassie, in addition to Penn Badgley (most recently of You) and Noah Centineo (of To All the Boys I've Loved Before).” 

 - Forbes