POWER LEADER: Public's Katie Perry talks rise of the retail investor evolution

Welcome back to the Power Leaders series -- interviews with tech leaders who are leading change, innovation and disrupting their respective industries.

The next interview is someone I have followed since practically day one in her role at investing platform Public.com. She has since grown into her current title as GM, IR Innovation and has been one of the key brains behind Public’s viral marketing campaigns, like “Break Up with Your Brokerage” with Michael Bolton and this TikTok ad campaign.

I’m always excited to learn from people actually DOING in the world -- and Katie is definitely someone who consistently walks the talk.

Here we go…

SE: What innovations are you bringing to your industry? What sets you apart from your competitors?

KP: There are a lot of factors that go into competitive differentiation. For us, it’s always been about playing our own game and building at the intersection of our mission—which is to make the public markets work for all people—and the evolving needs of retail investors. For example, we were the first investing platform to offer real-time fractional investing.  In 2020 we were the first brokerage platform to provide Safety Labels on assets that may be potentially risky. In 2021, we made the decision to eliminate PFOF from our revenue model (most of our peers still make money this way), and we’re also the first and only investing platform to provide live shows that give our users breakdowns of trending market news and events. We’re also one of the few platforms that offer the ability to buy T-bills as a cash-alternative alongside investments in other assets like stocks, ETFs, and cryptos.

A mentor of mine used to quote Game of Thrones and say, “Chaos is a ladder.” While nobody wishes for market turbulence, we’ve seen these times drive huge personal growth for our community, and opportunities for us to step up for our customers and delight them with features that help them become better investors.

SE: What is a recent win or announcement your company just celebrated? Why does it matter?

KP: I’m personally excited about Treasuries on Public. We’re providing a frictionless way to buy government-backed treasury bills, which are widely regarded as one of the safest places to park uninvested cash since their backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government.

We’ve also been hard at work programming, Exchange, a first-of-its-kind retail investor conference that provides a full day of programming that’s free and open to any retail investor, anywhere in the world. The speaker lineup is incredible, and it includes Rep. Abigail Spanberger (VA-07), one of the leading voices advocating for a congressional stock trading ban, A Starting Point co-founder and actor Chris Evans, Cathie Wood, and more than 20+ professors, policy experts, executives, and experts. The conference is taking place on Wednesday, March 29 and you can RSVP here.\

Finally, I can’t disclose the details just yet, but we’re soon announcing a major content series designed to help investors improve their proficiency when it comes to fiscal and monetary policy. We’ll be announcing that in April, so stay tuned for more.

SE: What pain point(s) does your company solve?

KP: Public was founded with the mission to make the public markets work for everyone. Our platform makes it possible to manage all of your investments, all in one place, across a range of asset types including stocks, treasuries, crypto, ETFs, and alternative assets. We’ve also differentiated by offering access to insights, via analysts, experts, and executives—as well as advanced data and metrics—so that our members can navigate market events and become better investors.

SE: What are your company’s industry major challenges right now?

KP: Looking back to the past few years, when most people think of investing democratization, they think of zero-commission structures and making it easier for people to buy and sell assets. Our mission to “make the markets work for all people” includes reducing friction to assets (T-bills being a recent example), but also includes other ways we are aligning our roadmap and business structure to meet the needs of modern retail investors. In 2021, we removed Payment for Order Flow (PFOF) from our business model in order to align our incentives with the best interests of our members. We also believe that access shouldn’t stop at assets, and so we’ve placed a specific focus on embedded context in the platform. This is extremely important during times of uncertainty and volatility. We’re also giving our members direct access to the analysts, experts, execs, and thinkers that have historically only been accessible to institutional investors. On March 29, we’re hosting our first virtual conference, Exchange, which is free and open to the public. Speakers include Rep. Abigail Spanberger (VA-07), co-author of the TRUST in Congress Act to ban congressional stock trading, __A Starting Point’__s Chris Evans and Mark Kassen, ARK Invest’s Cathie Wood,  NYU Stern professors Scott Galloway and Aswath Damodaran, fintech policy expert and Georgetown Professor Dr. Chris Brummer, and many more.

SE: What stories aren’t currently being told about your industry that your audience should know?

KP: To my prior point, I think some of the commentary around retail investors is somewhat reductive and fails to capture the nuances of these investors. In my role at Public I have a front row seat to the evolving behaviors, habits, and strategies of retail investors. The “meme investor” stereotype is inaccurate in our view, because what we’ve seen is an evolution of retail investors with 63% of them telling us that persevering through volatility in 2022 has inspired them to be more focused on fundamental analysis and research. The stock market went mainstream in 2021, and it’s true that for some investors, their first introduction to the market may have been a meme stock or crypto, or perhaps seeing Pete Davidson portray a GameStop trader on SNL. At Public, we think that the more entry points and introductions people have to the market, the better. There shouldn’t be judgment based on someone’s entry point, because that’s just the beginning of the journey. Our data shows that for most people whose first investment on Public was a speculative asset, a majority went on to diversify over time. The more mainstream this stuff is the better, and we’re building Public to be the place where you can invest in almost everything, and level up your skills over time.

SE: How do you envision your business changing in the next 3-5 years?

KP: We will continue to advance on our mission of making the public markets work for all people. We are constantly listening to our members and adding and shaping our product in response to their evolving needs. This means not just focusing on offering stocks or ETFs, but being the investing platform for everything, including alternative assets like fractionalized real estate and fine art,  and additional fixed-income products. When our members were increasingly craving more ways to research deeper metrics and gain insights, we added Public Premium, which is a subscription offering that provides digestible visualizations of key financial metrics and access to exclusive market briefs from top analysts. When we saw our members were increasingly diversifying and de-risking due to market volatility in 2022, we built a way for them to buy U.S. backed T-bills within our platform, saving them the hassle of doing so on the Treasury Direct website. We will continue to iterate as our member needs change and look forward to continuing to be the platform that is meeting the needs of today’s retail investors.

SE: What changes do you think are necessary for your industry to stay competitive in current economic times?

KP: I can’t speak for the entire industry, but our mindset has always been a balance of optimism with realism. We’re optimistic because we have seen economic volatility introduce investors to new concepts and give them the ability to learn in real-time, sort of like how one gets more fluent in a foreign language by going to a place where it’s spoken. We’re realistic because we understand that for some investors, this is their first real experience with this level of volatility, and so we really work hard to provide context within our platform so you’re understanding the “why” and not just staring at charts and numbers. I also think fintech companies, especially those within concentrated markets, need to develop a lot of empathy when it comes to their customers, and take the time to listen to and understand them, instead of applying one’s own biases without regard for how a diverse range of customers might think and behave.

SE: What measures has your organization taken to ensure you're driving towards the most important goals?

KP: Our mission is embedded in the entirety of our platform, from business structure to product to editorial and everything in between. We also have well-established cultural principles that guide our ways of working and how we drive toward our goals. Our #1 principle is “Honesty kills bullshit,” which establishes a baseline of honesty through which we communicate and achieve efficiency. Setting a tone of being (respectfully) candid allows us to move fast, make collaborative decisions quicker, and maintain speed to market as our company scales.