KATIE PERRY OF PUBLIC
Katie Perry is VP of Marketing for Public.com. Public makes the stock market social, inviting investors to share why they believe in companies and benefit from the collective wisdom of a transparent and constructive community.
Prior to Public, Katie was VP of Corporate Strategy at Comscore and spent two years as a strategic marketing and communications consultant for early-stage startups and media companies. Before that, she was Head of Brand Marketing for Suzy and was an early corporate marketing hire for 360i, an award-winning digital advertising agency.
Follow her on Public at Public.com/katiep.
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“...Women are very savvy, especially women who are very curious about investing. I think they are underserved by a lot of existing financial services companies, and I think we’ve seen a lot of progress there.
But for us it just makes sense. [Women] are a community of people who are interested and open and want to get involved, and so we really prioritize these partnerships.”
— Katie Perry
What inspired you to get involved in Public?
Throughout my career, I always really look for a few criteria of where I want to work; I've kind of developed this checklist over the years of the things I'm looking for. On that list, the biggest things for me are great leadership, a really solid product or service that I believe in, and a mission that resonates with me.
I had been working at a publicly traded data company prior to Public. My career mostly has been at smaller companies and startups. The experience at the public company was really, really good, it was very eye opening, and it was a good educational experience, but ultimately, I knew I wanted to get back to startups. I really like being on the ground and kind of being in the “do” mode versus the “plan” mode. I think at a bigger company, you're always kind of in “plan” mode.
So one of the co-CEOs of public had been one of my past clients (I used to consult startups on their early marketing strategy); we had caught up and he was telling me about this new thing he was working on, and it just immediately resonated with me. Fortunately I had parents that kind of taught me about investing and financial literacy from an early age; when I got to college and beyond, I realized that that was not the norm, and that there's a real big gap in terms of education on these issues. It creates this scenario where if you're in the know, you can potentially reap the benefits of that, but then there's a whole group of people that have a psychological barrier to entry because they think it's super complicated or scary. He showed me the product and I was immediately sold because I really thought the product was great, and the mission also was something that I really believed in. So I also got to go back to a startup; that was in the fall, and I'm just at six months now.
What are some standard investing practices or tips that you think all women should know?
As a brokerage, we don't give financial advice, but I can talk more broadly. It really depends on your objectives and your economic situation. Right now, it's really even tricky because we're obviously marketing an investing appt, but we have to be very cognizant that it's a very tough time economically for a lot of people; having some extra money, even if it's a small amount to invest, is definitely a luxury right now.
But I will say one thing that I tell all my friends is just, when it comes to financial literacy, this difference between “passive learning” and “active learning” – you need both of them. There's kind of this element of like the fundamentals of “what's the terminology? How does the market work? What are your options?” Understanding the language. That's all passive learning, and that is helpful when you get started to understand the language and how things work.
But then there's this other layer of active learning where you're actually doing. Previously, the “doing” was very hard to break into. You needed a lot of money to invest, or you needed a money manager, or you were going to have to pay a lot of commission fees, so a lot of people were blocked out from actively learning about investing in the past.
One thing I love about Public is it creates an opportunity for those who want it for active learning without putting a lot of skin in the game. So for $100 dollars, you can invest in several companies using fractional shares and get your feet wet in a way that's not super daunting or doesn't require a lot of capital upfront. The active learning, I think, is really interesting. I just had a friend who was using another product and she showed me a screenshot of it. She doesn't really know a lot about investing and she was just trying to learn. From what she showed me, you know, the experience for her onboarding was immediately a list of tickers, and she just had no idea how to navigate that.
In a scenario like the one we present in Public, you are automatically integrated within this community of investors: there’s a feed and you can kind of lurk in a way that's really constructive. Also, with the fractional shares, for ten dollars, you could buy a part of a share of Amazon, so that allows you to just get in there and learn in a way that is a little different than just reading a book. So we kind of think of it as almost like learning a language: you need to know the grammar and spelling and all of that stuff. But then there's this layer of– there's a reason people go abroad to communities that speak that language to really get fluency, so we're kind of trying to recreate that sort of experience in Public.
What are the benefits in making the stock market social as Public aims to do?
I think the most powerful thing about the social aspect is that it's removing a big psychological barrier to entry. In the past, there've been economic and psychological barriers to entry. I think with the social layer, it's flipping this notion on its head that investing used to be a very clandestine thing; money is such a personal topic. Historically, I think that's changing a little bit generationally. One example I always think of is that within a lot of companies, now you see people sharing their salary information because they know that with that collective knowledge, they can ensure that people are getting compensated fairly. Similarly, I think people are understanding that the more we can talk about these topics and the more we can bring those conversations into the open, the smarter we all are for it and that we’re kind of democratizing access to that information.
The social layer is totally an opt-in experience in Public: if you just want to use the app for fractional shares and keep your shares private, that's cool. You can also choose to only have certain shares be public and you can hide other ones if you want, so it's totally up to you. Sharing on Public really not about influencing other people what to do. It's about explaining what you did and why and having other people be able to ask questions from that and learn. From an investor standpoint, sharing makes you stop and think about your rationale; it’s almost like journaling around why you're investing, which is super helpful. But then from there, you can have these threads of comments where other people can participate in that experience and learn alongside you.
It’s super powerful, too, in terms of just tapping into the wisdom of the collective. Say I have a friend who builds products for a streaming media company, and she's investing in Roku. When I see that, I pay attention because she has expertise in that space. , I have another friend who does data analytics, etc., so you can kind of build this brain trust of people across different industries, which is a little different than just following people who are “financial experts.” So it's powerful that you can build these communities and learn about different industries and companies for people who have expertise in those areas. Because everyone's an expert in something, if you think about it.
What future developments do you see in the field of social investing apps such as Public?
One thing we just launched is Messages, which makes it possible to build group chats around investing and have dedicated conversations that are based on topics.
The insight there was that these conversations are already happening. So we built a messaging experience that's designed for investors: you can tag a ticker and have the chart embedded in the conversation and you can select the time range; you can reference other investors in the app so you can say check out, you know, Morgan's profile and tag her. Social is our core focus and where to keep building out features to make it easier to talk about investing. Our mission is to make investing more inclusive, educational and fun, and so the social piece is kind of foundational to all of that.
If someone is just getting started with investing on an app like Public, what advice would you give them?
One thing I always think about is on a lot of social platforms, the experience of learning is seen as a negative use of time: if you look on Instagram, you're almost feeling bad about it, having FOMO, etc. Every morning I log on Twitter and just immediately regret it because it's just this cascade of stress; it's too much information. But with Public, even on days I'm not investing, I'm not buying or selling, I'm still a long term investor, so I'm not really moving things around day to day. I'm in there every day, just like reading through the feed, because it's just really interesting to hear why people believe in certain companies and to follow kind of the threads. I think that if you're just getting started in an app like Public, even just like lurking for a bit is really, really a positive use of time, and it's really helpful.
You can also bookmark stocks and add them to your watchlist, so if you’re just getting started you can follow news items relevant to those companies you’ve marked as being of interest.
We also have an Explore tab that curates stocks by theme. Themes are bundles of stocks that reflect how you actually experience the world, so it's not like an ETF; you can't “buy” a Theme, but it's more about curating stocks based on topics that really make sense to people who aren't in the weeds of investing. For example, we have one around like female CEOs. We have one for companies that develop vegan products, like Beyond Meat. So if you can kind of dive into those topics based on your values or interests, you can kind of see what's out there in terms of public companies. One thing I've even realized (and I've been investing for years) is that I'm always surprised when companies I didn't know were public, so available, to invest in.
How does Public aim to deal with the gender gap in investing?
This is something I'm really, really passionate about. I mean, women invest 40 percent less than men. So if you think about it, the salary gap is terrible, and then consider the compounding effect of investments and you can see how that plays out. So that's leading to a delta of thousands and thousands, if not millions of dollars over someone's lifetime. The reason for that? There's no good reason for that. Investing is not a male topic. I get kind of frustrated when I hear people say, “Investing is a male topic.” It's not that it's a male topic. It's that historically it's been marketed to men. In fact, there are studies that show that when women do invest on average, they tend to outperform men. So I think we're really about making investing inclusive across all audiences.
I'm obviously passionate about women in particular, but we're really obsessed with building a product that feels familiar and intuitive to use, no matter who you are, and allowing for features that make it easier to learn from others. So I think a big part of that is just our community is a very broad and diverse community – it's even reflected in our investors. We're backed by Will Smith's venture fund and Sophia Amoroso, the founder of Girlboss, for example. It's a very kind of mainstream slate of investors which reflects our desire to make it more inclusive People have given us feedback that they appreciate going into the app and seeing [investors] that look like them.
What are some of your personal favorite companies right now, public or private?
I really like this question. So a couple I really love:
I really love Pinterest. I love it, especially right now. I think [there are] a few things. One, I read a lot about their leadership and I recently read an article that was talking about how they've been really committed to slow and steady growth, which I think is really differentiated in big tech. So they really built this amazing business over time. I also really appreciate that their platform promotes a positive use of digital attention; I feel like a lot of social media experiences feel like a negative use of attention or have been proven to be a negative use of attention. With Pinterest, it's all about tying inspiration to action in the real world and taking action on the things you are passionate about or interested in, and I think that's really cool. From a business standpoint, I think they have a lot of potential because they're kind of pushing people to take action to drive more commerce. So I think their advertising product, which hasn't necessarily soared yet, I think it has a lot of promise.
I also think they consistently take proactive measures to stop the spread of misinformation or harmful content. So there's all these little things built in. For example, if you type a keyword that's associated with an eating disorder, it's not going to show you those images. It's going to ask you if you need help. Just small nuances like that, I think, make them a leader among social media companies and just a great business overall. So I really believe in them. (Note: This is my personal opinion and is not investment advice.)
Another one is Microsoft. We were just talking about this within the team at Public about the consistency over time of Microsoft.
It's so hard to be innovative on a consistent basis, and they’ve been so rock solid through the years; it's hard to deny their impact on the world. I also really respect their CEO, Satya Nadella. From everything I've read, as someone who leads with empathy, I read this amazing article about how being a parent of special needs children has made him a better business leader. I think the ability to have a high performing business like that, but then [also] that sort of moral compass is really inspiring.
Then the last one is a private company. It’s called Wegmans; it’s a grocery store.
I grew up in Syracuse, New York, upstate, which is kind of near where Wegmans started. It's a family-owned business – I believe they've been named one of the best companies to work at as long as they have existed, every single year. They take care of their employees so well and they've been doing it before it was trendy to do it. I remember growing up, I had friends that worked there, I had friends’ parents that worked there. I mean, they just foster this amazing workplace, and then on top of that, it's just an incredible in-store experience, just the level of care and detail. I mean, people laugh because they're like “it's a grocery store”, but it's not – It's so much– it's so amazing. It’s family and right now the CEO is Colleen Wegman, who is the daughter of Danny Wegman, the original founder.
What's your favorite feature on Public?
I think it's definitely the messaging. It's been really cool to see that take off. Some of our users have started their own little groups invited me in, and it's fun to see people take to that. I also really like the Themes. it's always talking about Traditionally, financial news publications will talk about things like sector trends, and most people don’t look at the world and thinks like, “Oh like yeah, that sector.” People think about it in terms of their values and what they believe in and what they're interested in. So if you can kind of browse in a really fun way and just see what's there.
What makes Public unique?
The social piece is something no one else is really doing in the way that we are. Aside from that, I think the product is really, really well made. I'm not unbiased, but I've worked at a lot of tech companies and the small touches in UI and tech that make the experience. The feedback we get organically is always it feels familiar, I think it's really interesting that people are saying this, you know, not knowing, other people are saying it too, and that's a very intentional thing. We have amazing UI designers, just the attention to detail there is incredible.
Also, I we have an incredible tech and engineering team – doing what we do is not easy, like the fractional shares (breaking up shares in small pieces). That's really hard to do seamlessly. Our tech team are kind of in the background and you almost don't even think about it because it's very seamless. But the behind the scenes there is very impressive.
The last thing I would say is that our customer service isa big differentiator, in my view. I think a lot of tech companies are so focused on the tech side of things, but we have this human layer to everything in the app that is really, really powerful: they’re super quick to respond, they're super empathetic, and we really see them as our first line of marketing to current members. So what better way to kind of show who we are than to demonstrate it with the customer service and community management that we provide. I think they’re kind of an unsung hero of the business.
Who is a woman leader that you look up to and why?
Yes, I have a few.
First, I will go with Yamiche Alcindor, she's the White House correspondent for PBS. She is just such a beacon of integrity. She has such a pure focus on the truth and incredible poise under pressure. [With] most people you don't get to see them kind of excel at their job on camera every few days. But when I watch her, I'm just always in awe of everything she stands for, and just being a voice for the voiceless. I just have so much respect for her. There's also some other amazing women in the White House press corps right now, including Paula Reid, Weijia Jiang, Kaitlan Collins, and others. I think just seeing them do what they do even outside of the business world – I think their leadership is incredible. I admire all of them.
Also, Sophia Amoroso, one of our investors – I really admire her candor and transparency. So she's obviously been very public about her business journey. She has a book that's very popular. As a entrepreneur, she’s been on social media being very honest about what's going on, very real, and kind of talking through the experience. I don't think it's easy to be that raw, especially as a woman, when you're expected to always be buttoned up and not emotional in a professional setting. So I think that takes a lot of bravery on her part. It's also extremely constructive for other people to see what kind of what she's experienced, and the fact that she is so open about her experiences has kind of lifted up a lot of people around her.
Then we have one more investor,Morgan DeBaun, and she is the founder and CEO ofBlavity, which is a media company for black millennials – it's an incredible platform, she’s someone else who's just built an amazing business.
This article is for educational purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. When it comes to conversations about the stock market, past performance does not guarantee future results. The opinions of the investors shared are their own, and should not be taken as direct financial advice. For more information, see Public.com/disclosures.