Very Young Nation America: It's Now All-Grown-Up

 "In the first quarter, Robinhood’s monthly active users fell 10% year-on-year to 15.9 million ... Net funded accounts have held steady, but activity is flatlining: Transaction revenues fell by almost half, and average quarterly revenue per user slumped 61% to $53." - Bloomberg, August 29, 2022.

COOL NEW FORM OF ENTERTAINMENT

Robinhood had been a multi-dimensional business.

Yes, it provided a no-minumum requirement commission-free platform for investment in stocks, options, EFTs, and crypto. That was its mission: democratizing investing.

In addition, though, it conjured up a cool hang-out for those who could take on the role of player in the markets. That became a new kind of entertainment. You could have a lot of fun even though you had only about 200 bucks to invest. 

PILE-ON OF CHANGE

Currently, though, fewer are drawn the Robinhood model. Times have changed. And not only for Robinhood but for many other modes of entertainment.

Fewer are going out to the movies.

Fewer are depending on Netflix for their entertainment. The format for delivering that is out-of-date for how customers want their enterainment packaged and delivered.

In addition, one wonders if financially angst-ridden America will find it entertaining to have fun made of business. That includes the business of law, which could shift from boom to a recessionary environment.

Chief Comedy Site for deriding the culture of law firms - AbovetheLaw - could find itself out of sync with taste. Even law students and junior lawyers might not assess its tone and content a barrel of laughs. Internally at law firms those who still have those well-paying jobs, after layoffs hit, could turn on the leakers to ATL. One more thing: Maybe law itself isn't high comedy. The Morning Feed putting a funny spin on legal developments could become downright offensive. Law students and lawyers need solutions for their career and case-strategy problems. Not joking around. 

THE HUMAN

Entertainment is only one aspect of the absolute need of business to get, hold, and grow attention, of course. Without attention, customers and clients don't know what you're selling. Regulators don't know your side of the story. The media outlets lack information and insight about how you differentiate yourself from the competition. And you wind up losing confidence in yourself.

What has been engaging us has been the human. That actually could be getting more attention than the entertainment provided by Elon Musk's brash antics.

What is interesting us about Twitter are the reports of tears and self-doubt by the leadership. Durring a meeting with colleagues the head of Twitter legal Vijaya Gadde wept when discussing the group's accomplishments. While speaking to all employees Chief Executive Officer Parag Agrawal admitted he wished he had done thing better managing the Musk Everything. 

LinkedIn, which started out as a professional network, has evolved into a personal one for professionals. What attracts the likes, comments, and shares are the human disclosures. Popular poster lawyer Colin Levy received plenty of page views when he shared that he had failed the bar exam the first time around.

ESG is making the digital front page news in the media what workers want. That is the very human side of business. At Salesforce, the story has been about eliminating the NDA concealment provisions related to alleged sexual and discrimination wrongdoing. Here is the Bloomberg coverage.

ALL GROWN UP?

Perhaps America, a very young nation, is growing up.

Investing funds is not entertainment.

Netflix should have kept up with the competition.

Careers in law and the institution of law shouldn't become comedic scripting by Abovethelaw.

Connect with Editor-in-Chief Jane Genova at janegenova374@gmail.com