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Timestamps:

1. Built For Building: 8:43
2. The Cornell Cohort: 13:47
3. Growing in a Covid World: 18:59
4. The Need For Information: 22:07
5. News VS Newsletter: 24:49
6. Fintech is Human: 27:04
7. Intentionally International: 29:37
8.  Liquid Communities: 34:32
9. A Gift and a Curse: 35:23
10.  Crypto And Beyond: 45:54

Creating Community Through Fintech at Stocktwits

“If you solve the small problems, if you solve it for those individual communities, then you can connect them and bring them all together on a platform.” Rishi Khanna, CEO of Stocktwits

Stocktwits is what happens when content meets fintech, helping investors navigate the constant stream of information with its incredible community platform.

Back in 2021 more than 10 million retail investors took to the stock market on the back of the Gamestop stock frenzy. But not all of them had the experience and confidence to cut through all the noise and make great choices.

And that’s when Stocktwits comes in. Built like a social media platform, it allows investors to interact with financial media, investment/trading services, and the kinds of tools that genuinely add value.

Built to Build

“If you want to do something, if you want to build something and be a part of something, that’s going to be game changing, world changing industry changing, you’re probably gonna have to put in more than, you know, eight, nine hours a day, at least in the beginning.”

And Rishi’s never been afraid to put in the long hours in order to achieve his personal and professional goals. Drawing on the experience of his family, who moved to the US from India, Rishi felt a responsibility to work hard, but also appreciated the freedom his parents gave him to experiment, grow and learn.

And that dedication has paid off, with Stocktwits’ 5-million strong community, comprised mainly of active investors and traders.

The Power of Community

For Rishi, studying at Cornell was a significant step forward on his path to entrepreneurship. Surrounded by ambitious peers, the academic community spurred him towards launching his first business, a foreshadow of a certain global social media platform:

“We actually launched something called campusspot.com, which was a social network for college students to connect them. It didn’t quite take off in the same way as maybe some other social networks took off five to 10 years later.”

And Campus Spot was just the start with further iterations along the line before founding RKS Advisors in 2012. In 2020 Rishi joined Stocktwits, first as COO before stepping into the CEO role three months’ later.

Future Features

Stocktwits can no longer call itself a startup, having been in the fintech space since 2008, but Rishi and his team are still hungry to learn all they can and use their knowledge base to grow.

One area they’ll focus their sights on is a more global outreach. Currently, a US-centric platform, Rishi sees great potential in expanding the model across the world. South East Asia, in particular, provides a huge area of growth market opportunity.

But while success and strategy is never far from Rishi’s mind, so is his love of music born out in his role as the DJ you want at your party.

Music, Fintech and exponential growth – this is a CEO with a healthy love of fun and success.

Follow Rishi:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rishikhanna

Twitter: twitter.com/rkhanna

You can keep up-to-date with everything WTFinech? at https://workweek.com/brand/wtfintech/

And if you’ve enjoyed WTFintech? Why not try: Chicks of FinTwit, Tech Unlocked, Breaking Banks or Fintech Insider