The CEO (Dharmesh Shah) of newly public Hubspot $HUBS commented on Twitter the other day that public shareholders did not come with bragging rights.
Here is the exchange:
@DanielleMorrill That's my sales pitch to future angel investors: "There are no bragging rights from investing in public stock"
— Dharmesh Shah (@dharmesh) February 12, 2015
Dharmesh is correct so far about his stock …it is hard to find people bragging on Stocktwits about owning the stock. I have checked the stream and people think the stock will see the teens. If they are indeed short the stock, they will be bragging if the stock drops, because in the public markets, not only do people brag about owning winners, they brag about avoiding and shorting losers.
Dharmesh would do well by using Stocktwits or having his marketing department use Stocktwits to explain the big opportunity of Hubspot, marketing automation and why his company can break free of the valuation ceiling that many believe exists.
In fact – PR Newswire has found that Stocktwits drives 3 times more traffic than Twitter from shareholder communications.
As the media pounds the drum on ETF’s and low cost investing, the stock market rages to new highs and individual stocks like Disney, Tesla, Salesforce, Nike, Under Armour, Apple, Google and Chipotle have developed enormous fan clubs around their stocks and tickers. They talk price levels, entry points, upside potential, news and opportunity much like celebrity fan clubs.
In an era of ‘institutionalized’ America, the public stock market, home of the ‘ticker’ is still a place where the individual believes they have a voice and so I tell every public CEO I can to embrace their ‘fans and hear what the detractors are chirping about. They are easy to find.
Or, radical idea here, they can simply focus on improving their business and making their customers happy.
Here’s more context on my tweet: I’m an avid angel investor (60+ investments to date). I talk to many successful entrepreneurs that are curious about angel investing. They’ve made some money and can afford some risk with a part of their assets. My argument to them is: Consider putting some of your assets into startup/angel investing. Not only will you enjoy living vicariously through other entrepreneurs, if you have a big win, you’ll have bragging rights to say “I believed in them really, really early…”
I have nothing against public stocks (a lot of my assets are in the public stock market). I use StockTwits too — out of curiosity. But, I abstain from participating in the discussion, given that I’m a founder and officer of a publicly traded company now.
And, as one of your other commenters noted: There’s nothing wrong with just being heads-down and building the business (which is what I enjoy).
Cheers.
heads down building the business is likely all you should be doing. Running your quarterly earnings through us and or sharing key industry info and education though is something that should happen. You are a marleting automation biz so that should not be too hard :) …congrats on the IPo and run so far. great to see
Need to read up on what we are allowed to do in terms of sharing key information (outside of our official press release and annual statement). Which tech companies do this well on StockTwits that I could use as an example?
Linked IN, Liveperson two good ones. pepsi and I think fedex
dont just think earnings…education on industry links good too.
Thanks for mentioning LivePerson (LPSN) as a role model on Stocktwits!
Agreed, LinkedIn one of the best. Tons of engagement around their posts, cool to see
mostly just focus on company marketing…good content re the industry and what company is doing.
Howard, I’ve finally gotten on StockTwits about 2 weeks ago. I was amazed at the very early interaction I received from literally my first couple twits. It’s a lot more than I get on Twitter and I Find I use Twitter more for consumption and StockTwits more for interacting. I guess the audience just feels/seems more targeted to what I want to discuss (not to mention the on-boarding is much more involved).
good to hear. thx