Crew

have you heard of public? 

public.com initially launched in 2019 with the main value prop that it was an investing platform *with* a social graph. it was called "the social investing app".

5 years later, there's not a trace of any of the "social" that once bolstered the app.

why not?

investor, photographer, nomad, exploring onchain & exploring the 🌎

building farcaster | surfing @ venice, ca | eating @ gjusta / gjelina | “lucky me, lucky mud” 🤠

Operator turned investor. Work in TradFi.  @crossroads 🟪

two reasons

1. the best investors see something others don't see and invest in it, that's their edge. sharing that publicly defeats the purpose of having an edge.

2. at the end of the day, most people just want to make $$ without having to put in the work and keeping up with people socially is actual work

@ted if you were to guess, why weren't people excited enough about public's social element for them to keep it?

Not sure, but I feel that having a new social graph altogether might be the problem.

I would want to invest with the friends I am already talking to and socializing with for a long time (which FC allows you with an open social graph) than finding new friends on a new social graph and investing with them.

As someone who used to work at the company Public originally pitched as the "[that app] for the US market", adding "social" as a value prop is actually a red herring.

most people don't want ANOTHER social app to have to worry about growing an audience on / keeping up with.