Imagine a brightly lit room filled with vision and fresh air. A room you do not have to travel to but is accessible all over the world. Imagine this room filled with your industry’s influencers; all gathered to discuss the field, their work, their newest ideas. Imagine a room where you can idly listen to those who inspire and motivate you talk about their next big investment or what they intuit is on the rise.
Open your eyes. You’ve imagined Clubhouse.
What is Clubhouse?
The invite-only app was released in April 2020, making the fledgling platform just a year old. Yet, for a platform that boasts exclusivity (and can only be used on iPhone), there are already 10 million users, including top fintech innovators who have flocked to Clubhouse to share their insights on disrupting market norms and integrating the future of finance in their ventures.
Clubhouse is like a switchboard; not only does the app connect your conversations, like the fast hands of switchboard operators in the 20th century, but it is also a budding focal point, a vibrating hub of circuitry where thought leaders in technology; finance; marketing; and art meet and exchange ideas.
A Clubhouse Case Study in Fintech
The recent boom in the past year of NFTs (non-fungible tokens), despite having origins back to 2012, is emblematic of the social media’s essential power in fintech – particularly Clubhouse. Yes, influencers, investors, and other interested parties were sharing their takes and their NFTs on YouTube and Reddit too, but the conversations in rooms like Fintech & Payments put NFTs on the minds’ and mouths’ of industry veterans and newcomers alike. The room, with over 21,000 members – all ambitious apples of their industry – focuses discussion on advancements in finance, the history of payments, and entrepreneurship.
And it’s not a wonder why NFTs took off on Clubhouse. The coalescence of art, technology, and finance positioned NFTs as the perfect meeting ground for the diverse specialties of Clubhouse users. In fact, the rise in popularity of NFTs almost precisely parallels the release and growth of Clubhouse.
The Fecundity of Clubhouse
The grounds of this platform are fertile for fintech. With the open-air atmosphere of collaboration the app fosters between established industry titans, paired with the enthusiastic ears of new entrepreneurs and young professionals, it’s difficult not to be reminded of Ancient Greece. Like the fresco by Raphael, Clubhouse has the potential to be a School of Athens for a generation of digital-minded professionals who seek to discuss those intersections of industry. With unmatched creativity and thought leadership teeming in its many rooms, this particular social platform is naturally disposed to prompt the future of fintech.