Ian Sigalow, co-founder and partner, Greycroft

In this episode of The Scoop, The Block's podcast, Frank Chaparro speaks with Ian Sigalow, co-founder and partner at Greycroft, the venture capital firm managing roughly two billion dollars across its funds, about social stock trading and how the COVID-19 pandemic was reshaping the venture capital landscape. . The two also discussed:

• • Why companies trying to marry social networking and payment infrastructure have to do so from the outset
  • The lessons learned from Robinhood and other trading apps
  • The future plans for Public.com, including how the company makes money and executes orders
  • What the current economic uncertainty in the world means for the VC market
  • How COVID-19 accelerated expected trends in tech business developments, and how a 10-year plan meant Greycroft was already invested in many of these spaces

Full Episode Post 

Sigalow discusses Greycroft's investment in Public.com, a social trading app that blends a social-media-style feed with commission-free stock trading, and explains the firm's underlying thesis that combining a community feed with a brokerage account can create the kind of engaged, multiplayer experience that pure trading apps like Robinhood have struggled to replicate. He draws a parallel to Greycroft's earlier, similarly contrarian bet on Venmo, arguing that social features work best when built into a financial product's foundation rather than bolted on afterward, and he walks through how Public.com's decision to move away from payment for order flow in favor of a more transparent execution model shaped its early growth and its relationship with users.

On the venture capital side, Sigalow reflects on how the sudden economic shock of COVID-19 forced firms like Greycroft to reassess portfolios and pacing, and argues that the pandemic mostly accelerated trends already underway, such as remote work, digital finance, and e-commerce, rather than creating entirely new categories out of nothing, which benefited firms that had already positioned themselves in those areas before the crisis hit.

The conversation also touches on lessons Sigalow has drawn from Robinhood's rapid rise, and how competition among trading apps was pushing the category toward greater emphasis on user experience and community rather than simply the lowest fees. Recorded amid the volatility and uncertainty of the pandemic's early months, the episode offers a snapshot of how one prominent venture investor was thinking about fintech, social products, and capital allocation at an unprecedented moment for markets and startups alike. Sigalow closes by weighing in on which categories of startups he expected to emerge stronger from the crisis, arguing that companies solving real, immediate problems for consumers and businesses adjusting to a suddenly remote and digital-first world stood the best chance of thriving once the initial shock of the pandemic subsided.