GZV #15: Money Management, Sports Gambling, and Did Facebook Reinvent Facebook?
Startups. Trends. Markets. All from a Gen Z view.
Reading time: ~ short than Not Boring (fantastic read by the way, check it out here.)
Thank you to everyone who subscribed since our last edition. If you like what you see, feel free to share!
I tweet sometimes…
Themes of the week
Money Management 💵
Barstool Sportsbook 🏈🏀🏒
Influencer Food Partnerships 📸🍔
Facebook Campus🚶🏻♂️🚶🏻♀️
Startups 👀 👀 👀
Scale: Gen Z won’t/may/will like <Company Name>.
💵 Gen Z may like Copilot. 📈
Who are they?
The app that changes the way you see your money.
Why the rating (Pros)?
This app has amazing UI/UX design that is very enticing to Gen Z’ers. They also use Emoji’s to describe where you are spending your money.
Money is a prized possession in college. Having a platform where you can see all of it in one place while at the same time seeing where you are spending most of it is very useful.
More and more kids are investing and have a lot of separate accounts holding money, personally I have 6.
Potential Cons?
Unfortunately, you do have to pay for this service and it is a little pricey for college students. Well worth it for millennials though.
Capturing the college market in a sector like this is tough. One of the only fintech startups to successfully do this is Robinhood.
🚨 Recommendations to the Founders:
Make a college tier for the platform. $60 a year looks like a lot to us. I would recommend a 50% discount, it looks sizable enough to my generation. Obviously, this all depends on the unit economics of each account as well.
💡 Investment Idea 💡: Fintech is a hot sector right now. One of the keys when building a platform involving some form of finance, is great UI/UX design and stellar user interface. When starting my Copilot account, it was super easy to link all my accounts and set my budget. Look for this type of user interface when investing into fintech startups.
💵 Gen Z will LOVE Barstool Sportbook. 🏈
*Note: Launched Friday the 18th in PA only.
Who are they?
Bet on sports with the Barstool Sportsbook from Penn National Gaming (NASDAQ: PENN) and Barstool Sports while enjoying the same online sports betting experience used by Dave “El Presidente” Portnoy and Dan “Big Cat” Katz.
Why the rating (Pros)?
I would say roughly 95% of Gen Z knows who Barstool is. Of that, 40-50% consume their content on a weekly basis.
Barstool is now using their reach to get into the Sportsbook game via their parent company, Penn National. Plenty of kids nowadays are betting in some fashion, so for Barstool launch their own product is a perfect mix.
The app briefly reached #1 in the app store in the Sports category.
Potential Cons?
It’s hard to find the cons in this, but there is potential that Barstool and Penn are reaching to far and may crash and burn.
With that said, there is a very low chance that they crash and burn.
💡 Investment Idea 💡: Sports gambling is growing and growing fast. Although the book maker business may be crowded, watch for third party companies that can help the process. Barstool is also proof that brand matters. Over the past few years they have built themselves as a polarizing, and controversial company that you can’t help but look at. Now they are leveraging their massive audience. Note: Penn National (PENN) owns a 36% stake in Barstool.
Gen Z Trend of the Week - Influencer Food Partnerships 📸🍔
Are you talking about the Travis Scott meal?
Yes I am. McDonalds has been trending recently due to their release of the Travis Scott meal. Since then, it has become a popular trend for kids to drive into the McDonalds drive thru blasting his famous song called, Sicko Mode. McDonald’s isn’t alone though, Dunkin Donuts recently partnered with Charli D’amelio (a famous TikTok star), to make her favorite order an option on the menu calling it “The Charli”.
How are they doing in sales?
Based on how much I’ve seen the Travis Scott meal, I’d imagine McDonald’s has done pretty well. Haven’t heard much about Dunkin, but I would imagine it is doing well in the high school arena. Both companies were very smart to go after some of the most popular names in today’s younger generations.
Are any other brands and influencers partnering to launch products?
None that I have heard of yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if other top brands decided to partner with major influencers in order to promote or launch new products. Some names that come to mind are Addison Rae, another Tiktok star, and Amanda Cerny (24 million instagram followers).
What does this mean for the future/💡 Investment Idea 💡?
Influencers are the next wave of marketing. Having a big audience used be cool, but you know what’s cooler? Having a big audience that will care about your product. Influencer followers listen to the products they recommend, so your ad money will make TRUE impressions.
Essay: How Facebook can make FaceBook Campus a Success
After reviewing facebook’s new product launch, Facebook Campus, I’ve noticed 3 things that I believe can be changed in order to make the product a success.
Keep partnership with universities low.
Be edgy.
Remove the Facebook name and make a new app.
Read the rest of this essay here.
⭐️ Partnered Companies ⭐️
🗣Vintro - Imagine getting paid to be a shark on shark tank, or better yet, being able to pitch renowned business leaders, CEO’s, political figures, and founders.
Well this is how I see Vintro. They allow everyday founders to pitch to people like Gary Cohn, Barbara Corcoran, or Jim Mckelvey.
They also allow for you to be a “Gary Cohn”, just join as a leader and get paid to be pitch to.
Click here to learn more.
📈Public.co - I’ve been investing for over 5 years and now more than ever, investing is a social creature.
This is why I work with Public. They have created a social investing app where you can make groups with your friends, buy stocks, and talk about why you believe they are a good buy. The best part, you can debate with people why you think you’re right, which I love to do.
Download the app here.
Special thanks to my editor, Cristina Lombardozzi (my mom, like she hasn't done enough for me).
Feel free to email or text with any questions or comments about the newsletter, Gen Z, or startups.
thomas@genzvoice.com
203-628-6006