Exclusive: Robinhood Snacks podcast spins out
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The duo behind Robinhood's Snacks podcast are spinning the program out of the stock trading company and relaunching it on Monday as "The Best One Yet."
Why it matters: Robinhood's podcast and its broader media business, which includes a newsletter, has built a massive following among the retail trading crowd.
By the numbers: At 40 million subscribers, Robinhood says it's the largest newsletter in the U.S.
- The podcast meanwhile had about 11.5 million downloads in the last three months of 2021.
- By comparison, Robinhood has 22.7 million stock trading customers.
Background: Jack Kramer and Nick Martell sold financial podcast and newsletter company MarketSnacks to Robinhood in 2019 — the company's first ever acquisition.
- That business became Robinhood's media operations, with Kramer and Martell both taking on the title of managing editor.
Of note: Robinhood will serve as the podcast's exclusive sponsor, meaning, at least initially, TBOY's revenue will come via Robinhood.
- Content-wise, TBOY will also be very similar to the Snacks podcast, producing easy-t0-understood content about the financial world.
- "Robinhood... will help them stand up the new venture, allowing us to maintain a close brand connection," CEO Vlad Tenev wrote in a message to employees Friday.
Between the lines: Being a part of a registered broker-dealer, Robinhood Snacks had to contend with more onerous regulatory requirements and restrictions.
- Every newsletter, for example, comes with a disclosure that the content is not investment advice. Snacks also doesn't cover Robinhood, due to the conflict of interest.
The intrigue: It's still unclear whether Robinhood will, at some point, stop being an exclusive sponsor — allowing other advertisers to also buy air time.
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