A short history of the community which is Stocktwits; many of its community members participated in the recent VC funding round, which also echoes the theme of a recent post in IT Counts on member funding of online ventures, Is web 2.0 enabling a new kind of financing?. Here’s what Roger Ehrenberg, founder and Managing Partner of IA Ventures, said:
“Since we started with a blank slate we were able to be intensely customer-focused from Day 1, and it is a culture that runs through everyone that is formally or informally affiliated with Stocktwits. I draw this distinction because there are lots of bloggers and community participants that have been incredibly helpful as we’ve built the platform, and while they are neither investors nor employees have had a profound impact on the product and our roadmap. Building for the community by listening to the community: makes sense, but I’ve seen it done other ways, usually to that company’s detriment. At Stocktwits, Soren, Phil (@ppearlman) and the team are doing it right.
“Stocktwits massively leverages the power of the long tail, but the reason followers are able to rapidly identify value is because of reputation. THE STOCKTWITS COMMUNITY IS A MERITOCRACY. Those that hem and haw and say little don’t get followed. Those who are insightful, sharp and decisive command large readership. And this is the way it should be. We’ve only just seen the tip of the iceberg of what the Stocktwits community can and will become. But the power of the platform is clear.”