4. Be Helpful

You’re reading an excerpt of Great Founders Write, by Ben Putano, writer, entrepreneur, and book publisher. He’s the founder of Damn Gravity Media, a publishing house that inspires and educates tomorrow’s great founders. Purchase now for lifetime access to the book and on-demand video course.

The “fog of war” is a military term that describes the confusion and chaos that covers a battlefield. It can be blinding and disorienting. During times of crisis, when the fog of war is thick, leaders need to help their people reach the other side in one piece.

Robinhood again failed this test in spectacular fashion. Not only did they fail to provide a helpful explanation for freezing $GME, but they sent readers on a wild goose chase to find their own answers.

Here’s a paragraph from Robinhood’s blog post on January 28:

Amid significant market volatility, it’s important as ever that we help customers stay informed. That’s why we’re committed to providing people with educational resources. We recently revamped and expanded Robinhood Learn to help people take advantage of the hundreds of financial resources we offer and educate themselves, including how to make sense of a volatile market.

(Emphasis added)

When you click the link to go to Robinhood Learn, it doesn’t go to a specific article, but straight to the resource center homepage. The first post is titled, “Investing 101.”

Insulting.

In this case, Robinhood was less than helpful. They were condescending. They might as well have said, “You clearly don’t understand how the stock market works. Let us enlighten you.”

The next day, on January 29, the comms team published another blog post, this one about the financial mechanics behind trading. Again, they failed to provide a helpful explanation for the $GME freeze. Buried three-quarters down the page, in the back half of an unassuming paragraph, was this jargon-filled statement:

This week alone, our clearinghouse-mandated deposit requirements related to equities increased ten-fold. And that’s what led us to put temporary buying restrictions in place on a small number of securities that the clearinghouses had raised their deposit requirements on.

(Note: During a crisis, it’s critical to write using the inverted business pyramid we discussed earlier in this book)

It wasn’t until three full days later, on February 1, that Robinhood finally provided a simple, clear explanation for their actions:

Simply put, Robinhood limited buying in volatile securities to ensure it complied with deposit regulations.

But by that point, the Robinhood’s reputation was destroyed. The opportunity to help their users through the crisis had long passed.