What Courageous Communication Looks Like

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.

We know what Robinhood did wrong, but how should they have responded instead? Luckily, we don’t need to hypothesize.

Public.com is a commission-free trading platform, just like Robinhood. On January 28, they were also forced to freeze $GME and other stocks during the squeeze. But their response to the crisis couldn’t have been more different.

From their very first message, Public.com’s response to the Gamestop freeze was the exact opposite of Robinhood’s.

In short, it was courageous.

Here’s Public.com’s Tweet announcing the freezing of GME and other stocks:

Our clearing firm, Apex Holdings, has decided to halt the buying of $KOSS, $GME, and $AMC. We are in close contact with the firm and will make sure to keep our members informed as soon as we get updates.

We disagree with this decision and are working hard for our members to resolve the issue. We’ll provide updates here as they happen.

This one Tweet alone nails every rule of good crisis communication.

• Be visible—This message was sent immediately upon freezing the stocks. Public.com’s Twitter account was active throughout the day.

• Be direct—Public.com listed the affected stocks in their Tweet, unlike Robinhood, who refused to mention $GME outright.

• Be honest—Public.com shared everything they knew about the situation with their customers, including the fact it was their clearing firm that forced them to halt trading.

• Be helpful—Public.com promised to keep their members informed.

• Be accountable—It wasn’t Public.com’s fault that trading was halted, but they took responsibility for resolving the issue as quickly as possible.

• Be human—Public.com publicly disagreed with the decision to halt stocks, a decision that actively hurt their customers. You can sense their urgency in this Tweet. They didn’t just recite their mission statement—they were living it.

• Provide next steps—Public.com said they were working closely with their clearing firm and promised updates to their customers.

But here’s the most amazing part of Public.com’s response on January 28:

Less than ten hours after freezing the stocks—and a full forty-five minutes before Vlad Tenev’s Twitter thread explanation—Public.com resolved the issue with their clearing firm and unfroze the stocks.

Courageous writing leads to courageous action.

Public.com turned the Gamestop crisis into a golden opportunity. In February 2021, the company raised $220M in venture capital to become the real trading platform for the people. In the year that followed the Gamestop debacle, Public’s user base grew 700%.

Robinhood, meanwhile, has struggled to rebuild trust in their platform. The company went public in July 2021, but their stock has since fallen more than 80 percent. With little brand loyalty to buoy them, they are now a prime target for a corporate takeover.

Great founders say what needs to be said, even when it’s hard. They choose to be visible, direct, honest, accountable, helpful, and human in their communications. They don’t let a crisis overtake them. They step up and lead.

The Gamestop short squeeze gave us two excellent case studies to learn from. One was an industry leader whose lack of courage may still cost them everything. The other was a contender who turned the crisis into a massive win by putting their customers first.

The choice is yours. Will you lead from the front?