What Shopify’s massive layoffs hint about the future of FinTech & digital businesses 🔮; Shares thinks the future of investing is social 💸; Democratizing access to private markets could be huge 🚀

Good Morning FinTech, 27 July

Good day Everyone,

And happy Wednesday! Yesterday’s issue was hot, but today’s - oh, boy! 😳 We’re going to look at Shopify’s massive layoffs (and what they hint about the future of FinTech & digital biz as such), Shares that thinks the future of investing is social (2 huge risks & why it’s Venmo + Robinhood), and further democratization of private market assets, think VC & PE funds here (& why it could be huge). Let’s jump straight into the interesting stuff:

What Shopify’s massive layoffs hint about the future of FinTech & digital businesses per se 🔮

Another one… 😔 E-commerce powerhouse Shopify has just joined a growing list of companies that have announced layoffs in the last few months. The Canadian firm is laying off 10% of its workforce, or nearly 1,000 employees. Ouch!

More on this 👉 The critical part was that SHOP 0.00%↑ was betting that the e-commerce space would permanently leap ahead by 5 or even 10 years. It didn't, of course.

What is happening now is the reversal to roughly where pre-pandemic data would have suggested it should be at this point. But it was the bet Shopify had to take.

Doing the right thing 🥳 Nobody likes layoffs but the way Shopify is doing this is pretty extraordinary. They are offering some of the most generous severance packages I've ever seen. You can read more about this + Shopify’s CEO letter which is a must-read for everyone in my yesterday’s LinkedIn post (it also has 110+ valuable comments from the amazing community).

What’s next? 🤔 I’ve said numerous times that Shopify is a FinTech. Thus, the recent news gives us some hints for the future of FinTech and digital businesses per se. Here’s the takeaway: