What the E-Commerce deal says about Robinhood – theinformationsuperhighway

(Editor's note: Would you like to receive this weekly review of the news that startups can use by email? Just subscribe here.)

How well can Robinhood's financial data hold its own against established online brokers? While we're waiting for the seven-year-old company's long-planned IPO, Alex Wilhelm Morgan investigated Stanley's big $ 13 billion purchase of e-trade for new data comparison points. Robinhood has 10 million accounts – twice as much as e-trade – but it also seems to make a lot less money per user and manages far fewer assets as it has covered for extra crunch. While its free-of-charge approach has destroyed an important source of revenue for competitors, the company must expand its own order flow business into its valuation in the private market.

One solution is to make the platform more sticky through social functions. On the same day as the announcement of the e-trade deal, Robinhood launched a new profile feature to encourage users to share stock exchange tips. Josh Constine explored the theinformationsuperhighway offering and focus, and concluded that "Profiles and lists, and eventually more social features, could make Robinhood users do more, get more orders flowing, and give them more reason to subscribe to buy."

Alex also took a look at a new report on fintech funding, which was an overall peak last year – but tended towards later companies. The Wealth Management segment certainly looks mature.

But the category is huge, and there are a lot more incumbents to bother. What are fintech investors looking for? Take a look at our popular investor survey on this topic from November.

How your startup can use TikTok for growth

You know that TikTok is the cool kids these days, but maybe … how can I say … it's not the social media platform you know best when it comes to growth. That's why Geneviève Patterson and Hannah Donovan, founders of the TikTok-oriented video editing app TRASH, have published a two-part guide to help you find out.

The first part, which is freely available on theinformationsuperhighway, guides you through the improvement of your authority ranking in the TikTok algorithm, its review process and tips on creating your own content. The second part for Extra Crunch subscribers deals in depth with TikTok's decision about whose content is presented more (and less).

Brendan Wallace from Fifth Wall: The Proptech sector is hot despite WeWork

"Our mandate is any technology that can be strategically important to the real estate industry," said productive investor Connie Loizos in a detailed interview for Extra Crunch this week. While WeWork may have depressed investor interest, many models work well in different segments – so he and his partners collect more money. One of the hottest sectors, perhaps surprising, is sustainable buildings. As Wallace elaborates, the pressure from the public, the pressure from large tenants, the pressure from large investors and the new requirements for the subway have eliminated any choice the industry has in this matter:

Don't make a mistake; We are at the center of developments in the real estate industry and the collision with technology, and this is the most important thing that has happened to the real estate industry in the past five decades. The real estate industry needs to become carbon neutral, and that's brand new.

Is this sector your focus too? Be sure to check out our survey of building robotics investors from last week to learn about some of the latest opportunities, as well as our survey of real estate and prop-tech investors from November.

The future of manufacturing and storage robotics

Before our big robotics conference at UC Berkeley in early March, we conducted a number of surveys on robotics industries. This week, our resident financial analyst Arman Tabatabai, along with our hardware editor, who became the organizer of the conference, Brian Heater, conducted a series of interviews with VCs that focus on warehouse and manufacturing robotics. Investors include:

Read more here.

Let theinformationsuperhighway know about gaming startups and remote work

Our media columnist Eric Peckham would like to publish your advice in two upcoming articles. If you have relevant expertise, click on the links below and share your opinion.

In the course of the week

Are AI startups less economical than SaaS shops? (EC)

Elon Musk says all advanced AI developments should be regulated, including at Tesla (TC)

SpaceX alumni help build the startup ecosystem (EC) in LA

Dear Sophie, I need the latest information on the new H-1B registration process (TC).

Tracking the Amazing Slowdown in Venture Capital in China (EC)

The Rise of the Winged Pink Unicorn (TC)

Voodoo Games thrives by improving conventional product design (EC).

Ex-YC partner Daniel Gross reconsiders the accelerator pedal (TC)

How companies are circumventing Apple's ban on vaping apps (EC)

Rippling starts a poster fight with Gusto (TC)

#Equitypod

This week was an entertaining combination of early-stage and late-stage news that included companies as young as seeds and as old as PE-worthy on our list of topics.

Danny and Alex were back to talk again. In case you missed it, they enjoyed talking about Tesla yesterday and there are new equity videos on YouTube. Enjoy!

This week, the team discussed organizational chart companies, debt increases, some of the above, and more. Details here.