Public.com becomes Aston Martin F1 team sponsor, with Aston Martin taking equity stake in return

folks. Somebody should do it. Reach out to Adqu. They will set you up. But let's bring in public. We got guys. Welcome to the show, guys. I can't We can't hear you. What's that sound? What's that sound? It's happening. So loud. It's happening. It's Oh, is that the sound of the Aston Martin? It's happening.

Oh, I'm at the box. Miami GP, a Las Vegas GP. Oh, is that public advertising on the Aston Martin F1? How did you get my voicemail to run on the show? That's great. For me, it just sounded like the sound effects of like Pacific Rim or something. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Uh, we got it from that influencer Ashton Hall, the guy who has the the viral morning routine. He drops that sound effect. So, we had to pull that over to our show. But, uh, how you guys doing? Can you uh can you introduce yourselves a little a a little bit and explain what the news is today? Absolutely.

So, I'm Yanick Kosio. That's life author Kosio co-founders of public. Um, we announced today, as you could tell from your last intro, We are the new uh sponsors of the Aston Martin Formula 1 team. Amazing. Amazing. Love it. So amazing. Fantastic. Storied storied uh team storied brand.

And they're going to write books about this partnership. I think so. Can we get a or no? Yeah. Yeah, of course we can get a We're also going to pull up some uh some some video of of uh Aston Martins driving around entertain the viewers. Uh can you break down can you break down the process?

I imagine I we know this has been in the works for a while. Uh but uh what what was the process when you know and when did you even start thinking about doing something like this? Um well so I mean let's talk about first why it makes sense for us first and then we get into the process.

So we started six years ago mainly as a fractional shares platform. We were like the first to do the whole first trading platform to do fractional shares. Then it obviously became a big thing. Uh but since then I'd argue that the platform has matured a lot.

I think now we have one of the most powerful investing sort of suite of tools in America. Multiasset investing, multiple account types, embedded deep AI research and customers have evolved kind of with us. So now folks are coming in with hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in their accounts.

Uh but to be honest, not everyone knows that we're there. And so this partnership was a great opportunity for us to sort of raise some awareness around that and kind of get that message across obviously to the the right demographic as well. Can you talk about anatomy of the deal?

Uh how did you meet the folks over there? Did this all start with is there an agency involved? I know you guys do a lot of stuff internally. Is it just an email? Did you meet someone at an F1 race? Like how do you even meet these folks to begin? No agencies. I love it.

We have a we have a we have an investor on the cap table uh that happens to be involved with the team as well and so through that we got introduced to them and this is also a deal where um the as actually took part equity in public as well um and it's you know kind of like I think it's the first time they've really done this and um and so it was a little bit of like experiment for them as well or like thing for them as well And what's interesting is that the way they also think about it is that, you know, they have a platform.

They have, you know, also sponsors that pay them, you know, ridiculous amounts of money and whatnot. And so like they don't necessarily like need another million bucks from a from a from another startup and so on, but they like the idea of finding opportunities that they feel they understand themselves as well.

in our case like World Wealth Transfer, their audience being the type of audience that has money to invest. Um, US markets being one of the fastest growing markets for Formula 1. Generally speaking, it's the only country with three races, you know, and so on.

And, um, and so for them, the viewers focus and the focus of the audience that we had was like a good match. And so that's why, you know, for them, it was a also just a good idea um, to to be a little bit closer involved and actually like join the cap table as well.

uh how do how do you guys think about uh international long-term uh get you know do you see a world in the future where you have millions of users outside of the country uh I know US has obviously been the been the focus to date absolutely but the way that starts is we actually launched uh an app called alpha which is a little bit of a spin out of our AI product uh launched that in international markets uh late last year as a separate kind of product so that's live and growing well in a bunch of European markets and and a few other places around the world.

And so that's basically like Apple stocks with AI powers. That's how you can think of it. You literally come in, you take a photo of your watch list, wherever you have it, and the AI auto follows everything and tells you why things are moving in real time, not just they're moving and by how much.

And then you can directly ask questions and do research and all that stuff. So that's like I would say the first step in our international strategy in building that audience sort of abroad.

And then obviously as you can imagine investing services can come later because that's the aspect that has a regulatory component to it which takes totally. Yeah. C can you talk about um how you actually envision the partnership manifesting in advertisements? Obviously like logo on the car, but there are what 21 races.

Um I there are so many different places to put logos, integrate, throw, have a box, have a party, have an after show, pre-show, digital. There's so many different things that can package up into these actual partnerships. uh what what did that process look like and where did you land?

Yeah, I I I want to call out I want to see Alonzo uh you know executing trades you know during a in the pit lane. It's that fast, by the way, that you you can actually totally But yeah, totally.

I mean, there's always whenever you do these deals, there's this massive laundry list of stuff that you have access to and can do and whatnot, right?

That falls into pedal club passes at the events and that falls into like, you know, we will have the logo and the halo and the logo tiny on the side of the car as well, but also during the US races, for example, and things like that.

But one specific thing that we thought about is um in our space of like kind like new broker investing apps um things like referral have been this like mainstream thing of get a free fractional stock and so on.

And as we moved more up market the less that stuff worked because if you have a little bit of money let's be honest you don't really give a [ __ ] about five bucks on free stock. Yeah.

And um and so for us a sense of like okay what do people that you know have a bit of money care about and it's most cases experiences you might not necessarily have access to otherwise.

Um and and so the sense of like this partnership is like one of the first ways for us to have the ability to give exclusive experiences to our customers through you know certain giveaways in the app through referral in the app and so on to for example you know win things like access to the pedog meet and greets with the drivers and all that kind of stuff right and in the future obviously like we'll figure out like what are other ways to execute on that strategy as well but the sense of that like what does referral for a more affluent audience actually look like and falls much more into things like experiences.

Yeah.

Yeah, for this specifically also just to finish the quick is um um like basically like starting today you can actually um in the app win access to the paddock in the Vegas race later this year and essentially find like if you find the three little F1 cars in the app which is like hidden in different places in the app and you find all three of them then you essentially enter you know and they're not easy to find by the way either.

So, it's not like a it's not like a thing that everybody will double just tweets out where they are. Of course, of course. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm gonna I'm gonna give the app to my three-year-old and say, uh, you got you got 14 hours go. Make sure to load it with a couple hundred keys before you do. We'll see. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So, we can do a little day trading away. Uh, h how do you think about the the evolution of uh the way brands integrate with F1? Obviously, Red Bull doesn't make cars, or I guess they made that one car once, but uh in general, they don't make cars, but they're a huge uh F1 uh sponsor with the whole team.

Hos Automation's kind of in a similar uh similar boat, but then Aston Martin's more of a car brand. Um how do you think that that's evolved? And and is there a world where we see a public. com F1 team at some point? Uh well, not in the next couple of years. because now we have this deal.

No, look, I I think what's interesting about the Formula 1 is it is the only sport that I can really think of that has scale and has this sort of thing where whenever Formula 1 comes into town, it's the whole show, right? It's a Super Bowl event 20 times in a year basically, right?

Because like yeah, you go to a Premier League match, two hours, you knock down a couple pints, it's over and you go about about your day. This is like the whole weekend. The circus comes into town. They talk about this a lot and drive to his wife obviously.

And so therefore, it just lends itself very well to like a very intense focused type of exposure. Yeah. Yeah. Which I think is really great and I think you've seen that in around the Super Bowl and a few other places, but in the Formula 1, it just kind of happens uh many many times throughout the the course of a year.

Um and I think that's what makes it interesting for B2B companies as well as for consumer companies actually. Yeah. Did uh did drive to survive factor into your calculations? I imagine there will be public. com branding that makes it into drive to survive just by nature of being on the car. Yeah.

But that's the funny thing. It's like so with uh with Formula 1, you either sponsor a team or you sponsor, you know, a race slash the league itself. And these are two separate things, right? Yeah. Yeah. And um and drives to survive is more with the uh with the league itself and song.

And so the trick really for folks like us is what can you do that has the chance to make it into the storyline of the show, right?

And so like you know what kind of beef can we create with I don't know some other training app that you know sports some other team or something or like you know like but like what kind of drama can we be part of essentially? Yeah. So any ideas shout. Yeah. We'd love we'd love to we'd love to help.

No, but I I mean I can imagine, you know, just naturally the the you'll get placement in the show just as Alonzo and Lance have their moments in the show, right? So very natural and but but generally you'll always have a multiplier with thing. There's a great uh Formula 1 game, right?

Lego right now has a Formula 1 kind of thing going on. And so there's always kind of these these multipliers kind of happening in and around uh the sport. Yeah. What about other multipliers uh more on like a geol location basis? I mean, I'm sure you could run geo fenced ads in Vegas that weekend by billboards.

Like what are you thinking to get the most squeeze out of uh the event when it kind of comes together? I mean, there's a long like like there's a long list of stuff you can do. Uh it's a multi-year deal. So we also have a little bit it's starting in the Miami race um in a couple of weeks. So that will be the first one.

We've kicked off now this essentially scavenger hunt in the app uh where you can get access to Vegas um paddock etc. by finding these kind of cars around the app. And so I think there's a lot of stuff we can experiment with. I think relative to you know we're not quite as big as a Ramco yet.

uh they still have us a little bit on the market cap and so uh but you know but but but we might be one of the more nimble uh folks that can get a little bit more creative and so I would say expect to see a a bunch more uh kind of stunt how uh how did uh Lawrence Stroll's kind of leadership factor in into the decision like he's obviously has a you know like running the team but then simultaneously like you know has the manufacturer side too with Aston Martin.

He's like seems like extremely convicted to winning and and making a statement and you know um as a as a car enthusiast like I've watched what Aston is doing. Uh again really really committed to winning.

they've like massively improved their uh did that give you guys extra confidence in going and making a partnership knowing that hey the team by itself is not uh when you look at other teams uh like hos and things like that who's had a sort of history of of uh economic challenges that's not exactly you know the team that you want to attach yourself to even though they have but also like like generally speaking there's a lot of like change happening in F1 right now, right?

You have a bunch of mixups and lots of drivers that switch teams. You have uh you know behind the scenes, you know, um the the you know, one of the guys who you know, builds one of the the the engineers from the from the from the Red Bull team was hired now at Aston Martin and so on.

And so there's like right now there's a lot of change happening and it's not just you know seeing first win every time and you know having like the joke of just like putting a piece of tape on your TV so the race becomes more fun to watch like over his name.

So and you know and so like there's so much change happening right now and I think that is um why I think this season and the next season and the win after I think are going to be super exciting. Right. There's there's a new US team coming in with Cadillac next year.

There's a movie with the pit coming out in June or July this year. And so there's just like a lot happening around it. Um, you know, which is quite awesome. But yeah, I think you're totally right. Like the where Aston Martin sits right now is kind of perfect for us, right?

Because it's not like it's it's it's it's a team that is still a little bit on the up and up, but I think we'll be very competitive over the next couple of years. Yeah. You're already leaf. You're already wearing dark green. Are we going to see you guys driving around in some Aston Martin street cars?

Do you have any favorite picks or historical Aston Martins that uh you've been thinking about? Are you a James Bond fan? James Bond's car, right? They literally say in one of the Asmaz movies from royalty to double agents, you know, cover everything in between.

And so obviously now in New York City doesn't make a ton of sense to be driving on the DB. No, no. In in New York, you need to get the Valkyrie. Clearly, you know, the roads are a little bumpy.

I'm sure the you know, the clearance on that thing isn't great, but it is street legal, so why not be whipping around Fifth Avenue. You need to basically change your Yeah, you probably need to change your tires like every 200 miles or something like that. But, uh, I'm curious.

Did you guys get any messages this morning from friends back in Europe? Like, hey, I I saw the news. Like, that's that's awesome. I, uh, you know, then you're like, "Hey guys, we've been a billion-dollar, you know, company for a while.

" Like, you know, this is like, you know, the first time like we we were we were in like Business Insider uh, like two weeks ago and and some people were messaging John and I like, "Oh, congratulations. " And we're like, "I think we get more views than Business Insider. " like uh but thank you.

Um I can imagine a lot of lot of people asking for tickets that's for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You guys are going to be extra all the people that had like a 25k angel investment. They're now coming like so they're like so I'll be in the p I'll be in the paddic, right? Yeah.

You can get me tickets to the whole season, right? Like what does that cost? Well, well, uh I'm extremely excited. Uh I'm going to be even more excited to watch. have another reason to, you know, turn it on at like 4:00 a. m. or whatever Pacific, whenever, you know, uh, the international races happen.

And we, uh, we should be signing a lease, uh, for our new studio, uh, and we're going to have a lot more space, so we should figure out how to get a car, uh, in in the background, uh, one way or another. You'd be surprised how cheap it actually is. I know. I know. I remember I remember our conversation.

Not sure if I'm allowed to like say these numbers on here, but yeah, it is actually not that bad. Yeah, cheap. Cheaper than a real, you know, a regular Aston Martin. Like it won't drive. It doesn't have an engine or anything. It doesn't like like show pieces like five ultimate lobby or something sometimes, you know.

No, I want the I want it like on like on the back on the back wall of the studio. I mean, I went and toured Red Bull head Red Bull's headquarters in Santa Monica a couple years ago, and they had the full F1 car there on the halfpipe, and it just made the vibe in the office like fantastic.

And so, yeah, I'd highly recommend uh getting an F1 car. Everyone should really uh it's part of the ideal threecar garage. You know, you need the family hauler, you need the weekender, and you need the F1 car. Of course. Absolutely. Why doesn't everyone just do this? I don't get it. I know.

I don't know why we're the first to think of this. I agree. Crazy. Awesome, guys. Well, congratulations uh and congrats to the whole team. It's going to be uh you know, very excited for for Miami and uh everything to come. Awesome. We'll see you soon. Cheers. Great to see you later. We're getting an F1 car.

We need to I I think we should daily it. You know, uh just you know, it's going to be a little rough, going to be a little bumpy. Um, but you pull up in an F1 car. You pull up with a fantastic PC Philippe on your wrist like the guy in that picture that you picked up on bezel. Go to getb bezel. com.

Your bezel concierge is available now to source any watch on the planet. You don't want to be get caught on race weekend with a bare wrist. That's right. That's that's unacceptable. Yeah, it's it's laughable. Uh you can't RM would be a good option for race weekend. Racing machine on the wrist.

Yeah, we've been looking at some RMS and I can see Bezel going over and and and you know maybe you know getting their own team at some point with with the trajectory that they're on. I would love that. Anyway, uh our next guest is in the studio. Let's bring him in. We