I’ll tell you what, I felt pretty stupid sitting down to write about management with war breaking out in Eastern Europe last week. Couldn’t find the words. So I took the week off. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one doom scrolling the timeline. In the days since Russia invaded Ukraine (again) we’ve seen the horror of war and the indomitable will of the Ukrainian people on full display to the world.
Reflecting back on meme stock mania it’s clear that it was the breakout moment for FinTech darling Robinhood. Even after all their success to date this was different. They had 3M app downloads in January alone! Yet lost in the criticism of how they handled trading restrictions, the tense testimony on Capitol Hill, and all the rest of the noise is the reality that their breakout moment almost broke them. That’s the thing about breakout moments.