Say works with shareholders, brokerages and companies to let all investors represent themselves. Sign up to propose change to the companies you own stock in, proxy vote, ask questions on an earnings call and stay updated on your rights. Join thousands ...
Hi everyone, my name is Tom Wolfstein and I am the product lead for the shareholder advocacy platform Say.
We at Say believe that giving shareholders of all sizes the ability to communicate with the companies they have a stake in has the power to change the world.
Every shareholder in a public company—including those who own fractions of shares through mutual funds like a 401(k) or ETFs—has a right to weigh in on the major ways a company operates or affects the world.
We built Say as a platform to amplify the voice of everyday shareholders via official voting as well as user-created campaigns, opening a dialogue with the companies they own shares in, and helping them be heard and make an impact.
Tell us what you think.
Here's a lengthier background for Say and more on what you can do in the app:
Owning shares in companies used to mean being part of a community. Shareholders used to attend annual meetings to discuss big decisions facing the company, support campaigns for change from other shareholders, and talk to executives. The communications process between the company and its shareholders was collaborative, communal, and personal.
Today, this process is broken. The way companies communicate with shareholders and “encourage” them to participate in important decisions has been reduced to spammy looking emails that typically get deleted, or a complicated paper ballot and annual report that go directly in the garbage.
But when shareholders participate, good things happen. Groups of everyday shareholders have made corporations pollute less and pay women equally. Similarly—though their missions are typically less altruistic—powerful funds and activist investors have successfully made companies change their whole strategies.
The purpose of this app is to make it easier for shareholders to communicate with the cloistered corporations they own, no matter how big or small their stake is. Users in the app can:
- Verify they are shareholders in a company to give their voice weight.
- See what companies they own in various index funds and ETFs. Say users who care deeply about climate change can find out if they own shares in carbon-emitting companies, and if they do, tell the companies what they think about its practices.
- Create, vote on, and gather support for shareholder Action Campaigns, requesting change from companies over the issues they care about most.
- Ask questions on a company’s quarterly earnings call—which regular shareholders are typically not included in.
- Get updates on the companies they own shares in via the app and our newsletter––weekly features breaking down this crucial side of investing in an engaging, digestible way that can help them weigh in on issues.
- Vote on official shareholder ballot items and get all your official investor relations materials through the app (Coming soon)
These features are open to investors of all types and sizes. You don’t need a degree from Wharton, have inherited thousands of Coca-Cola shares from your grandparents or be a day-trader on the side to use the app.
Whether you own dozens of shares directly through a traditional broker, or fractions of shares through a robo-adviser like Acorns or a retirement account, you get to participate. And while one shareholder might not have a big impact, thousands, banding together, will.
Some companies are already supporting the power of Say. When we realized that Elon Musk was already answering questions from Tesla shareholders on Twitter, Say reached out to the company to help them better engage with their devoted base of shareholders and fans. Tesla made answering these retail investors’ questions submitted via Say a focus of its quarterly earnings calls.
Tesla and Elon Musk were already using social media platforms to democratize shareholder access to the company—we simply helped them accelerate it. The media took note, and our earnings calls platform was covered by CNBC, Bloomberg and Forbes, among others.
Lastly, the app is free. And no, you are not the product. The app, its action campaigns, and earning calls platform are not how we make money. Say’s business model is to provide shareholder voting services to brokers and dealers, which we get paid to send, and to make more engaging and educational for all shareholders. We do not, and will not, sell users’ personal information to anyone.
So download the app, connect your brokerage account (it’s secure—we don’t see or store credentials), have a Say, and please let us know what you think.
Thanks!
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