Off Brand
How Clubhouse Won the Elon Musk vs. Robinhood Faceoff
Silicon Valley’s new favorite social platform just had a breakthrough moment
Sorting out winners and losers in the GameStop spectacle and the related meme-stock market mess is getting confusing. Is the little-guy investor crushing the Wall Street establishment? Is Robinhood still a villain or more popular than ever? Will any of this affect GameStop’s actual future as a business?
Who knows? But amid the absurd chaos, one unexpected winner managed to sneak through with a slam-dunk self-branding moment: Clubhouse, the invitation-only, audio-centric social networking app.
Previously known mostly to the rarified tech elite and investor class — who seemed to like it, but for reasons that eluded many mainstream observers — Clubhouse suddenly found itself cited by the New York Times, CNBC, and everybody else as a key source of information about the hottest story going.
There’s a roughness to the exchange — Musk bluntly butting into answers, Tenev’s vaguely ragged yet somehow earnest tone — that’s accidentally fascinating.
