Indian Jewelry Safety Net
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Shaan shares a story about gold's cultural significance in India and how a startup is leveraging this tradition.
"In India, everybody believes in gold. I know this because my family in India has gold shops where they sell jewelry. If you ask a mom there about stocks, they can't tell you a single thing - stocks aren't even a big thing there. But everybody has a gold set of jewelry as their safety net.
The mentality is 'if we ever have to flee, we're just going to grab the gold and run.' This has literally happened in India during the Pakistan-India split when people had to flee, so it's deeply baked into the culture.
That's why this startup only offers one asset - gold. Everybody already believes in it and wants it. Plus, up to a certain weight of gold, you don't have to do all the financial compliance that you need for stocks or real estate. They found this loophole where people can start saving right away without verifying ID or linking accounts. Once you reach a certain threshold of gold, then they ask for more information, but by then you're already committed because you have wealth there."
Shaan Puri
Host of MFM
Shaan Puri is the Chairman and Co-Founder of The Milk Road. He previously worked at Twitch as a Senior Director of Product, Mobile Gaming, and Emerging Markets. He also attended Duke University.