Benzinga, a leading financial media and data company, and Stakeholder Labs, a startup helping public companies activate retail investors and drive market awareness, are collaborating to launch Marketopolis, a new series that gives everyday investors direct access to CEO perspectives on modern markets and digital communication. The partnership represents a significant shift in how financial information reaches retail investors, moving beyond traditional quarterly reports to provide unfiltered insight into leadership thinking.
Retail investors today are looking for unfiltered insight and are more engaged within their circle, said Jody Rones, Chief Revenue Officer of Benzinga. By partnering with Stakeholder Labs, we're creating content for the people behind public companies to speak directly to the individual investor. Powered by SoFi, the launch of Marketopolis reflects a growing movement toward the convergence of company storytelling and financial markets engagement.
The series is designed to bridge the gap between C-suite leadership and everyday investors, with themes of transparency, long-term value creation, retail investor influence, and the role of social platforms in shaping public company narratives emerging consistently across episodes. This isn't your typical one-on-one interview, said Matt Joanou, CEO and Co-Founder of Stakeholder Labs. It's a conversation that reveals how senior leadership thinks about their shareholders, capital markets, and growth. Each episode gives retail investors a seat at the institutional table.
The first four episodes, presented in partnership with SoFi, will feature Grindr CEO George Arison, Lovesac CEO Shawn Nelson, The Arena Group CEO Paul Edmondson, and Bark CEO Matt Meeker. Episodes premiere weekly beginning Wednesday, October 8, 2025, across YouTube, LinkedIn, Benzinga.com and podcast platforms.
Marketopolis goes beyond quarterly results to reveal how CEOs think about their roles and approach communicating with the market. Each conversation explores their personal relationship with money and investing, including how they track their own stock. The show also uncovers the philosophies that shape leadership and the journeys that led them to the corner office. The result is candid insight for retail investors who want the kind of perspective usually reserved for Wall Street institutions.
Marketopolis is about more than just the numbers, added Joanou, who also serves as host of the show. It's about the people, the strategies and the stories behind the companies we invest in and buy from every day. Our partnership with Benzinga ensures these conversations reach the broad and growing audience of investors hungry for authentic, actionable insights.
The show serves multiple audiences, providing retail investors with direct access to decision makers while offering executives, communications professionals, and investor relations teams fresh ideas on next-generation approaches to financial communications. Each interview also speaks to aspiring leaders early in their careers, offering a realistic look at what it takes to run a public company or take a business public.
Benzinga's distribution will extend the show's reach to millions of investors worldwide through its established channels as a leading source for financial news and data. By hosting Marketopolis across its platforms, the company ensures these conversations meet investors where they already consume market-moving information, combining trusted financial coverage with authentic leadership insights.
Partnering with Stakeholder Labs to launch Marketopolis is a natural extension of our mission to make markets more accessible and engaging, said Rones. Retail investors today care not just about quarterly performance but also the story, strategy, and values behind the companies they support. Marketopolis brings that world to life, blending storytelling with substance and offering our audience a rare opportunity to hear directly from leaders about the human and strategic side of running a company.
