The Blog

Ms. Millennial Money Reviews: Sherry Coutu on Innovators’ Exchange

Sarah Penney, Ms Millennial Money

In this week’s instalment of Ms Millennial Money Reviews, I delve into Sherry Coutu’s interview on Oliver Wyman’s Innovators’ Exchange podcast. This podcast caught my eye as the conversation is extremely relevant to the aims and advocacy work of The Engagement Appeal. 

Sherry, an entrepreneur and angel investor, discusses her motivations for founding Interactive Investor and highlights the urgent need to transform the UK’s investor culture and approach to financial literacy. She’s an inspirational speaker and quickly gets you excited and motivated to take action and effect the change you want to see! 

During the conversation, Coutu advocates for market democratisation and improved engagement between companies and retail investors—key issues that resonate with TEA’s mission. She emphasises the longstanding neglect of retail investors, noting that while progress has been made since she founded Interactive Investor in 1995, significant barriers still exist, for example, investor involvement in consultations and votes. 

Central to Sherry’s vision is empowering retail investors with access to the same tools and information as institutions. This necessity drove her to introduce community chat functions and enhanced research capabilities to Interactive Investor, which are vital functionalities in today’s most viral trading platforms favoured by the younger generation of investors, such as Trading 212 (ironically), and social finance generally. 

The podcast also addresses the UK’s cultural gap in investment behaviour, compared to the US and Canada, where retail participation is significantly higher. In the UK, a lack of tradition in investing in familiar companies, as well as a lack of financial education at school-age, limits retail investors’ influence on the economy. 

As well as highlighting the importance of introducing financial literacy in schools, Sherry, originally from Canada, underscores the importance of investment platforms in facilitating communication and engagement, asserting that UK investors have the potential to shape the economy and should actively exercise that right. She further discusses the challenges of scaling businesses in the UK versus the US, underlining the importance of scale-ups for economic growth. 

As a bonus, the conversation strays into the world of entrepreneurship, with Sherry giving some pearls of wisdom about effectively starting, and more importantly, scaling, a business.  

Key Takeaways: 

• Sherry Coutu is a pivotal figure and important voice in UK entrepreneurship and financial services, advocating for the recognition and empowerment of retail investors. 

• Her pioneering work underscores the need for enhanced investor engagement across all platforms. 

• Cultural differences in investment participation must be addressed to foster a more inclusive investment landscape in the UK. 

• Scaling a business is the hard and most important part of entrepreneurship, something we need to be better at in the UK. 

To truly reshape the investment ecosystem, companies and platforms must prioritise communication and investor engagement while ensuring that individuals understand their rights. Sherry Coutu uses her time and energy to effect positive change and progress within segments of society requiring much needed attention and support. It provides us great hope at TEA – The Engagement Appeal that someone of her caliber and experience speaks our language and sits on the boards of UK-listed companies. 

Listen to the podcast and share your thoughts with us!

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