The cringiest nicknames fintechs have for their employees
In a bid to create a community-culture seperate from their sterner TradFi counterparts, many fintech startups create little nicknames to give their employees a unique identity. Some keep it simple while other fintechs do way too much 🤢
If you like any of the names below, that's nice. However, if simply being called an employee does the job for you, be warned; the following names may make you squirm.
(Dis)Honorable Mention - The 'ers'
There's a lot of fintechs out there that, when it comes to naming their staff, take the laziest route possible, adding an 'er' on the end of their name and calling it a day.
Crypto firm Ripple call their staff Ripplers, digibank Chime call theirs Chimers. One of the extremely rare examples of this that is actually good is infrastructure provider Toast who, you guessed it, call their staff Toasters.
Say what you will about the names below (and there are some bad ones) but at least they put some effort in.
Klarna - Klarnauts
Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) giant Klarna aren't quite the tour-de-force they used to be in the sector. As going 'to the moon' becomes more and more unlikely, this ambitious yet silly name has lost a lot of its lustre.
That being said, at least the addition of 'nauts' somewhat fits the name. Monzo do a similar thing with their Monzonauts and it comes off even worse.
Brex - Brexlings
If you visit the culture page of digital banking platform Brex, expect to see the company name crammed into as many nouns as possible. While the total employee base does not have a nickname, Brexlings refers to the support network for working parents and caregivers. Lovely sentiment, painful name, especially if you're based in the UK.
Kraken - Krakenites
Somehow, crypto giant Kraken have managed to make the mythical sea monster seam uncool. If adding "ite" didn't work for Goldman Sachs when people started calling them Goldmanites, it was never going to work anywhere else in finance.
Gusto - Gusties
This name needs no explaining as to why its on the list. With respect to the payroll infrastructure provider, its name somewhat wrote it into a corner. Not even taking a page from Succession's book and calling them 'Disgusting brothers' (and sisters) could have salvaged this.
Robinhood - Robinhoodies
Naming itself after the famous outlaw, stock brokerage Robinhood missed out on an opportunity to have its community name be inspired by part of the Robin Hood legend. Of course calling the team the 'Merry Men' wouldn't quite fly when aiming for an inclusive workplace but surely there was something better that could have been done.
However, the saving grace of the name is that it facilitates the name of Robinhood's parenthood employee resource group, Parenthoodies. That name (just about) works.
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