Kristin Myers: Before our next interview, let's give a little bit of history on how the New York Stock Exchange transformed into a media powerhouse.
We're going to start with 1867. The stock ticker arrived for the first time, and a price on this floor could reach somebody who wasn't here.
Now, picture this. It is October 1987. The market is collapsing, and CNN's Jan Hopkins files the first live video report right here from this floor. The crash is the story, and the room itself becomes part of it.
Then, in the next year, in 1988, the Exchange built a dedicated broadcast center. And in 1995, CNBC's Maria Bartiromo goes live from the floor for the first time, reporting from inside the market instead of just about the market.
And now, in 2026, the Exchange is creating a new home for financial media by prioritizing partner-led initiatives.
Joining us now here at the desk, we have Joe Benarroch, Head of Content, Media Partnerships & Distribution at the New York Stock Exchange.
Joe, thank you so much for joining us today.
Joe Benarroch: This is incredible. Thank you for having me. It's such a nice way to wrap up this first week of Startup to Stock Exchange.
Kristin Myers: So we obviously gave a little bit of history. So I want to start, obviously, with this show, Startup to Stock Exchange. Why this show? Why now in 2026?
Joe Benarroch: Well, congratulations.
Kristin Myers: Thank you. Thank you.
Joe Benarroch: For everything that you've done in just a week. And congratulations to Vince and Detroit and to the entire team, because it's pretty remarkable in building a new content series.
But, you know, you ask a great question about why this show, and you gave a really great setup.
You know, the New York Stock Exchange is the most powerful institution for capital raise. And over the course of time, we've been very intentional to transform that and evolve that to become the most powerful storytelling platform for a variety of companies.
And in doing that, you lean into your partners because, you know, we have an incredible base of listed companies on one side, and we have tens of thousands of private companies that...
Kristin Myers: Are waiting at the gates.
Joe Benarroch: That's exactly, that's a great way of saying it. And they're on various paths in their journey to a capital raise. And as part of that, they're reaching different milestones.
And we hear it all the time from founders and entrepreneurs. They have a story. That story that started, you know, turned into a business. That story that started at home and became a global, you know, became a global success. That story that's completely transforming an industry.
And they're saying that they have limited platforms to tell those stories.
And so when Vince and team came to us and said, "We are going to initiate this series to provide that platform," of course we said, "We're all in."
And we're doing that, you know, hopefully across the entire ecosystem. But what you have built here is giving those companies another voice, and that's what we want to do because that empowers the marketplace.
Kristin Myers: And we're so excited, obviously, to have that opportunity to talk to all of those founders before they even hit this floor.
Joe Benarroch: That's right.
Kristin Myers: And one day ring that bell.
Say a little bit more about how the Stock Exchange is helping founders, you know, really tell their stories before, but also beyond listing day, beyond them ringing that bell.
Joe Benarroch: Yeah, you ask a really good question because, you know, what was really wonderful, when I joined NYSE and I sat down with Lynn Martin, our president, and we started thinking through the resources that we wanted to build out.
And when I say resources and being really intentional, when you're part of the NYSE community, you get a stack of resources: board advisory services, legal services, governance, integrated media, marketing. Content and media partnerships is an entirely other resource.
And, you know, the other really awesome and surprising thing that I learned was our capital markets team. They are working for years with these companies before they reach and they get to that wonderful milestone of getting onto our podium.
They are working with them through various phases of their growth. And in doing that, building their narrative in the marketplace is so important.
So as part of that, NYSE is both a partner to every publisher, but we are equally a publisher. So we are creating content. We are distributing that content across different platforms like yourself or Yahoo Finance, or working with The Wall Street Journal, or imparting that, you know, information into the marketplace.
We have, you know, deep partnerships with CNBC, with Axios, with The Information, with a bunch of other, you know, podcasts.
And we're doing that very intentionally because we want to make sure that those stories have, you know, the right scale.
And we hear it all the time from entrepreneurs that, you know, they want long-form, short-form. They want to be able to talk about the different milestones, not just their funding, but the different milestones of their companies.
They're going through the exact same things. They have product launches, and they're, you know, maybe making an acquisition, or they have, you know, leadership and thought leadership that they're putting out. They have different visions. They want to attract other partners. They want to attract their customers.
So they're all dealing with the exact same things as a public company. They're just, you know, in a different phase.
And so we're operating with them in the exact same way and providing those resources.
Kristin Myers: So as you're thinking about it, this partnership, right, that the Stock Exchange has as almost a content creator, but also a distributor of that content for some of these brands, how are you thinking about that ultimate goal?
Is it to help, really, the end investor learn about some of these brands before they ever hit that public offering? How are you thinking about that in terms of the goal?
Or are you also thinking about it as this is part of the reason why the Stock Exchange is such a powerful place to go public?
Joe Benarroch: So it's probably threefold, fourfold. You know, you can triangulate it in a variety of ways every day.
We believe that, you know, one of our big roles is convening the marketplace around a lot of different conversations. And if we can help impart information into the marketplace to create a stronger economy, a more modern economy, then that's our role.
And every day, you know, there is a wonderful flywheel of thought leaders that pass through the Stock Exchange and are speaking to FINTECH.TV or speaking to other media that is on the floor.
And so for us, what we view is that if we can create as many opportunities for those narratives to be pushed into the marketplace, then that's value to the marketplace.
And what we've done is essentially opened up our doors to say that we want to partner with as many different content creators, both the single content creator to the established organizations like CNBC and FINTECH.TV and The Wall Street Journal.
We want to make sure that at any point in time, if a thought leader or a CEO or a founder or another partner comes to us and says, "What can you do to help us?" another resource is making sure that they're sitting in front of, you know, great journalists like yourself and can share their stories.
And whether or not those stories hit the public airwaves is, you know, your decision. But we want to make sure that we're bridging those connections.
So, you asked the other point, though. That is another resource that we do provide as an exchange of potential choice, especially for a lot of these private companies.
And we want them to know that there is no other exchange that has as robust of a media partnership offering.
We have almost 180 now media partners that we've, you know, we are working with in a variety of ways that are doing a variety of things in addition to editorial.
They have, you know, their own platforms, they have their own conferences, they have their own different events, they have their own communities.
And we want to make sure that we're stretching that and talking that through and providing that to our partners.
Kristin Myers: I'm curious to know, I mean, anyone that's been on the floor here of the Stock Exchange has already seen all the different, you know, TV studios. You mentioned there's a podcast studio.
Are there other ways that you guys are thinking about working with media and pushing out content even beyond those more traditional forms that I think we all think about, especially in terms of TV and podcasts?
Joe Benarroch: That's fantastic.
You know, there is an incredible team that sits on, you know, on the 12th floor here at the Stock Exchange that is across, you know, broadcast, maybe, that's looking over our, you know, the paid marketing side.
We have Laura Diorio, who just became our new Head of Content. Pete Asch, who's across all of broadcasting, and Wolf, who's across all of our AV and tech.
We have Abby Cunningham, who's looking at, you know, paid marketing opportunities. We have Kevin Hawkins, who's thinking about distribution.
And I intentionally have said all those names and all of their roles because all of those different layers are exactly what we're doing with every media partner.
Every media organization will not just have editorial. Editorial is one strong, incredible part of a media publisher, but you also have your own conferences. You will also have, you know, your own built-in communities.
You'll also be creating content that we can create together and maybe even potentially monetize on the back end to help, you know, fund more great initiatives that you're doing.
And so for us, when we look at a partnership, we look at it very expansively.
We are very intentional to say, you know, there might be paid opportunities that we can think through. There might be conferences that we might want to join.
You, in particular, as an expert in your field, might join one of the 3,000 events that we're putting on together.
So, for example, we will definitely be inviting you to be a part of our tech summits and our space summits and our AI summits and...
Kristin Myers: The things that I'm so excited for the invite.
Joe Benarroch: And that's the beauty of these partnerships, right?
And so therefore, we want you to show up in our space, definitely here, but we want to be a part of the organic nature of your media empire. And therefore, our community can be a part of that too.
We do everything for our customers. Everything that we do is in benefit to them because that strengthens the modern economy.
Kristin Myers: I wish we had more time.
Joe Benarroch: So do I.
Kristin Myers: I have so many more questions that I want to ask you. So you know what that means. That means you have to come back to chat with me because I think that we could probably give a masterclass to some of the founders that are out there about their stories and how they can really make them land.
But we'll tackle that next time.
Joe Benarroch, Head of Content, Media Partnerships & Distribution at the New York Stock Exchange. Thank you so much for joining us.
Joe Benarroch: Thanks
