Mogo’s philosophy: Building community, not bank branches
For financial technology company Mogo, building a community through collaboration is far more important than building a bank branch, something the Canadian fintech disrupter promises it will never do.
With consumer banking functions transported to a frictionless online realm, Mogo embraces a future in which inperson interactions are fully devoted to community building and giving back to that community. That philosophy was fully on display at the July 7 official launch party for the company’s MogoLounge, a trendy Queen Street West location in the heart of Toronto’s Trinity Bellwoods neighbourhood.
The space serves as a meeting place for customers, a public forum that allows Mogo staff to collect feedback from users, an educational classroom, an event venue and an address for pop-up shops offering unique items for sale.
While the brand thinks nationally, MogoLounge represents the heart of the customer community and a centre for collaboration with local brands.
While already open for a few months, Mogo officially launched their community building strategy at the event. More than 150 people came, many of them millennials who form the largest contingent of Mogo customers — with a healthy smattering of bloggers and glitterati thrown in.
Food was catered by The Underground Chef Co., a collective founded in 2013 with the objective of providing chefs and restauranteurs with a platform to help promote rising stars in the area’s culinary community. On the grill that night: succulent, slow-cooked barbecue ribs hot off the charcoal. On the side, Hawaiianinspired poke bowls, a cool new culinary trend providing a delectable combination of rice, greens and fresh seafood.
Adding its own touch to the event was local design force Kastor & Pollux, which brought its distinct Queen West arts vibe to decorative picnic items such as watermelons and soda cans, cleverly crafted from paper. K & P also designed the event swag bag, which included a custom-designed picnic blanket that allowed guests to extend their culinary experience into the community, via take-out, in nearby Trinity Bellwoods Park.
The newly minted outdoor space at MogoLounge was decorated with posters promoting near-future events and community collaborations. On tap for Aug. 4, Adulting 101: Korean Skincare Edition (with a side order of money tips). The event will feature Mogo financial fitness coach Chantel Chapman, and influential beauty and fashion YouTuber Sylvia Jade. For the event, Jade will break down the multi-step Korean skin-care routine for attendees while Chapman works her Adulting 101 magic, hitting home valuable financial tips without driving her audience to distraction.
Aug. 8 will see a pop-up shop forming in the heart of the MogoLounge, this time purveying locally crafted CaliLove poke bowls, the selfsame dish enjoyed at the launch party. For two weeks, the trendy poke bowl will be sold at the MogoLounge, with MogoMembers scoring a 50 per cent discount. Underground Chef Co. will be back on site, along with online culinary talent showcase Openly Talks, which will join Mogo in co-hosting a speaker series as it interviews Toronto chefs all week long.
Later in August, Mogo will be collaborating with popular lifestyle product brand Stay Home Club to produce a unique and as-yet unannounced item for sale in a new pop-up shop.
With an event roster already stretching into November, there’s plenty more to come.
“A finance company who wants to speak to a millennial audience about finance needs to do a lot more than just offer them boring financial lessons,” says Chapman. “It’s about building a community through creative collaboration. We want the MogoLounge to be the centre of that collaborative community.”