How Robinhood became a $68B company w/ Vlad Tenev
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Today’s show:
We’ve got a treat for you today on TWiST! Jason is live from LAUNCH Fest in San Francisco, where he’s joined by Robinhood founder Vlad Tenev.
The era of AI is here. Robinhood found success in the midst of the last great technological shift. What lessons did Vlad take from this, and how can founders apply these to this next transformative period? What elements are the same and what elements have changed?
Let’s get inside the mind of one of the greatest founders of the last decade!
Timestamps:
0:00 Why Jason runs events like LAUNCH Fest.
3:25 The early days of Jason and Vlad.
5:54 Why getting users before monetizing creates a bigger business.
9:49 Deel - Founders ship faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes and get back to building. Visit https://deel.com/twist to learn more.
11:03 Finding ways to launch a product multiple times.
13:49 How Robinhood identified its initial customers.
20:09 LinkedIn Jobs - Hire right, the first time. Post your first job and get $100 off towards your job post at https://LinkedIn.com/twist.
21:04 Robinhood's "give to get" and waitlist mechanics explained.
25:07 Navigating mistakes that feel existential (they're not!)
27:36 Leaning into negative press.
30:30 Iru - Iru unifies identity, endpoint security, and compliance into one platform. TWiST listeners get 20% off when they book a demo at https://iru.com/twist
32:13 Tackling competition in the AI era.
37:20 How Vlad hires and develops talent.
42:16 What is good design in an era of vibe coded slop?
46:46 Vlad's top lessons from the last 10 years.
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Robinhood CEO: "Gen Z Is the Most Retirement-Savvy Generation Ever" | Vlad Tenev
The next great battle in finance may not be over stocks, crypto, or even payments. It may be over where the $90 trillion great wealth transfer actually lands. In this episode, Robinhood founder and CEO Vlad Tenev returns to Bankless for a fast-moving conversation on how Robinhood wants to position itself for that generational handoff, why he believes 24/7 markets and tokenization are inevitable, and why the popular narrative around Gen Z as financially reckless misses what he’s seeing on-platform.
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 The $70–90T Wealth Transfer and Robinhood's Strategy
4:01 Finance in 2040: 24/7 Markets Everywhere
6:06 Tokenized Stocks, Robinhood Chain, and the U.S. Rollout Question
11:22 Robinhood's Full-Stack DeFi Vision
14:31 Prediction Markets as “Truth Machines”
17:06 Robinhood Social, Sherwood Media, and the Content Layer
21:44 Why “Entertainment Finance” Might Be Overstated
25:03 Gen Z Is More Retirement-Savvy Than You Think
30:54 Trump Accounts and Investing From Birth
36:21 The Financial Super App Race
39:30 Why Robinhood Is Not Prioritizing Peer-to-Peer Payments
42:22 Stablecoins, Bank Charters, and Consumer Reality
49:30 The Clarity Act, Stablecoin Yield, and Tokenized Assets
55:16 Perps Could Come Onshore Fast
57:12 Retail Access to Private Markets
1:00:52 Robinhood's Third Act: Social, AI, and Agentic Finance
---
RESOURCES
Vlad Tenev
https://x.com/vladtenev
---
Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev on Tokenization and Prediction Markets for Everything
Last year, we had Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev on the podcast to talk to us about his company's plans to tokenize shares of private companies. The idea is that retail investors want to participate in hot names like OpenAI and SpaceX, and that tokenizing private equity would allow this to happen. Right after our episode though, a number of companies expressed frustration at the idea, saying that they were not voluntarily participating in the plan. So where do things stand now? And how is Robinhood thinking about how it will play in the red hot prediction market space? On this episode, Vlad returns to talk about where things stand, and all of the company's new efforts to give retail traders even more instruments to use.
Read more:Polymarket Bets on Iran War Show Limits of Prediction Markets for Wall StreetRobinhood Adds $695 ‘Actual’ Platinum Card to Compete With Amex
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Mathematical Superintelligence: Harmonic's Vlad Tenev & Tudor Achim on IMO Gold & Theories of Everything
Vlad Tenev and Tudor Achim from Harmonic explain how they built Aristotle, an AI system that reaches International Mathematical Olympiad gold-medal performance using formally verified Lean proofs. They unpack the architecture behind mathematical superintelligence, including Monte Carlo Tree Search, lemma guessing, and specialized geometry modules. The conversation explores how verifiable reasoning could harden mission-critical software, reshape mathematical practice, and lead to trustworthy superintelligent systems by 2030.
Nathan uses Granola to uncover blind spots in conversations and AI research. Try it at granola.ai/tcr with code TCR — and if you’re already using it, test his blind spot recipe here: https://bit.ly/granolablindspot
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CHAPTERS:
(00:00) About the Episode
(04:58) Math as reasoning (Part 1)
(15:22) Sponsors: Claude | Framer
(18:51) Math as reasoning (Part 2)
(18:51) Inside the Lean language
(27:51) Lean intuition and MathLib (Part 1)
(34:08) Sponsors: Blitzy | Tasklet
(37:08) Lean intuition and MathLib (Part 2)
(38:47) Inside Aristotle's architecture
(48:33) Scope, boundaries, and applications
(54:37) Training, taste, and interpretability
(01:08:18) Formal math and software
(01:16:50) Limits, entropy, and roadmap
(01:25:24) 2030 vision and safety
(01:33:38) Outro
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ACCESS with Alex Heath and Ellis Hamburger
Happy 2026 from all of us at On with Kara Swisher! We’re ringing in the new year with an episode of ACCESS, a new tech insider podcast from the Vox Media Podcast Network that’s hosted by two highly connected tech journalists, Alex Heath and Ellis Hamburger. Each week, Alex and Ellis have revealing conversations with Silicon Valley’s most influential leaders, from the tech titans of today to tomorrow’s most interesting entrepreneurs.
On this episode of ACCESS, they speak to Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev to discuss the rise of prediction markets, juggling priorities as a public CEO, and much more.
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AI is coming for your job. Now what? | Vlad Tenev
As anxiety grows around what AI means for the future of work, technologist Vlad Tenev delivers a clear-eyed look at what happens when the majority of today's jobs disappear — and why it's not what you think.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Robinhood CEO: Making Everyone An Owner
Vlad Tenev built Robinhood by breaking every rule Wall Street wrote: zero commissions when competitors charged $10, mobile-first when "serious" investors demanded desktop, a brand that made finance feel like rebellion instead of a club you'd never join.
By 2021 they'd forced every major brokerage to slash fees and attracted millions who'd never owned a stock, but then GameStop happened: trading restrictions during the meme stock frenzy triggered congressional hearings, user fury, and a two-year brand crisis that nearly buried them despite the real culprit being antiquated clearing mechanics no one understood.
Now Tenev's pushing an even more radical vision—tokenizing private company shares so retail investors can own stakes in AI giants before IPO, turning prediction markets into "truth machines" that beat polls and pundits, and building what he calls the end of financial nihilism: a platform where your seventy-year-old parents and your Gen Z cousin both manage everything from retirement accounts to election bets in one place.
The question isn't whether traditional finance survives this; it's whether Robinhood can move fast enough to own the entire wealth transfer before someone else does.
Timestamps:
0:00 - Introduction
3:52 - Financial Relationships vs. Pinterest Boards: The Higher Bar
5:27 - Building in a Regulatory Catch-22
7:53 - Three Simultaneous Contrarian Bets
12:15 - From Institutional HFT to Retail Revolution
17:40 - January 28th: The Day Trust Died
27:40 - “Simple Lie More Powerful Than Complicated Truth”
30:02 - Tokenization: The Antidote to T+1 Settlement
32:52 - IPO Access: From Asking For Favors to Everyone Wanting In
39:22 - “Series D Was Called an IPO”
43:06 - WTF Happened in 1971?
47:42 - Going Broad While Going Deep
53:26 - The $120 Trillion Wealth Transfer
58:16 - Debunking “Financial Nihilism”
58:40 - “Speculation Is Critical For Functioning Markets”
Resources:
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Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev on tokenizing stocks, expanding access to private shares, fintech's future
(0:00) Introducing Vlad Tenev
(0:51) Jason tells his story of investing in Robinhood
(3:17) Tokenizing securities, offering tokenized shares in OpenAI and SpaceX, controversy
(7:29) Operating under Trump vs Biden, why offering tokenized securities for private companies could be revolutionary
(17:01) Criticisms around expanding access to sophisticated financial products
(19:34) Current landscape of financial companies, Robinhood's future, competing with incumbents
(23:28) Harmonic and building mathematical superintelligence
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The Chopping Block: Robinhood’s Vlad Tenev on Tokenized Privates, 24/7 Stocks & AI-Verified Code - Ep. 891
Altcoin froth meets real-asset rails. Vlad explains why Robinhood built an L2, how tokenized stocks—and even private shares like OpenAI/SpaceX—could trade on-chain, and what that means for accreditation, access, and the public/private wall. Plus: DATs, DTCC in a tokenized world, and AI that formally proves smart contracts.
Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. This week, Robinhood co‑founder/CEO Vlad Tenev joins to explain Robinhood Chain, why they chose a Layer 2 over a Layer 1, and the plan to bring tokenized stocks — including private shares — on‑chain. We get into the OpenAI/SpaceX kerfuffle, accreditation rules, and whether permissionless tokenization erodes the public/private boundary. Then we zoom out to 24/7 trading, Digital Asset Treasuries, and how formal verification (Lean proofs) could make smart contracts safer.
Show highlights
🔹 Robinhood Chain L2 vs. L1 – Why Vlad Tenev chose a Layer 2 over a Layer 1 for tokenized stocks and real-world assets.
🔹 Tokenized Stocks & Private Shares – How Robinhood could put U.S. equities and private company equity (OpenAI, SpaceX) on-chain via SPVs and secondaries.
🔹 OpenAI/SpaceX Tokenization Debate – Issuer consent vs. permissionless exposure: what the kerfuffle reveals about private markets on-chain.
🔹 Retail Access & Accreditation Reform – Moving from wealth-gated accreditation to disclosure + self-certification so more investors can participate.
🔹 Ex-US Rollout for Tokenized Equities – Stablecoin-style playbook with KYC/geofencing and permissionless assets where allowed.
🔹 24/7 Trading for Stocks – From 24/5 to 24/7 markets; what this means for DTCC, transfer agents, and market plumbing.
🔹 Wallet + Chain + Custody Stack – Vertical integration advantages: pricing, UX, and liquidity when Robinhood owns more of the rails.
🔹 Digital Asset Treasuries (DATs) – Yield dynamics, mNAV compression, and how DATs stack up against staking ETFs.
🔹 Memecoins vs. Real Assets – “You can buy memes but not OpenAI” paradox and why investor-protection rules feel backward.
🔹 AI-Verified Smart Contracts – Lean proofs, formal verification, and reducing smart-contract risk beyond manual audits.
🔹 Harmonic’s “Aristotle” – Vlad’s AI hitting IMO gold-medal-level math performance and what that means for code safety.
🔹 Robinhood’s Next Decade – Retail super app → B2B/institutional rails and ex-US expansion for tokenized finance.
Hosts:
⭐️ Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly ⭐️ Robert Leshner, CEO & Co-founder of Superstate⭐️ Tarun Chitra, Managing Partner at Robot Ventures⭐️ Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly
Guest:
⭐️ Vlad Tenev, CEO & Co-founder of Robinhood
Timestamps
00:00 Intro
01:52 L2 vs. L1 Trade-Offs
04:19 Tokenized Stocks on Robinhood Chain
07:56 Private Markets Onchain
16:10 Accreditation Reform & Compliance
21:47 24/7 Trading for Equities
31:05 Public vs. Private Boundary
32:59 Memecoin Paradox vs. Real-Asset Tokenization
35:27 Digital Asset Treasuries (DATs)
37:50 Robinhood’s Business Mix
41:38 Retail to Institutions: Global Expansion
46:44 Harmonic AI & Lean Proofs
54:48 Safer Smart Contracts Beyond Manual Audits
Disclosures
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20VC: Vlad Tenev on Robinhood's $85BN Resurgence | Tokenizing SpaceX & OpenAI | Building Nine Revenue Lines Over $100M | Why Crypto Will Be Robinhood's Biggest Revenue Line | Why Stablecoins Will Replace Banking Rails
Vlad Tenev is the Founder and CEO of Robinhood, the greatest story on Wall St of the last decade. In the previous 18 months, Robinhood has increased its net revenue by 58% to nearly $3B; a $500M loss in 2023 turned into a $1.1B profit in 2024. Robinhood's stock is up roughly 4x, lifting their market cap to north of $80B. Today, Robinhood has nine lines of business that do over $100M in revenue.
Agenda:
00:00 – "Tokenization Is The Biggest Innovation in Finance"
03:28 – How Robinhood 4x'd Its Market Cap in 8 Months
06:40 – AI Writes 50% of All Net New Code at Robinhood
10:02 – Why Robinhood Built a Secret ChatGPT for Support
12:11 – The One Customer Type That Transformed the Business
15:29 – "CoreWeave Is Retail's Way Into AI" — The Meme Stock Defense
18:05 – Inside Robinhood's Tokenized Private Shares Product
21:23 – "Capital as a Service" — Vlad's Wild Vision for Startup Fundraising
24:10 – The $100M Revenue Line Vlad Wishes He Could Kill
26:45 – Robinhood Is Building... Cash Delivery Trucks?!
29:55 – "We Were Shipping Nothing": Vlad on the 2020–2022 Culture Crisis
33:20 – What Line of Business Will Be the Biggest For Vlad in 5 Years Time
35:11 – The One Competitor Vlad Actually Respects
36:55 – From Men's Health to Japanese Toilets: Vlad's Weirdest Quickfire Yet
38:40 – "I Was in the Dumps": What 2022 Taught Vlad About Resilience
40:00 – Where Robinhood Is Headed: The Next Decade of Financial Infrastructure
Vlad Tenev on Robinhood’s Bold Move into Crypto, DeFi, and Ethereum L2s
In this episode of The Defiant Podcast, we sit down with Vlad Tenev, Co-founder and CEO of Robinhood, to explore how Robinhood is bringing tokenized U.S. stocks to the EU, launching an Ethereum L2 with Arbitrum tech, and shaping the future of finance. From tokenized private shares to the long-term vision of blockchain adoption, Vlad shares insights on regulation, innovation, and the battle between Robinhood and Coinbase. Is crypto the backbone of global finance? Tune in to find out!
Chapters:
00:00 Intro: How do you get people in the U.S. excited about stocks onchain?
00:52 Introduction to Vlad Tenev, Co-Founder and CEO of Robinhood
01:30 Tokenized U.S. stocks, private company stocks, Robin Hood blockchain, USDG, and other announcements
02:35 Robinhood offers tokenized U.S. stocks to customers in the EU
06:52 Primary market for private companies’ tokenized shares
13:55 Robinhood launches Ethereum L2 using Arbitrum tech
18:45 Will Robinhood launch a token?
20:00 What regulation will need to happen in the U.S. to launch these products here?
24:47 How do these crypto announcements fit into the long term vision of RH?
28:43 RH chain as an enabler for this vision of global adoption
30:45 Will crypto remain a niche asset class or become the backbone of finance?
35:10 Robinhood vs. Coinbase
37:10 The DeFi Mullet: UX and DeFi on Robinhood
41:55 What makes Vlad a believer in crypto innovation?
46:10 Closing remarks
Robinhood Announces Tokenized Stocks! LIVE with CEO Vlad Tenev, Johann Kerbrat, and AJ Warner
In this series of three interviews from Cannes, we host Vlad Tenev, CEO of Robinhood, Johann Kerbrat, GM of Crypto at Robinhood, and AJ Warner from Arbitrum to explore key announcements from their recent Token Summit. They discuss the introduction of tokenized stock options for private companies like SpaceX and OpenAI, aiming to democratize access for retail investors.
Vlad highlights Robinhood’s commitment to addressing investment inequities, while Johann shares insights on the technological challenges and their Layer 2 blockchain initiative facilitating 24/7 trading. They also navigate the regulatory landscape with the SEC and CFTC, envisioning a future where private shares become accessible and entrepreneurial capital raising is enhanced. The conversation wraps up with plans to improve user experience for new financial products in Robinhood’s evolving crypto offerings.
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Interview with Vlad Tenev
21:00 Interview with Johann Kerbrat
37:30 Interview with AJ Warner
------
RESOURCES
Vlad Tenev
https://x.com/vladtenev
Vlad’s Washington Post Op-Ed
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/01/28/investing-crypto-tech-robinhood-stock-market/
Johann Kerbrat
https://x.com/johannkerbrat
AJ Warner
https://x.com/ajwarner90
------
Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures
Robinhood's CEO on the Plan to Tokenize Everything
Robinhood, the company known for first introducing commission-free trading, has now become a behemoth with all kinds of different business lines including credit cards, savings vehicles, crypto, and wealth management. This week it's announced further expansion with news that it's launching its own chain, as well as tokenized stock trading (that for now is only available in the EU). On this episode, we speak with founder and CEO Vlad Tenev about its new endeavors, as well as the legacy of the 2021 meme stock mania, the evolution of the YOLO traders, the changing regulatory environment, and when we can expect to have 24/7 on-chain stock trading in the US.
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Are prediction markets gambling? Robinhood's Vlad Tenev is betting not
Today, I’m talking with Vlad Tenev, the co-founder and CEO of Robinhood, which started as a way to open up stock trading. But the company’s ambitions have grown over time – and they’re getting bigger. Just a day before Vlad and I talked, Robinhood announced it would soon be offering bank accounts and wealth management services, which would really allow Robinhood to be involved with your money at every possible level.
So I was very interested to sit down with Vlad and really hash out where Robinhood is going, and why he’s so adamant that certain big ideas, like prediction markets based around everything from sports games to presidential elections, are going to play a pivotal role in the future of finance.
Links:
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev on markets for everything | Hard Fork
Robinhood is launching bank accounts | Verge
Kalshi sues Nevada and New Jersey regulators | Esports Insider
Kalshi CEO: ‘State law doesn’t really apply’ to us | TechCrunch
Robinhood debuts a sports gambling hub | Verge
The SEC has ended its investigation into Robinhood crypto | Verge
Robinhood admits it’s just a gambling app | Verge
Massachusetts regulator subpoenas Robinhood over sports betting | CNN
Verge Transcript
Credits:
Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Our producers are Kate Cox and Nick Statt. Our editor is Ursa Wright.
The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
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Vlad Tenev Wants to Tokenize SpaceX & OpenAI on Robinhood
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev returns to Bankless for a wide-ranging conversation on the future of tokenization, crypto regulation, and Robinhood’s evolving product suite.
Vlad lays out a bold vision for bringing tokenized assets like SpaceX and OpenAI equity to retail investors, discusses the role of prediction markets as "truth machines," and introduces Robinhood's latest products: Strategies, Cortex, and Banking.
This one’s a big glimpse into where TradFi and DeFi collide.
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✨ Mint the episode on Zora ✨
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro
5:54 New Administration
12:19 Tokenization
16:18 Tokenized SpaceX
18:12 An IPO Alternative
23:39 Prediction Markets
25:40 Kalshi
29:58 Future of Prediction Markets
35:58 Robinhood Banking
38:27 Robinhood Cortex
44:08 Robinhood Strategies
49:04 Cash Delivery
52:10 Crypto Listings
54:37 Why Distinct Apps?
56:32 How Bankless is Robinhood?
1:00:42 Closing Thoughts
------
RESOURCES
Vlad Tenev
https://x.com/vladtenev
Robinhood
https://robinhood.com/
Washington Post Op-ed
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/01/28/investing-crypto-tech-robinhood-stock-market/
------
Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures
The Incredible Double Interview: Superhuman and Robinhood | E2090
Today’s show: Jason interviews Rahul Vohra, CEO and founder of Superhuman, and Vlad Tenev, CEO and co-founder of Robinhood. This is a packed episode featuring founder tips, fun stories about how Superhuman and Robinhood got their start and much more!
Timestamps:
(0:00) Episode teaser(2:13) Product market fit and founder journeys(3:25) Jason's investment in Superhuman and market positioning(5:14) AI's role and features in Superhuman(10:25) Lemon.io. Get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://Lemon.io/twist(14:37) Targeting users and competitive advantages(22:23) Evolution and new features of Superhuman
(20:52) Northwest Registered Agent. Get more privacy, more options, and more done—visit northwestregisteredagent.com/twist today!
(24:37) Tackling spam with Superhuman's AI
(27:05) Custom auto labels and email classification
(29:47) Vapi. Go to Vapi.ai and use code Twist200 to get $200 in credits
(32:03) Superhuman's auto reminders and drafts
(34:14) Vlad Tenev and the origins of Robinhood
(39:31) Product design philosophies of Robinhood and Superhuman
(49:29) Scaling design principles and investment decisions(
52:31) Subjectivity in product design
(55:14) Customer feedback in product development
(1:00:00) Superhuman's subscription model and customer acquisition
(1:05:11) PR strategies and news hijacking
(1:12:06) Investment experiences with Robinhood
(1:13:35) Navigating company valuation fluctuations
(1:15:03) Influences on Vlad Tenev and new Robinhood desktop product
(1:22:02) Company resilience and employee reorganization
(1:25:52) Crypto regulation and startup mentality
(1:30:05) Investment trends among Robinhood users
(1:31:12) Retail benefits for startups and capital raising challenges
(1:34:04) Accreditation for private investing and solutions
Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com
Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com
Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp
Links from this episode:
Check out Superhuman: https://superhuman.com/
Check out Superhuman’s blog post that details all of the new features Rahul went over in the demo: https://blog.superhuman.com/the-next-superhuman-ai/.
Check out Robinhood Legend: https://robinhood.com/us/en/legend/
Article “How Superhuman Built an Engine to Find Product Market Fit”: https://review.firstround.com/how-superhuman-built-an-engine-to-find-product-market-fit/
Check out Rick Rubin’s book: https://www.amazon.ca/Creative-Act-Way-Being/dp/0593652886
Article on Bezos and Washington Post: https://www.newsweek.com/bezos-makes-big-change-washington-post-opinion-focus-endorsed-musk-2036618
Media Bias Chart: https://www.allsides.com/media-bias/media-bias-chart
Check out “Working Backwards” book about Amazon insights: https://www.amazon.ca/Working-Backwards-Insights-Stories-Secrets/dp/1250267595
Check out Rahul’s article on acquisition: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/rip-mailbox-founders-how-stop-worrying-love-being-acquired-vohra/
Follow Rahul:
X: https://x.com/rahulvohra
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahulvohra/
Follow Vlad:
X: https://x.com/vladtenev
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vlad-tenev-7037591b/
Follow Jason:
X: https://twitter.com/Jason
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
Thank you to our partners:
(10:25) Lemon.io. Get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://Lemon.io/twist
(20:52) Northwest Registered Agent. Get more privacy, more options, and more done—visit northwestregisteredagent.com/twist today!
(29:47) Vapi. Go to Vapi.ai and use code Twist200 to get $200 in credits
How Based is Grok 3? + Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev on Markets For Everything + Vibecoding 101
This week, Elon Musk brought a new chatbot into the crowded A.I. universe — Grok 3, the latest model from his company xAI. We break down how it compares with other leading models and what it reveals about Musk’s larger ambitions. Then, Vlad Tenev, the chief executive of the investing platform Robinhood, lays out his vision for the future of investing and fields some difficult questions about his company’s role in fueling a culture of risky financial speculation. Finally, Kevin revisits his high school coding era and tries to make Casey a new software tool, with an A.I. assist.
Guest:
Vlad Tenev, chief executive of Robinhood and co-founder of Harmonic.
Additional Reading:
There Are Probably Too Many A.I. Companies Now
An Investing Revolution Is Coming. The U.S. Isn’t Ready for It.
Is Math the Path to Chatbots That Don’t Make Stuff Up?
We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.
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Robinhood’s 'comeback' and big plans for 2025 with co-founder and CEO Vlad Tenev
Instead of our usual Friday news rundown, we’re bringing you a conversation about what Yahoo Finance dubbed the “comeback stock of the year” - Robinhood. TechCrunch Editor in Chief and General Manager Connie Loizos chatted with Robinhood’s CEO and co-founder, Vlad Tenev, about the company’s evolution.
Listen to the full episode to hear more about:
Why Tenev believes the company is poised for significant growth.
Robinhood's approach to prediction markets, sports betting, and wealth management.
How the Robinhood plans to empower a younger generation of investors.
Equity is TechCrunch’s flagship podcast and posts every Wednesday and Friday.
Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes here.
Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.
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Why Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev Is Betting Big on Crypto, Stablecoins, and Prediction Markets - Ep. 754
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.
In this episode of Unchained, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev offers a rare glimpse into the company’s strategy. How did memes like Dogecoin become one of Robinhood’s biggest assets, onboarding millions of users? What drove its decision to embrace stablecoins, staking, and a dedicated crypto wallet—and what risks do these moves carry?
As Europe’s MiCA regulations set the stage for a global crypto framework, Vlad discusses how Robinhood is positioning itself for growth, the role of prediction markets, and why blockchain could dramatically lower costs for investors. He also shares personal insights from his own experiences with hyperinflation, revealing how stablecoins might safeguard wealth for millions around the world.
With crypto ETFs, regulatory shifts, and a new administration looming, here’s what he thinks is next for Robinhood—and the crypto industry.
Show highlights:
How Robinhood has been experiencing growth in the crypto retail market
The effect of election night and Robinhood’s event contracts on trading volumes
What Robinhood saw happened with the launch of spot ETFs in the U.S.
How the exchange was able to attract crypto investors
The role of MiCA in Robinhood allowing users to stake ETH and SOL
How the company aims to enhance the user experience with the Robinhood wallet
Why Robinhood decided to invest in Global Dollar Network, which has stablecoin USDG
What’s on Vlad’s crypto regulation wish list under the new administration and Congress
Whether the criteria to list crypto assets on Robinhood will change under a crypto-friendly Trump administration
Why Vlad is so excited about prediction markets
Why he sees blockchain technology as a tool that will ultimately help users
Visit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.com
Thank you to our sponsors!
Polkadot
Kelp DAO
Guest
Vlad Tenev, CEO of Robinhood
Links
Unchained: Why Robinhood, a TradFi Hub, Is Growing Its Crypto Business Globally
Reuters: Robinhood's top attorney Gallagher rules out SEC chair role
Robinhood Reports Third Quarter 2024 Results
Robinhood to Acquire Bitstamp
Spot Bitcoin ETF Options: Why You 'Can't Overstate' Their Importance
The Legend Awakens: Introducing Robinhood Legend, Futures Trading, and Index Options
Finimize: Robinhood, Kraken, And Partners Launch New Stablecoin USDG -
Decrypt: Robinhood Launches US Presidential Election Prediction Market—For Americans Only
Timestamps
00:00 Intro
02:43 Robinhood’s growth in the crypto retail market
05:05 Election night’s surprising impact on trading volumes
07:11 What Robinhood observed after U.S. spot ETF launches
11:56 How the platform attracted millions of crypto investors
16:49 MiCA’s role in enabling ETH and SOL staking on Robinhood
19:09 Enhancing user experience with the Robinhood wallet
21:32 Why Robinhood is betting on stablecoins
25:37 Vlad’s crypto regulation wish list from the new administration
30:05 Will Robinhood change its crypto listing criteria?
32:18 Vlad’s excitement about prediction markets
36:12 How blockchain could lower costs and empower users
41:21 News Recap
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20VC: Robinhood's Vlad Tenev on Founder Mode | Building 8x $100M Revenue Lines | Lessons from Raising $5BN and the Gamestop Saga | The Future of Artificial Intelligence, Wealth Management and Home Ownership
Vlad Tenev is a Co-Founder and CEO of Robinhood, the commission free stock trading and investing app with a market cap today of $20.7BN. Over the incredible 11 year journey Vlad has raised over $5BN from some of the world's best investors including Sequoia, a16z, DST, Ribbit and Index. Before Robinhood, Vlad started two finance companies in New York City.
In Today's Episode with Vlad Tenev We Discuss:
1. Surviving a Scandal: The Gamestop Saga:
What was the single hardest element of the sage for Vlad?
What did the sage teach Vlad about how to tell stories effectively?
What did Vlad not do in the period that he wishes he had of done?
What did he do that he wishes he had not done?
What advice does Vlad have for any founder going into a crisis?
2. Founder Mode and The Biggest BS Myths of Leadership:
How does Vlad analyse and assess Paul Graham's "Founder Mode"?
Where is Founder mode right? Where is it dangerous?
What canonical leadership statements and lessons does Vlad most disagree with?
How has Vlad changed most significantly as a leader?
3. 8x $100M Revenue Lines: Scaling a Juggernaut:
What have been the single biggest challenges of scaling 8 lines of revenue each with over $100M in them?
What have been Vlad's biggest lessons on when and how to release new products?
Why did Vlad decide to abandon the Europe launch? Was it right with the benefit of hindsight?
What did Vlad not invest in with Robinhood that he wishes he had of done?
Why Vlad Tenev and Tudor Achim of Harmonic Think AI Is About to Change Math—and Why It Matters
Adding code to LLM training data is a known method of improving a model’s reasoning skills. But wouldn’t math, the basis of all reasoning, be even better? Up until recently, there just wasn’t enough usable data that describes mathematics to make this feasible.
A few years ago, Vlad Tenev (also founder of Robinhood) and Tudor Achim noticed the rise of the community around an esoteric programming language called Lean that was gaining traction among mathematicians. The combination of that and the past decade’s rise of autoregressive models capable of fast, flexible learning made them think the time was now and they founded Harmonic. Their mission is both lofty—mathematical superintelligence—and imminently practical, verifying all safety-critical software.
Hosted by: Sonya Huang and Pat Grady, Sequoia Capital
Mentioned in this episode:
IMO and the Millennium Prize: Two significant global competitions Harmonic hopes to win (soon)
Riemann hypothesis: One of the most difficult unsolved math conjectures (and a Millenium Prize problem) most recently in the sights of MIT mathematician Larry Guth
Terry Tao: perhaps the greatest living mathematician and Vlad’s professor at UCLA
Lean: an open source functional language for code verification launched by Leonardo de Moura when at Microsoft Research in 2013 that powers the Lean Theorem Prover
mathlib: the largest math textbook in the world, all written in Lean
Metaculus: online prediction platform that tracks and scores thousands of forecasters
Minecraft Beaten in 20 Seconds: The video Vlad references as an analogy to AI math
Navier-Stokes equations: another important Millenium Prize math problem. Vlad considers this more tractable that Riemann
John von Neumann: Hungarian mathematician and polymath that made foundational contributions to computing, the Manhattan Project and game theory
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz: co-inventor of calculus and (remarkably) creator of the “universal characteristic,” a system for reasoning through a language of symbols and calculations—anticipating Lean and Harmonic by 350 years!
00:00 - Introduction
01:42 - Math is reasoning
06:16 - Studying with the world's greatest living mathematician
10:18 - What does the math community think of AI math?
15:11 - Recursive self-improvement
18:31 - What is Lean?
21:05 - Why now?
22:46 - Synthetic data is the fuel for the model
27:29 - How fast will your model get better?
29:45 - Exploring the frontiers of human knowledge
34:11 - Lightning round
Vlad Tenev - Navigating Robinhood's Evolution - [Invest Like the Best, EP.384]
My guest today is Vlad Tenev. Vlad is the CEO and co-founder of Robinhood. It was such a treat to sit down with him and discuss the behind-the-scenes of a revolutionary business we all know well. He details Robinhood’s journey to zero-cost trading and what it means to build a consumer-centric financial product. Vlad believes in finding the harmonies across mathematics and art and applies this lens to everything he builds. We discuss Robinhood’s new credit card and more products on the horizon, the company’s toughest moments, including the Gamestop episode, and the compelling future of AI in financial services. Please enjoy this conversation with Vlad Tenev.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
-----
This episode is brought to you by Ridgeline. Ridgeline has built a complete, real-time, modern operating system for investment managers. It handles trading, portfolio management, compliance, customer reporting, and much more through an all-in-one real-time cloud platform. I think this platform will become the standard for investment managers, and if you run an investing firm, I highly recommend you find time to speak with them. Head to ridgelineapps.com to learn more about the platform.
This episode is brought to you by Tegus, where we're changing the game in investment research. Step away from outdated, inefficient methods and into the future with our platform, proudly hosting over 100,000 transcripts – with over 25,000 transcripts added just this year alone. Our platform grows eight times faster and adds twice as much monthly content as our competitors, putting us at the forefront of the industry. Plus, with 75% of private market transcripts available exclusively on Tegus, we offer insights you simply can't find elsewhere. See the difference a vast, quality-driven transcript library makes. Unlock your free trial at tegus.com/patrick.
-----
Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.
Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.
Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus
Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com).
Show Notes:
(00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like the Best
(00:03:56) The Next Frontier in AI: Reasoning and Logical Deductions
(00:06:19) Challenges and Approaches in AI Development
(00:09:08) Formal Mathematics and AI Integration
(00:11:23) Practical Applications of Mathematical Superintelligence
(00:17:30) Robinhood's Journey to Zero-Cost Trading
(00:24:38) Building a Consumer-Friendly Trading Platform
(00:28:52) Robinhood Gold and the Future of Financial Services
(00:35:51) Understanding Robinhood's Business Model
(00:42:34) Navigating the GameStop Crisis
(00:49:17) Improving Customer Satisfaction
(00:52:43) Reputation Repair
(00:54:52) The Future of Financial Services
(00:59:06) Crypto and AI in Finance
(01:08:09) Building a High-Performance Culture
(01:11:42) The Kindest Thing Anyone Has Ever Done for Vlad
What is Robinhood Doing in Crypto? | Co-Founder Vlad Tenev
Robinhood is the world’s most successful FinTech trading company. They have already conquered TradFi. What are they targeting next?
In June, they announced the acquisition of Bitstamp, the oldest crypto exchange. They’re increasingly investing in crypto and we felt it was important to know their plans.
We brought the co-founder Vlad Tenev and we had a wide-ranging conversation covering topics like tokenization, Robinhood’s Wallet and L2, payment for orderflow and MEV, the SEC Wells Notice and much more.
------ 🎬 DEBRIEF | Ryan & David Unpacking the Episode: https://www.bankless.com/debrief-the-vlad-tenev-interview
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------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:
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🗣️TOKU | CRYPTO EMPLOYMENT https://bankless.cc/toku
------ ✨ Mint the episode on Zora ✨ https://zora.co/collect/zora:0x0c294913a7596b427add7dcbd6d7bbfc7338d53f/47?referrer=0x077Fe9e96Aa9b20Bd36F1C6290f54F8717C5674E
------ TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro 6:35 Why Crypto 12:28 Robinhood Consumer Base 15:45 The Crypto Transition 24:52 Bitstamp Acquisition 34:10 Robinhood Wallet 40:43 Robinhood L2? 45:11 Payments 53:09 Robinhood vs SEC 1:04:29 Orderflow Business Model 1:11:05 Current Crypto Cycle 1:14:06 Vlad’s Vision 1:15:20 Closing & Disclaimers
------ RESOURCES
Vlad Tenev https://x.com/vladtenev
Robinhood Crypto https://robinhood.com/eu/en/about/crypto/
Robinhood Credit Card https://robinhood.com/creditcard/
------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures
Rapid Response: Robinhood confronts a GameStop sequel, w/CEO Vlad Tenev
How will the return of meme stocks like GameStop and day trading influencers like Roaring Kitty alter the fintech landscape? Robinhood’s co-founder and CEO Vlad Tenev, who was a lightning rod for controversy when meme stocks first surged in 2021, joins Rapid Response to explain what’s the same and what’s different this time around. Tenev also shares how his family’s struggles in 1990s Bulgaria shapes his view of the U.S. financial markets today, and whether trading on Robinhood is like using a sports gambling app.
Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pChXgKIemw
For more info, visit: www.rapidresponseshow.com
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
EP 105: Vlad Tenev (CEO, Robinhood): The Meme Stock Crisis, The Future of Crypto, and AI Opportunities in Finance
In the midst of meme stock craziness, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev shared his most eye-opening insights from running the company that transformed the game for retail investors. He talks about Robinhood’s new Gold Card, his views on crypto, the media side, how artificial intelligence could change finance, and more.
(00:00) Intro
(03:27) The Origin of the Name 'Robinhood'
(08:43) Navigating the GameStop and Meme Stock Saga
(10:52) Rebuilding Trust and Brand Impact
(19:10) Crisis Communication and Leadership Lessons
(23:54) Industry Insights and Future of Trading
(31:00) AI and Financial Services
(33:34) Crypto and Regulatory Challenges
(40:14) The Viral Launch of Robinhood
(47:01) The Gold Card Launch and Customer Strategy
(50:08) The Vision Behind Robinhood's Credit Card
(53:50) Building vs. Buying: The X1 Acquisition
(56:12) Integrating X1 into Robinhood
(57:11) The GM Structure and Its Benefits
(58:42) Challenges and Trade-offs of Decentralization
(01:01:08) Financial Modeling and Customer Economics
(01:04:48) Navigating Remote Work and Returning to the Office
(01:09:14) Managing Stock Price Expectations
(01:13:23) Hiring and Retaining Talent
(01:17:11) Fundraising and Investor Relations
(01:31:09) Launching Sherwood Media
(01:38:56) Reflections and Future Aspirations
Executive Producer: Rashad Assir
Producer: Leah Clapper
Mixing and editing: Justin Hrabovsky
Check out Unsupervised Learning, Redpoint's AI Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@UCUl-s_Vp-Kkk_XVyDylNwLA
🎥 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCugS0jD5IAdoqzjaNYzns7w?sub_confirmation=1
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About the Show
Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode of The Logan Bartlett Show, we sit down with the people behind today’s most important startups and extract the tactics, lessons, and frameworks they’ve learned the hard way. Conversations span hiring to GTM, product, growth, fundraising and everything in between - collectively forming the ultimate playbook to make you a better CEO, investor or board member.
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Robinhood's CEO On Dumb Money, Day Trading, and Retirement — With Vlad Tenev
Vlad Tenev is the CEO and co-founder of Robinhood. He joins Big Technology Podcast to share what's happened to meme stock traders after the meme stocks. We talk about how the company's 23 million members are adjusting to a challenging investment environment after riding the zero interest rate investment environment. We also discuss about how Robinhood is evolving, providing retirement services and working on a credit card. And Tenev addresses some controversial areas like margin trading and payment for the order flow. Tune in for the second half where we talk crypto, AI, trading on the Vision Pro, and inflation. You'll come away from this sub-60 minute conversation with deep knowledge of the state of fintech and investing today.
---
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Robinhood's Crypto Pivot with Vlad Tenev, Co-Founder, CEO
Robinhood's Co-Founder & CEO, Vlad Tenev announced some major news at Permissionless earlier this week. Robinhood is diving deep into crypto and web3!
How so? When's the big roll-out? Hear all about it and so much more in the interview.
P.S. It's Ryan and David's FIRST in-person interview! You don't want to miss it, anon. Trust.
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⚡️ LIDO | LIQUID ETH STAKING https://bankless.cc/lido
🔐 LEDGER | NANO S PLUS WALLET https://bankless.cc/Ledger
------ Timestamps:
0:00 Intro 4:53 Wen Vlad & Robinhood Got Cryptopilled 7:55 Why Self-Custody 9:09 Robinhood 3 12:15 Chromatic Feedback & Other Features 14:03 Why the Crypto Pivot? 20:37 Utility of Robinhood’s Non-Custodian Wallet 26:04 Cannobolization Threat? 27:32 Robinhood’s Seriousness, Culture, & Demand 30:44 Robinhood Crypto Users 32:28 Robinhood 3’s Case for Normies 34:56 What’s Next
------ Resources:
Vlad Tenev https://twitter.com/vladtenev
Robinhood 3 https://robinhood.com/web3-wallet
----- Not financial or tax advice. This channel is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This video is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.
Disclosure. From time-to-time I may add links in this newsletter to products I use. I may receive commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. Additionally, the Bankless writers hold crypto assets. See our investment disclosures here: https://newsletter.banklesshq.com/p/bankless-disclosures
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev and Paxos CEO Charles Cascarilla on How to Avoid Another GameStop - Ep.236
In this discussion I moderated for Paxos, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev and Paxos CEO Charles Cascarilla discuss GameStop, the broken traditional financial infrastructure, and how blockchain technology may change the future of settlements. Show highlights:
why Robinhood stopped trading on GameStop and AMC stock earlier this year
what both Charles and Vlad think the feasibility of T+0 settlements versus Citadel’s and the DTCC’s aim of T+1 settlements
how the GameStop scenario would have been different in a T+0 environment
what it would look like if certain markets used T+0 settlements while others still settled on T+1
why Robinhood decided to add crypto back in early 2018
how Robinhood’s crypto operations work on the back end
why Robinhood does not allow users to move crypto off-platform
whether securities trading or crypto will be a larger portion of both Paxos’ and Robinhood’s business model
what Paxos and Robinhood have planned for the near future
Thank you to our sponsors!
E&Y: https://ey.com/globalblockchainsummit
Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unchainedcardearnfeb2
Kyber Network: Dmm.exchange
Episode Links:
People:
Charles Cascarilla
Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlescascarilla/
Coindesk Profile
https://www.coindesk.com/charles-cascarilla-most-influential-2020
Previous interview with Laura
https://unchainedpodcast.com/chad-cascarilla-on-paxoss-partnership-with-paypal/
Blog post on the GameStop saga
https://www.paxos.com/what-lehman-brothers-gamestop-and-the-next-financial-crisis-have-in-common/
Vlad Tenev
Twitter
https://twitter.com/vladtenev
CNN Article
https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/01/investing/robinhood-gamestop-vlad-tenev/index.html
Tweet Thread on T+2
https://twitter.com/vladtenev/status/1356687248746455041
Companies:
Paxos
Twitter
https://twitter.com/PaxosGlobal
Paxos Settlement Service
https://www.paxos.com/securities/
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-crypto-currencies-paxos/paxos-to-launch-settlement-of-u-s-listed-equities-after-secs-no-action-letter-idUSKBN1X727M
Wall Street Journal write-up
https://www.wsj.com/articles/blockchain-makes-inroads-into-the-stock-markets-1-trillion-plumbing-system-11573131600
Robinhood
Twitter
https://twitter.com/RobinhoodApp
Robinhood Crypto
https://robinhood.com/us/en/about/crypto/
Public offering
https://blog.robinhood.com/news/2021/3/23/robinhood-markets-inc-confidentially-submits-draft-registration-statement
Miscellaneous Links
Citadel on settlements
https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/95326/citadel-robinhood-shorter-settlements-congress
DTCC on settlements
https://www.dtcc.com/news/2021/february/24/dtcc-proposes-approach-to-shortening-us-settlement-cycle-to-t1-within-two-years
Other:
Caitlin Long Unchained episode:
https://unchainedpodcast.com/caitlin-long-why-avanti-will-be-a-new-kind-of-crypto-bank/
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Robinhood: Vlad Tenev
Before Robinhood became one of the most loved and most hated stock trading platforms in the U.S., it was just another tech startup, launched by two mathematicians with an audacious idea: make stock trading mobile, make it fun, and make it free—with no commissions, and no minimum balances. In 2013, Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt decided to pursue this idea full-time. They sidelined their first business—selling software that shaved milliseconds off high-speed trades—and began building an app aimed at anyone with a smartphone and a few extra dollars to invest. After launching in 2015, Robinhood steadily attracted users and rave reviews, but soon drew criticism for its business model, which came under even more scrutiny after the GameStop trading frenzy in January. Despite these challenges, Robinhood has grown to 13 million users and is now poised for a lucrative IPO.
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20VC: Robinhood Founder Vlad Tenev on His Biggest Lessons Managing Through A Crisis, The Events of The Congressional Committee, Raising $2.4Bn Fast and Why It Was Necessary & Why It Is Ludicrous To Suggest Robinhood Put The Business Ahead of it's Customer
Vlad Tenev is the Founder & CEO @ Robinhood, the company that provides commission-free investing, plus the tools you need to put your money in motion. To date, Vlad has raised over $5.6BN with Robinhood including a $2.4Bn raise this month and some of their investors include the very best in the business; Ribbit, Sequoia, Greenoaks, Index, IVP, Thrive, GV and more incredible names. Before Robinhood, Vlad started two finance companies in New York City.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Vlad made his way into the world of startups and how the "Occupy Wall St" movement spurned much of the inspiration for the founding moment of Robinhood?
2.) Looking back over the last month, does Vlad believe Robinhood is a victim or an enabler of the crisis? What does Vlad believe upset customers the most? With the benefit of hindsight, what would Vlad have done differently? What does Vlad believe are some of the biggest misconceptions about how the last few weeks played out?
3.) Funding: Why did Robinhood need the scale of funding that it took, so fast? What are the capital requirements for a business like Robinhood? Who regulates their compliance? Was Robinhood forced to put the interests of the business ahead of the interests of their customers? Why does VAR need to be changed as a risk estimation mechanism?
4.) What has Vlad learned as CEO about managing through a crisis? What did Vlad do to ensure morale remained high internally, despite the external events? What works? What does not work? What did Vlad learn about himself through the experience of the congressional committee and testifying before them?
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