Topic
22 facts from 4 episodes, in date order. These are what speakers said on the shows, each linked to the moment it was said. They aren't independently verified.
2013
Vlad Tenev says Michael Lewis's book Flash Boys came out around the time of Robinhood's 2013 waitlist announcement and tied payment for order flow to retail customers being harmed.
“our initial wait list in 2013, there was this book that came out, Flash Boys. And it was basically like a coincident with the announcement of Robinhood, the Michael Lewis book.”
2019
Vlad Tenev says the gamification narrative began when the industry dropped commissions to zero at the end of 2019.
“I think it actually originated right when our zero commission model became universal. So it was end of 2019. Everyone dropped commissions to zero.”
2019
Vlad Tenev says Robinhood noticed around 2019 that a small group of active traders generated a disproportionate share of its revenue.
“I think we noticed fairly early on, maybe as early as 2019, that we have a big active trader business and sort of a disproportionate amount of revenue was generated by a relatively small group of customers.”
2020
Vlad Tenev says GameStop was a popular free-stock giveaway for people who joined Robinhood in 2020.
“Now, one of the stocks that was actually very popular at that time was GameStop. So if you joined in 2020, there was a good chance that, you know, GameStop was the stock that welcomed you to Robinhood.”
2020
Vlad Tenev says Robinhood grew its market share and its business three to five times in 2020.
“And in 2020, we grew our market share at an accelerated pace and the business itself grew three to five X.”
2021
Gonzalez says shortening stock settlement from two days to one could have reduced risk and probably prevented Robinhood's trading halt during the GameStop episode.
“The main thing we could have done is passed a bill to shorten the settlement time from two days to one day.”
2021
Vlad Tenev says Elon Musk urged him to be fully transparent during the GameStop trading restrictions.
“Elon was like very intense. He's like, you know, you're being an asshole to the people. You've got to what you've got to do is full transparency, 100%.”
2022
Vlad Tenev says Robinhood announced it was remote-first in 2022 and he regretted the decision almost immediately.
“I mean, we announced we were a remote first company in 2022, and then I regretted that pretty much immediately.”
Undated
Citing Josh Wolfe's idea of a directional arrow of progress, Patrick O'Shaughnessy says Robinhood extrapolated falling trade commissions all the way to zero.
“Robin Hood's genius was, they said, let's extrapolate this directional arrow to its end point and go to zero.”
Undated
Vlad Tenev says that when Robinhood started, brokerages charged $7.95 to $9.95 per trade.
“When we started, it cost $7 .95 to $9 .95 to place a single trade, which I think was a problem for two types of customers.”
Undated
Vlad Tenev says a $9.95 commission on a $100 account would cost about 20% round trip, which kept small investors from starting.
“if $9 .95 is your commission, once you get in and out of trade, that's 20 % drag on your portfolio.”
Undated
Vlad Tenev says that for its first several years Robinhood was not self-clearing and cleared trades through Apex.
“We weren't self-clearing, and we were relying on a third party to even route our orders. So we cleared through Apex.”
Undated
Vlad Tenev says Robinhood offers a subscription called Robinhood Gold, which is uncommon among brokerages.
“We also have subscription through Robinhood Gold, which is not common in the brokerage industry.”
Undated
Vlad Tenev says Robinhood announced Robinhood Banking at its Gold event, with features including cash delivery.
“we announced that at our gold event a couple of months ago with a few innovative features, including cash delivery, which I'm very excited about.”
Undated
Vlad Tenev says Robinhood's last analysis found its customers' investments were mostly new dollars entering the market.
“I think the last time we did it, we found that it was mostly new dollars coming in.”
Undated
Vlad Tenev says Robinhood's tokenized public stocks and its SpaceX and OpenAI offering are backed by holdings on Robinhood's balance sheet.
“So in all cases thus far, which is the tokenized public stock where it's easy and also the SpaceX and OpenAI giveaway, that's backed by holdings that Robinhood has on the balance sheet.”
Undated
Vlad Tenev says demand for Robinhood's IPO Access product is typically massively oversubscribed, so customers get only partial allocations.
“Retail expresses interest. We collected. Typically, it's like massively oversubscribed.”
Undated
Vlad Tenev says Robinhood's founders community consists of the top 150 people at the company by impact, across all levels.
“basically if you're in the top 150 people in the company by impact, across all levels.”
Undated
Vlad Tenev says Robinhood requires executives in the office five days a week, managers four, and individual contributors three.
“if you're a senior leader or an executive, you're five days. If you're a manager, four days. If you're an IC, three days.”
Undated
Vlad Tenev says Robinhood's cash card was a debit card tied to a money transmitter account, aimed at paycheck-to-paycheck customers, and it did not work well.
“So we had a debit card tied with a money transmitter account.”
Undated
Vlad Tenev says he moved Robinhood from a functional organization to a general manager structure to give business lines full accountability.
“We were functionally organized. So at that time, I moved us to a GM structure.”
Undated
Kalshi's first broker partners were Robinhood and then Webull, launched at the beginning of the previous year.
“In the beginning of last year, we launched the first broker partner that we had was actually Robinhood and then Webull.”
Episodes