1 00:00:00,400 --> 00:00:04,280 Speaker 1: You just realized your business needed to hire someone yesterday. 2 00:00:04,800 --> 00:00:09,520 Speaker 1: How can you find amazing candidates fast easy? Just use Indeed. 3 00:00:09,960 --> 00:00:12,680 Speaker 1: Stop struggling to get your job posts seen on other 4 00:00:12,760 --> 00:00:16,439 Speaker 1: job sites. With Indeed sponsored jobs, your post jumps to 5 00:00:16,480 --> 00:00:19,040 Speaker 1: the top of the page for your relevant candidates, so 6 00:00:19,120 --> 00:00:22,119 Speaker 1: you can reach the people you want faster. According to 7 00:00:22,160 --> 00:00:26,120 Speaker 1: Indeed data, sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed have forty 8 00:00:26,120 --> 00:00:30,040 Speaker 1: five percent more applications than non sponsored jobs. Don't wait 9 00:00:30,080 --> 00:00:33,519 Speaker 1: any longer. Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed, 10 00:00:33,960 --> 00:00:36,200 Speaker 1: and listeners of this show will get a seventy five 11 00:00:36,280 --> 00:00:39,440 Speaker 1: dollars sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility 12 00:00:39,600 --> 00:00:45,320 Speaker 1: at indeed dot com slash pod Katz thirteen. Just go 13 00:00:45,360 --> 00:00:50,120 Speaker 1: to Indeed dot com slash pod Katz thirteen right now 14 00:00:50,479 --> 00:00:53,040 Speaker 1: and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed 15 00:00:53,080 --> 00:00:57,400 Speaker 1: on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring Indeed is 16 00:00:57,440 --> 00:00:58,040 Speaker 1: all you need. 17 00:00:58,680 --> 00:00:59,520 Speaker 2: Urs what's going on. 18 00:01:00,400 --> 00:01:03,240 Speaker 3: Universities are outdated and don't teach you how to become 19 00:01:03,280 --> 00:01:06,560 Speaker 3: an entrepreneur. They just teach you how to become an employee. 20 00:01:07,160 --> 00:01:09,360 Speaker 4: You go to school for four years and you leave 21 00:01:09,480 --> 00:01:13,440 Speaker 4: with nothing but debt. But here are EYL University. Our 22 00:01:13,480 --> 00:01:15,000 Speaker 4: curriculum is much different. 23 00:01:15,080 --> 00:01:17,720 Speaker 3: Our university teaches you real world skills that you can 24 00:01:17,840 --> 00:01:21,280 Speaker 3: use to gain financial freedom right away. In traditional universities, 25 00:01:21,319 --> 00:01:23,960 Speaker 3: you learn from professors that have never did what they teach, 26 00:01:24,200 --> 00:01:26,160 Speaker 3: and they teach you how to become an employee. At 27 00:01:26,160 --> 00:01:29,240 Speaker 3: our university, we use instructors that are currently successful in 28 00:01:29,280 --> 00:01:32,160 Speaker 3: specific field that they teach, and they teach you how 29 00:01:32,200 --> 00:01:33,160 Speaker 3: to become an entrepreneur. 30 00:01:33,280 --> 00:01:37,160 Speaker 4: For a limited time only, you can join EYL University 31 00:01:37,240 --> 00:01:40,800 Speaker 4: for twenty five percent off of the annual membership. Learn 32 00:01:40,840 --> 00:01:44,200 Speaker 4: about stocks, credit, real estate, crypto and more. Go to 33 00:01:44,480 --> 00:01:48,480 Speaker 4: eyluniversity dot com right now and sign up to become 34 00:01:48,520 --> 00:01:48,919 Speaker 4: an earner. 35 00:01:48,960 --> 00:01:51,000 Speaker 5: Don't wait, don't hesitate it over there now. 36 00:01:52,760 --> 00:01:56,480 Speaker 6: My graduates from my school being false bad. 37 00:01:56,440 --> 00:02:10,760 Speaker 7: Drops drop Mike drop bad dry. 38 00:02:11,520 --> 00:02:15,120 Speaker 4: All right, guys, welcome back e y L Silicon Valley Edition, 39 00:02:15,520 --> 00:02:20,000 Speaker 4: Billionaire Edition the third time. Yes, yes, yes, very rare. 40 00:02:20,160 --> 00:02:22,960 Speaker 4: So shout out to Mark Cuban and Mike no regrets. 41 00:02:23,120 --> 00:02:25,120 Speaker 4: Those are the two previous billionaires that we've had on. 42 00:02:25,240 --> 00:02:28,920 Speaker 4: But this is a much younger situation, much younger gentlemen. 43 00:02:29,040 --> 00:02:32,440 Speaker 4: So and you might be familiar with his company, perhaps 44 00:02:33,919 --> 00:02:37,760 Speaker 4: perhaps so Vlad tenef, I say your last name correctly, 45 00:02:37,840 --> 00:02:41,560 Speaker 4: you did, Thank you. I get very nervous if people 46 00:02:41,560 --> 00:02:43,760 Speaker 4: Butcher put Butcher my name all the time, so I'm 47 00:02:43,800 --> 00:02:47,679 Speaker 4: very conscious about that. So thank you for having us. 48 00:02:48,000 --> 00:02:52,880 Speaker 4: If you guys aren't familiar, CEO of Robin Hood, Robin 49 00:02:52,880 --> 00:02:57,600 Speaker 4: Hood revolutionized the game when it comes to investing. Brought 50 00:02:57,840 --> 00:03:02,239 Speaker 4: millions of investors into the fold that previously we're not investing. 51 00:03:02,400 --> 00:03:05,560 Speaker 5: I think the number is like twenty twenty three million right. 52 00:03:05,360 --> 00:03:07,560 Speaker 8: Now new investors or total. 53 00:03:08,440 --> 00:03:11,560 Speaker 5: But over the pandemic, the number was like ridiculous. 54 00:03:13,080 --> 00:03:14,679 Speaker 4: Every day somebody comes up to me and asks me 55 00:03:14,720 --> 00:03:17,520 Speaker 4: to look at their portfolio, and at least eighty percent 56 00:03:17,560 --> 00:03:19,280 Speaker 4: of the time when they pull it up, it's Robin. 57 00:03:19,720 --> 00:03:23,120 Speaker 9: It's good to hear. Glad we're serving people. 58 00:03:23,720 --> 00:03:28,280 Speaker 4: Yes, and recently went public in July with a current 59 00:03:28,440 --> 00:03:31,359 Speaker 4: valuation somewhere around forty billion. 60 00:03:31,200 --> 00:03:33,239 Speaker 5: Dollars give or take. 61 00:03:33,720 --> 00:03:34,080 Speaker 2: Yeah. 62 00:03:34,160 --> 00:03:36,800 Speaker 4: Yeah, So this is going to be an interesting conversation. 63 00:03:36,920 --> 00:03:40,320 Speaker 4: We're going to go a deep dive in true Eile fashion. 64 00:03:41,080 --> 00:03:42,840 Speaker 4: So first and foremo, thank you for having us. 65 00:03:42,840 --> 00:03:44,480 Speaker 2: We appreciate it, Thanks for being here. 66 00:03:44,880 --> 00:03:48,000 Speaker 4: Yes, yes, all right, so let's get into this. You 67 00:03:48,280 --> 00:03:50,760 Speaker 4: are a Bulgarian immigrant. I know both of your parents 68 00:03:50,800 --> 00:03:55,440 Speaker 4: worked at the World Bank. So coming to America, going 69 00:03:55,560 --> 00:03:59,520 Speaker 4: to Stanford University, which is, you know, one of the 70 00:03:59,560 --> 00:04:02,240 Speaker 4: premier universities in the wages. Yeah, especially when it comes 71 00:04:02,280 --> 00:04:04,440 Speaker 4: to tech, probably the number one place for people that 72 00:04:04,440 --> 00:04:05,720 Speaker 4: are looking at and do tech. 73 00:04:05,760 --> 00:04:07,000 Speaker 8: I know you had a couple of other. 74 00:04:06,880 --> 00:04:11,080 Speaker 4: Businesses previously, you had a bit of started in two 75 00:04:11,120 --> 00:04:13,240 Speaker 4: thousy ten, but then started twenty eleven. Chronoles I think 76 00:04:13,360 --> 00:04:16,040 Speaker 4: was the last business that you had. But what made 77 00:04:16,080 --> 00:04:19,279 Speaker 4: you have the idea and start Robinhood in twenty thirteen? 78 00:04:19,360 --> 00:04:21,120 Speaker 8: Like, where did that come from? 79 00:04:21,400 --> 00:04:21,760 Speaker 2: Yeah? 80 00:04:21,800 --> 00:04:25,760 Speaker 9: Well it it was. It was definitely a journey, so 81 00:04:25,920 --> 00:04:28,200 Speaker 9: I would say when I got to Stanford. Even though 82 00:04:28,200 --> 00:04:34,560 Speaker 9: Stanford was a university that you associate with entrepreneurship, I 83 00:04:34,760 --> 00:04:38,320 Speaker 9: wasn't really. I didn't come from a particularly entrepreneurial family. 84 00:04:39,680 --> 00:04:43,240 Speaker 9: I was interested in science and math growing up, so 85 00:04:43,440 --> 00:04:45,920 Speaker 9: I thought I would be a professor. So I went 86 00:04:45,920 --> 00:04:50,359 Speaker 9: to Stanford to study physics, and then I transitioned even 87 00:04:50,400 --> 00:04:54,520 Speaker 9: more kind of theoretical than physics into math, where you 88 00:04:54,640 --> 00:04:58,359 Speaker 9: literally have a chalkboard and a couch and that's what 89 00:04:58,440 --> 00:05:01,440 Speaker 9: you work with, right. I actually went to grad school 90 00:05:03,240 --> 00:05:07,560 Speaker 9: after graduating UCLA. I did grad school. I was in 91 00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:10,800 Speaker 9: a math PhD program that I ended up dropping out of. 92 00:05:11,440 --> 00:05:14,680 Speaker 9: But my sort of I didn't really know what I 93 00:05:14,720 --> 00:05:16,480 Speaker 9: was going to do with my career, but kind of 94 00:05:16,520 --> 00:05:20,200 Speaker 9: my default path was to be a math professor. It's 95 00:05:20,240 --> 00:05:23,120 Speaker 9: pretty much what you do with a math degree, because 96 00:05:23,320 --> 00:05:27,960 Speaker 9: I really enjoyed. What appealed to me was creating something, which, 97 00:05:27,960 --> 00:05:32,120 Speaker 9: in the case of being a mathematician, would be you know, 98 00:05:32,200 --> 00:05:36,440 Speaker 9: like a new theory or something that hopefully hundreds of 99 00:05:36,520 --> 00:05:39,000 Speaker 9: years from now into the future, if you're lucky, they 100 00:05:39,040 --> 00:05:43,880 Speaker 9: would teach to high schoolers or other students. So I 101 00:05:43,960 --> 00:05:48,000 Speaker 9: went there, you know, expecting to be a research mathematician. 102 00:05:48,080 --> 00:05:51,480 Speaker 9: I met my co founder who I started all these 103 00:05:51,560 --> 00:05:55,160 Speaker 9: other companies with, and he was also on the same path, 104 00:05:55,240 --> 00:05:57,280 Speaker 9: started physics and then transitioned to math. 105 00:05:58,160 --> 00:05:58,760 Speaker 2: And then. 106 00:06:00,120 --> 00:06:04,920 Speaker 9: Two thousand and eight when we graduated and I went 107 00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:07,240 Speaker 9: to grad school, and he got a job in the 108 00:06:07,279 --> 00:06:11,920 Speaker 9: financial industry. Kind of on a whim. The stock market crashed, right, 109 00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:16,200 Speaker 9: so you had Lehman Brothers going belly up, and the 110 00:06:16,400 --> 00:06:23,480 Speaker 9: entire uh, the entire market changed and so probably somewhat 111 00:06:23,960 --> 00:06:27,560 Speaker 9: foolishly if it sounds kind of silly to say it now, 112 00:06:28,040 --> 00:06:31,039 Speaker 9: but at the time, that seemed like the best time 113 00:06:31,040 --> 00:06:36,040 Speaker 9: to start a financial company, right when the financial system crashed. Yeah, 114 00:06:36,080 --> 00:06:39,760 Speaker 9: I mean it was in a way leveling the playing field. 115 00:06:39,880 --> 00:06:41,760 Speaker 9: So it was a changing of the guard, right like 116 00:06:42,440 --> 00:06:46,200 Speaker 9: the era of I don't know if you guys have 117 00:06:46,279 --> 00:06:51,280 Speaker 9: ever seen old movies of you know, traders, people trading 118 00:06:51,320 --> 00:06:55,200 Speaker 9: on the trading floor. Uh, you know, probably trading trading places. 119 00:06:56,600 --> 00:07:01,400 Speaker 9: Wall Street Trading Place is one of my favorites. That's 120 00:07:01,520 --> 00:07:07,640 Speaker 9: eighties from the eighties. They did do a sequel a 121 00:07:07,680 --> 00:07:11,240 Speaker 9: couple of years ago, but yeah, basically you see those 122 00:07:11,280 --> 00:07:13,880 Speaker 9: scenes of like the trading pit and the people with 123 00:07:14,640 --> 00:07:19,520 Speaker 9: the paper tickets flying around, and that really changed in 124 00:07:19,560 --> 00:07:23,080 Speaker 9: the two thousands, especially after two thousand two thousand and eight. 125 00:07:23,160 --> 00:07:27,280 Speaker 9: There were no more people with paper tickets, no more 126 00:07:27,280 --> 00:07:32,120 Speaker 9: manual trading. Everything went completely electronic, and so our previous 127 00:07:32,160 --> 00:07:35,400 Speaker 9: two businesses we kind of created in the wake of that. 128 00:07:35,640 --> 00:07:39,320 Speaker 9: So we saw an opportunity as markets were going electronic, 129 00:07:39,480 --> 00:07:45,320 Speaker 9: to start a software company that basically built the technology 130 00:07:45,360 --> 00:07:49,680 Speaker 9: and the software to support fully automated trading. And so 131 00:07:49,720 --> 00:07:52,480 Speaker 9: that's what Chronos was. It was basically a B to 132 00:07:52,600 --> 00:07:56,200 Speaker 9: B a business to business enterprise software company. We built 133 00:07:56,200 --> 00:08:01,760 Speaker 9: the technology and we licensed it to financial institutions who 134 00:08:02,400 --> 00:08:05,040 Speaker 9: couldn't really compete. You know, they were they wanted to 135 00:08:05,040 --> 00:08:07,440 Speaker 9: get into fully automated trading, but they were still using 136 00:08:07,560 --> 00:08:10,560 Speaker 9: kind of the people on the phones or the desks. 137 00:08:10,840 --> 00:08:12,720 Speaker 9: And so we found a little bit of a niche there. 138 00:08:13,360 --> 00:08:16,720 Speaker 9: And then as we were building that business and growing 139 00:08:16,760 --> 00:08:20,600 Speaker 9: it and scaling it, Beaiju and I both kind of 140 00:08:20,640 --> 00:08:25,200 Speaker 9: recognized that, you know, while we saw a path to 141 00:08:25,280 --> 00:08:28,160 Speaker 9: making making it a big business and growing it to 142 00:08:29,280 --> 00:08:35,280 Speaker 9: millions in revenue, we just weren't that passionate about about 143 00:08:35,280 --> 00:08:39,040 Speaker 9: the end the end result of running a big enterprise business. 144 00:08:39,320 --> 00:08:42,520 Speaker 9: And the way we describe it is, you know, our 145 00:08:42,559 --> 00:08:46,000 Speaker 9: customers were already rich. I mean, there were institutions, they 146 00:08:46,040 --> 00:08:48,440 Speaker 9: had money, and we were kind of helping them adapt 147 00:08:48,520 --> 00:08:51,920 Speaker 9: to this new environment, giving them better technology. But what 148 00:08:52,000 --> 00:08:56,440 Speaker 9: we really were after was building a consumer product and 149 00:08:56,480 --> 00:09:00,920 Speaker 9: actually improving the lives of everyday people. And you know, 150 00:09:00,960 --> 00:09:05,360 Speaker 9: we started thinking, like, twenty years from now, what would 151 00:09:05,360 --> 00:09:07,560 Speaker 9: we still want to be doing if we, you know, 152 00:09:07,760 --> 00:09:10,720 Speaker 9: got back from from work after a really hard day, 153 00:09:10,880 --> 00:09:13,640 Speaker 9: what would make us proud of what we were delivering 154 00:09:13,640 --> 00:09:19,679 Speaker 9: the people, and through kind of building our previous company, Kronos, 155 00:09:19,760 --> 00:09:23,680 Speaker 9: we realized how everything worked, how you know, a trade 156 00:09:23,720 --> 00:09:26,600 Speaker 9: would be processed, how it would be cleared and settled, 157 00:09:27,120 --> 00:09:31,320 Speaker 9: and all of like the regulatory stuff around that. And 158 00:09:31,400 --> 00:09:35,760 Speaker 9: then we kind of asked ourselves, well, if these institutional 159 00:09:35,760 --> 00:09:38,880 Speaker 9: customers that we have are doing millions of trades and 160 00:09:39,080 --> 00:09:41,959 Speaker 9: we have the technology to support that, what's to say 161 00:09:42,040 --> 00:09:46,200 Speaker 9: that regular people can't access that either? And why are 162 00:09:46,240 --> 00:09:49,600 Speaker 9: regular people still paying ten dollars every time they want 163 00:09:49,600 --> 00:09:50,360 Speaker 9: to make an investment? 164 00:09:50,400 --> 00:09:51,360 Speaker 5: I remember those days. 165 00:09:51,720 --> 00:09:53,520 Speaker 3: I always tell a story when I opened the scot 166 00:09:53,600 --> 00:09:55,920 Speaker 3: trade account and it was like seven dollars every trade. 167 00:09:56,040 --> 00:09:57,880 Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm like, man, wasn't that long ago? 168 00:09:58,040 --> 00:09:58,240 Speaker 8: Yeah? 169 00:09:58,400 --> 00:10:01,040 Speaker 5: Yeah? So the first come was Scelaris. Is that am 170 00:10:01,080 --> 00:10:01,679 Speaker 5: I saying that? Right? 171 00:10:01,960 --> 00:10:02,280 Speaker 2: Yeah? 172 00:10:02,320 --> 00:10:04,679 Speaker 3: So when I was doing a researcher and it feels 173 00:10:04,720 --> 00:10:08,400 Speaker 3: like we took the trading part of Selaris, we had 174 00:10:08,400 --> 00:10:11,440 Speaker 3: the institutional side, and we said, okay, I said, well, 175 00:10:11,480 --> 00:10:14,480 Speaker 3: because I'm like wearing this together, right, Yeah, but you 176 00:10:14,559 --> 00:10:18,560 Speaker 3: guys saw what you could make. You were inside of 177 00:10:18,559 --> 00:10:21,960 Speaker 3: the institutional side saying like we've read these people already rich, 178 00:10:22,520 --> 00:10:25,120 Speaker 3: and you birthed what you what you're known for now 179 00:10:25,200 --> 00:10:26,679 Speaker 3: is that is that kind of how it worked? 180 00:10:27,000 --> 00:10:29,679 Speaker 9: Well, we we had we saw what our customers were 181 00:10:29,720 --> 00:10:32,679 Speaker 9: able to do, what a trade looked like for an institution, 182 00:10:33,120 --> 00:10:36,560 Speaker 9: the cost structure behind it, which was essentially zero. You know, 183 00:10:36,559 --> 00:10:39,119 Speaker 9: they were placing some of these some of these customers 184 00:10:39,120 --> 00:10:43,560 Speaker 9: are placing you know, billions of dollars in dollar value 185 00:10:43,559 --> 00:10:46,800 Speaker 9: of trades per day, you know, millions of trades per day. 186 00:10:47,160 --> 00:10:50,559 Speaker 9: And they couldn't do that at if it was seven 187 00:10:50,600 --> 00:10:53,840 Speaker 9: dollars a trade, right, So the cost structure was fundamentally different. 188 00:10:54,360 --> 00:10:59,120 Speaker 9: So yeah, then then it's natural. And you know, I 189 00:10:59,160 --> 00:11:05,760 Speaker 9: remember at the time also watching watching all of Steve 190 00:11:05,840 --> 00:11:10,720 Speaker 9: Jobs's keynotes for the Apple events, and he had he 191 00:11:10,760 --> 00:11:14,079 Speaker 9: had rolled out the iPad, the first iPad at around 192 00:11:14,120 --> 00:11:16,640 Speaker 9: that time, and this was like while we were in 193 00:11:16,640 --> 00:11:21,679 Speaker 9: the thick of like building out our enterprise product, we 194 00:11:21,760 --> 00:11:26,520 Speaker 9: sort of saw I still remember watching that keynote and 195 00:11:26,679 --> 00:11:29,960 Speaker 9: just thinking like how awesome it is to roll out 196 00:11:30,000 --> 00:11:33,760 Speaker 9: a consumer product and to actually have you know, everyday 197 00:11:33,800 --> 00:11:38,240 Speaker 9: people wanting what you're building and to just just serve 198 00:11:38,320 --> 00:11:43,040 Speaker 9: them rather than serving businesses and having to do enterprise sales. 199 00:11:43,120 --> 00:11:47,160 Speaker 9: It's just fundamentally different. So we wanted to do that, 200 00:11:47,320 --> 00:11:50,400 Speaker 9: and then we saw an opportunity and when we got 201 00:11:50,400 --> 00:11:56,400 Speaker 9: the idea for just the simple value proposition, right paying 202 00:11:56,480 --> 00:12:00,720 Speaker 9: zero dollars per transaction instead of paying seven dollars and 203 00:12:01,120 --> 00:12:04,880 Speaker 9: kind of making it mobile, because nobody had done that 204 00:12:05,000 --> 00:12:07,880 Speaker 9: really in the past. All the other brokerages that allowed 205 00:12:07,920 --> 00:12:12,280 Speaker 9: you to invest on mobile, they basically took their web 206 00:12:12,320 --> 00:12:15,520 Speaker 9: pages and kind of shrunk them down. They were still complicated, 207 00:12:15,520 --> 00:12:18,600 Speaker 9: they weren't really built for mobile. You couldn't sign up 208 00:12:18,640 --> 00:12:22,360 Speaker 9: on mobile. You still needed your computer. So we saw 209 00:12:23,800 --> 00:12:26,040 Speaker 9: when we got that idea, we knew it was a 210 00:12:26,040 --> 00:12:29,000 Speaker 9: big idea, and we knew that, you know, if we 211 00:12:29,120 --> 00:12:30,520 Speaker 9: just brought it to market that. 212 00:12:32,040 --> 00:12:34,360 Speaker 2: It had to work. I mean, we executed well. 213 00:12:34,559 --> 00:12:36,800 Speaker 4: It bring an idea and it is something that I'm 214 00:12:36,840 --> 00:12:40,599 Speaker 4: surprised nobody thought about because it's like that's when I 215 00:12:40,640 --> 00:12:42,840 Speaker 4: think of Robinhood, I think of two things. Use it interface. 216 00:12:43,600 --> 00:12:46,720 Speaker 4: It's extremely use it friendly, even on the optional side, 217 00:12:46,720 --> 00:12:49,840 Speaker 4: which can be complicated. Yeah, it's made it extremely user 218 00:12:49,960 --> 00:12:54,240 Speaker 4: friendly and it doesn't cost anything, which now everybody kind 219 00:12:54,240 --> 00:12:57,000 Speaker 4: of has adopted that model. But if you're not familiar 220 00:12:57,040 --> 00:12:59,040 Speaker 4: with it. It wasn't always the case, like that wasn't always 221 00:12:59,080 --> 00:13:00,840 Speaker 4: the standard, like you said, it used to be like 222 00:13:00,880 --> 00:13:03,120 Speaker 4: seven dollars per trade or five dollars per tray or 223 00:13:03,120 --> 00:13:05,920 Speaker 4: something like that. That adds up over the course of time. 224 00:13:06,080 --> 00:13:09,280 Speaker 4: So those two key elements were like the foundation to 225 00:13:09,360 --> 00:13:11,120 Speaker 4: use an interface and having it free. 226 00:13:11,400 --> 00:13:13,720 Speaker 9: Yeah, well, I think there were a couple of other 227 00:13:13,760 --> 00:13:16,520 Speaker 9: things there. I think the user interface and being mobile 228 00:13:16,520 --> 00:13:20,400 Speaker 9: first were important. I think the cost structure is fundamentally important. 229 00:13:20,400 --> 00:13:23,240 Speaker 9: And if you think about it, if you are someone 230 00:13:23,280 --> 00:13:27,520 Speaker 9: that's just getting started, hasn't invested before, and you have 231 00:13:28,200 --> 00:13:31,120 Speaker 9: one hundred dollars, you know, it's kind of a it's 232 00:13:31,440 --> 00:13:35,360 Speaker 9: a big step to say I'll put one thousand dollars 233 00:13:35,400 --> 00:13:37,640 Speaker 9: towards something. If you're just getting started, that's kind of 234 00:13:37,640 --> 00:13:40,760 Speaker 9: a big commitment. But ten dollars one hundred dollars you 235 00:13:40,800 --> 00:13:44,839 Speaker 9: could theoretically start with that. But if you're paying seven 236 00:13:44,880 --> 00:13:48,120 Speaker 9: dollars per transaction, that was just not possible, like it 237 00:13:48,160 --> 00:13:51,160 Speaker 9: would the fees would eat into every trade, and it 238 00:13:51,200 --> 00:13:54,439 Speaker 9: would be impossible to diversify as well. So if you 239 00:13:54,520 --> 00:13:57,680 Speaker 9: want a portfolio with seven different stocks, you know, that's 240 00:13:57,720 --> 00:14:01,120 Speaker 9: seventy dollars or fifty dollars if you wanted to make 241 00:14:01,160 --> 00:14:05,600 Speaker 9: those seven transactions. So it was actually impossible or very 242 00:14:05,679 --> 00:14:07,160 Speaker 9: very difficult to get started with. 243 00:14:07,120 --> 00:14:08,800 Speaker 2: Small a bounts of money. 244 00:14:10,000 --> 00:14:14,040 Speaker 9: But I think the other thing also was you look 245 00:14:14,120 --> 00:14:18,520 Speaker 9: more broadly, and now people talk about fintech as kind 246 00:14:18,559 --> 00:14:22,000 Speaker 9: of a space, as a big industry. You know, lots 247 00:14:22,040 --> 00:14:26,360 Speaker 9: of fintech companies, cryptos now becoming a bigger and bigger thing. 248 00:14:26,760 --> 00:14:31,800 Speaker 9: But when we got started, people weren't really starting financial 249 00:14:31,840 --> 00:14:35,880 Speaker 9: companies very much. I mean, you look at Google trends 250 00:14:36,480 --> 00:14:38,960 Speaker 9: sometimes I do this. If you look at fintech, there 251 00:14:39,040 --> 00:14:42,640 Speaker 9: was like nothing up until twenty fifteen, right, and then 252 00:14:42,680 --> 00:14:47,000 Speaker 9: you've seen a steady increase and now you know tons 253 00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:51,880 Speaker 9: of fintech companies across insurance, across spending saving you know people, 254 00:14:51,960 --> 00:14:55,200 Speaker 9: there's a lot of a lot of innovation, and investors 255 00:14:55,200 --> 00:14:59,600 Speaker 9: didn't used to invest in it. I mean, when we 256 00:14:59,600 --> 00:15:02,480 Speaker 9: were first getting started and we tell people we wanted 257 00:15:02,480 --> 00:15:05,360 Speaker 9: to create a regulated brokerage, that would scare a lot 258 00:15:05,400 --> 00:15:07,920 Speaker 9: of people off. It'd be like, we haven't seen that before. 259 00:15:08,080 --> 00:15:11,560 Speaker 9: You know, we're funding consumer apps and you know you 260 00:15:11,560 --> 00:15:13,400 Speaker 9: don't want it. You don't want to be regulated, That's 261 00:15:13,440 --> 00:15:15,320 Speaker 9: what they tell us. You definitely don't want to be 262 00:15:15,360 --> 00:15:18,360 Speaker 9: regulated because that's just going to be really hard. You're 263 00:15:18,400 --> 00:15:20,600 Speaker 9: not going to be able to innovate. And you know, 264 00:15:20,680 --> 00:15:23,720 Speaker 9: the only regulated companies are these companies that are forty 265 00:15:23,800 --> 00:15:27,000 Speaker 9: years old and have you know, billion dollar marketing budgets. 266 00:15:27,440 --> 00:15:31,880 Speaker 9: So I think just the the decision to build a 267 00:15:31,960 --> 00:15:35,480 Speaker 9: regulated brokerage at the time was a it was kind 268 00:15:35,480 --> 00:15:38,240 Speaker 9: of contrarian, right. We were like, we're not going to 269 00:15:38,280 --> 00:15:41,520 Speaker 9: stay away from this. We know that, you know, to 270 00:15:41,600 --> 00:15:45,280 Speaker 9: do that is going to be hard, and because it's hard, 271 00:15:45,600 --> 00:15:49,240 Speaker 9: not that many people have done it recently, and you know, 272 00:15:49,320 --> 00:15:51,680 Speaker 9: we think we think there's something there. And we kind 273 00:15:51,720 --> 00:15:54,000 Speaker 9: of understood that process too, of what it meant to 274 00:15:54,000 --> 00:15:57,680 Speaker 9: be regulated and operating in a regulated industry from our 275 00:15:57,720 --> 00:16:01,440 Speaker 9: previous experience, and we knew that it wasn't as scary 276 00:16:01,600 --> 00:16:05,360 Speaker 9: as you know, people people initially thought. You just kind 277 00:16:05,400 --> 00:16:07,040 Speaker 9: of had to figure it out and work through it 278 00:16:07,160 --> 00:16:10,520 Speaker 9: like any other any other problem or constraint. 279 00:16:10,520 --> 00:16:11,920 Speaker 4: Me let me ask you this, as far as a 280 00:16:11,920 --> 00:16:14,840 Speaker 4: lot of people that listen to our platform are aspiring 281 00:16:15,080 --> 00:16:18,600 Speaker 4: entrepreneurs or young just getting started, so the number one 282 00:16:18,640 --> 00:16:21,280 Speaker 4: heard was always funding. So you know, we see where 283 00:16:21,360 --> 00:16:24,480 Speaker 4: Robinhood is now obviously, you know, like I said, forty 284 00:16:24,520 --> 00:16:26,560 Speaker 4: billion dollar valuation, but it didn't away start like that. 285 00:16:26,720 --> 00:16:29,520 Speaker 4: So can you walk us through the process of funding? 286 00:16:29,560 --> 00:16:32,480 Speaker 4: Did you sell fund did you get money from family? 287 00:16:32,840 --> 00:16:35,160 Speaker 4: I'm assuming angel investors came in at some point, but 288 00:16:35,400 --> 00:16:36,600 Speaker 4: can you kind of just walk up through that. 289 00:16:37,120 --> 00:16:40,560 Speaker 9: Yeah, So there were a couple of different We we 290 00:16:40,640 --> 00:16:42,880 Speaker 9: had a long period where we had just raised some 291 00:16:42,960 --> 00:16:47,720 Speaker 9: seed money. So that started in like twenty twelve, twenty thirteen, 292 00:16:48,200 --> 00:16:52,680 Speaker 9: and we probably raised in aggregate about three million dollars 293 00:16:52,840 --> 00:16:58,560 Speaker 9: in seed capital, and that was probably the hardest outside investors. 294 00:16:58,920 --> 00:17:03,160 Speaker 9: Outside investors, lots of them, lots of small investors. We 295 00:17:03,160 --> 00:17:06,600 Speaker 9: were actually you could find robin Hood an angel list 296 00:17:07,000 --> 00:17:10,840 Speaker 9: in twenty twelve or twenty thirteen on the wrong sites, 297 00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:14,920 Speaker 9: So you know, talk to a lot of people. A 298 00:17:14,920 --> 00:17:17,639 Speaker 9: lot of people were skeptical, but there were some people 299 00:17:17,720 --> 00:17:22,280 Speaker 9: that made early bets into the business and kind of 300 00:17:22,960 --> 00:17:26,879 Speaker 9: kind of took that bet. So Index Ventures invested in 301 00:17:26,960 --> 00:17:29,560 Speaker 9: our seed round and then a bunch of subsequent rounds too. 302 00:17:30,720 --> 00:17:35,200 Speaker 9: So that was Jan Hammer who led the seed round, 303 00:17:35,560 --> 00:17:38,080 Speaker 9: led the a round as well, and is still on 304 00:17:38,119 --> 00:17:43,119 Speaker 9: our board through IPO. We had Google Ventures. We had 305 00:17:43,160 --> 00:17:49,880 Speaker 9: Tim Draper from Draper Fisher Jervis. Yeah, lots of lots 306 00:17:49,920 --> 00:17:51,520 Speaker 9: of angel investors. 307 00:17:51,200 --> 00:17:56,360 Speaker 8: Got big names out the gate. Well that's a big name. 308 00:17:56,600 --> 00:17:59,440 Speaker 9: Yeah, so he came towards the end of our seed round, 309 00:17:59,440 --> 00:18:01,119 Speaker 9: but yeah, it was very early. 310 00:18:02,480 --> 00:18:04,800 Speaker 3: So what was that process like, Because I'm thinking generationally 311 00:18:04,880 --> 00:18:07,200 Speaker 3: at the time, you're in your twenties. Yeah, tell them 312 00:18:07,200 --> 00:18:10,320 Speaker 3: about a product that's revolutionary to our generation. For sure, 313 00:18:10,640 --> 00:18:14,240 Speaker 3: it's simplistic in its design. But these guys are traditionalists. 314 00:18:14,240 --> 00:18:15,040 Speaker 5: So what was that like? 315 00:18:15,200 --> 00:18:18,000 Speaker 3: In a sense traditionalist because they've been in the financial 316 00:18:18,000 --> 00:18:21,280 Speaker 3: industry for years, never seen anything like this. I feel 317 00:18:21,280 --> 00:18:23,440 Speaker 3: like when we talk about technology and anything that's new, 318 00:18:23,840 --> 00:18:26,679 Speaker 3: people are rigid, and yeah, they hesitant toward it. So 319 00:18:26,760 --> 00:18:28,639 Speaker 3: what was that like even explaining it to get the 320 00:18:28,680 --> 00:18:29,200 Speaker 3: seed funded. 321 00:18:29,720 --> 00:18:33,080 Speaker 9: I mean, I think that the people that got it, 322 00:18:33,240 --> 00:18:36,040 Speaker 9: there were some people that got very excited about it, 323 00:18:36,240 --> 00:18:39,520 Speaker 9: and you know, I think they looked at the quality 324 00:18:39,560 --> 00:18:44,560 Speaker 9: of the team and that we were really passionate and 325 00:18:44,560 --> 00:18:47,920 Speaker 9: and basically you know, wanted to give it a shot 326 00:18:48,000 --> 00:18:50,479 Speaker 9: right away. Then there's people that needed a little bit 327 00:18:50,480 --> 00:18:54,000 Speaker 9: of convincing, and you know, they talked through the business 328 00:18:54,080 --> 00:18:56,639 Speaker 9: model and they really had to understand it. And then 329 00:18:56,640 --> 00:19:00,320 Speaker 9: there's people, the majority of people that just sort of 330 00:19:00,359 --> 00:19:03,359 Speaker 9: like wrote it off for one reason or another. Either 331 00:19:04,040 --> 00:19:06,840 Speaker 9: they looked at the competitors and said, there hasn't been 332 00:19:06,840 --> 00:19:09,520 Speaker 9: a new brokerage in a long time, you'll never make money, 333 00:19:09,600 --> 00:19:14,800 Speaker 9: you'll never get customers, YouTube mathematicians. We don't believe you 334 00:19:14,840 --> 00:19:17,600 Speaker 9: can build a consumer product that's good. So there's a 335 00:19:17,600 --> 00:19:20,879 Speaker 9: lot of reasons why I think a rational person would 336 00:19:20,880 --> 00:19:23,720 Speaker 9: say no. I mean, fintech as a category didn't really 337 00:19:23,760 --> 00:19:28,399 Speaker 9: exist back then either. But yeah, there were people that 338 00:19:28,520 --> 00:19:33,040 Speaker 9: got excited and really passionate angel investors that supported us 339 00:19:33,200 --> 00:19:35,560 Speaker 9: and gave us the funding. And I think another thing 340 00:19:35,600 --> 00:19:38,960 Speaker 9: that made it hard is because it's so regulated. The 341 00:19:39,040 --> 00:19:45,160 Speaker 9: traditional lean startup methodology where you kind of like test 342 00:19:45,200 --> 00:19:48,800 Speaker 9: out the messaging and test out whether the value prop 343 00:19:48,960 --> 00:19:53,080 Speaker 9: of the product resonates with customers, that didn't really work. 344 00:19:53,160 --> 00:19:56,000 Speaker 9: So we had to actually get all the regulatory approvals 345 00:19:56,160 --> 00:19:59,720 Speaker 9: and the license before we could start marketing a brokerage 346 00:19:59,720 --> 00:20:02,440 Speaker 9: produc because it was so regulated. So it's a little 347 00:20:02,480 --> 00:20:04,880 Speaker 9: bit of a of a chicken and egg problem because 348 00:20:04,880 --> 00:20:09,280 Speaker 9: we needed the funding to get the license. But you know, 349 00:20:09,480 --> 00:20:14,560 Speaker 9: people would be hesitant to give you funding if they 350 00:20:14,680 --> 00:20:16,600 Speaker 9: thought that there was a risk that you wouldn't get 351 00:20:16,800 --> 00:20:20,320 Speaker 9: the license to be a broker. So at the end 352 00:20:20,359 --> 00:20:21,879 Speaker 9: of the day, you know, we had to talk to 353 00:20:22,200 --> 00:20:24,800 Speaker 9: a lot of people. I think I said on a podcast, 354 00:20:25,119 --> 00:20:30,000 Speaker 9: I mean this was obviously an order of magnitude rough approximation, 355 00:20:30,119 --> 00:20:33,320 Speaker 9: but we probably talked to seventy five investors or more 356 00:20:33,480 --> 00:20:35,720 Speaker 9: to raise the three million dollars. 357 00:20:36,160 --> 00:20:38,720 Speaker 3: Yeah, it's like Ryan said, Wilsten ninety nine know this 358 00:20:38,760 --> 00:20:39,760 Speaker 3: before we got out, Yes. 359 00:20:39,720 --> 00:20:42,159 Speaker 4: Yeah, well how important was the network? Obviously going to 360 00:20:42,200 --> 00:20:45,400 Speaker 4: Stanford there's no other better place to go, So where 361 00:20:45,440 --> 00:20:48,679 Speaker 4: a lot of those relationships built from Stanford? Or I 362 00:20:48,680 --> 00:20:50,640 Speaker 4: mean your parents would work for the World Bang too, 363 00:20:50,680 --> 00:20:54,440 Speaker 4: So did you have where did you get those relationships? 364 00:20:54,480 --> 00:20:56,240 Speaker 8: To even approach angel investors? 365 00:20:56,359 --> 00:20:59,120 Speaker 9: We had to build them from scratch because even though 366 00:20:59,160 --> 00:21:02,080 Speaker 9: we had gone to Standford, we were kind of we 367 00:21:02,080 --> 00:21:04,879 Speaker 9: were like in the math department, and people don't start 368 00:21:04,960 --> 00:21:06,480 Speaker 9: companies out of the math department. 369 00:21:06,600 --> 00:21:07,400 Speaker 5: It comes a math team. 370 00:21:07,440 --> 00:21:11,159 Speaker 9: Again, So neither Baiju or I spent a lot of 371 00:21:11,200 --> 00:21:15,119 Speaker 9: time you know, we never did internships at Google or Facebook. 372 00:21:15,160 --> 00:21:17,919 Speaker 9: We didn't you know, go to the CS department. We 373 00:21:17,960 --> 00:21:22,840 Speaker 9: took some CS classes, but it wasn't like you know nowadays, 374 00:21:22,880 --> 00:21:26,480 Speaker 9: I think there's like a machine at Stanford where you know, 375 00:21:26,480 --> 00:21:28,879 Speaker 9: if you're in the CS department, which right now is 376 00:21:28,920 --> 00:21:32,080 Speaker 9: the most most popular one. But back when, back when 377 00:21:32,119 --> 00:21:35,040 Speaker 9: I was there, it was before the current kind of 378 00:21:35,119 --> 00:21:38,960 Speaker 9: like startup friends computer science. Computer science. Yeah, so people 379 00:21:38,960 --> 00:21:41,320 Speaker 9: were majoring. When I was at Stanford, the number one 380 00:21:41,359 --> 00:21:44,600 Speaker 9: major was human biology, which is basically pre med and 381 00:21:44,640 --> 00:21:46,600 Speaker 9: then there were a lot of people that were interested 382 00:21:46,640 --> 00:21:49,280 Speaker 9: in like investment banking, and they would go into finance, 383 00:21:49,600 --> 00:21:52,280 Speaker 9: and I think computer science was probably third or fourth. 384 00:21:52,520 --> 00:21:56,439 Speaker 9: So it was growing. But you know, nowadays, Stanford I 385 00:21:56,440 --> 00:21:59,920 Speaker 9: think is very integrated with like venture capital, and they've 386 00:22:00,080 --> 00:22:05,040 Speaker 9: and have like startup accelerators where you could apply and 387 00:22:05,040 --> 00:22:07,119 Speaker 9: and they can help you out. But you know, when 388 00:22:07,160 --> 00:22:10,600 Speaker 9: you're a mathematician, you're not you're not really you're not 389 00:22:10,720 --> 00:22:13,920 Speaker 9: really spending time doing any of that. So we had 390 00:22:13,920 --> 00:22:17,919 Speaker 9: to build the networks from scratch. And you know, we 391 00:22:17,920 --> 00:22:20,560 Speaker 9: were in New York actually for our first two companies, 392 00:22:20,720 --> 00:22:23,399 Speaker 9: and at that time there was No, there was not 393 00:22:23,480 --> 00:22:26,120 Speaker 9: a lot of venture capital in New York. I mean, 394 00:22:26,119 --> 00:22:29,239 Speaker 9: now it's probably a little bit better, but in the 395 00:22:29,280 --> 00:22:32,439 Speaker 9: early twenty tens, late two thousands, there were maybe like 396 00:22:32,840 --> 00:22:37,000 Speaker 9: a handful of investors in New York. So we moved 397 00:22:37,000 --> 00:22:41,080 Speaker 9: back to California to start this business, and so we 398 00:22:41,080 --> 00:22:43,439 Speaker 9: were really starting from scratch. You know, We're coming to 399 00:22:43,480 --> 00:22:46,600 Speaker 9: a new place and didn't really have the luxury of 400 00:22:47,840 --> 00:22:51,080 Speaker 9: the Stanford network. And that's why, you know, we hustled. 401 00:22:51,119 --> 00:22:54,879 Speaker 9: We met investors. We tried to like go two degrees 402 00:22:54,920 --> 00:22:58,159 Speaker 9: of separation, so we would ask friends if they had 403 00:22:58,160 --> 00:23:00,240 Speaker 9: any friends that were that were investors. 404 00:23:00,440 --> 00:23:02,600 Speaker 2: We went on angel list, where. 405 00:23:02,560 --> 00:23:05,520 Speaker 8: Angel list is a website with that list all angel investors. 406 00:23:06,000 --> 00:23:08,800 Speaker 9: Yeah, it's a platform. It's a platform and you can 407 00:23:08,920 --> 00:23:13,399 Speaker 9: create for earlier stage companies. Generally you can create a 408 00:23:13,440 --> 00:23:17,600 Speaker 9: profile as a startup and then they help you connect 409 00:23:17,640 --> 00:23:22,720 Speaker 9: with angel investors. And I think there's also recruiting, so 410 00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:26,000 Speaker 9: some people look for look for jobs and you can 411 00:23:26,119 --> 00:23:28,080 Speaker 9: you can hire a little bit out of angel list 412 00:23:28,119 --> 00:23:28,480 Speaker 9: as well. 413 00:23:28,600 --> 00:23:30,120 Speaker 5: And you said something about having the team. 414 00:23:30,160 --> 00:23:32,240 Speaker 3: A strong team is a team the network that you 415 00:23:32,320 --> 00:23:35,119 Speaker 3: found at Stanford or these are people that we just 416 00:23:35,240 --> 00:23:37,600 Speaker 3: kind of along the journey said you know what you're 417 00:23:37,640 --> 00:23:38,760 Speaker 3: great at that, we'll find you here. 418 00:23:38,880 --> 00:23:40,040 Speaker 5: How did you build the team? 419 00:23:40,720 --> 00:23:44,400 Speaker 9: Yeah, that's actually very unconventional. So because we didn't have 420 00:23:44,560 --> 00:23:49,040 Speaker 9: because we weren't really in computer science, I couldn't call 421 00:23:49,119 --> 00:23:52,400 Speaker 9: up my friends that were that were computer science majors 422 00:23:52,720 --> 00:23:55,719 Speaker 9: and get them to join, right, So we did it 423 00:23:55,760 --> 00:23:58,280 Speaker 9: in a sense very traditionally. We would get a booth 424 00:23:58,480 --> 00:24:01,320 Speaker 9: at the Career Fair. So it was actually, you know, 425 00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:03,960 Speaker 9: a bunch of the big companies, but you could you 426 00:24:04,000 --> 00:24:06,399 Speaker 9: could get a booth if you're an alumni and you're incorporated. 427 00:24:06,400 --> 00:24:08,320 Speaker 9: I think it was like seven hundred dollars, and we 428 00:24:08,320 --> 00:24:12,320 Speaker 9: would collect resumes and actually, you know, Beaiju and I 429 00:24:12,359 --> 00:24:15,080 Speaker 9: would would man the booths ourselves with our T shirts 430 00:24:15,080 --> 00:24:17,960 Speaker 9: and hand out swag, and a lot of our really 431 00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:22,400 Speaker 9: really great initial employees were just from the Stanford Career Fair. 432 00:24:22,440 --> 00:24:24,480 Speaker 5: And people's escaped career Day all the time. 433 00:24:25,160 --> 00:24:28,000 Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, Bible, you never know. 434 00:24:29,640 --> 00:24:32,000 Speaker 9: There's always a way to I think if you if 435 00:24:32,000 --> 00:24:35,240 Speaker 9: you're scrappy enough, there's a way to to make it happen. 436 00:24:35,280 --> 00:24:36,880 Speaker 9: I think not a lot of people would think about 437 00:24:36,960 --> 00:24:39,800 Speaker 9: going straight to the career fair. But for us, because 438 00:24:39,800 --> 00:24:43,840 Speaker 9: we never had internships at these companies, our only experience 439 00:24:43,920 --> 00:24:46,399 Speaker 9: to like getting a job was the career fair. So 440 00:24:46,440 --> 00:24:48,040 Speaker 9: it was sort of like the first thing that came 441 00:24:48,080 --> 00:24:49,879 Speaker 9: to mind. Oh, of course, that's how we want to 442 00:24:49,960 --> 00:24:52,879 Speaker 9: hire people. Let's just figure out how to how to 443 00:24:52,880 --> 00:24:53,879 Speaker 9: get one of those booths. 444 00:24:54,000 --> 00:24:55,480 Speaker 5: I got my first job at a career fair. 445 00:24:55,560 --> 00:24:55,840 Speaker 8: Did you? 446 00:24:56,040 --> 00:24:56,359 Speaker 5: Yeah? 447 00:24:56,560 --> 00:24:58,840 Speaker 3: I was how to tell it was like interviewing you 448 00:24:58,880 --> 00:25:01,919 Speaker 3: in the booth that was like education expo, and I 449 00:25:01,960 --> 00:25:04,440 Speaker 3: was sitting there. You get an interview and they'll tell 450 00:25:04,440 --> 00:25:06,399 Speaker 3: you to come back to the school. I bombed the 451 00:25:06,400 --> 00:25:08,520 Speaker 3: first one and I was sitting waiting for my friend 452 00:25:08,520 --> 00:25:10,560 Speaker 3: to do the next one. And I was like, I 453 00:25:10,560 --> 00:25:12,400 Speaker 3: need a job, and the guy was like, you need 454 00:25:12,400 --> 00:25:14,320 Speaker 3: a job? I told to me, And that's how I 455 00:25:14,359 --> 00:25:14,800 Speaker 3: got my job. 456 00:25:14,800 --> 00:25:16,760 Speaker 4: That's how people are getting hired as teachers these days. 457 00:25:18,320 --> 00:25:20,960 Speaker 4: Be very I was fifteen years ago. You're listening in 458 00:25:21,200 --> 00:25:23,399 Speaker 4: New York City, Chao children, you should be very disturbed 459 00:25:24,200 --> 00:25:27,120 Speaker 4: if they go to public school. So let me ask 460 00:25:27,119 --> 00:25:29,879 Speaker 4: you this. It seems like this has happened very quickly. 461 00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:32,679 Speaker 4: So at what point do you get the app up 462 00:25:32,720 --> 00:25:35,479 Speaker 4: and running and actually have a product that people are 463 00:25:35,520 --> 00:25:37,480 Speaker 4: actually downloading and starting to use. 464 00:25:37,720 --> 00:25:40,080 Speaker 9: Yeah, good question. It does seem the way when I 465 00:25:40,119 --> 00:25:43,080 Speaker 9: talk about it here, it seems like it happens very quickly, 466 00:25:43,160 --> 00:25:46,240 Speaker 9: but it it took years, right like we first got 467 00:25:46,240 --> 00:25:49,640 Speaker 9: the idea. So we moved back to California from New 468 00:25:49,720 --> 00:25:54,000 Speaker 9: York during the Kronos stays in twenty eleven, end of 469 00:25:54,040 --> 00:25:57,840 Speaker 9: twenty eleven, and we get the idea for robin Hood 470 00:25:57,880 --> 00:25:59,080 Speaker 9: February twenty twelve. 471 00:25:59,600 --> 00:26:00,640 Speaker 5: Who comes up with the name? 472 00:26:01,359 --> 00:26:05,560 Speaker 9: Actually, my wife came up with the name. My girlfriend 473 00:26:05,560 --> 00:26:08,240 Speaker 9: at the time now wife, and she was trying to 474 00:26:08,280 --> 00:26:10,760 Speaker 9: explain to her friends what I what I was doing, 475 00:26:11,240 --> 00:26:15,600 Speaker 9: and she'd be like, oh, well, you know my boyfriend Vlad, 476 00:26:15,640 --> 00:26:18,200 Speaker 9: he's in finance, and then they'd kind of grow and 477 00:26:18,240 --> 00:26:20,840 Speaker 9: they'd be like, yeah, I think of some kind of 478 00:26:20,960 --> 00:26:24,080 Speaker 9: investment banker or something, and then she'd say, no, no, no, 479 00:26:24,359 --> 00:26:26,600 Speaker 9: you know, they're kind of the Robinhood of finance. They're 480 00:26:26,600 --> 00:26:29,639 Speaker 9: trying to build something new for the little guy. 481 00:26:29,760 --> 00:26:33,400 Speaker 2: And so then Beiju and I. 482 00:26:33,320 --> 00:26:35,359 Speaker 9: Had a couple of ideas for the name, and we 483 00:26:35,840 --> 00:26:39,119 Speaker 9: asked some of our employees, but both of us just 484 00:26:39,200 --> 00:26:43,080 Speaker 9: kind of liked Robinhood. We thought that it stood for something, 485 00:26:43,160 --> 00:26:48,800 Speaker 9: you know, something very powerful, a powerful idea, And you know, 486 00:26:48,840 --> 00:26:52,919 Speaker 9: I think Jeff Bezos says that the name is probably 487 00:26:53,040 --> 00:26:55,639 Speaker 9: like three percent of it, but sometimes that three percent 488 00:26:55,880 --> 00:26:59,479 Speaker 9: is the difference between doing very well and not so 489 00:27:00,680 --> 00:27:04,159 Speaker 9: pretty happy with with how it ended up. And I 490 00:27:04,200 --> 00:27:07,080 Speaker 9: do think that, you know, we're trying very very hard 491 00:27:07,160 --> 00:27:13,400 Speaker 9: to stay true to your missions. Dame stands for yeah, yes, okay. 492 00:27:13,680 --> 00:27:16,800 Speaker 4: So what what year does Robinhood actually get up and 493 00:27:16,880 --> 00:27:18,719 Speaker 4: run out to the public. 494 00:27:18,800 --> 00:27:21,639 Speaker 9: Yes, we get the idea twenty twelve, We spend a 495 00:27:21,640 --> 00:27:24,040 Speaker 9: lot of time getting the licenses, We launch a wait 496 00:27:24,119 --> 00:27:28,200 Speaker 9: list December of twenty thirteen, and then the app hits 497 00:27:28,240 --> 00:27:31,240 Speaker 9: the app Store in beta December of twenty fourteen, so 498 00:27:31,320 --> 00:27:37,439 Speaker 9: about a year after the waitlist and maybe a year 499 00:27:37,480 --> 00:27:39,520 Speaker 9: and a half two years after we get the idea 500 00:27:39,920 --> 00:27:42,439 Speaker 9: two and a half years actually, and then public launch 501 00:27:42,640 --> 00:27:43,840 Speaker 9: March of twenty fifteen. 502 00:27:44,520 --> 00:27:49,280 Speaker 4: So at what point do you guys start to market 503 00:27:49,359 --> 00:27:52,359 Speaker 4: Because it feels like I never I didn't really remember 504 00:27:52,400 --> 00:27:55,200 Speaker 4: seeing like Robinhood commercials. It's just one of these things 505 00:27:55,200 --> 00:27:58,359 Speaker 4: that everybody just had Robinhood overnight. So like, what was 506 00:27:58,359 --> 00:28:01,800 Speaker 4: the marketing plan for to just become as popular as 507 00:28:01,800 --> 00:28:02,600 Speaker 4: it become. 508 00:28:02,880 --> 00:28:03,400 Speaker 2: Well, so. 509 00:28:05,240 --> 00:28:09,560 Speaker 9: It's largely been word of mouth from the very beginning. 510 00:28:10,280 --> 00:28:13,119 Speaker 9: And in December of twenty thirteen, what we launched was 511 00:28:13,160 --> 00:28:17,439 Speaker 9: a weight list, So basically, you could sign up for 512 00:28:17,480 --> 00:28:19,960 Speaker 9: the weight list, we would let you know when we 513 00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:23,080 Speaker 9: could onboard you, when we could onboard you onto the product, 514 00:28:23,680 --> 00:28:27,920 Speaker 9: and the weight list kind of gives you early access 515 00:28:28,160 --> 00:28:32,600 Speaker 9: to the product. So the weightlist itself, I think you 516 00:28:32,600 --> 00:28:36,800 Speaker 9: could think of as marketing, although the idea was we 517 00:28:36,840 --> 00:28:40,320 Speaker 9: wanted to kind of create a slow and steady way 518 00:28:40,360 --> 00:28:42,920 Speaker 9: to onboard people in the order that they were most 519 00:28:42,920 --> 00:28:45,040 Speaker 9: passionate about the product, So get the people that are 520 00:28:45,080 --> 00:28:49,040 Speaker 9: most excited to try it access first, and that way 521 00:28:49,080 --> 00:28:54,719 Speaker 9: we could get high quality feedback. And yes, of course 522 00:28:55,520 --> 00:29:01,160 Speaker 9: we did just like interviews, so CNBC pretty early on Bloomberg, 523 00:29:01,520 --> 00:29:04,800 Speaker 9: those kinds of places wanted to interview us because it 524 00:29:04,880 --> 00:29:08,280 Speaker 9: was it was a simple to understand idea right commission 525 00:29:08,320 --> 00:29:11,800 Speaker 9: free trading. People kind of knew that trades cost seven dollars, 526 00:29:11,840 --> 00:29:14,920 Speaker 9: so how are these how are these uh these people 527 00:29:14,960 --> 00:29:18,000 Speaker 9: doing it for free? And uh, you know, we were 528 00:29:18,040 --> 00:29:21,520 Speaker 9: able to get close to a million people on the 529 00:29:21,520 --> 00:29:24,560 Speaker 9: wait list in a year, which was a lot of 530 00:29:24,600 --> 00:29:28,560 Speaker 9: pre launch I mean for a financial product, probably among 531 00:29:28,640 --> 00:29:34,000 Speaker 9: the biggest pre launch weight lists in history at the time. 532 00:29:34,280 --> 00:29:37,000 Speaker 4: And then once it comes out, it's just wow, wildfire 533 00:29:37,120 --> 00:29:38,280 Speaker 4: just started spreading like wildfire. 534 00:29:38,520 --> 00:29:41,480 Speaker 9: Yes, we knew when the weight list was was live 535 00:29:41,520 --> 00:29:44,440 Speaker 9: that people were interested in it, so we kind of 536 00:29:44,480 --> 00:29:47,080 Speaker 9: had our We kind of had the wind at our 537 00:29:47,120 --> 00:29:51,080 Speaker 9: back since the the waitlist launch and then uh when 538 00:29:51,080 --> 00:29:55,040 Speaker 9: it when it went live, I mean it was it 539 00:29:55,080 --> 00:29:59,320 Speaker 9: was pretty consistent. I mean, we grew pretty consistently people 540 00:30:00,280 --> 00:30:03,400 Speaker 9: people were interested in the idea, and then that's when 541 00:30:03,480 --> 00:30:07,120 Speaker 9: kind of the iteration engine started, so we would I 542 00:30:07,120 --> 00:30:09,080 Speaker 9: think one of the one of the interesting things you 543 00:30:09,160 --> 00:30:12,000 Speaker 9: learn is that in a consumer product, you get a 544 00:30:12,000 --> 00:30:15,320 Speaker 9: lot of customer feedback, and so you listen to the feedback, 545 00:30:15,520 --> 00:30:19,040 Speaker 9: and we really built a process from the very beginning 546 00:30:19,320 --> 00:30:23,120 Speaker 9: of you know, going to people's houses in some cases, 547 00:30:23,160 --> 00:30:25,960 Speaker 9: watching them use the product, having them come to our office, 548 00:30:26,440 --> 00:30:28,920 Speaker 9: seeing you know, what they were struggling with, what their 549 00:30:28,960 --> 00:30:33,400 Speaker 9: pain points were, and then and then kind of reasoning 550 00:30:33,400 --> 00:30:35,720 Speaker 9: from first principles to figure out how to solve them. 551 00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:39,280 Speaker 9: So a bunch of our early products, like Robinhood instant 552 00:30:39,480 --> 00:30:43,600 Speaker 9: Robinhood Gold. They solved customer pain points and we would 553 00:30:43,640 --> 00:30:46,840 Speaker 9: see as soon as we rolled them out that you know, 554 00:30:46,960 --> 00:30:49,840 Speaker 9: we'd grow a little bit faster, the business would improve. 555 00:30:50,320 --> 00:30:53,000 Speaker 9: And then you know that really built the product development 556 00:30:53,120 --> 00:30:54,320 Speaker 9: process that we have today. 557 00:30:55,360 --> 00:30:57,640 Speaker 3: When so when you built the app and you had 558 00:30:57,680 --> 00:31:02,280 Speaker 3: the design team where you very super intentional about saying, 559 00:31:02,320 --> 00:31:05,400 Speaker 3: I want to make this appealing to a younger audience 560 00:31:05,480 --> 00:31:08,640 Speaker 3: because if you look at your demographics now, right eighteen 561 00:31:08,680 --> 00:31:11,880 Speaker 3: to forty is that's the sweet spot for robber Hood users. 562 00:31:12,360 --> 00:31:14,400 Speaker 3: So what you're thinking, all right, we're gonna get We're 563 00:31:14,400 --> 00:31:17,440 Speaker 3: gonna start younger with a younger audience. Here's how we'll 564 00:31:17,480 --> 00:31:20,080 Speaker 3: do with this interface. It's user friendly, it'll be appealing 565 00:31:20,080 --> 00:31:21,760 Speaker 3: to a young audience. Is that was at the initial 566 00:31:21,880 --> 00:31:23,040 Speaker 3: thought when building interface. 567 00:31:23,600 --> 00:31:26,240 Speaker 9: I think the initial thought was that we would target 568 00:31:26,360 --> 00:31:31,880 Speaker 9: a younger customer. And it wasn't It wasn't necessarily because 569 00:31:33,600 --> 00:31:37,200 Speaker 9: you know, we didn't want to target target people that 570 00:31:37,520 --> 00:31:40,080 Speaker 9: you know, were more experienced or older. It's just that 571 00:31:40,120 --> 00:31:43,440 Speaker 9: as we thought about it, we thought that there were 572 00:31:43,440 --> 00:31:46,560 Speaker 9: people that were underserved, and it was people with less 573 00:31:46,600 --> 00:31:50,720 Speaker 9: money and people that you know didn't already have a 574 00:31:50,760 --> 00:31:55,840 Speaker 9: brokerage account and also juxtaposed that with like people who 575 00:31:55,840 --> 00:32:01,360 Speaker 9: are mobile savvy, and you know, they were mobile savvy 576 00:32:01,880 --> 00:32:06,680 Speaker 9: and were likely to be early adopters of new financial products. 577 00:32:06,760 --> 00:32:09,960 Speaker 9: So you're kind of like zero into two younger demographic 578 00:32:10,760 --> 00:32:14,000 Speaker 9: in any case, And not to mention we were building 579 00:32:14,600 --> 00:32:16,800 Speaker 9: We were building it ourselves, right, and we were in 580 00:32:16,840 --> 00:32:19,320 Speaker 9: our twenties at the time, so we wanted to build 581 00:32:19,360 --> 00:32:23,080 Speaker 9: something that we could use and could appeal to us 582 00:32:23,160 --> 00:32:28,040 Speaker 9: and also could appeal to, you know, to a broader demographic. 583 00:32:28,920 --> 00:32:31,080 Speaker 4: So let me ask you this because there's always hiccups 584 00:32:31,080 --> 00:32:33,840 Speaker 4: and there's always problems, but I think it's important that 585 00:32:33,880 --> 00:32:37,280 Speaker 4: people actually know the truth. So obviously everybody heard about 586 00:32:37,280 --> 00:32:41,040 Speaker 4: the game Stop situation, yeah, and you spoke about that, 587 00:32:41,080 --> 00:32:44,640 Speaker 4: but our audience might not have been on those platforms. 588 00:32:44,160 --> 00:32:46,400 Speaker 8: That you've actually articulated what happened. 589 00:32:46,440 --> 00:32:48,880 Speaker 4: So can you explain, because we actually got caught not 590 00:32:48,920 --> 00:32:52,200 Speaker 4: with Robinhood another brokerage we won't we won't name, but 591 00:32:52,480 --> 00:32:54,640 Speaker 4: we got we got caught with that where we put 592 00:32:54,680 --> 00:32:58,480 Speaker 4: a put on Game Stop, oh yeah, and the put 593 00:32:58,520 --> 00:33:05,160 Speaker 4: one crazy and one we were up upwards of Fiery 594 00:33:05,880 --> 00:33:08,760 Speaker 4: and tried to sell it and we couldn't sell it, 595 00:33:09,280 --> 00:33:10,960 Speaker 4: and then we ended up losing money on a long 596 00:33:11,000 --> 00:33:13,680 Speaker 4: story short, So I sympathized with people that couldn't sell 597 00:33:13,680 --> 00:33:15,760 Speaker 4: their game stops positions because it just so happens that 598 00:33:15,800 --> 00:33:16,760 Speaker 4: we were one of those people. 599 00:33:17,120 --> 00:33:18,760 Speaker 8: Like I said, it wasn't Robinhood, it was another. It 600 00:33:18,800 --> 00:33:19,719 Speaker 8: was another that's good to hear. 601 00:33:20,960 --> 00:33:23,280 Speaker 4: So a lot of people that you know, just got 602 00:33:23,320 --> 00:33:26,080 Speaker 4: into investing, they would they wasn't sure exactly what happened. 603 00:33:26,080 --> 00:33:28,640 Speaker 4: Can you just kind of explain what happened when you 604 00:33:28,680 --> 00:33:32,520 Speaker 4: had the halt trading? I believe right you halted selling 605 00:33:32,560 --> 00:33:36,000 Speaker 4: and buying a robbin of GameStop for a day or two. 606 00:33:36,120 --> 00:33:42,000 Speaker 9: Just the Yeah, we had to halt opening positions. So 607 00:33:42,280 --> 00:33:46,959 Speaker 9: it was it was any any position that sort of 608 00:33:47,160 --> 00:33:50,920 Speaker 9: increased risk. So for example, since we don't allow shorting, 609 00:33:52,160 --> 00:33:57,360 Speaker 9: it was you couldn't buy the Meme stocks, because you know, 610 00:33:57,440 --> 00:33:59,320 Speaker 9: if we had allowed shorting, it would be you couldn't 611 00:33:59,320 --> 00:34:03,160 Speaker 9: open short position as well. But that's why it was 612 00:34:03,200 --> 00:34:06,680 Speaker 9: the buy side. And then in options, since you guys 613 00:34:06,720 --> 00:34:11,000 Speaker 9: mentioned that opening up options contracts, whether they be on 614 00:34:11,080 --> 00:34:15,759 Speaker 9: the long side or the short side, was not allowed either. 615 00:34:16,280 --> 00:34:20,120 Speaker 9: But you could always throughout the process, you could always 616 00:34:20,160 --> 00:34:25,120 Speaker 9: close out your existing positions, so we didn't. We didn't 617 00:34:25,120 --> 00:34:27,640 Speaker 9: disallow you know, selling a stock if you had it, 618 00:34:27,800 --> 00:34:30,719 Speaker 9: or selling a put or a call, or closing out. 619 00:34:31,080 --> 00:34:34,160 Speaker 9: You couldn't open new positions for the time period that 620 00:34:34,320 --> 00:34:37,880 Speaker 9: we restricted the trading. And you know, really what it 621 00:34:38,080 --> 00:34:43,759 Speaker 9: was was I call it five sigma event, So I 622 00:34:43,800 --> 00:34:46,279 Speaker 9: think one in three point five million. I mean, we'd 623 00:34:46,280 --> 00:34:53,759 Speaker 9: never seen anything like that before, which was basically you 624 00:34:53,760 --> 00:34:56,560 Speaker 9: combine social media and the financial markets. 625 00:34:57,160 --> 00:34:58,239 Speaker 2: The idea of. 626 00:35:00,160 --> 00:35:04,480 Speaker 9: You know, people getting together and banding together all to 627 00:35:04,520 --> 00:35:09,000 Speaker 9: buy a handful of stocks, you know, game Stop, AMC 628 00:35:09,120 --> 00:35:15,360 Speaker 9: and a few others, and yeah, these people essentially made 629 00:35:15,400 --> 00:35:18,480 Speaker 9: the purchasing of the stocks go viral on social media, 630 00:35:19,080 --> 00:35:21,719 Speaker 9: and so it went viral and social media, but then 631 00:35:21,880 --> 00:35:25,720 Speaker 9: sort of spilled over into the financial markets because people 632 00:35:25,719 --> 00:35:29,319 Speaker 9: would download broker j apps. You know, Robinhood went to 633 00:35:30,080 --> 00:35:33,000 Speaker 9: number one on the App store during that time period overall, 634 00:35:33,080 --> 00:35:35,799 Speaker 9: which is very rare for a financial product. 635 00:35:35,520 --> 00:35:38,680 Speaker 2: Because number fifteen right now in finance, I. 636 00:35:38,600 --> 00:35:41,239 Speaker 9: Think, yeah, yeah, this was number one overall, ahead of 637 00:35:41,280 --> 00:35:45,960 Speaker 9: like TikTok and Snapchat, Instagram, And I think the market's 638 00:35:46,040 --> 00:35:49,000 Speaker 9: just what ended up happening. Was the markets weren't built 639 00:35:49,000 --> 00:35:49,200 Speaker 9: for that. 640 00:35:49,360 --> 00:35:51,360 Speaker 8: Too much stress being put on the market. 641 00:35:51,640 --> 00:35:56,680 Speaker 9: Yeah, so the collateral requirements, that deposit requirements went up, 642 00:35:56,960 --> 00:35:58,840 Speaker 9: and a lot of this is covered. I had to 643 00:35:58,840 --> 00:36:01,320 Speaker 9: give a testimony to the House Financial Services. 644 00:36:02,600 --> 00:36:03,680 Speaker 5: Yeah, it was a little short. 645 00:36:03,800 --> 00:36:05,439 Speaker 9: Then it was a little bit I had to clean 646 00:36:05,480 --> 00:36:10,520 Speaker 9: it up, but I've let it grow out since then. Yeah, 647 00:36:10,760 --> 00:36:14,399 Speaker 9: I got a lot of a lot of criticism from 648 00:36:14,480 --> 00:36:15,080 Speaker 9: a haircut. 649 00:36:15,239 --> 00:36:19,400 Speaker 4: So you you yes, I don't know who Lord Valiant 650 00:36:19,600 --> 00:36:22,640 Speaker 4: look that up, Prince Valiant or something. So in front 651 00:36:22,640 --> 00:36:24,879 Speaker 4: of college you said it wasn't really you had enough 652 00:36:25,640 --> 00:36:28,400 Speaker 4: for capital, but it was it was not enough liquidity 653 00:36:28,440 --> 00:36:29,759 Speaker 4: for the immediate collateral. 654 00:36:30,880 --> 00:36:31,600 Speaker 2: Well, it was. 655 00:36:31,719 --> 00:36:38,080 Speaker 9: It was basically, you know, the the requirements were growing exponentially. 656 00:36:38,600 --> 00:36:41,399 Speaker 9: So certainly we had enough to meet our capital call 657 00:36:41,520 --> 00:36:46,480 Speaker 9: that Thursday, and we met our deposit requirements. But if 658 00:36:46,480 --> 00:36:49,799 Speaker 9: you're number one on the app store, it's it's sort of, uh, 659 00:36:50,760 --> 00:36:54,240 Speaker 9: how far could it continue? Yeah, so you know, Robinhood 660 00:36:54,280 --> 00:36:58,520 Speaker 9: Securities are clearing firm. A lot of other brokers ended 661 00:36:58,600 --> 00:36:59,800 Speaker 9: up with the same issue. 662 00:37:00,040 --> 00:37:00,399 Speaker 2: M hmm. 663 00:37:00,880 --> 00:37:03,560 Speaker 9: A bunch of other brokers essentially had to had to 664 00:37:03,600 --> 00:37:08,200 Speaker 9: come up with the same thing, but since we were 665 00:37:08,800 --> 00:37:11,279 Speaker 9: since we were vertically integrated and we had our own 666 00:37:11,280 --> 00:37:16,040 Speaker 9: clearing firm, it was all inside Robinhood. So Robinhood Security 667 00:37:16,040 --> 00:37:19,960 Speaker 9: has had to make the decision to pco the stocks 668 00:37:19,960 --> 00:37:22,480 Speaker 9: and the options for all these things, and then we 669 00:37:22,520 --> 00:37:24,960 Speaker 9: went out and raised billions of dollars to try to 670 00:37:25,040 --> 00:37:25,799 Speaker 9: unrestrict them. 671 00:37:25,840 --> 00:37:27,560 Speaker 4: I'm gonna I'm gonna ask you about that. But before 672 00:37:27,600 --> 00:37:29,640 Speaker 4: I ask you about this, I still this is clear. 673 00:37:29,640 --> 00:37:31,440 Speaker 4: I haven't I used to be a financial advisor, and 674 00:37:31,520 --> 00:37:33,080 Speaker 4: I haven't heard this term in a long time. 675 00:37:33,120 --> 00:37:34,239 Speaker 8: But when I was reading. 676 00:37:33,960 --> 00:37:36,960 Speaker 4: It the T plus two timeline, Yeah, and you were 677 00:37:37,040 --> 00:37:41,440 Speaker 4: saying that that's problematic. Well, hey, can you explain what 678 00:37:41,440 --> 00:37:42,040 Speaker 4: that is for people? 679 00:37:42,080 --> 00:37:42,439 Speaker 8: And why? 680 00:37:42,600 --> 00:37:44,560 Speaker 4: Why is that something that needs to be changed? You 681 00:37:44,600 --> 00:37:46,359 Speaker 4: said that that's to be something that should be done 682 00:37:46,360 --> 00:37:47,000 Speaker 4: immediately and. 683 00:37:46,960 --> 00:37:51,480 Speaker 9: Not yeah, two days. So yeah, this is a very 684 00:37:51,680 --> 00:37:57,200 Speaker 9: sort of arcade thing. But I'll try to I'll try 685 00:37:57,200 --> 00:38:03,359 Speaker 9: to explain it in as easy terms as possible. So, uh, yeah, 686 00:38:03,400 --> 00:38:08,160 Speaker 9: imagine Robinhood is like a ice cream store, right, instead 687 00:38:08,160 --> 00:38:12,279 Speaker 9: of selling stocks, we sell people ice cream. And you 688 00:38:12,280 --> 00:38:14,279 Speaker 9: know you're a customer, you want your ice cream you 689 00:38:14,320 --> 00:38:20,719 Speaker 9: go to Robinhood, and the current financial market situation would 690 00:38:20,760 --> 00:38:27,000 Speaker 9: be basically as if we take your money, we put 691 00:38:27,000 --> 00:38:31,440 Speaker 9: it in a safe for two days, then we give 692 00:38:31,480 --> 00:38:32,680 Speaker 9: you the ice cream. 693 00:38:33,080 --> 00:38:33,480 Speaker 8: Uh. 694 00:38:33,840 --> 00:38:39,040 Speaker 9: But then we take we take our corporate money, right, 695 00:38:39,160 --> 00:38:43,000 Speaker 9: our corporate cash, and you know, give it to our suppliers. 696 00:38:43,600 --> 00:38:46,360 Speaker 9: So you know, you'd think we just take your cash, 697 00:38:46,400 --> 00:38:48,920 Speaker 9: give you your ice cream, and it's very simple like that, 698 00:38:49,360 --> 00:38:52,839 Speaker 9: but we actually have to lock up the customer cash, uh, 699 00:38:53,760 --> 00:38:57,239 Speaker 9: just in case something happens with the bank transaction like 700 00:38:57,280 --> 00:39:00,480 Speaker 9: it's it's reversed to control for you know, what's called 701 00:39:00,520 --> 00:39:04,319 Speaker 9: the liquidity risk and the market risk. And then we 702 00:39:04,440 --> 00:39:06,960 Speaker 9: have to use our corporate cash to fund the purchases. 703 00:39:07,360 --> 00:39:13,280 Speaker 9: And you know, the corporate cash is finite. So people 704 00:39:13,320 --> 00:39:15,880 Speaker 9: ask a lot of times, why can't you know, I 705 00:39:15,960 --> 00:39:19,480 Speaker 9: have my thousand dollars, Why can't I just use my 706 00:39:19,600 --> 00:39:20,560 Speaker 9: thousand dollars to. 707 00:39:20,480 --> 00:39:21,240 Speaker 2: Buy the stock. 708 00:39:21,600 --> 00:39:25,759 Speaker 9: Well, for the way that the settlement system works, we 709 00:39:25,840 --> 00:39:27,759 Speaker 9: have to lock up your cash, keep it safe for 710 00:39:27,800 --> 00:39:31,000 Speaker 9: two days, and only then only then can we use 711 00:39:31,040 --> 00:39:33,040 Speaker 9: it to give you your stock. And in the innim 712 00:39:33,120 --> 00:39:35,719 Speaker 9: period we have to put up our own firm cash. 713 00:39:36,000 --> 00:39:39,160 Speaker 9: So obviously in a situation where these where the buying 714 00:39:39,200 --> 00:39:44,759 Speaker 9: activity just goes parabolic, there's limits how much corporate cash 715 00:39:45,120 --> 00:39:49,080 Speaker 9: we can we can actually provide. And so what going 716 00:39:49,080 --> 00:39:51,279 Speaker 9: from T plus two to T plus zero would do 717 00:39:51,920 --> 00:39:55,920 Speaker 9: is allow us to essentially immediately do that that transaction, 718 00:39:56,200 --> 00:39:58,719 Speaker 9: so we wouldn't have to put up corporate cash for 719 00:39:58,880 --> 00:40:03,239 Speaker 9: two days. We could actually exchange exchange the cash and 720 00:40:03,280 --> 00:40:06,000 Speaker 9: the shares immediately. I don't know if the ice cream 721 00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:10,640 Speaker 9: analogy really helped, hopefully. 722 00:40:12,160 --> 00:40:15,680 Speaker 3: So I'm interested on your thoughts about meme stocks because again, 723 00:40:15,960 --> 00:40:17,839 Speaker 3: this is one of the things out a revolutionary right there. 724 00:40:18,040 --> 00:40:20,120 Speaker 5: Weren't meme stocks before. 725 00:40:22,600 --> 00:40:25,160 Speaker 3: Before we heard them about Robinhood and it was like, okay, 726 00:40:25,200 --> 00:40:26,080 Speaker 3: well this is synonymous. 727 00:40:26,120 --> 00:40:28,040 Speaker 5: Well this is the easiest place to get it. 728 00:40:28,440 --> 00:40:30,880 Speaker 3: And so this is kind of a twofold thing because yes, 729 00:40:31,760 --> 00:40:34,000 Speaker 3: more people are involved, right, I don't know how many 730 00:40:34,000 --> 00:40:36,840 Speaker 3: people access should I get game stop just randomly like 731 00:40:36,880 --> 00:40:38,799 Speaker 3: in the supermarket, people like I'm in game stop, I'm 732 00:40:38,800 --> 00:40:41,879 Speaker 3: a game stop. It does bring more people, but they're 733 00:40:41,960 --> 00:40:44,880 Speaker 3: newer investors, not always educated in a sense. 734 00:40:44,960 --> 00:40:47,360 Speaker 5: But the more customers that you have it does help business. 735 00:40:47,480 --> 00:40:50,640 Speaker 3: So what's your thought on the Meme stocks first, and 736 00:40:50,640 --> 00:40:53,120 Speaker 3: then I thought to myself, since it's kind of become 737 00:40:53,120 --> 00:40:54,960 Speaker 3: the home of the stocks because of the accessibility of 738 00:40:54,960 --> 00:40:58,200 Speaker 3: how quickly we can get access to these positions. Yeah, 739 00:40:58,520 --> 00:41:02,760 Speaker 3: we've seen AMC, we've seen GameStop, and now you're publicly 740 00:41:02,800 --> 00:41:05,279 Speaker 3: traded company. What are your thoughts about, like if that 741 00:41:05,320 --> 00:41:08,560 Speaker 3: happens to Robinhood stock itself, Like, what are your thoughts there? 742 00:41:09,000 --> 00:41:12,400 Speaker 9: Well, I would say if you look at the products 743 00:41:12,400 --> 00:41:17,960 Speaker 9: that Robinhood rolls out, my personal opinion is that, you know, 744 00:41:18,000 --> 00:41:21,880 Speaker 9: we'd like to encourage long term habitual investing. It's you 745 00:41:21,920 --> 00:41:22,799 Speaker 9: know over. 746 00:41:24,160 --> 00:41:26,399 Speaker 3: This episode is brought to you by P and C Bank. 747 00:41:26,800 --> 00:41:29,560 Speaker 3: A lot of people think podcasts about work are boring, 748 00:41:29,760 --> 00:41:33,640 Speaker 3: and sure they definitely can be, But understanding a professionals 749 00:41:33,680 --> 00:41:36,960 Speaker 3: routine shows us how they achieve their success little by little, 750 00:41:37,320 --> 00:41:41,000 Speaker 3: day after day. It's like banking with P and C Bank. 751 00:41:41,440 --> 00:41:44,239 Speaker 3: It might seem boring the safe plan and make calculated 752 00:41:44,280 --> 00:41:47,400 Speaker 3: decisions with your bank, but keeping your money boring is 753 00:41:47,400 --> 00:41:50,759 Speaker 3: what helps you live or more happily fulfilled life. P 754 00:41:50,840 --> 00:41:55,680 Speaker 3: and C Bank brilliantly boring since eighteen sixty five. Brilliantly 755 00:41:55,719 --> 00:41:58,360 Speaker 3: boring since eighteen sixty five is a service mark of 756 00:41:58,400 --> 00:42:04,720 Speaker 3: the PNC Financial Service pn C Bank National Association member FDIC. 757 00:42:07,360 --> 00:42:08,040 Speaker 5: Erners. What's up? 758 00:42:08,120 --> 00:42:10,600 Speaker 3: You ever walk into a small business and everything just 759 00:42:10,760 --> 00:42:13,960 Speaker 3: works like the checkout is fast, the receipts are digital, 760 00:42:14,440 --> 00:42:17,440 Speaker 3: tipping is a breeze, and you're out the door before 761 00:42:17,440 --> 00:42:21,600 Speaker 3: the line even builds. Odds are they're using Square. We 762 00:42:21,760 --> 00:42:24,319 Speaker 3: love supporting businesses that run on Square because it just 763 00:42:24,320 --> 00:42:27,560 Speaker 3: feels seamless. Whether it's a local coffee shop, a vendor 764 00:42:27,600 --> 00:42:29,879 Speaker 3: at a pop up market, or even one of our 765 00:42:29,920 --> 00:42:33,600 Speaker 3: merch partners, Square makes it easy for them to take payments, 766 00:42:33,800 --> 00:42:37,560 Speaker 3: manage inventory, and run their business with confidence, all from 767 00:42:37,640 --> 00:42:41,040 Speaker 3: one simple system. If you're a business owner or even 768 00:42:41,120 --> 00:42:44,640 Speaker 3: just thinking about launching something soon, Square is hands down 769 00:42:44,680 --> 00:42:47,760 Speaker 3: one of the best tools out there to help you start, run, 770 00:42:47,960 --> 00:42:51,280 Speaker 3: and grow. It's not just about payments, it's about giving 771 00:42:51,280 --> 00:42:53,359 Speaker 3: you time back so you can focus on. 772 00:42:53,320 --> 00:42:54,759 Speaker 5: What matters most ready. 773 00:42:54,800 --> 00:42:58,200 Speaker 3: To see how Square can transform your business, visit Square 774 00:42:58,280 --> 00:43:02,799 Speaker 3: dot com backslash, go backslash eyl to learn more that 775 00:43:03,000 --> 00:43:08,440 Speaker 3: Square dot com backslash, go backslash eyl. Don't wait, don't hesitate, 776 00:43:08,560 --> 00:43:10,920 Speaker 3: Let's Square handle the back end so you can keep 777 00:43:10,960 --> 00:43:12,200 Speaker 3: pushing your vision forward. 778 00:43:14,400 --> 00:43:18,040 Speaker 10: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child 779 00:43:18,120 --> 00:43:21,920 Speaker 10: in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from Al Salvador 780 00:43:22,160 --> 00:43:26,279 Speaker 10: accused of murdering a Texas man of Venezuelan charged with 781 00:43:26,360 --> 00:43:30,239 Speaker 10: filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just 782 00:43:30,360 --> 00:43:34,120 Speaker 10: some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President 783 00:43:34,160 --> 00:43:37,680 Speaker 10: Donald J. Trump's leadership. I'm Christy Noman, the United States 784 00:43:37,760 --> 00:43:42,560 Speaker 10: Secretary of Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted illegal border 785 00:43:42,560 --> 00:43:46,120 Speaker 10: crossings are at the lowest levels ever recorded, and over 786 00:43:46,200 --> 00:43:49,400 Speaker 10: one hundred thousand illegal aliens have been arrested. If you 787 00:43:49,480 --> 00:43:53,320 Speaker 10: are here illegally, your next you will be fined nearly 788 00:43:53,400 --> 00:43:57,439 Speaker 10: one thousand dollars a day, imprisoned, and deported. You will 789 00:43:57,480 --> 00:44:01,120 Speaker 10: never return. But if you register, use our CBP home 790 00:44:01,160 --> 00:44:04,520 Speaker 10: app and leave now, you could be allowed to return legally. 791 00:44:04,920 --> 00:44:05,719 Speaker 10: Do what's right. 792 00:44:06,280 --> 00:44:07,120 Speaker 7: Leave now. 793 00:44:07,480 --> 00:44:12,240 Speaker 10: Under President Trump, America's laws, border and families will be protected. 794 00:44:12,360 --> 00:44:14,520 Speaker 2: Sponsored by the United Spaces Department of Homeland Security. 795 00:44:14,680 --> 00:44:18,560 Speaker 9: Time compound, interest and compounding of returns says I'm sure 796 00:44:18,600 --> 00:44:21,960 Speaker 9: you guys, You guys tell your listeners is a very 797 00:44:22,000 --> 00:44:25,760 Speaker 9: powerful force. Einstein I think called it the eighth wonder 798 00:44:25,800 --> 00:44:28,640 Speaker 9: of the world. Compound interest. So just time in the 799 00:44:28,719 --> 00:44:33,239 Speaker 9: market and time spent investing over a long period of 800 00:44:33,239 --> 00:44:36,200 Speaker 9: time really really adds up. And so that's why we 801 00:44:36,320 --> 00:44:41,120 Speaker 9: encourage long term investing through recurring, through fractional diversification, through 802 00:44:41,160 --> 00:44:45,160 Speaker 9: fractional shares, and then of course education, making sure that 803 00:44:46,000 --> 00:44:48,600 Speaker 9: you know, we provide content not just to our customers 804 00:44:48,600 --> 00:44:52,320 Speaker 9: but to the broader world through Robinhood, learn, through in app, 805 00:44:52,640 --> 00:44:57,719 Speaker 9: through snacks and all of our other properties. So I 806 00:44:57,760 --> 00:45:00,520 Speaker 9: tell people and it's on our website. Now, Robinhood a 807 00:45:00,520 --> 00:45:03,800 Speaker 9: safety first company. That's our top value. What that means 808 00:45:03,840 --> 00:45:08,920 Speaker 9: is it means service reliability, right, it means education, it 809 00:45:09,000 --> 00:45:12,359 Speaker 9: means all the safeguards. So you know, we warn you 810 00:45:12,480 --> 00:45:15,640 Speaker 9: if a stock that if you're looking at, if what 811 00:45:15,719 --> 00:45:18,880 Speaker 9: a stock you're looking at is leveraged, if it's a 812 00:45:18,960 --> 00:45:23,680 Speaker 9: leverage et ETF or et AD, if if it's experiencing 813 00:45:23,760 --> 00:45:27,719 Speaker 9: unusual volatility, and then we provide all of the information 814 00:45:28,080 --> 00:45:31,760 Speaker 9: and the data that you might need. And of course 815 00:45:31,800 --> 00:45:33,759 Speaker 9: on top of that, it is self directed. So if 816 00:45:33,760 --> 00:45:35,560 Speaker 9: you want to make a decision to buy into a 817 00:45:35,600 --> 00:45:41,880 Speaker 9: recent IPO or something because it's you know, popular on 818 00:45:41,920 --> 00:45:44,680 Speaker 9: social media. You're you're free to do so, but we 819 00:45:44,719 --> 00:45:46,560 Speaker 9: do want to make sure you have all the information 820 00:45:46,880 --> 00:45:49,319 Speaker 9: and that we give you the tools to encourage that 821 00:45:49,440 --> 00:45:51,200 Speaker 9: long term habitual wealth building. 822 00:45:51,600 --> 00:45:53,480 Speaker 8: See you said something else, very interesting. You said it 823 00:45:53,520 --> 00:45:56,480 Speaker 8: was like one and a. 824 00:45:55,640 --> 00:45:57,360 Speaker 5: Three million or three point five million. 825 00:45:57,520 --> 00:46:00,279 Speaker 4: Yeah, but being that way in a new AI, each 826 00:46:01,600 --> 00:46:05,440 Speaker 4: and these things can continue to happen now because these 827 00:46:05,440 --> 00:46:07,800 Speaker 4: reddic groups and different things that nature are not going anywhere. 828 00:46:07,800 --> 00:46:10,160 Speaker 4: Social media is only getting bigger, more and more young 829 00:46:10,160 --> 00:46:13,160 Speaker 4: people are getting into invest in. So what if this 830 00:46:13,320 --> 00:46:16,480 Speaker 4: happens on an ongoing basis and it doesn't become a 831 00:46:16,480 --> 00:46:18,040 Speaker 4: one in three million, What if it becomes a one 832 00:46:18,080 --> 00:46:21,600 Speaker 4: to ten on a one hundred Yeah, what's your plan 833 00:46:21,640 --> 00:46:24,040 Speaker 4: of action to not have that happen again? 834 00:46:24,600 --> 00:46:24,839 Speaker 8: Well? 835 00:46:24,920 --> 00:46:29,360 Speaker 9: I think immediately, you know, raising the over three billion 836 00:46:29,520 --> 00:46:33,680 Speaker 9: certainly helped provide a cushion, but of course there is 837 00:46:33,800 --> 00:46:36,560 Speaker 9: some There is always a limit to how much firm 838 00:46:36,680 --> 00:46:41,520 Speaker 9: cash that any broker would hold. So you know, if 839 00:46:41,719 --> 00:46:45,279 Speaker 9: one hundred million or a billion people theoretically wanted to 840 00:46:45,280 --> 00:46:48,399 Speaker 9: buy the same stock at the same time, I don't 841 00:46:48,400 --> 00:46:51,160 Speaker 9: think the system would be able to handle that to 842 00:46:51,200 --> 00:46:53,920 Speaker 9: handle that currently, so we would need some some changes 843 00:46:53,960 --> 00:46:56,960 Speaker 9: to the underlying infrastructure of the markets. 844 00:46:56,640 --> 00:46:59,799 Speaker 4: Maybe because that's where TV government regulation changes a little 845 00:46:59,840 --> 00:47:01,200 Speaker 4: bit to help in that situation. 846 00:47:01,560 --> 00:47:05,279 Speaker 9: Well, yeah, I think the industry has already said that 847 00:47:05,760 --> 00:47:09,400 Speaker 9: they would support faster settlement, which is a big, a 848 00:47:09,400 --> 00:47:12,319 Speaker 9: big thing. So TI plus zero I think would take 849 00:47:12,320 --> 00:47:15,800 Speaker 9: a while. That's real time settlement, but one day settlement 850 00:47:15,880 --> 00:47:18,400 Speaker 9: gets us about half of the way there. So I 851 00:47:18,400 --> 00:47:24,680 Speaker 9: think steady improvements, steady improvements in the infrastructure are going 852 00:47:24,760 --> 00:47:25,360 Speaker 9: to be helpful. 853 00:47:25,719 --> 00:47:28,400 Speaker 4: Yeah, you mentioned you raised three point five billion. That's 854 00:47:28,440 --> 00:47:32,680 Speaker 4: extremely intervesting because it's like most of the time people 855 00:47:32,719 --> 00:47:34,720 Speaker 4: would think that that hurts your business, but you actually 856 00:47:34,800 --> 00:47:36,920 Speaker 4: raised and you actually got a lot more customers actually 857 00:47:37,000 --> 00:47:37,560 Speaker 4: after that too. 858 00:47:37,680 --> 00:47:39,280 Speaker 8: So what was your strategy? 859 00:47:39,600 --> 00:47:41,480 Speaker 4: Was it like just face it head on, don't run 860 00:47:41,520 --> 00:47:45,240 Speaker 4: from it, acknowledge what happened, and then go to investors 861 00:47:45,280 --> 00:47:46,920 Speaker 4: and say this is why we need more money to 862 00:47:47,239 --> 00:47:48,480 Speaker 4: invent these things from happening. 863 00:47:48,600 --> 00:47:50,920 Speaker 9: Well, it was kind of simultaneous, right, we were raising 864 00:47:50,960 --> 00:47:54,360 Speaker 9: the capital while we were explaining to customers and the 865 00:47:54,400 --> 00:47:55,520 Speaker 9: broader public. 866 00:47:57,280 --> 00:47:58,040 Speaker 2: What was going on. 867 00:47:58,480 --> 00:48:02,520 Speaker 9: And yeah, it was sort of like solving any hard problem, 868 00:48:02,680 --> 00:48:07,200 Speaker 9: you have to just you have to make sure that 869 00:48:07,960 --> 00:48:10,600 Speaker 9: you put the right people on it. And we have 870 00:48:10,640 --> 00:48:14,760 Speaker 9: a great team, you know, great folks and operations engineering. Meanwhile, 871 00:48:14,800 --> 00:48:17,960 Speaker 9: engineering is trying to keep the service up dealing with 872 00:48:18,000 --> 00:48:21,399 Speaker 9: all the influx of customers and all the activity. So 873 00:48:21,640 --> 00:48:26,839 Speaker 9: you know, everyone was working very, very hard at that time. 874 00:48:26,960 --> 00:48:30,160 Speaker 9: It was like all hands on deck close to twenty 875 00:48:30,200 --> 00:48:32,600 Speaker 9: four to seven without a break for very long. 876 00:48:32,640 --> 00:48:33,600 Speaker 5: We were just speaking about that. 877 00:48:33,840 --> 00:48:36,239 Speaker 3: I'm thinking to myself, like we were living it as 878 00:48:36,520 --> 00:48:37,400 Speaker 3: retail investors. 879 00:48:37,400 --> 00:48:39,680 Speaker 5: But what was that moment. 880 00:48:39,440 --> 00:48:42,359 Speaker 3: On day a week like for you as the co 881 00:48:42,440 --> 00:48:45,120 Speaker 3: founder of this company that has been since we say 882 00:48:45,200 --> 00:48:48,799 Speaker 3: social media, well street bets has gathered people and you're 883 00:48:48,960 --> 00:48:50,720 Speaker 3: like the social media of investing. 884 00:48:50,840 --> 00:48:51,920 Speaker 5: What was that day like for you? 885 00:48:52,320 --> 00:48:56,719 Speaker 9: It was a little stressful. It was a little stressful. 886 00:48:56,840 --> 00:48:59,520 Speaker 9: You think normally that you know, if you're number one 887 00:48:59,560 --> 00:49:02,279 Speaker 9: on the Apps store overall, it's sort of like it's 888 00:49:02,280 --> 00:49:07,080 Speaker 9: a great thing. But yeah, it's also you know, we 889 00:49:07,080 --> 00:49:10,200 Speaker 9: we're very cognizant to make sure that wanted to be 890 00:49:10,239 --> 00:49:15,040 Speaker 9: there for our customers, and you know it's on the 891 00:49:15,040 --> 00:49:18,600 Speaker 9: one hand, having so much activity that you know, you 892 00:49:18,640 --> 00:49:22,200 Speaker 9: need to raise additional capital to facilitate the trading is 893 00:49:22,239 --> 00:49:24,319 Speaker 9: a good thing. On the other hand, you know, there 894 00:49:24,400 --> 00:49:29,319 Speaker 9: was this like you know, not being able to having 895 00:49:29,320 --> 00:49:33,719 Speaker 9: to restrict the trading for customers. You know, that was disappointing. 896 00:49:33,800 --> 00:49:36,840 Speaker 9: A lot of customers were disappointed. And there were a 897 00:49:36,880 --> 00:49:39,319 Speaker 9: lot of false narratives. You know, you saw them all 898 00:49:39,360 --> 00:49:42,080 Speaker 9: over the internet. To this day, a lot of them exist, 899 00:49:42,440 --> 00:49:45,400 Speaker 9: you know, of collusion with hedge funds, and you know, 900 00:49:45,440 --> 00:49:48,960 Speaker 9: people people are i think, really interested in collusion. They 901 00:49:49,080 --> 00:49:52,840 Speaker 9: like to think that people are colluding. So having to 902 00:49:52,920 --> 00:49:56,440 Speaker 9: kind of dispel that narrative and say well, actually we 903 00:49:56,480 --> 00:49:59,120 Speaker 9: were just like doing what we could to operate within 904 00:50:00,360 --> 00:50:04,440 Speaker 9: within the regulatory framework and make sure everything was done properly. 905 00:50:05,800 --> 00:50:10,520 Speaker 9: But yeah, despite that, I think I think the false 906 00:50:10,600 --> 00:50:13,680 Speaker 9: narratives are sometimes so compelling that they just like keep going. 907 00:50:14,120 --> 00:50:14,319 Speaker 5: Yeah. 908 00:50:14,400 --> 00:50:16,560 Speaker 4: People would rather be believe a lot in the truth. 909 00:50:16,680 --> 00:50:17,520 Speaker 4: It's more entertaining. 910 00:50:17,600 --> 00:50:19,520 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, let me think that's true. 911 00:50:19,640 --> 00:50:23,080 Speaker 4: Speaking about that, when you spoke in front of Congress, 912 00:50:23,120 --> 00:50:26,560 Speaker 4: I believe one congressman had asked you and they said, well, it's. 913 00:50:26,360 --> 00:50:27,080 Speaker 8: Free to trade. 914 00:50:27,160 --> 00:50:31,120 Speaker 4: But they spoke about the sell order flow market makers 915 00:50:31,200 --> 00:50:34,120 Speaker 4: and getting a piece of a spread, and they were 916 00:50:34,160 --> 00:50:36,120 Speaker 4: trying to say like, well, it's not really free to 917 00:50:36,160 --> 00:50:39,279 Speaker 4: trade because the market makers are making money, and it's 918 00:50:39,400 --> 00:50:41,400 Speaker 4: money every time somebody makes a transaction. 919 00:50:41,560 --> 00:50:43,040 Speaker 8: So what do you say to. 920 00:50:43,040 --> 00:50:46,560 Speaker 9: That, Well, well, they're talking about payment for orderflow, which 921 00:50:46,600 --> 00:50:49,760 Speaker 9: is one of the which is our main source of revenue. 922 00:50:50,480 --> 00:50:52,880 Speaker 9: And what I would say to that is payment for 923 00:50:52,960 --> 00:50:55,680 Speaker 9: orderflow is not new. I mean it existed when people 924 00:50:55,680 --> 00:50:58,200 Speaker 9: were paying seven to ten dollars per trade as well. 925 00:50:58,320 --> 00:51:01,560 Speaker 9: The broker would just make seven to ten dollars and 926 00:51:01,600 --> 00:51:02,960 Speaker 9: then in addition they would make the. 927 00:51:03,200 --> 00:51:04,399 Speaker 5: It was an additional cost, the. 928 00:51:04,320 --> 00:51:08,960 Speaker 9: Payment for orderflow. So yes, we do generate revenue. But 929 00:51:09,239 --> 00:51:11,600 Speaker 9: at the same time, it's never been a better time 930 00:51:11,719 --> 00:51:15,440 Speaker 9: to be a retail investor. And you know, it's it's 931 00:51:15,520 --> 00:51:21,960 Speaker 9: highly regulated. It's it's it's it's been regulated for a 932 00:51:22,080 --> 00:51:22,880 Speaker 9: very long time. 933 00:51:23,400 --> 00:51:26,040 Speaker 2: And basically there's there's rules. 934 00:51:26,320 --> 00:51:29,080 Speaker 9: So a lot of people say, you know, why don't 935 00:51:29,080 --> 00:51:31,160 Speaker 9: you send your orders to an exchange, Why don't you 936 00:51:31,200 --> 00:51:33,680 Speaker 9: send it to the Nasdaq or the nicey? Why are 937 00:51:33,800 --> 00:51:38,680 Speaker 9: market makers executing the orders? And market makers provide competition 938 00:51:38,800 --> 00:51:42,120 Speaker 9: for the exchanges, And there's actually rules that say in 939 00:51:42,200 --> 00:51:45,399 Speaker 9: order for a market maker to execute your order, they 940 00:51:45,400 --> 00:51:48,960 Speaker 9: have to actually beat the exchange price or beat it 941 00:51:49,080 --> 00:51:52,759 Speaker 9: or match it, and so as a customer, generally you're 942 00:51:52,760 --> 00:51:56,720 Speaker 9: getting a better price through a market maker. Market Makers 943 00:51:56,719 --> 00:52:00,319 Speaker 9: are still for profit businesses, so they generate revenue, and 944 00:52:00,360 --> 00:52:02,359 Speaker 9: you can think of payment for orderflow as a rev 945 00:52:02,440 --> 00:52:05,239 Speaker 9: share a share of the revenue that they make with 946 00:52:05,360 --> 00:52:11,720 Speaker 9: the broker. So we think it's it's it's a fantastic model. 947 00:52:11,760 --> 00:52:14,080 Speaker 9: I mean, it's led to commission free trading. It's led 948 00:52:14,120 --> 00:52:19,200 Speaker 9: to the lowest possible cost of trading for consumers out 949 00:52:19,239 --> 00:52:24,799 Speaker 9: of all developed at of all time. And you know, 950 00:52:25,280 --> 00:52:29,400 Speaker 9: it's led to the US markets being the most vibrant 951 00:52:29,440 --> 00:52:33,600 Speaker 9: capital markets for retail investors in the world. So we're 952 00:52:34,800 --> 00:52:37,560 Speaker 9: you know, we stand behind the business model one hundred percent. 953 00:52:37,840 --> 00:52:41,359 Speaker 9: And I think that people debate it and have been 954 00:52:41,360 --> 00:52:44,640 Speaker 9: debating it for a long time, in large part because 955 00:52:44,640 --> 00:52:48,440 Speaker 9: it's very complicated to understand. And I actually didn't understand 956 00:52:48,480 --> 00:52:50,840 Speaker 9: it in detail when I started trading. I didn't know 957 00:52:50,880 --> 00:52:53,520 Speaker 9: what you know, when I bought my first stock, I 958 00:52:53,560 --> 00:52:56,400 Speaker 9: didn't really know what a bid ask spread was. You know, 959 00:52:56,440 --> 00:52:59,080 Speaker 9: there there was a process of learning through some of 960 00:52:59,080 --> 00:53:02,040 Speaker 9: those things. So we've we've been trying to educate people 961 00:53:02,120 --> 00:53:07,319 Speaker 9: and share information about the revenue stream and and you know, 962 00:53:07,440 --> 00:53:08,680 Speaker 9: explain it a little bit better. 963 00:53:08,680 --> 00:53:12,520 Speaker 4: It's important because it's one of these things when people 964 00:53:12,560 --> 00:53:16,360 Speaker 4: are confused, then they can think that something is bad 965 00:53:16,640 --> 00:53:19,960 Speaker 4: or it just automatically goes negative. This is why explaining 966 00:53:21,160 --> 00:53:23,399 Speaker 4: is beneficial, because I think once people have a full 967 00:53:23,480 --> 00:53:26,280 Speaker 4: understanding of something, most people will say, Okay, everybody deserves 968 00:53:26,280 --> 00:53:27,839 Speaker 4: to make a living. This is America, Like you can 969 00:53:27,880 --> 00:53:30,719 Speaker 4: make money. Yeah, it's when, like you said, when people 970 00:53:30,719 --> 00:53:33,000 Speaker 4: are confused, and I feel like the financial industry for 971 00:53:33,040 --> 00:53:34,799 Speaker 4: a long time has confused people. Like you said, just 972 00:53:34,840 --> 00:53:36,880 Speaker 4: to bid the asks, right, like all of that stuff. 973 00:53:37,080 --> 00:53:40,160 Speaker 4: If you don't have background knowledge on it is very 974 00:53:40,160 --> 00:53:43,880 Speaker 4: confusing and your perception can be swayed in any direction 975 00:53:44,360 --> 00:53:46,040 Speaker 4: depending on who's telling you the story. 976 00:53:46,480 --> 00:53:48,640 Speaker 9: Yeah, I think that's true. It's the same. It's the 977 00:53:49,280 --> 00:53:54,799 Speaker 9: the simple lie in the complex truth again, right, when 978 00:53:54,800 --> 00:53:59,840 Speaker 9: the truth is complex as the financial industry is, people believe. 979 00:54:00,120 --> 00:54:03,960 Speaker 9: You know, people are also used to financial companies being 980 00:54:04,200 --> 00:54:06,560 Speaker 9: rent seeking and taking advent. 981 00:54:06,360 --> 00:54:09,160 Speaker 8: Advantage of people, so very lary of that. 982 00:54:09,440 --> 00:54:12,359 Speaker 9: Yeah, you remember the financial crisis of two thousand and eight, 983 00:54:12,480 --> 00:54:16,480 Speaker 9: and you know the way that that felt, right, A 984 00:54:16,480 --> 00:54:18,560 Speaker 9: lot of people lost their houses, a lot of people 985 00:54:18,640 --> 00:54:21,880 Speaker 9: lost their jobs. The government came in and sort of 986 00:54:21,880 --> 00:54:25,320 Speaker 9: bailed out a lot of these companies. Nobody really got punished, 987 00:54:25,719 --> 00:54:28,040 Speaker 9: and there was a lot of distrust. I think that 988 00:54:28,160 --> 00:54:32,040 Speaker 9: lingers from that time period. I mean, you remember the 989 00:54:32,400 --> 00:54:35,959 Speaker 9: Occupy Wall Street protests where people are just a little 990 00:54:36,000 --> 00:54:39,880 Speaker 9: bit skeptical about whether the old guard financial industry is 991 00:54:39,920 --> 00:54:43,000 Speaker 9: actually working for them, and I think some of that 992 00:54:43,200 --> 00:54:45,359 Speaker 9: A lot of that sort of persists to this day. 993 00:54:45,719 --> 00:54:45,919 Speaker 5: Yeah. 994 00:54:45,960 --> 00:54:47,680 Speaker 3: So I just want to go back really quick, because 995 00:54:47,680 --> 00:54:49,919 Speaker 3: we talked about bid and ask, and so a lot 996 00:54:49,960 --> 00:54:52,399 Speaker 3: of people are new to invest in, and so when 997 00:54:52,400 --> 00:54:55,040 Speaker 3: they see bidden ask, I'll try to explain it like this. 998 00:54:55,200 --> 00:54:57,359 Speaker 3: Like the ask like if you've went car shopping, right, 999 00:54:57,840 --> 00:54:59,920 Speaker 3: the ask is what they're asking you to pay for. 1000 00:55:00,120 --> 00:55:01,640 Speaker 5: The bid is what you're willing to pay for it. 1001 00:55:02,040 --> 00:55:04,240 Speaker 3: And so when is a difference in it, that difference, 1002 00:55:04,360 --> 00:55:07,400 Speaker 3: let's say somebody that plays the market price or the 1003 00:55:07,440 --> 00:55:10,200 Speaker 3: ass price, that difference between the bid is that's what's 1004 00:55:10,200 --> 00:55:13,439 Speaker 3: going to the brokerage. Is that what you're saying? Yeah, okay, Yeah, 1005 00:55:13,480 --> 00:55:14,320 Speaker 3: so I'll just break it in. 1006 00:55:14,440 --> 00:55:18,600 Speaker 9: Well, it's actually the bid in the ask. Not all 1007 00:55:18,640 --> 00:55:22,560 Speaker 9: of that goes to the brokerage. It's actually split three ways, right, 1008 00:55:23,320 --> 00:55:25,759 Speaker 9: Some of it goes to the market maker, some of 1009 00:55:25,840 --> 00:55:30,240 Speaker 9: it goes to the customer, which is what's called price 1010 00:55:30,239 --> 00:55:35,480 Speaker 9: improvement over over the NBBO, and then a small portion 1011 00:55:35,560 --> 00:55:40,480 Speaker 9: goes to the brokerage. And Bloomberg's done. Bloomberg Intelligence I 1012 00:55:40,520 --> 00:55:44,880 Speaker 9: think recently had an analysis and the portion going to 1013 00:55:44,920 --> 00:55:48,040 Speaker 9: the brokerage is typically much smaller than the portion going 1014 00:55:48,040 --> 00:55:51,440 Speaker 9: to the customer and to the market maker as well, 1015 00:55:51,840 --> 00:55:54,839 Speaker 9: and the customer actually gets the bulk of it as 1016 00:55:54,880 --> 00:55:57,400 Speaker 9: price improvement according to that study. 1017 00:55:57,480 --> 00:55:59,000 Speaker 4: Let me ask you, is you the first person that 1018 00:55:59,040 --> 00:56:00,960 Speaker 4: we have spoken to it has taking a company public 1019 00:56:00,960 --> 00:56:02,279 Speaker 4: and you just did it recently, So I have a 1020 00:56:02,320 --> 00:56:02,880 Speaker 4: few questions. 1021 00:56:02,880 --> 00:56:05,280 Speaker 8: Gratulations, thank you, yeah, congratulations for sure. 1022 00:56:06,480 --> 00:56:11,040 Speaker 4: Okay, So was that always your idea to go public 1023 00:56:11,239 --> 00:56:14,960 Speaker 4: or at what point did you realize, no longer am 1024 00:56:15,000 --> 00:56:16,839 Speaker 4: I going to have a private company? This makes sense 1025 00:56:16,880 --> 00:56:18,160 Speaker 4: to take it to the public markets. 1026 00:56:19,640 --> 00:56:22,680 Speaker 9: I think I think we realized once we got to 1027 00:56:22,719 --> 00:56:25,759 Speaker 9: a certain level of scale, and then once you get 1028 00:56:25,800 --> 00:56:27,800 Speaker 9: to that scale, you realize Oh, this is a capital 1029 00:56:27,840 --> 00:56:30,600 Speaker 9: intensive business. You know, we have these capital requirements, we 1030 00:56:30,719 --> 00:56:35,240 Speaker 9: have these deposit requirements, and this we're growing very quickly, 1031 00:56:35,719 --> 00:56:40,800 Speaker 9: and you know, accessing public markets is just a great 1032 00:56:40,840 --> 00:56:44,360 Speaker 9: source of funding for the business. I think it was 1033 00:56:44,400 --> 00:56:47,759 Speaker 9: also pretty clear that it was mission aligned and we 1034 00:56:47,800 --> 00:56:51,680 Speaker 9: would like to figure out a way to allow our 1035 00:56:51,680 --> 00:56:56,200 Speaker 9: customers to be shareholders. And the self referential nature of 1036 00:56:56,920 --> 00:57:00,120 Speaker 9: Robinhood kind of a stock market company going live on 1037 00:57:00,160 --> 00:57:04,160 Speaker 9: the stock market just made sense. So I think all 1038 00:57:04,560 --> 00:57:10,520 Speaker 9: those things together made it made it sort of the 1039 00:57:10,520 --> 00:57:11,680 Speaker 9: the reasonable. 1040 00:57:11,200 --> 00:57:11,680 Speaker 2: Thing to do. 1041 00:57:12,200 --> 00:57:13,920 Speaker 9: But the way we think about it also, it's kind 1042 00:57:13,960 --> 00:57:18,040 Speaker 9: of a I mean, it's kind of just a financing 1043 00:57:18,080 --> 00:57:21,280 Speaker 9: event if you think about it. We already, because we're 1044 00:57:21,320 --> 00:57:24,320 Speaker 9: so regulated, have to share a lot of detail about 1045 00:57:24,680 --> 00:57:29,120 Speaker 9: our revenue and our operations with the public, and so 1046 00:57:29,600 --> 00:57:33,080 Speaker 9: probably the delta between Robinhood being going from private to 1047 00:57:33,160 --> 00:57:37,400 Speaker 9: public and your typical other technology company is a little 1048 00:57:37,440 --> 00:57:41,800 Speaker 9: bit smaller. So there're certainly changes, but a lot of 1049 00:57:42,360 --> 00:57:46,120 Speaker 9: our activities and revenues were already transparent and shared on 1050 00:57:46,160 --> 00:57:47,160 Speaker 9: a quarterly basis. 1051 00:57:47,400 --> 00:57:49,480 Speaker 3: Yeah, one of the things that I've heard you speak 1052 00:57:49,480 --> 00:57:52,640 Speaker 3: on and be very proud of is having a large 1053 00:57:52,680 --> 00:57:57,040 Speaker 3: allocation of shares advocate for retail investors. Was that something 1054 00:57:57,160 --> 00:57:59,440 Speaker 3: that you as a team said, you know what, we're 1055 00:57:59,480 --> 00:58:01,240 Speaker 3: built for the people, We want to. 1056 00:58:01,240 --> 00:58:03,880 Speaker 5: Have people involved. Was that part of the thought process 1057 00:58:03,920 --> 00:58:05,320 Speaker 5: when making that decision. 1058 00:58:05,520 --> 00:58:07,720 Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah, I think that was That was an easy 1059 00:58:07,760 --> 00:58:10,960 Speaker 9: decision because you look back to our mission democratize finance 1060 00:58:11,000 --> 00:58:14,320 Speaker 9: for all, and it's really all about giving things that 1061 00:58:14,440 --> 00:58:21,520 Speaker 9: were previously accessible to relatively few, select rich people and 1062 00:58:21,680 --> 00:58:25,760 Speaker 9: making them available to everyone. So like the original product, 1063 00:58:25,800 --> 00:58:29,880 Speaker 9: commission free equities trading, that aligns with it. Commission free 1064 00:58:29,920 --> 00:58:32,880 Speaker 9: options trading very much aligned with it as well, things 1065 00:58:32,960 --> 00:58:36,280 Speaker 9: like high yield savings. And so when we got to 1066 00:58:36,320 --> 00:58:41,000 Speaker 9: the IPO, I think it was clear that hey, why not, 1067 00:58:41,400 --> 00:58:44,320 Speaker 9: you know, rather in addition to kind of taking our 1068 00:58:44,360 --> 00:58:47,840 Speaker 9: own company public, why don't we try to democratize IPOs 1069 00:58:47,880 --> 00:58:49,800 Speaker 9: as well. And that's why we launched a new product, 1070 00:58:49,920 --> 00:58:53,480 Speaker 9: IPO Access, which actually launched before our own IPO, we 1071 00:58:53,560 --> 00:58:57,720 Speaker 9: launched with a few other a few other companies. And 1072 00:58:57,760 --> 00:59:03,000 Speaker 9: then that's really become a mechanism to give retail consumers 1073 00:59:03,600 --> 00:59:07,240 Speaker 9: on equal terms access to IPOs as the institutions, so 1074 00:59:07,280 --> 00:59:12,080 Speaker 9: they could get in at the IPO price, and you know, 1075 00:59:12,160 --> 00:59:16,600 Speaker 9: get get access to those which would have previously been 1076 00:59:16,640 --> 00:59:21,720 Speaker 9: available only to high net worth individuals or institutions or underwriters. 1077 00:59:21,880 --> 00:59:23,080 Speaker 8: I want to ask you about that. 1078 00:59:23,280 --> 00:59:26,040 Speaker 4: I was gonna wait till later, but as you brought 1079 00:59:26,080 --> 00:59:28,320 Speaker 4: it up, let's talk about that as very intervesting. 1080 00:59:28,360 --> 00:59:29,840 Speaker 8: Can you explain that a little bit more so? 1081 00:59:30,520 --> 00:59:34,240 Speaker 4: What what exactly when does it exactly allow people to invest, 1082 00:59:34,280 --> 00:59:36,840 Speaker 4: like right when it hits the stock market, right before 1083 00:59:36,840 --> 00:59:39,760 Speaker 4: it hits the stock market? Like, what's what's the details 1084 00:59:39,800 --> 00:59:40,000 Speaker 4: on it? 1085 00:59:40,360 --> 00:59:40,600 Speaker 8: Yeah? 1086 00:59:40,640 --> 00:59:45,120 Speaker 9: So, typically the IPO allocation happens before it hits the 1087 00:59:45,120 --> 00:59:50,520 Speaker 9: stock market. So the underwriters and the company agree on 1088 00:59:50,680 --> 00:59:55,320 Speaker 9: a listing price, and Robinhood currently acts as what's called 1089 00:59:55,320 --> 00:59:58,480 Speaker 9: a selling group member. So we're allowed to give people 1090 00:59:58,680 --> 01:00:03,400 Speaker 9: a portion of that allocate. We we give that to the community, 1091 01:00:03,760 --> 01:00:06,840 Speaker 9: so they get in at the IPO price. Typically that 1092 01:00:06,880 --> 01:00:12,080 Speaker 9: price is set the day before the stock actually starts trading, 1093 01:00:12,680 --> 01:00:17,280 Speaker 9: and and you know, once it's it's trading, that price, 1094 01:00:17,760 --> 01:00:19,080 Speaker 9: that price is a different price. 1095 01:00:19,680 --> 01:00:22,439 Speaker 4: Yeah, So it could be like twenty dollars a day 1096 01:00:22,440 --> 01:00:25,440 Speaker 4: before than thirty five dollars when it actually opens. 1097 01:00:25,560 --> 01:00:28,840 Speaker 9: It could be act opens and there is some risk. 1098 01:00:28,920 --> 01:00:30,080 Speaker 9: Obviously it's not always going. 1099 01:00:30,080 --> 01:00:31,280 Speaker 2: To be just lower, but. 1100 01:00:31,440 --> 01:00:32,520 Speaker 8: It could be, it could be higher. 1101 01:00:32,600 --> 01:00:36,720 Speaker 4: Yeah, but that's great that you're doing that, and that's 1102 01:00:36,760 --> 01:00:38,960 Speaker 4: something that I think is really going to change the game. 1103 01:00:39,040 --> 01:00:39,919 Speaker 5: I think that's a game change. 1104 01:00:39,960 --> 01:00:40,640 Speaker 8: It's a game change. 1105 01:00:41,600 --> 01:00:44,200 Speaker 4: I want to actually also, is there any plans of 1106 01:00:44,320 --> 01:00:48,320 Speaker 4: so we just got into the angel investing world ourselves. 1107 01:00:48,800 --> 01:00:50,600 Speaker 4: A good friend of our, John Henry, shot out to him. 1108 01:00:50,760 --> 01:00:54,120 Speaker 4: He got an insurance company named Loop and we put 1109 01:00:54,160 --> 01:00:56,640 Speaker 4: some some money into that and a few other companies. 1110 01:00:57,000 --> 01:01:00,720 Speaker 4: So as we're learning more about these things, we realized 1111 01:01:00,720 --> 01:01:06,200 Speaker 4: that stock market extremely important. Yeah, important engine to build wealth. 1112 01:01:06,240 --> 01:01:10,000 Speaker 4: But you talked about real, real massive returns is done 1113 01:01:10,120 --> 01:01:12,360 Speaker 4: more so on the angels, like even way before a 1114 01:01:12,400 --> 01:01:16,200 Speaker 4: company even thinks about going public. And there are some platforms, 1115 01:01:16,200 --> 01:01:21,200 Speaker 4: you know, crowdfunding, but the large companies, all star companies, 1116 01:01:21,200 --> 01:01:24,080 Speaker 4: they're not on those crowdfunding platforms. So have you ever 1117 01:01:24,120 --> 01:01:28,760 Speaker 4: thought about finding a way to have regular people in 1118 01:01:28,840 --> 01:01:31,680 Speaker 4: a crowdfunding type of thing, but being able to form 1119 01:01:31,720 --> 01:01:33,960 Speaker 4: a syndicate to invest in early startup companies. 1120 01:01:34,440 --> 01:01:39,800 Speaker 9: Yeah, so typically historically what's been the impediment there is 1121 01:01:39,920 --> 01:01:44,960 Speaker 9: just the accreditation requirements. So for a long time, in 1122 01:01:45,040 --> 01:01:48,000 Speaker 9: order to invest in you know, a hedge fund or 1123 01:01:48,080 --> 01:01:53,520 Speaker 9: venture capital fund or private private company that's non non public, 1124 01:01:53,920 --> 01:01:57,120 Speaker 9: you had to be an accredited investor, which has either 1125 01:01:57,160 --> 01:02:00,640 Speaker 9: a net worth requirement or an income environment requirevironment for 1126 01:02:00,800 --> 01:02:03,880 Speaker 9: wealthy people. Now, recently I think it was with the 1127 01:02:03,960 --> 01:02:04,520 Speaker 9: Jobs Act. 1128 01:02:04,560 --> 01:02:06,600 Speaker 8: Yeah, President Obama, Yeah, Yeah, there. 1129 01:02:06,520 --> 01:02:12,360 Speaker 9: Was Reggae Plus, which allowed some private companies to allocate 1130 01:02:12,400 --> 01:02:15,760 Speaker 9: some portion per year that they could raise via equity 1131 01:02:15,800 --> 01:02:19,200 Speaker 9: crowdfunding from general public. I think initially it was fifty million, 1132 01:02:19,280 --> 01:02:22,520 Speaker 9: now it's seventy five. So there are mechanisms still a 1133 01:02:22,520 --> 01:02:27,360 Speaker 9: little bit complicated, but I think there is an opportunity there. 1134 01:02:27,720 --> 01:02:30,000 Speaker 9: I think generally how we think about it at Robinhood 1135 01:02:30,200 --> 01:02:36,600 Speaker 9: is selection is important. People want access to different investable assets. 1136 01:02:36,840 --> 01:02:40,400 Speaker 9: So we started with stocks. Then a lot of demand 1137 01:02:40,440 --> 01:02:43,360 Speaker 9: for options, a lot of demand for cryptos as well 1138 01:02:43,560 --> 01:02:47,280 Speaker 9: has led us led us to offer those on the platform. 1139 01:02:47,520 --> 01:02:52,040 Speaker 9: So I think we'll continue to add to add more things. 1140 01:02:52,320 --> 01:02:55,800 Speaker 9: And you know, there's lots of different assets out there 1141 01:02:55,920 --> 01:02:59,440 Speaker 9: that are things that people want to invest in that 1142 01:02:59,480 --> 01:03:00,040 Speaker 9: we don't. 1143 01:03:00,120 --> 01:03:02,840 Speaker 4: For I want, I want to ask you, I want 1144 01:03:02,840 --> 01:03:04,640 Speaker 4: to actually our crypto but before that, can we just 1145 01:03:04,680 --> 01:03:07,120 Speaker 4: briefly go back to the bringing a company public? What 1146 01:03:07,160 --> 01:03:08,880 Speaker 4: are some difficulties? I just want to give people, like 1147 01:03:09,080 --> 01:03:11,439 Speaker 4: just a quick overview, because not a lot of people 1148 01:03:11,480 --> 01:03:13,440 Speaker 4: are really familiar what it takes to actually take a 1149 01:03:13,440 --> 01:03:16,800 Speaker 4: company public. I know there's regulation, is filings, and you 1150 01:03:16,840 --> 01:03:19,160 Speaker 4: have to have the underwriter that actually underwrites the situation. 1151 01:03:19,280 --> 01:03:21,480 Speaker 5: I'm going to start an answer for him, stressful. 1152 01:03:23,920 --> 01:03:25,720 Speaker 4: Can you just get people a crash course in taking 1153 01:03:25,720 --> 01:03:27,280 Speaker 4: a company public? Oh? 1154 01:03:27,400 --> 01:03:31,880 Speaker 9: Let's see. So one thing that I've I've been told 1155 01:03:32,000 --> 01:03:35,720 Speaker 9: is interesting but I didn't get to experience is actually 1156 01:03:36,360 --> 01:03:39,080 Speaker 9: going to all the offices of the different investors and 1157 01:03:39,120 --> 01:03:41,720 Speaker 9: like meeting them in person. So I was kind of 1158 01:03:41,760 --> 01:03:45,880 Speaker 9: in the in the limbo period. You COVID is very 1159 01:03:45,960 --> 01:03:48,520 Speaker 9: much still a thing. But we ended up traveling to 1160 01:03:48,600 --> 01:03:51,560 Speaker 9: New York and we wanted to kind of get into 1161 01:03:51,600 --> 01:03:56,520 Speaker 9: the get into the zone as much as possible. So, yeah, 1162 01:03:56,520 --> 01:03:58,680 Speaker 9: it was funny. Rather than doing it at home and 1163 01:03:59,640 --> 01:04:03,640 Speaker 9: completely over zoom as as a lot of people did, 1164 01:04:04,120 --> 01:04:06,640 Speaker 9: we went to we flew to New York and did 1165 01:04:06,640 --> 01:04:10,640 Speaker 9: everything in zoom out of the underwriters offices. So we're 1166 01:04:10,680 --> 01:04:15,360 Speaker 9: in these conferences and stuff on zoom calls basically for 1167 01:04:15,440 --> 01:04:18,920 Speaker 9: like ten hours a day, bring my blue tie in me. 1168 01:04:21,200 --> 01:04:24,200 Speaker 9: So yeah, it was it was a lot of work. Uh, 1169 01:04:24,480 --> 01:04:27,120 Speaker 9: it took a lot of time. But you know, at 1170 01:04:27,120 --> 01:04:30,560 Speaker 9: the end of the day, it was also uh when 1171 01:04:30,600 --> 01:04:32,920 Speaker 9: when all was said and done and we priced and 1172 01:04:32,960 --> 01:04:35,480 Speaker 9: we listed and we got it over, got it over with, 1173 01:04:35,640 --> 01:04:37,440 Speaker 9: you know, it was it was pretty cool to be 1174 01:04:37,520 --> 01:04:40,840 Speaker 9: there with the team in person, to be in New 1175 01:04:40,920 --> 01:04:44,479 Speaker 9: York where Beaiju and I got started as entrepreneurs and 1176 01:04:44,760 --> 01:04:47,560 Speaker 9: where I actually arrived as an immigrant to this country 1177 01:04:48,240 --> 01:04:51,920 Speaker 9: when I was five years old. Yeah, with my aunt, 1178 01:04:52,280 --> 01:04:55,520 Speaker 9: my aunt who was in her early twenties. And then 1179 01:04:55,560 --> 01:04:57,360 Speaker 9: you know, seeing my parents at the airport. I had 1180 01:04:57,480 --> 01:05:00,200 Speaker 9: seen my dad in I think a year and a 1181 01:05:00,200 --> 01:05:02,160 Speaker 9: half at that point, I hadn't seen my mom in 1182 01:05:02,240 --> 01:05:06,240 Speaker 9: six months. So it brought back, it brought back those memories, 1183 01:05:06,280 --> 01:05:10,720 Speaker 9: and it was just a nice little moment along the journey, 1184 01:05:10,880 --> 01:05:13,680 Speaker 9: you know. And a lot of people think, oh, you know, 1185 01:05:13,920 --> 01:05:17,440 Speaker 9: the IPO, that's that's kind of the end, right, That's that's. 1186 01:05:17,360 --> 01:05:18,360 Speaker 2: The end goal. 1187 01:05:18,680 --> 01:05:23,960 Speaker 9: But it it didn't feel like that because obviously, well 1188 01:05:23,960 --> 01:05:26,160 Speaker 9: we had earnings A couple of weeks later, so getting 1189 01:05:26,200 --> 01:05:29,320 Speaker 9: ready for that, But I just think there's so much 1190 01:05:29,400 --> 01:05:33,360 Speaker 9: left to build. Right Robinhood's still a US company. We're 1191 01:05:33,400 --> 01:05:38,160 Speaker 9: still offering investment products, but we don't have IRA accounts, 1192 01:05:38,320 --> 01:05:40,320 Speaker 9: we don't have the ability for you to have an 1193 01:05:40,560 --> 01:05:45,040 Speaker 9: individual retirement account. So there's even within investing in the US, 1194 01:05:45,080 --> 01:05:47,240 Speaker 9: there's a lot more that that we have to offer. 1195 01:05:47,480 --> 01:05:50,040 Speaker 3: Yeah, I was watching so July. What was the July 1196 01:05:50,360 --> 01:05:52,960 Speaker 3: that you guys be IPO officially in July twenty eighth, 1197 01:05:53,040 --> 01:05:56,040 Speaker 3: twenty eighth, twenty ninth, so when you I think you 1198 01:05:56,080 --> 01:05:58,720 Speaker 3: was supposed to get listed at like ten o'clock, but 1199 01:05:58,800 --> 01:06:01,160 Speaker 3: that it took like maybe till two o'clock before I 1200 01:06:01,160 --> 01:06:04,280 Speaker 3: feel like the public was allowed. What's happening during that time? 1201 01:06:04,800 --> 01:06:07,360 Speaker 3: And as it I mean as a retail investor, I'm 1202 01:06:07,360 --> 01:06:09,480 Speaker 3: looking at it like, what's just the co founder thing 1203 01:06:09,480 --> 01:06:10,640 Speaker 3: about is it underwriting going on? 1204 01:06:10,680 --> 01:06:11,200 Speaker 5: What's happening? 1205 01:06:11,280 --> 01:06:12,920 Speaker 3: What's goin a time when you supposed to IPO on 1206 01:06:12,960 --> 01:06:15,440 Speaker 3: the date and the time it actually goes public. 1207 01:06:15,520 --> 01:06:18,360 Speaker 9: I think there were just like, yeah, it's still it's 1208 01:06:18,360 --> 01:06:22,760 Speaker 9: actually not a fully automated process. So there's like shares 1209 01:06:22,800 --> 01:06:27,200 Speaker 9: that are being exchanged and some kind of largely administrative things. 1210 01:06:27,760 --> 01:06:30,959 Speaker 9: But yeah, during that day that that was all sort 1211 01:06:30,960 --> 01:06:35,200 Speaker 9: of the accounting, finance, and legal teams, and you know, 1212 01:06:35,640 --> 01:06:39,000 Speaker 9: my co founder and I were at the Nasdaq. I 1213 01:06:39,000 --> 01:06:42,600 Speaker 9: think it was just like lots and lots of interviews 1214 01:06:42,640 --> 01:06:46,320 Speaker 9: and then the opening bell ceremony. So you know my 1215 01:06:46,760 --> 01:06:52,240 Speaker 9: understanding is, yeah, even though I wasn't in there, that 1216 01:06:52,360 --> 01:06:56,080 Speaker 9: pretty typical to have, especially with a large retail allocation, 1217 01:06:56,240 --> 01:06:57,520 Speaker 9: a lot of different investors. 1218 01:06:57,560 --> 01:07:00,440 Speaker 3: For the actual this book took a long time. I 1219 01:07:00,440 --> 01:07:02,480 Speaker 3: felt like I was the watchual shares. I was watching 1220 01:07:02,480 --> 01:07:05,080 Speaker 3: the stop prices go up. But I'm like, we're gonna 1221 01:07:05,080 --> 01:07:07,320 Speaker 3: get it at sixteen. No, it's at thirty four. No, 1222 01:07:07,400 --> 01:07:08,600 Speaker 3: it's gonna open at thirty six. 1223 01:07:08,880 --> 01:07:12,200 Speaker 8: At thirty five exact exactly exactly increase. 1224 01:07:12,680 --> 01:07:14,760 Speaker 3: So it's before you go to that because I know, 1225 01:07:14,920 --> 01:07:16,760 Speaker 3: I know you want to go to the crypto situation. 1226 01:07:16,840 --> 01:07:20,200 Speaker 3: But you said that you reported earnings. Now that seemed 1227 01:07:20,200 --> 01:07:23,600 Speaker 3: pretty quickly. Usually companies report after an entire quarter. Did 1228 01:07:23,600 --> 01:07:25,960 Speaker 3: you guys even have a quarter before you reporting earnings? 1229 01:07:26,600 --> 01:07:30,000 Speaker 9: Well, I think it's it's kind of on a it's 1230 01:07:30,040 --> 01:07:34,600 Speaker 9: it's on a there's a there's a range. So because 1231 01:07:34,640 --> 01:07:39,760 Speaker 9: we went public near the end of the second quarter. Uh, 1232 01:07:39,880 --> 01:07:42,680 Speaker 9: there was actually, you know, a relatively short amount of 1233 01:07:42,680 --> 01:07:47,480 Speaker 9: time between sort of going public and then reporting the the. 1234 01:07:47,440 --> 01:07:50,680 Speaker 2: Second quarter A small glimpse. Yeah, okay, so I. 1235 01:07:50,640 --> 01:07:53,960 Speaker 9: Think a lot of a lot of the information for 1236 01:07:54,040 --> 01:07:57,640 Speaker 9: that quarter was shared in the S one, so you know, 1237 01:07:58,240 --> 01:08:01,840 Speaker 9: there was there was a little preview in there, but 1238 01:08:01,920 --> 01:08:04,760 Speaker 9: it was more just the turnaround from kind of the 1239 01:08:04,800 --> 01:08:07,959 Speaker 9: I p O to the to the earnings release, which 1240 01:08:07,960 --> 01:08:10,040 Speaker 9: takes preparation, was was pretty short. 1241 01:08:10,800 --> 01:08:14,840 Speaker 4: So let's talk about the future cryptocurrency. We think about 1242 01:08:14,880 --> 01:08:18,160 Speaker 4: crypto currency in America. Coin base comes to mind. Would 1243 01:08:18,160 --> 01:08:21,759 Speaker 4: you guys have some interesting news that you just recently 1244 01:08:22,720 --> 01:08:25,400 Speaker 4: at least as far as I believe crypto wallet coming 1245 01:08:25,479 --> 01:08:29,960 Speaker 4: obviously doge Coin is available on your platform. It is, Yes, 1246 01:08:30,120 --> 01:08:34,320 Speaker 4: it became very very popular a few months ago. Was 1247 01:08:34,360 --> 01:08:37,559 Speaker 4: really do you know I thought that this this dog room, 1248 01:08:37,960 --> 01:08:39,519 Speaker 4: I thought that that might have to do something with dose, 1249 01:08:39,600 --> 01:08:42,120 Speaker 4: but I understand that it was around before before the 1250 01:08:42,160 --> 01:08:43,040 Speaker 4: doge coin craze. 1251 01:08:43,360 --> 01:08:45,680 Speaker 5: I got a nominee that I'm thinking of to be 1252 01:08:45,760 --> 01:08:46,000 Speaker 5: the dog. 1253 01:08:46,479 --> 01:08:48,800 Speaker 2: But who's the nominee? 1254 01:08:49,040 --> 01:08:49,800 Speaker 5: Talk about that? After? 1255 01:08:51,040 --> 01:08:51,960 Speaker 8: Does he have long hair? 1256 01:08:52,760 --> 01:08:54,000 Speaker 5: It depends on what he's talking to. 1257 01:08:54,120 --> 01:08:57,920 Speaker 4: You know, you never know. So where where's Robinhood moving 1258 01:08:57,920 --> 01:08:59,960 Speaker 4: in the cryptos? What's your plans for crypto current? 1259 01:09:00,760 --> 01:09:05,360 Speaker 9: Well, so up until this year, there was actually a 1260 01:09:05,400 --> 01:09:08,800 Speaker 9: relatively small team at Robinhood working on crypto, so we've 1261 01:09:08,840 --> 01:09:12,920 Speaker 9: been hiring a lot and you know, we announced two 1262 01:09:13,040 --> 01:09:17,840 Speaker 9: new product features recently, so the crypto recurring investments and 1263 01:09:17,960 --> 01:09:21,519 Speaker 9: the Crypto wallets, which the wait list for the wallets 1264 01:09:21,600 --> 01:09:24,120 Speaker 9: launched last week, and then I think on the same 1265 01:09:24,200 --> 01:09:26,639 Speaker 9: day we announced crypto recurring out to one hundred percent 1266 01:09:26,680 --> 01:09:29,720 Speaker 9: of customers. So I think that the value that we 1267 01:09:29,880 --> 01:09:35,680 Speaker 9: add to crypto the reason why people enjoy using Robinhood. 1268 01:09:35,800 --> 01:09:39,479 Speaker 9: It's kind of two things. One is the simplicity and 1269 01:09:39,640 --> 01:09:42,559 Speaker 9: kind of the the ease of use of the product, 1270 01:09:42,920 --> 01:09:45,080 Speaker 9: and then of course the fact that we're commissioned free, 1271 01:09:45,160 --> 01:09:48,920 Speaker 9: so we're actually very proud of and we've been benchmarked 1272 01:09:48,920 --> 01:09:51,400 Speaker 9: a number of times by third parties. You know, you 1273 01:09:51,400 --> 01:09:57,719 Speaker 9: can see influencers that use multiple platforms, and we compare 1274 01:09:57,840 --> 01:10:02,360 Speaker 9: very well. People generally get more crypto for their for 1275 01:10:02,439 --> 01:10:06,480 Speaker 9: their money on Robinhood versus versus our platforms and those benchmarks, 1276 01:10:07,040 --> 01:10:14,160 Speaker 9: So yeah, I think with wallets people have people want 1277 01:10:14,200 --> 01:10:17,320 Speaker 9: to consolidate, so they in some cases have crypto and 1278 01:10:17,360 --> 01:10:19,519 Speaker 9: a lot of platforms and want to bring it all 1279 01:10:19,560 --> 01:10:23,840 Speaker 9: in one. And some people also, you know, have their 1280 01:10:23,840 --> 01:10:28,400 Speaker 9: hardware wallets. They want to self custody their crypto and 1281 01:10:28,800 --> 01:10:32,520 Speaker 9: you know, they have their their ledger, nanos or other devices, 1282 01:10:32,760 --> 01:10:35,000 Speaker 9: and so we we allow for the ability to do 1283 01:10:35,080 --> 01:10:37,920 Speaker 9: that or in some cases participate in kind of these 1284 01:10:39,120 --> 01:10:43,640 Speaker 9: these DeFi ecosystems off platform so it'll unlock that and 1285 01:10:43,640 --> 01:10:47,320 Speaker 9: then the crypto recurring a lot of these other platforms 1286 01:10:47,360 --> 01:10:52,320 Speaker 9: they're charging you multiple percent per transaction, and with recurring 1287 01:10:52,880 --> 01:10:55,599 Speaker 9: that adds up even more. Right, it's like three percent 1288 01:10:55,720 --> 01:10:58,760 Speaker 9: four percent every transaction. Now you're doing it on a 1289 01:10:58,800 --> 01:11:03,320 Speaker 9: weekly basis, it can be very expensive. And so robin 1290 01:11:03,320 --> 01:11:09,160 Speaker 9: Hood recurring really leverages our commission free, commission free value 1291 01:11:09,160 --> 01:11:12,519 Speaker 9: proposition because you can now recur without having to worry 1292 01:11:12,560 --> 01:11:17,000 Speaker 9: about about a significant commission every single time. 1293 01:11:17,400 --> 01:11:18,960 Speaker 3: As far as technology, I feel like you guys have 1294 01:11:19,000 --> 01:11:22,120 Speaker 3: been ahead. Obviously you started as the app, but I 1295 01:11:22,120 --> 01:11:24,519 Speaker 3: wonder how you feel about competitors. Are you watching what 1296 01:11:24,560 --> 01:11:26,720 Speaker 3: they're doing and saying, oh, we can add that. I 1297 01:11:26,720 --> 01:11:29,200 Speaker 3: feel like that's what we saw in Instagram. Like anytime 1298 01:11:29,200 --> 01:11:32,240 Speaker 3: there would be a social media site, Instagram would say okay, yep, 1299 01:11:32,320 --> 01:11:34,280 Speaker 3: well thank you for creating that, we'll do it better. 1300 01:11:34,640 --> 01:11:38,320 Speaker 5: And so recently, no pun intended. 1301 01:11:41,439 --> 01:11:46,640 Speaker 3: Recently, coinbas said that they're allowing customers to direct the 1302 01:11:46,720 --> 01:11:50,559 Speaker 3: positive checks into their accounts and even have it convert 1303 01:11:50,600 --> 01:11:52,200 Speaker 3: into cryptocurrencies that their liking. 1304 01:11:53,040 --> 01:11:53,640 Speaker 5: What is that like? 1305 01:11:53,680 --> 01:11:56,000 Speaker 3: Because I feel like they're obviously going to be probably 1306 01:11:56,000 --> 01:11:59,080 Speaker 3: a main competitor in the US market, So how does 1307 01:11:59,120 --> 01:12:00,599 Speaker 3: that work with competition in this space? 1308 01:12:01,120 --> 01:12:04,360 Speaker 9: I mean, I think and a lot of respect for 1309 01:12:04,360 --> 01:12:08,400 Speaker 9: for that company and Brian, great entrepreneur, great company. I 1310 01:12:08,439 --> 01:12:12,840 Speaker 9: think again, our value proposition for customers is that we 1311 01:12:12,840 --> 01:12:14,920 Speaker 9: we want to offer you a great price. We want 1312 01:12:14,920 --> 01:12:18,479 Speaker 9: to be the best value for your money, and we 1313 01:12:18,520 --> 01:12:21,600 Speaker 9: want you to think of when you think of Robinhood, 1314 01:12:21,840 --> 01:12:24,479 Speaker 9: to automatically say this is going to be the best 1315 01:12:24,479 --> 01:12:27,639 Speaker 9: customer experience and I'm going to get the best value. 1316 01:12:27,960 --> 01:12:32,400 Speaker 9: And you know, I think that with the wallet's launch, 1317 01:12:32,640 --> 01:12:36,760 Speaker 9: it's also important for us to encourage our customers to 1318 01:12:36,840 --> 01:12:41,840 Speaker 9: practice good safety hygiene, so enabling things like multi factor authentication, 1319 01:12:43,160 --> 01:12:49,480 Speaker 9: enabling you know, transaction monitoring for where they're sending their cryptos, 1320 01:12:49,520 --> 01:12:53,479 Speaker 9: and you know, I think, uh, I think if we 1321 01:12:53,560 --> 01:12:57,840 Speaker 9: can sort of own the uh, the user experience and 1322 01:12:58,000 --> 01:13:01,080 Speaker 9: own the fact that we could be the best value 1323 01:13:01,120 --> 01:13:03,880 Speaker 9: for your crypto, we feel, we feel really really good. 1324 01:13:04,000 --> 01:13:06,639 Speaker 9: And other than that, it's, of course we'll pay attention 1325 01:13:06,680 --> 01:13:09,519 Speaker 9: to competitors and see if they happen to be serving 1326 01:13:09,800 --> 01:13:12,960 Speaker 9: customers in some ways better and learn from them. But 1327 01:13:13,800 --> 01:13:18,120 Speaker 9: largely the north star is always that direct customer feedback. So, 1328 01:13:18,520 --> 01:13:22,639 Speaker 9: you know, sitting with customers, going to their houses, bugging them, 1329 01:13:22,760 --> 01:13:26,240 Speaker 9: really annoying them until they tell us, they tell us 1330 01:13:26,240 --> 01:13:28,519 Speaker 9: more and more about what's bothering them and how we 1331 01:13:28,560 --> 01:13:29,400 Speaker 9: can serve them better. 1332 01:13:29,520 --> 01:13:31,080 Speaker 3: I'm gonna say I'm gonna say this not just because 1333 01:13:31,080 --> 01:13:33,679 Speaker 3: you're sitting here. When we were starting our crypto journey, 1334 01:13:34,360 --> 01:13:36,439 Speaker 3: we we downloaded around, but not if it starts with 1335 01:13:36,479 --> 01:13:39,320 Speaker 3: it's for crypto. Just because the live ticker, it was 1336 01:13:39,320 --> 01:13:41,400 Speaker 3: like the little heartbeat and you can watch the price, 1337 01:13:41,680 --> 01:13:43,519 Speaker 3: I feel like it was like an eighties video game. 1338 01:13:43,560 --> 01:13:46,519 Speaker 5: I'm like, okay, this is more up to date. It was. 1339 01:13:46,840 --> 01:13:49,240 Speaker 3: It was a more of an accurate depiction of what 1340 01:13:49,280 --> 01:13:51,320 Speaker 3: was happening in the crypto space because we know it's 1341 01:13:51,400 --> 01:13:52,280 Speaker 3: very viold point. 1342 01:13:52,280 --> 01:13:54,000 Speaker 5: We won't even going to sleep. It was like we 1343 01:13:54,040 --> 01:13:54,360 Speaker 5: got to. 1344 01:13:54,280 --> 01:13:56,719 Speaker 8: Watch this, So yeah, it's very it's very user friendly. 1345 01:13:56,760 --> 01:14:00,479 Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah, it's meant to be fast, for the interface 1346 01:14:00,560 --> 01:14:03,400 Speaker 9: to load quickly, for you to get the information that 1347 01:14:03,439 --> 01:14:06,920 Speaker 9: you need as quickly as possible, and of course, when 1348 01:14:07,240 --> 01:14:09,559 Speaker 9: if you do want to make a transaction, for that 1349 01:14:09,600 --> 01:14:13,200 Speaker 9: transaction to be to be smooth and for you to 1350 01:14:13,200 --> 01:14:15,840 Speaker 9: get a lot of value from it. So those are 1351 01:14:15,840 --> 01:14:19,120 Speaker 9: a lot of the design principles and really to to 1352 01:14:19,200 --> 01:14:22,160 Speaker 9: meet people, to meet people where there are they are, 1353 01:14:22,240 --> 01:14:25,280 Speaker 9: and to align with kind of the spirit of of crypto. 1354 01:14:25,600 --> 01:14:28,599 Speaker 9: So it is twenty four to seven and you know 1355 01:14:28,800 --> 01:14:33,720 Speaker 9: it's dynamic and sort of moving at all times. And 1356 01:14:34,040 --> 01:14:38,000 Speaker 9: you know, I think the the sort of retro future 1357 01:14:38,080 --> 01:14:40,800 Speaker 9: interface sort of affords affords that as well. 1358 01:14:40,960 --> 01:14:42,800 Speaker 3: I think that's one of the things. Bloomberg had a 1359 01:14:42,840 --> 01:14:45,439 Speaker 3: piece on it. I don't even heard the word of before. 1360 01:14:45,520 --> 01:14:48,719 Speaker 3: They said the gamification of investing, and it was almost 1361 01:14:48,720 --> 01:14:50,760 Speaker 3: like in a negative context, it's almost like, you guys 1362 01:14:50,760 --> 01:14:51,759 Speaker 3: have made it too easy. 1363 01:14:52,280 --> 01:14:53,280 Speaker 5: What do you say to that? 1364 01:14:54,160 --> 01:14:56,720 Speaker 9: Well, I think it has been difficult for for a 1365 01:14:56,800 --> 01:15:01,320 Speaker 9: long time. I think we reject the the sort of 1366 01:15:01,520 --> 01:15:04,439 Speaker 9: analogy of investing to a game. We know investing is very, 1367 01:15:04,560 --> 01:15:07,920 Speaker 9: very serious, but at the same time, you know, it 1368 01:15:07,960 --> 01:15:12,120 Speaker 9: should be accessible to people. There's nothing wrong for people 1369 01:15:12,160 --> 01:15:15,519 Speaker 9: to enjoy investing or to have fun doing it, right. 1370 01:15:15,840 --> 01:15:18,040 Speaker 9: I think if people don't, they just wouldn't do it, 1371 01:15:18,040 --> 01:15:21,439 Speaker 9: and then that's not good for anyone sport. Then yeah, 1372 01:15:21,479 --> 01:15:26,200 Speaker 9: So you know, we're all about accessible, intuitive design and 1373 01:15:25,200 --> 01:15:29,479 Speaker 9: making the design better and making our customers happier. And 1374 01:15:29,720 --> 01:15:32,640 Speaker 9: I don't think that has anything to do with gamification. 1375 01:15:33,479 --> 01:15:39,400 Speaker 4: Your mission statement is democratize investing in your robbin hood, 1376 01:15:39,600 --> 01:15:41,960 Speaker 4: which the story of robbin Hood you took from the 1377 01:15:42,040 --> 01:15:45,519 Speaker 4: rich and gave to the poor. How are you staying 1378 01:15:45,520 --> 01:15:47,240 Speaker 4: true to that mission statement? And do you have a 1379 01:15:47,320 --> 01:15:49,800 Speaker 4: worry like you know, now obviously you're publicly traded company 1380 01:15:49,800 --> 01:15:52,400 Speaker 4: and you're part of Wall Street where it was once 1381 01:15:52,640 --> 01:15:57,559 Speaker 4: like you know, Wall Streets attagonist. Now you're part of 1382 01:15:57,600 --> 01:16:00,360 Speaker 4: Wall Street. So how do you feel about that? Like, 1383 01:16:00,439 --> 01:16:02,479 Speaker 4: how do you feel about staying true to your core 1384 01:16:03,080 --> 01:16:03,879 Speaker 4: mission statement? 1385 01:16:04,479 --> 01:16:10,400 Speaker 9: Well, we are still in Silicon Valley, so I think, yes, 1386 01:16:10,520 --> 01:16:14,160 Speaker 9: we are a public company, we have shareholders, but you know, 1387 01:16:14,200 --> 01:16:16,840 Speaker 9: I wrote in my letter that you know, we're not 1388 01:16:16,920 --> 01:16:21,559 Speaker 9: a company that's gonna sacrifice the long term wellbeing of 1389 01:16:21,600 --> 01:16:26,160 Speaker 9: our customers to make our quarter or for any other 1390 01:16:26,200 --> 01:16:29,479 Speaker 9: short term gains. So it's a very long term focused company. 1391 01:16:30,120 --> 01:16:33,880 Speaker 9: And there is a lens. So our top value I 1392 01:16:33,880 --> 01:16:38,000 Speaker 9: mentioned earlier, safety first. Our second value is participation is power. 1393 01:16:38,160 --> 01:16:41,439 Speaker 9: And so participation is power means at Robinhood, the rich 1394 01:16:41,520 --> 01:16:44,040 Speaker 9: don't get a better deal. So if you're if you're 1395 01:16:44,920 --> 01:16:48,760 Speaker 9: a normal customer, you don't get you don't get better 1396 01:16:48,800 --> 01:16:51,400 Speaker 9: customer support, you don't get higher quality service, you don't 1397 01:16:51,400 --> 01:16:53,920 Speaker 9: get lower prices the more money you have in your account. 1398 01:16:54,479 --> 01:16:57,519 Speaker 9: And I think IPO access is a good example of 1399 01:16:57,560 --> 01:17:01,640 Speaker 9: that because not only do we put retail customers on 1400 01:17:01,720 --> 01:17:05,920 Speaker 9: a level playing field with the institutions, but every customer, 1401 01:17:05,960 --> 01:17:08,919 Speaker 9: regardless of how much money they have or how valuable 1402 01:17:08,920 --> 01:17:14,200 Speaker 9: they are to Robinhood, gets an equal an equivalent sort 1403 01:17:14,240 --> 01:17:18,000 Speaker 9: of odds and an equivalent shot to participating in the IPO. 1404 01:17:18,600 --> 01:17:22,599 Speaker 9: So it's it's ingrained in our values and it's something 1405 01:17:22,600 --> 01:17:26,160 Speaker 9: we consider whenever we build products. And it's cultural in 1406 01:17:26,160 --> 01:17:29,519 Speaker 9: the sense that you know, if people do feel like 1407 01:17:30,000 --> 01:17:35,479 Speaker 9: we're encroaching on a decision that favors wealthier customers, rich people. 1408 01:17:37,160 --> 01:17:40,280 Speaker 9: If it's like a non participation is powered decision, you'll 1409 01:17:40,280 --> 01:17:43,280 Speaker 9: see people advocating very fiercely against it and kind of 1410 01:17:43,320 --> 01:17:46,080 Speaker 9: rejecting it culturally. And I think it's one of those 1411 01:17:46,120 --> 01:17:48,799 Speaker 9: things that we're we're very proud of as company builders 1412 01:17:48,920 --> 01:17:51,479 Speaker 9: that it's sort of ingrained in the fabric of how 1413 01:17:51,520 --> 01:17:52,080 Speaker 9: we operate. 1414 01:17:52,920 --> 01:17:55,599 Speaker 5: I like that participation is power. We already say. 1415 01:17:55,400 --> 01:18:00,759 Speaker 4: Safety first, since that's all model. Safety first is really important. 1416 01:18:01,240 --> 01:18:02,639 Speaker 4: The best offense is a good defense. 1417 01:18:03,960 --> 01:18:06,720 Speaker 9: There you go, it's the best defense is a good 1418 01:18:06,760 --> 01:18:07,320 Speaker 9: offense too. 1419 01:18:07,360 --> 01:18:13,160 Speaker 4: Though it's too shit, he's good. But it's been on 1420 01:18:13,360 --> 01:18:15,160 Speaker 4: or Before we leave, I want you to have an 1421 01:18:15,160 --> 01:18:17,080 Speaker 4: opportunity to say anything that you would like to sell. 1422 01:18:17,120 --> 01:18:18,719 Speaker 4: I would love for you to talk about the educational 1423 01:18:18,720 --> 01:18:21,000 Speaker 4: resources if we talked about that briefly. But you guys 1424 01:18:21,040 --> 01:18:23,720 Speaker 4: definitely have a podcast which is near and dear to 1425 01:18:23,760 --> 01:18:26,200 Speaker 4: our heart, and you have I believe, courses on investing 1426 01:18:26,280 --> 01:18:29,120 Speaker 4: right and you like teach people about investing on the platform. 1427 01:18:29,240 --> 01:18:31,960 Speaker 9: Yeah, we have a couple of different areas where you 1428 01:18:32,000 --> 01:18:36,479 Speaker 9: can learn about investing. So increasingly we're finding ways to 1429 01:18:36,520 --> 01:18:39,720 Speaker 9: put digestible content in the app. But we also have 1430 01:18:39,800 --> 01:18:43,680 Speaker 9: robinhood Learn with the goal of taking you from kind 1431 01:18:43,680 --> 01:18:45,960 Speaker 9: of the basics of what is a stock, what is 1432 01:18:46,000 --> 01:18:49,799 Speaker 9: an ETF all the way to more advanced options trading 1433 01:18:49,840 --> 01:18:54,160 Speaker 9: and and different strategies there and then uh and then 1434 01:18:54,200 --> 01:18:57,000 Speaker 9: snacks as well, so you know, each of those things 1435 01:18:57,000 --> 01:19:00,599 Speaker 9: were we're making a lot of progress in. And you know, 1436 01:19:00,720 --> 01:19:06,920 Speaker 9: recently we partnered with Operation Operation Hope and became the 1437 01:19:07,920 --> 01:19:10,679 Speaker 9: sort of first broker to sign onto the Investor's Bill 1438 01:19:10,720 --> 01:19:17,240 Speaker 9: of Rights and you know, standing up for investor education. 1439 01:19:17,520 --> 01:19:21,080 Speaker 9: Financial literacy is something very important for us. We'd like 1440 01:19:21,120 --> 01:19:23,719 Speaker 9: to see that taught at earlier and earlier ages. 1441 01:19:24,080 --> 01:19:26,000 Speaker 4: It's funny you say that, I don't know if if 1442 01:19:26,040 --> 01:19:27,320 Speaker 4: you know how background, well, you know, that's what we 1443 01:19:27,320 --> 01:19:30,400 Speaker 4: started in the classroom, teaching financial literacy. Yeah, Joy used 1444 01:19:30,400 --> 01:19:31,640 Speaker 4: to be a teacher, so we used to have a 1445 01:19:31,680 --> 01:19:34,519 Speaker 4: program where we actually taught financial literacy and that kind 1446 01:19:34,520 --> 01:19:37,400 Speaker 4: of led to what we're doing now. But the classroom 1447 01:19:37,439 --> 01:19:40,120 Speaker 4: is always nandad or heart, so financial literacy is right 1448 01:19:40,200 --> 01:19:42,640 Speaker 4: up our ali obviously, so it's great to see you 1449 01:19:42,680 --> 01:19:44,599 Speaker 4: guys doing that. If we could have a work together 1450 01:19:44,640 --> 01:19:45,880 Speaker 4: on that that would be amazing, man. 1451 01:19:45,920 --> 01:19:46,880 Speaker 2: But absolutely. 1452 01:19:47,040 --> 01:19:50,120 Speaker 9: You know, in fourth grade, I remember taking a financial 1453 01:19:50,160 --> 01:19:53,679 Speaker 9: literacy class and you know, some of the lessons there, 1454 01:19:53,840 --> 01:19:57,200 Speaker 9: because they were so simple stay with me to this day. 1455 01:19:57,280 --> 01:19:59,920 Speaker 9: Like I remember they taught me. You know, it's basic 1456 01:20:00,120 --> 01:20:03,439 Speaker 9: things like when you're writing a check, start all the 1457 01:20:03,439 --> 01:20:05,800 Speaker 9: way on the left that way. You know, nobody can 1458 01:20:05,840 --> 01:20:07,880 Speaker 9: take the check and put like one in front of 1459 01:20:07,920 --> 01:20:08,759 Speaker 9: the number. 1460 01:20:08,920 --> 01:20:11,000 Speaker 4: And you know, it's so crazy because I feel like 1461 01:20:11,000 --> 01:20:14,960 Speaker 4: in America, depending on what school you go to, depending 1462 01:20:15,000 --> 01:20:16,960 Speaker 4: on where you live, your experience is going to be 1463 01:20:17,000 --> 01:20:17,639 Speaker 4: vastly different. 1464 01:20:17,640 --> 01:20:19,120 Speaker 8: So you said you learned how to write a check 1465 01:20:19,120 --> 01:20:19,719 Speaker 8: in fourth grade. 1466 01:20:19,840 --> 01:20:23,280 Speaker 4: We would teach we were teaching fourteen year olds fifteen 1467 01:20:23,360 --> 01:20:26,720 Speaker 4: year olds financial literacy, and one of the lessons was 1468 01:20:26,760 --> 01:20:29,760 Speaker 4: we had a mock check and we said, if anybody 1469 01:20:29,920 --> 01:20:32,920 Speaker 4: can write a check correctly, we didn't give one hundred 1470 01:20:32,920 --> 01:20:33,360 Speaker 4: dollars something. 1471 01:20:33,240 --> 01:20:35,000 Speaker 5: Like that, the whole table. 1472 01:20:35,200 --> 01:20:37,400 Speaker 4: For the whole table, take fifty dollars if you add 1473 01:20:37,400 --> 01:20:40,839 Speaker 4: it up. Long story, sure, nobody was able to do it. Wow, nobody, 1474 01:20:41,000 --> 01:20:43,400 Speaker 4: not one person. The reason being is that they were 1475 01:20:43,400 --> 01:20:46,880 Speaker 4: never taught. Yeah, so it's like you said, you learned 1476 01:20:46,880 --> 01:20:48,960 Speaker 4: it in fourth grade, so and it stuck with you 1477 01:20:48,960 --> 01:20:51,559 Speaker 4: your whole life. Unfortunately, a lot of people are never 1478 01:20:51,600 --> 01:20:53,479 Speaker 4: taught not just how to write checks, they're never taught 1479 01:20:53,479 --> 01:20:56,240 Speaker 4: about real estate, they're never taught about stocks, they're never 1480 01:20:56,280 --> 01:21:00,320 Speaker 4: taught about anything. So now they're just fumbling through life 1481 01:21:00,360 --> 01:21:03,639 Speaker 4: making a ton of mistakes. But they were never taught 1482 01:21:03,720 --> 01:21:06,639 Speaker 4: financial literacy. It's still mind boggling to me. While financial 1483 01:21:06,640 --> 01:21:09,360 Speaker 4: literacy is not a core curriculum and every single school 1484 01:21:09,400 --> 01:21:12,080 Speaker 4: across the country is optional, more and more schools are 1485 01:21:12,080 --> 01:21:13,519 Speaker 4: starting to pick it up, but there's still a lot 1486 01:21:13,560 --> 01:21:16,679 Speaker 4: of schools where financial literacy is not taught. Financial literacy 1487 01:21:16,720 --> 01:21:18,479 Speaker 4: was never taught in any school that I went to 1488 01:21:18,600 --> 01:21:21,000 Speaker 4: my whole entire life, including college. 1489 01:21:21,240 --> 01:21:25,519 Speaker 5: One school, well, the big Why University. It's called the biggest, 1490 01:21:25,560 --> 01:21:26,280 Speaker 5: the biggest school. 1491 01:21:26,400 --> 01:21:29,240 Speaker 4: So yeah, I'd say that to say that it's extremely 1492 01:21:29,280 --> 01:21:32,680 Speaker 4: important the message of financial literacy to not only be 1493 01:21:32,800 --> 01:21:35,080 Speaker 4: spread in the private sector, but in the public sector 1494 01:21:35,120 --> 01:21:39,639 Speaker 4: as well, and for schools to start adapting financial literacy 1495 01:21:39,680 --> 01:21:41,840 Speaker 4: at the young age and make it mandatory. I feel 1496 01:21:41,880 --> 01:21:44,200 Speaker 4: like it's just as important as math and reading is 1497 01:21:44,600 --> 01:21:45,120 Speaker 4: right up there. 1498 01:21:45,400 --> 01:21:48,800 Speaker 9: Amen couldn't agree more. It's certainly been, you know, as 1499 01:21:48,800 --> 01:21:55,760 Speaker 9: a mathematician, more practically useful in some ways than any 1500 01:21:55,800 --> 01:21:57,960 Speaker 9: of the advanced math that I took in grad school. 1501 01:21:58,520 --> 01:22:00,840 Speaker 3: Yeah, we've been saying that, I'm like, why am I 1502 01:22:00,880 --> 01:22:02,519 Speaker 3: going to use my pket baggery them? 1503 01:22:03,000 --> 01:22:03,360 Speaker 2: Yeah? 1504 01:22:03,560 --> 01:22:06,720 Speaker 4: Yeah, Well what would you like would you like to 1505 01:22:06,720 --> 01:22:08,880 Speaker 4: sell if he win? Anything else that we didn't cover 1506 01:22:08,960 --> 01:22:10,840 Speaker 4: that you want to let people aware of, or any 1507 01:22:10,840 --> 01:22:12,719 Speaker 4: new developments. I know you got twenty four to seven 1508 01:22:12,960 --> 01:22:15,920 Speaker 4: customer service coming, so with some final words you would 1509 01:22:15,960 --> 01:22:16,800 Speaker 4: like to leave the people with. 1510 01:22:17,160 --> 01:22:19,759 Speaker 9: Yeah, well, I think twenty four to seven customer service 1511 01:22:20,000 --> 01:22:25,479 Speaker 9: are is something incredibly important for us, something that you 1512 01:22:25,479 --> 01:22:28,240 Speaker 9: know goes hand in hand with safety first, Right. We 1513 01:22:28,320 --> 01:22:31,320 Speaker 9: have to make sure that we not only provide a 1514 01:22:31,360 --> 01:22:34,599 Speaker 9: high quality service that's available to customers when they need 1515 01:22:34,720 --> 01:22:36,960 Speaker 9: us the most, but that when they have issues where 1516 01:22:37,000 --> 01:22:41,639 Speaker 9: we're there for them. So proud to be live across 1517 01:22:41,680 --> 01:22:45,960 Speaker 9: all issue types with customer support, and we're going to 1518 01:22:46,000 --> 01:22:50,880 Speaker 9: continue to go where our customers take us and and 1519 01:22:50,960 --> 01:22:55,320 Speaker 9: strive to deliver new products that are that are on 1520 01:22:55,400 --> 01:22:58,920 Speaker 9: line with with our values and build the safest and 1521 01:22:59,080 --> 01:23:02,719 Speaker 9: most culturally all of it financial product in the world. 1522 01:23:03,920 --> 01:23:06,360 Speaker 4: Safety First ladies and gentlemen. First, I love U on 1523 01:23:06,560 --> 01:23:07,759 Speaker 4: Troy Housekeeping Items. 1524 01:23:07,960 --> 01:23:08,160 Speaker 5: Yeah. 1525 01:23:08,160 --> 01:23:11,599 Speaker 3: I first like to say welcome to our newest EYL team. 1526 01:23:11,640 --> 01:23:13,720 Speaker 5: I'm Minora. Can we clap it up? He real quick? 1527 01:23:16,360 --> 01:23:18,559 Speaker 3: And I'd also like to shout out all our earners 1528 01:23:18,560 --> 01:23:20,240 Speaker 3: on Patreon dot com. I know it's all proud to 1529 01:23:20,280 --> 01:23:23,760 Speaker 3: pay program and all our people at EYL University. Our 1530 01:23:23,760 --> 01:23:27,400 Speaker 3: team is growing, not just the students, but the actual staff. 1531 01:23:27,600 --> 01:23:30,519 Speaker 3: Our family is growing. So shout to everybody. Shout over 1532 01:23:30,560 --> 01:23:33,280 Speaker 3: the ten thousand earners at the n Eyl University, and 1533 01:23:33,320 --> 01:23:37,000 Speaker 3: shout to the entire merch team Bam Smithy, the entire crew. 1534 01:23:37,080 --> 01:23:37,240 Speaker 6: Man. 1535 01:23:38,080 --> 01:23:40,360 Speaker 3: You know we're spilling some new colors this year. It's 1536 01:23:40,360 --> 01:23:42,639 Speaker 3: that time of year to get the new season involved. 1537 01:23:42,640 --> 01:23:44,559 Speaker 3: So shout out to y'all. You know how we play 1538 01:23:44,600 --> 01:23:45,280 Speaker 3: this lover is love. 1539 01:23:45,520 --> 01:23:48,200 Speaker 4: Yes, So shout out to Nora. I know she's been 1540 01:23:48,240 --> 01:23:52,040 Speaker 4: working tiresly with Mike can make this happen. And thank you, 1541 01:23:52,280 --> 01:23:55,080 Speaker 4: and thank the whole robin Hood staff for the hospitality, 1542 01:23:55,439 --> 01:23:57,839 Speaker 4: very welcoming, beautiful campus. 1543 01:23:58,080 --> 01:24:02,560 Speaker 8: Very glad to hear zen He's yes, you can't. We 1544 01:24:02,800 --> 01:24:03,439 Speaker 8: just can't walk in. 1545 01:24:03,800 --> 01:24:05,840 Speaker 5: I'm just saying sometimes we gotta. They were like, we 1546 01:24:05,880 --> 01:24:06,479 Speaker 5: want to tell to you. 1547 01:24:06,760 --> 01:24:07,120 Speaker 2: Yeah. 1548 01:24:07,200 --> 01:24:11,360 Speaker 4: Yeah, So thank you again for the hospitality anytimes. It's 1549 01:24:11,400 --> 01:24:14,599 Speaker 4: been a pleasure and we will see you guys next 1550 01:24:14,640 --> 01:24:15,240 Speaker 4: week later. 1551 01:24:16,080 --> 01:24:16,840 Speaker 5: You don't know who we know. 1552 01:24:17,360 --> 01:24:25,920 Speaker 6: Yeah, my graduates from my school being forced back drop drop, Mike, 1553 01:24:26,040 --> 01:24:27,400 Speaker 6: drop backdrop. 1554 01:24:38,680 --> 01:24:42,360 Speaker 10: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child 1555 01:24:42,400 --> 01:24:46,200 Speaker 10: in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from Al Salvador 1556 01:24:46,439 --> 01:24:50,559 Speaker 10: accused of murdering a Texas man of Venezuelan charged with 1557 01:24:50,640 --> 01:24:54,519 Speaker 10: filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just 1558 01:24:54,640 --> 01:24:58,400 Speaker 10: some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President 1559 01:24:58,439 --> 01:25:01,960 Speaker 10: Donald J. Trump's leadership. I'm Christy Noman, the United States 1560 01:25:02,040 --> 01:25:06,799 Speaker 10: Secretary of Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted illegal border 1561 01:25:06,840 --> 01:25:10,400 Speaker 10: crossings are at the lowest levels ever recorded, and over 1562 01:25:10,479 --> 01:25:13,680 Speaker 10: one hundred thousand illegal aliens have been arrested. If you 1563 01:25:13,760 --> 01:25:17,599 Speaker 10: are here illegally, your next you will be fine nearly 1564 01:25:17,680 --> 01:25:21,719 Speaker 10: one thousand dollars a day, imprisoned and deported, you will 1565 01:25:21,760 --> 01:25:25,400 Speaker 10: never return. But if you register using our CBP home 1566 01:25:25,439 --> 01:25:28,799 Speaker 10: app and leave now, you could be allowed to return legally. 1567 01:25:29,160 --> 01:25:33,960 Speaker 10: Do what's right. Leave now. Under President Trump America's laws, 1568 01:25:34,080 --> 01:25:36,559 Speaker 10: border and families will be protected. 1569 01:25:36,640 --> 01:25:38,759 Speaker 2: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security,