During the pandemic, Robinhood experienced explosive growth in trading volume, leading to significant infrastructure challenges, including a full day of trading outages.

In 2022, we had to effectively refound Robinhood due to a significant shift in the macroeconomic environment, which required us to change our strategy to adapt to higher interest rates.

In early 2021, Robinhood faced a collateral call of $3.7 billion due to increased trading activity, which was unprecedented for the company.

Despite challenges, Robinhood has set new revenue records in 2024, demonstrating that the decisions made during the downturn were crucial for long-term success.

When Robinhood launched in March 2015, we converted hundreds of thousands of users from a waitlist, exceeding initial expectations of a 10% conversion rate.

The initial waitlist for Robinhood saw over 50,000 signups in the first week and nearly a million users within the first year, marking a historic demand for a consumer finance product.

Young people felt disillusioned with the financial system after the global financial crisis, which created an opportunity for Robinhood to establish a brand that resonated with them.

The core of Robinhood's business was identified as active traders, who are more resilient and continue to trade even in downturns, which led to a strategic refocus on this customer base.

I was inspired to create Robinhood after witnessing the financial industry's negative reputation and wanting to offer a platform that genuinely helps the average investor. A lot of Robinhood customers start with as little as $10, which was a significant innovation because before Robinhood, trading fees made it impractical to invest small amounts.