Retail trading and investment firm Robinhood turned heads at the beginning of this year as it led a wave of first-time investors into the market with dramatic results. And its impressive Nasdaq debut at the end of July has taken the company to even greater heights.
But according to Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder Vlad Tenev, there’s no reason to stop there; Robinhood is just getting started.
Robinhood drew its fair share of detractors with the manic run on Gamestop and other “meme stocks” at the start of 2021, with some critics claiming the company’s app spurred prices to dangerously overblown levels before temporarily barring such trades. However, Tenev maintains that this event was fully in line with the ethos of the company he founded with fellow Stanford alumnus Baiju Bhatt.
“More access is better,” Tenev told the Associated Press in a recent interview. “And the stock market in particular has been a great source of wealth creation for so many people. It’s been reserved for the 1% for a very long time. So we’re proud to give access and to make it easier for people to use.” To that end, Tenev says, Robinhood aims to be not only the way new investors get into the market, but also the sole app they need to manage money in their personal lives.
In addition to working to open up the profile of the traditional Wall Street trader, Tenev identifies Robinhood as being perfectly positioned on the forefront of cryptocurrency and other tech-forward investments. In a striking example of this positioning, in its frenzied run at the start of 2021, 5% of Robinhood’s earnings came from dogecoin. And with Robinhood’s established track record with Reddit and other social media platforms, it may continue to lead the pack in advancing crypto investment opportunities.
