Vladimir Tenev: Co-founder & CEO of Robinhood

Vladimir Tenev and the company he founded has completely revolutionized retail investing in the U.S. Motivated by the sense of injustice many felt after the Great Financial Crisis, Tenev and his business partner Baiju Bhatt created a platform to reduce financial inequality and empower everyday investors. Join us as we explore his story and the vision that has shaped Robinhood.

• Baiju Bhatt: Tenev's friend from university who proved to be the perfect business partner.

• The idea: Robinhood was born from the belief that investing should be made easier, cheaper, and more user-friendly.

• Young but experienced: Though not yet 40, Tenev has navigated numerous challenges with Robinhood, from securing regulatory approvals to managing the GameStop frenzy.

Vladimir Tenev was born in Varna, Bulgaria on February 13, 1987. Vladimir's father was a professor of economics in Bulgaria and when communism fell, he got the opportunity to come to the United States to study. Soon thereafter, his wife and Vladimir crossed the Atlantic and joined him in Virginia.

After finishing high school, Tenev moved to California to attend Stanford University. It was here that he would meet his friend and eventual co-founder, Baiju Bhatt. The future Robinhood founders both finished their master's degrees in mathematics in 2008 but then went separate ways. Tenev continued in academia, taking on a PhD at UCLA, while Bhatt joined a trading firm.

Shortly thereafter, Lehman Brothers went under, leaving the finance industry in turmoil – or to quote Tenev: “a very, very interesting time for the industry”. Inspired by these events, Bhatt convinced Tenev to drop out of school and start a trading firm together. This was the start of their joint business story.

The company they founded was called Celeris and focused on high-frequency trading. After a year or so the pair went on to the next idea, forming Chronos Research, which was software tools that banks and hedge funds could use to build automated trading strategies.

These ventures would prepare them for what was to come a couple of years later.

In the aftermath of the Great Financial Crisis followed the Occupy Wall Street movement. The public distrust of the financial sector had been growing for some years and in 2011 it boiled over, resulting in protests ongoing for two months. The loss of faith in the financial system that many people felt inspired Tenev and Bhatt to “build something meaningful and something that empowered consumers”. The idea was to create a product that made investing easy, cheap, and convenient, all through a mobile-first design.

In 2013, Tenev and Bhatt founded the trading platform Robinhood. Tenev explains the inspiration behind the name in an interview with Techcrunch:

“We understand the connotation of taking something from the rich and giving it to the poor. Robinhood is liberating information that's locked up with professionals and giving it to the people.”

The co-CEO duo started to gather a team and develop the platform. Most of the initial Robinhood employees were engineers who had worked with Tenev and Bhatt in their recent ventures. While finishing the first iteration of the platform, they also began the long process of getting regulatory approval.

After roughly a year of heavy scrutiny and requirement coherence, Robinhood was finally approved by the SEC and became a member of FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) – giving them the regulatory green light to launch its website. For little more than a year the website served as a waiting list before the app finally launched.

Further reading: Robinhood: Revolutionizing Retail Investing

In March 2015, Robinhood launched on the App Store as the first mobile-first brokerage in the U.S. The app's design closely resembled that of a social media platform, using effects and gestures to encourage continuous interaction. This resonated well with millennials who from the start have been a target audience for Robinhood. An important element that attracted to the wider public was that there was no minimum deposit upon registration.

Additionally, as promised by the message on its website, users could trade and not be charged a commission. This was achieved by a method known as payment for order flow (PFOF). Briefly explained, they sold their trade orders to market makers which fed Robinhood's customer orders into their algorithms, profiting by shaving fractions off spreads.

Throughout the years Robinhood has continued to pioneer in the fintech industry, adding other features that have contributed to growing the popularity of the platform. For instance, in 2017 the platform added options trading, and in 2018, trading in cryptocurrencies. Furthermore, in 2019, Robinhood introduced fractional share trading, meaning that you could buy fractions of a share. The inclusive offer was targeted to let investors with little capital get the opportunity to buy “expensive” priced shares.

With its user-friendly app and expanding offering Robinhood continued to take market share from the traditional services, totaling 9.8 million users across the U.S. in 2020. In late 2020, co-CEO Bhatt stepped down as CEO to become chief creative officer – meaning that Tenev was the sole CEO of Robinhood.

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In early 2021, Tenev and Robinhood had a tumultuous start to the year. The company found itself in the epicenter of the GameStop short squeeze which attracted worldwide interest for a couple of weeks. Robinhood was among several brokerages that restricted trading on GameStop and other heavily shorted stocks, citing liquidity concerns and regulatory requirements.

This decision placed CEO Tenev under intense scrutiny, as many users voiced their frustration. Ultimately, Robinhood's actions led to congressional hearings for Tenev and fines for the company. These events forced the company to strengthen its risk management practices to eventually come out stronger on the other side of the controversy.

On the back of the scrutiny surrounding the short squeeze, Robinhood completed an anticipated IPO in July 2021. The company, which had over 22 million users at the time, was valued at $32 billion.

As of 2024, Tenev continues to serve as CEO of Robinhood. In roughly a decade, he has overseen the company's growth from a startup to one of the most popular investment platforms in the United States. Throughout this period, he has navigated a range of challenges that have shaped his leadership approach.

From the outset, Tenev has adopted a hands-on style: leading by example, upholding high standards, and setting a pace for the company. Additionally, Tenev is a strong proponent of mentorship. Throughout his tenure, he has maintained the belief that investing time in individual development benefits both the company and its employees.

In 2023, Tenev co-founded AI startup Harmonic with Tudor Achim. As you may be familiar with, AI chatbots sometimes make up facts – a phenomenon known as hallucinations. Harmonic's focus is to release a new kind of AI bot (named Aristotle), centered on solving math problems, that doesn't hallucinate. Tenev sits as executive chairman of the company.

Although still under 40, Vladimir Tenev has made a remarkable impact on the investment industry. Alongside his business partner, Bhatt, he built a company that has transformed investing in the U.S. Tenev's journey from communist Bulgaria to CEO of Robinhood is an inspiring story of hard work and innovation.