Robinhood's co-founder reveals the brutal reality of surviving an 80% market crash, going "founder mode" to cut corporate bloat, and what actually happened during GameStop.
Vlad Tenev is the co-founder and CEO of Robinhood. Not only did he navigate the unprecedented GameStop crisis, but he completely re-engineered the fintech giant to thrive.
He breaks down the brutal transition from bloated hyper-growth to a lean machine, why a "juicy falsehood is more powerful than a boring truth", and the 3 distinct phases of AI integration separating the winners from the dead.
Believe it or not, GameStop was not his hardest moment.
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Approximate Timestamps:
(00:00) Introduction
(00:33) Setting the Scene: GameStop
(09:30) Dumb Money
(10:39) Harder Times
(16:02) Founder Mode Activated
(22:55) Ad break
(24:25) Inside Robinhood
(28:50) The Hiring + Growth Process
(35:13) Crisp and Clear Marketing and Communication 
(39:07) The Surprising Uses for AI
(47:57) Ad Break
(50:03) Internal AI at Robinhood
(01:02:59) What Are You Obsessed With?
(01:05:31) Tokenization
(01:20:04) Deciding What to do Next
(01:22:05) Ownership in the Economy
(01:29:46) Thoughts on Bitcoin
(01:31:22) No Fee System
(01:39:51) Should You Move to Robinhood?
(01:47:47) What is Success for You? 
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Check out Vlad:
<a href="https://investors.robinhood.com/management/vlad-tenev">https://investors.robinhood.com/management/vlad-tenev</a>
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/vlad-tenev-7037591b/">https://www.linkedin.com/in/vlad-tenev-7037591b/</a>
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Newsletter: The Brain Food newsletter delivers actionable insights and thoughtful ideas every Sunday. It takes 5 minutes to read, and it’s completely free. Learn more and sign up at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠<a href="https://fs.blog/newsletter/">⁠fs.blog/newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠</a>
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Follow Shane Parrish:
X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠<a href="https://x.com/shaneparrish">https://x.com/shaneparrish⁠</a>
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Thank you to the sponsors for this episode:
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