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Building Robinhood, Surviving GameStop & A $500 Million Phone Call | Vlad Tenev

Vlad Tenev is the co-founder and CEO of Robinhood. He was born in Bulgaria in 1987 and moved to the US at age five, a few years before hyperinflation wiped out his grandparents' savings.

David SenrahostVlad Tenevguest

Nov 11, 20261h 10mWatch on YouTube

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CHAPTERS

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Chapter summaries

Ribbit passes on Robinhood early, then trust compounds with Micky Malka
Vlad Tenev explains how Ribbit initially passed on Robinhood’s seed round and how the relationship with Micky Malka deepened over time. He recounts a tense negotiation about board involvement and why he ultimately came to value Micky’s direct style and loyalty in critical moments.
- •Vlad describes pitching Robinhood’s seed round at a $10M cap and Ribbit passing at first
- •He recalls Micky pushing for board/observer rights and predicting Vlad would want him more involved later
- •Vlad says Micky consistently proved he had the company’s best interests at heart
- •Vlad explains that after Robinhood became public, he asked Micky to join as a full board member because he valued his counsel
Why public-company board selection changed Vlad’s approach to governance
The conversation shifts to how board dynamics differ between private and public companies. Vlad outlines how negotiating board seats with venture firms differs from choosing board members as a public company.
- •Vlad contrasts private-company board seats tied to investors/firms with public-company board selection
- •He notes venture capitalists and observers often roll off boards after an IPO
- •Vlad frames inviting Micky onto the public board as a deliberate choice enabled by being public
March 2020: office move, hackathon, and a day-long trading outage
Vlad sets the scene in early COVID as Robinhood prepared to move into a new office space and held a hackathon. The moment quickly turns into a major operational crisis when Robinhood experiences a day-long trading outage during a volatile market day.
- •Vlad describes the planned move into a larger building and marking it with a hackathon
- •He says the hackathon was poorly attended and the atmosphere felt off
- •On Monday, March 2, 2020, Robinhood suffered a massive day-long trading outage
- •Vlad describes taking infrastructure failures personally as an engineer
- •Soon after, lockdown began and employees went home
COVID accelerates growth and introduces urgent capital requirement pressure
As peers prepared for layoffs, Vlad says Robinhood’s user growth, revenue, and volume surged. That rapid activity triggered regulated capital requirements, prompting Vlad to consider needing hundreds of millions quickly.
- •Vlad compares the broader pessimism and layoffs among tech peers to Robinhood’s surprising growth
- •He explains regulated broker capital requirements that rise with platform activity
- •Vlad describes volumes going “parabolic” and capital requirements increasing alongside them
- •He tells David he warned Micky he might need hundreds of millions of dollars rapidly if volume spiked
A term sheet for a crisis that hadn’t happened yet—and why it mattered later
Vlad recounts calling Micky in March 2020 and agreeing to keep a ready-to-sign term sheet “on the shelf” in case emergency funding was needed. He emphasizes how unusual this was when many investors paused investing due to uncertainty.
- •Vlad says Micky proposed a pre-arranged deal so money could be wired same day if needed
- •David reacts to the idea as unusually smart and improvised for the period
- •Vlad notes venture capitalists largely paused investing early in COVID
- •He explains Robinhood ultimately raised from Sequoia and D1, so the shelf term sheet wasn’t used then
January 2021: stimulus-fueled activity and crypto revenue jumps alongside meme stocks
Vlad describes a step-change in trading activity at the start of the new year, amplified by stimulus checks and limited spending alternatives. He explains how Robinhood’s crypto business went from near-zero revenue during a prolonged crypto winter to becoming a top revenue stream.
- •Vlad attributes increased activity to behavioral new-year dynamics and stimulus checks
- •He says crypto and stock interest surged at the same time
- •He recounts launching crypto in January 2018 and then enduring a prolonged “crypto winter”
- •Vlad describes crypto revenue jumping sharply starting in 2020 and becoming the largest or second-largest revenue stream
- •He says this all occurred alongside meme stock activity
The deposit requirement shock: waking up to chaos and “position closing only” on GameStop
Vlad recounts being woken up early after sleeping with his phone in another room and discovering a flood of messages. He explains learning from the COO that Robinhood faced rapidly shifting deposit/capital demands and responded by making GameStop position-closing only.
- •Vlad describes COVID-era anxiety and trying to keep his phone away at night
- •His wife wakes him after work calls her, signaling something serious
- •Vlad says his phone was overwhelmed with calls, texts, and angry messages
- •He says the first automated requirement number he saw was around $3B, then it changed multiple times
- •Vlad explains the COO told him Robinhood had to set GameStop to position-closing only (customers could sell but not buy)
Crisis management on Zoom: splitting into comms, engineering stability, and raising cash
Vlad describes assembling leadership remotely and fighting a fast-moving crisis without being physically together. They split into parallel workstreams to address customer communication, system reliability, and urgently raising as much capital as possible.
- •Vlad describes getting the leadership team on a Zoom call due to remote work
- •They create workstreams: customer communication, engineering/system uptime, and funding
- •Vlad notes systems held up despite extreme activity, which had been his biggest fear since the 2020 outage
- •They focused on raising capital quickly even amid uncertainty about the exact amount needed
The first call to Micky: instant commitment, credit line mechanics, and why speed mattered
Vlad says his first funding call was to Micky Malka, who committed immediately. He later learned Micky relied on a line of credit and that the immediate commitment helped unlock subsequent investors because delays can kill deals.
- •Vlad says he called Micky first and got an on-the-spot commitment
- •He explains he initially estimated needing $250M–$500M but wasn’t sure
- •Vlad later learned Micky used a line of credit and contacted the CEO of SVB to pull it down
- •Vlad emphasizes that in financial stress, people hesitate to inject money and uncertainty is extreme
- •He explains that fast commitment mattered because “time kills all deals” and made later conversations easier
From emergency to overwhelming demand: #1 app, rapid growth, and a high-wire counterparties roadshow
Vlad describes the unusual tension of needing emergency capital while the business was simultaneously surging. He says Robinhood became the number one app in the App Store and that demand for the financing became enormous, while he also had to reassure counterparties to prevent cascading failures.
- •Vlad says the capital crunch was driven by rapid growth rather than a failing business
- •He states Robinhood was the number one app overall in the App Store, ahead of major social apps
- •He and David discuss dramatic revenue growth across 2019–2021 as Vlad frames the period
- •Vlad says later investors quickly followed once Micky committed, and demand eventually far exceeded the initial terms
- •He recounts doing a roadshow to banks/counterparties to reassure them and avoid a cascading failure, saying others called the outcome a “miracle”
Early life in Bulgaria: inflation, confiscated property, and family memories that shaped money focus
Vlad traces his early interest in markets to childhood experiences connected to Bulgaria’s economic turmoil and family history under communism. He describes hyperinflation, loss of property, and vivid memories like copper cookware used as a store of value.
- •Vlad says he immigrated from Bulgaria to the US in 1992 and witnessed severe inflation and later hyperinflation
- •He recounts family stories about collectivization and confiscated property
- •He describes how hyperinflation harmed his grandparents and fueled family conflict about money
- •He shares a childhood memory of grandparents hoarding copper cookware as an “investment” and a store of wealth
- •He contrasts scarcity in Bulgaria with abundance he saw after arriving in the US
America as “science fiction”: fragile status, latchkey childhood, and discovering computers and markets
Vlad describes arriving in the US and being stunned by Manhattan and the pace and competitiveness of American life. He explains how financial insecurity and being a latchkey child pushed him toward computers, then toward following stocks using early internet tools.
- •Vlad recalls driving through Manhattan and feeling it looked like science fiction compared to Bulgaria
- •He says his parents stressed fragile visa status and the need for him to earn scholarships
- •He describes being a latchkey child because his parents couldn’t afford childcare
- •Vlad explains how time in university computer labs led to early comfort with computers and gaming
- •He says that once they had internet, he used Yahoo Finance and created a portfolio, fueling interest in stocks
Accelerated learning and first real investing: SAT-for-dollars challenge and early ownership pride
Vlad recounts rapidly adapting in American school, being placed into advanced tracks, and skipping a grade. He describes how his dad offered to match his SAT score in dollars for investing, leading to a first real portfolio and a formative sense of ownership.
- •Vlad describes starting kindergarten without English and then moving into advanced English and math by the end of first grade
- •He says teachers considered having him skip a grade as he progressed quickly
- •Vlad explains the CTY program and taking the SAT at a young age
- •He describes his dad’s challenge: score above 1300 and receive that score in dollars to invest
- •Vlad recounts buying 3Com, experiencing its Palm spinoff, receiving shareholder materials, and feeling pride in ownership
From math PhD track to entrepreneurship: dissatisfaction, the 2008 crisis backdrop, and the first company idea
Vlad describes a “tortured” relationship with the math ladder that culminated in UCLA grad school, where he questioned whether the path led to a fulfilling life. After the financial crisis began, his co-founder Baiju persuaded him to start a company focused on low-latency trading systems.
- •Vlad says he reached UCLA math PhD level and studied under Terence Tao
- •He describes seeing intensely focused peers and doubting he wanted the academic path
- •He frames academia as colliding romantic ideals with a difficult career reality
- •He says Baiju called during the start of the global financial crisis and convinced him to start a company
- •Vlad explains the initial concept: reduce trading system latency by simplifying architecture and improving speed
Taking the leap (with a safety net): leave of absence, rough New York living, and finding entrepreneurship’s appeal
Vlad explains why leaving grad school didn’t feel like a massive financial risk and how he sought a leave-of-absence safety net. He recounts relocating to New York, struggling early, and realizing entrepreneurship felt like the best parts of math without the academic bureaucracy.
- •Vlad describes being paid as a grad student and using time to hack on the project with co-founders
- •He recounts requesting a leave of absence and the department offering a spot if it didn’t work out
- •He describes moving servers and equipment across the country to New York and struggling through early experimentation
- •Vlad recounts his mother’s reaction to his living conditions and his insistence he was having fun
- •He says entrepreneurship felt like “the best parts of doing math” without the administrative ‘bullshit’
Evolving founder motivation: from profitable trading software to a 50-year legacy test
Vlad describes shifting from enjoying the autonomy of building to needing a sustainable, revenue-generating business. After building a profitable low-latency trading software company, he and his co-founder questioned whether they’d be proud of the work decades later, pushing them toward building something with broader impact.
- •Vlad says their first business pivoted into selling low-latency trading software rather than trading themselves
- •He describes reaching profitability and building a small team with a path to larger revenue
- •Vlad explains a second phase of thinking: whether he’d be proud of the work in 50 years
- •He says selling speed advantages to already-wealthy hedge funds felt like a means to an end
- •He connects his drive to a desire for creation plus mass-scale impact, which he says later aligned with what became Robinhood

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