INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Before it was worth $7.6 billion, the original idea for Robinhood was a stock-trading social network
At my kitchen table in San Francisco in 2013, the founders envisioned an app for sharing hot tips to a feed complete with a leaderboard of
whose predictions were most accurate
Once they had SEC approval, they pivoted toward the real money maker: letting people buy and sell stocks in the app, and pay to borrow cash
to do so.Now, seven years later, Robinhood is subtly taking the first steps back to its start
For now, they let users see analytics about their portfolio, like how concentrated they are in stocks versus options versus cryptocurrency,
as well as across different business sectors
Complete with usernames and a photo, Profiles let you follow self-made or Robinhood-provided lists of stocks and other assets.Profiles could
that have dropped their per-trade fees to zero to match the startup, like Charles Schwab, Ameritrade and E-Trade, which was acquired for $13
billion today by Morgan Stanley, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.The Profile features certainly sound helpful
corporations from your home state
Lists also makes it easier to track specific business verticals, save stocks to buy when you have the cash or set aside some for deeper
Robinhood pulls info from FactSet, Morningstar and other trusted sources to figure out which stocks and ETFs go into sector lists, or you
can make and name your own
ratings on stocks.If Robinhood rebuilt some of these features, it might lessen the need for an expensive financial advisor or having enough
cash to qualify for one with a different brokerage
Robinhood could let you crowdsource advice
Tenev told me back in 2013.Robinhood would certainly need to be careful about scammy tips going viral
Improper safeguards could lead to pump and dump schemes where those late to buy in get screwed when prices snap back to reality.But
embracing social could leverage some of its strongest assets: the youthfulness of its user base and the depth of connection to its users
Being able to turn to friends or experts within the app might convince them to pull the trigger on trades.Most online brokerages are
people have for Robinhood
Unsatisfied users could bail for a competitor at any time
apps represent you and it felt natural to leverage a design that felt more like a profile
When helping people group their investment ideas, it was easy to envision this as a playlist you might find on your favorite music
Offering social validation for trading could help Robinhood earn more from its customers despite their small total account balances
But Robinhood earns the majority of its money on selling order flow and through its subscription Robinhood Gold feature that lets users pay
monthly so they can borrow cash to trade with
More social features built safely, more reassurance, more trading, more revenue
Robinhood has raised $910 million
