Mission: Our mission is to shrink the gap between the "haves" and the "have nots", leading to a healthier, more robust global economy.
Best Places to Work: 2018 (#26)
After graduating from Stanford, roommates Vladimir Tenev and Baiju Bhatt moved to New York, where they built trading platforms for some of the largest financial institutions in the world. They began to realize that electronic trading firms pay effectively nothing to place trades in the market yet charge investors up to $10 for each trade — and thus the idea for Robinhood was born. They soon ventured back to California to begin solving the problem of democratizing access to the markets.
Exceptionally engineered systems
We are a team of engineers and designers, and we hold the products we craft to the highest standard. We believe that exceptionally engineered systems — not marble office buildings on Wall St — are the cornerstones of establishing trust.
Simplicity
Today there is a complex system of regulation, financial institutions, and assets that can seem daunting to a newcomer. Making Robinhood simple, focused, and immediately understandable is hard work. But we believe that by sticking to this goal, we can make something really special.
Individual participation in equity markets
The stock market is one of the best available tools for individual wealth creation, generating annual returns of around 10% over the past century. Our mission is to empower this new generation to take greater ownership in their financial future, which we believe can help shrink the gap between the "haves" and the "have nots" and lead to a healthier, more robust global economy.
Robinhood makes money in many of the same ways as traditional online brokerages. These include:
Robinhood has raised $66 million from NEA, Index Ventures, Ribbit Capital, Vaizra Investments, Google Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Social Leverage, Box CEO Aaron Levie, Path CEO Dave Morin, Jared Leto, Snoop Dogg, Linkin Park, and Nas, which gives us the freedom to focus on building an outstanding experience rather than short-term profits.
I have been working at Robinhood full-time (Less than a year)
Pros
I used to work at Google. Robinhood is better.
- Mission: my coworkers and I really believe in our mission to make the financial system work for the rest of us (not just rich people)
- Impact: Robinhood is growing so fast that opportunities for growth are all over the place. If you are good at your main job, you’ll be trusted to do more and more. It’s very high growth and high risk/reward here
- Culture: there’s a warmth and openness that makes this place welcoming every day. On the other hand there’s also a kind of rebelliousness (such as a belief that users deserve things for free that other places charge for) that is awesome fuel to innovate
- Transparency: founders share extremely sensitive data about our key metrics and strategies every week at all hands. LOVE the transparency at all levels
Cons
We have some of the usual growing pains of a unicorn going through explosive growth, but I think our leaders are working through this stuff:
- Space: it’s packed to the gills! I don’t love completely open office space either. But we are moving to a new, much larger office with outdoor gardens and courtyards in a few weeks. Our new space will have more quiet work areas for introverts like me
- No hand-holding: for me this is a plus as I like big, undefined problems to tackle to earn my stripes. People who need a ton of predictable structure or who don’t like change or growth won’t thrive here unless they can quickly adapt
Advice to Management
Preserve the amazing culture! Keep hiring high growth people who can grow as fast as the company. Keep eyes on the prize (the mission).
Helpful (4)
Application
I applied online. I interviewed at Robinhood (Palo Alto, CA) in May 2017.
Interview
I applied through a recruiter and had an initial phone interview, covering my previous work experience, skill set, and interest in working at Robinhood. The recruiters also gave me some insight and background information on Robinhood, and the team I would be working with.
Within about a week, I had a phone interview with the hiring manager for the position. This interview was a bit more in depth about my previous work experience, but remained more of a conversation and open discussion. Soon after, I was contacted by the recruiter that they wanted to bring me to an on-site interview. My on-site interview lasted about 5 hours total. I interviewed with 4 people for around 45min each, and had lunch with the team. These interviews were more in-depth and included questions that challenged my though process for carrying out marketing campaigns, how I'd leverage certain data, and what my approach would be to solve specific problems. These felt like they went by VERY quickly, and I didn't feel that they were too intimidating. I actually really enjoyed interviewing with the team, and expressing my ideas and thought process.
24h later, I received an offer (I had other deadlines for existing offers). This just shows how fast the recruiters moved, and how respective they were of my other deadlines!
My offer was presented to me in-person by the recruiter, which I personally really appreciated. Both of the recruiters I worked with were extremely helpful, had excellent communication throughout the entire process, and honestly gave me the best recruiting/interview experience.
Interview Questions