Three Key Decisions That Helped Robinhood Disrupt Traditional Brokerages Recently, Robinhood founder Vlad Tenev shared in an interview on the a16z podcast that Robinhood managed to break through in a market dominated by giants thanks to three unconventional decisions. First, they were the pioneers in introducing zero-commission services, which put them ahead of the industry by 3-4 years in terms of business model. Second, they prioritized mobile-first development. Lastly, he mentioned that they deliberately chose the name 'Robinhood,' which sounds light and approachable (similar to Airbnb), to reduce scrutiny from regulators, rather than opting for a more aggressive name like Uber. Source: a16z Podcast