“I regretted that pretty much immediately” - Vlad Tenev on Robinhood’s remote-first policy

“We announced we were a remote-first company in 2022, and I regretted that pretty much immediately,” the Robinhood founder admits. “That was the wrong decision.”

Vlad continues:

“Everyone said it was a one-way door, but it turns out it’s a two-way door. You can reverse pretty much anything.”

Robinhood isn’t 100% in-office today, but they require senior leaders and executives to be in-office 5 days per week. Managers must be in-person 4 days, and individual contributors 3 days. Vlad explains his reasoning as follows:

“If you’re an individual contributor and you’re doing work, it’s very nice to know that your manager is going through more pain than you. I think that’s also a general principle for shipping fast and motivating [employees]. It has to start at the top, and you have to be willing to do yourself to a higher degree what you ask of everyone else.”

Full video: Stripe “A Cheeky Pint with Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev“ (Aug 2025)