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Vlad Tenev on why he created a community for Robinhood’s top 150 employees

August 21, 2025

“We very much concentrate rewards with our top performers. So if you’re one of the best people in the company, you get rewarded very, very well. Promotions are zeroed in on those people. I have a founders community too, which isn’t just the people that report to me.”

In most companies, the the people at the top of the org chart are most important. However, Vlad’s goal for this founders community is to fight against that. As he explains it consists of the top 150 people at Robinhood by impact, across all levels:

“It started out as being compensation-centered. For the best people, we have a discretionary budget that we allocate towards them. But over time it has grown into an actual community. If I go through the updated strategy or vision, we get those folks together. We get their feedback. We do events — we have events in each city and get them together for dinners.”

When he inducts people into this community, Vlad tells them:

“If there was a disaster and we had to rebuild Robinhood with 150 people, you would be in that group.”

He explains:

“You always have to be aware of who your best people are.”