Tenev finds himself in a unique position among his fellow Forbes listers, in that his wealth has been accumulated on the back of a populist message. Robinhood, which was founded on the idea of democratizing access to investing, has always played on the popular resentment of wealthy investor-insider types who might be partying on yachts with Tenev today.
This month, Robinhood launched the next iteration of this vision: Robinhood Ventures, a closed-end fund that promises to open access to private companies to Joe Schmo—and with them, the kinds of returns previously accessible only to venture capitalists.
It’s an intriguing portfolio, full of companies that have long been on my radar but always out of reach for anyone besides my sources in VC, including the cloud platform Databricks, AI-data-labeling start-up Mercor, health-tracking ring-maker Oura, and supersonic flight company Boom.
In a way, it’s a large-scale version of the secondary markets that have sprung up around hot investments. So-called “special purpose vehicles” bundle small checks from regular people, are laden with layers of fees, and are usually only accessible through personal connections. (In 2022, private texts surfaced between Elon Musk and Jason Calacanis, in which Musk chastised his buddy for “marketing an SPV to randos.”)
I asked what Tenev would say to the critics who suggest Robinhood Ventures is just exploiting this FOMO to sell access to so-so companies at unrealistic valuations and extract onerous fees.
He scooted into the chair next to me and pulled out an orange iPhone to show me a video of a skit he performed that pokes fun at those exact concerns. “The goal of Robinhood Ventures is not just to open the doors to private investing,” says tiny Vlad on the screen, “but to blow them completely off the hinges.”
“Did you like the acting?” he asked eagerly once it was finished.
$RVI closed over 11% down on its first day of trading and has bounced around since—which gets to another inherent issue with this model. VCs are used to working on years-long horizons, while antsy retail investors were already panicking on Reddit about losing $1,000 in just a few days.
Still, Tenev is hopeful that this breakthrough will allow savvy retail investors to access a (relatively) early piece of tech booms, the same way apps like Robinhood have allowed some to make life-changing wealth on public assets like Nvidia, Tesla, or even Bitcoin. (Of course, the flipside of that is the unlucky schmucks who catch the bust side of the cycle. Robinhood, many would argue, helped spark the degenerate gambling economy we know and love to hate today. Remember: According to industry research, a tiny minority of day traders are able to outperform the market—and most actually end up losing money.)
“[Robinhood Ventures is] probably a better investment than, in my opinion, cryptocurrencies or the prediction market,” John Cole Scott, president of Closed-End Fund Advisors, told me this week. But he still advised “using lottery money” for such investments rather than your kids’ college funds.
