Robinhood Aims for Millennial Investors

Robinhood, the no-fee stock brokerage startup, is the creation of Vladimir Tenev, and Baiju Bhatt. The two were roommates at Stanford University, where they studied physics, before moving to New York in 2010 to build high- frequency software systems for hedge funds and banks. The Occupy Wall Street protest took place while they were there, and writing computer code to help the rich get richer left them feeling unfulfilled. Tenev and Bhatt wondered if they could find a way to bring zero-commission trading to the masses. It was a hard sell with venture capitalists. (A startup called Zecco offered zero-commission trading in 2006 and then revoked the deal over time). But Google Ventures made a small investment in late 2012, and then Robinhood landed $3 million more in seed money. Robinhood raised a further $13 million in September. If Robinhood ends up attracting enough followers, the company could force commissions to zero across the industry, says Michael Guillemette, a professor of financial planning at the University of Missouri.