UCLA Dropout Vlad Tenev Named in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 List in Finance 2016
Forbes Magazine starts the New Year with its annual "30 Under 30" list. And this first quarter of 2016, 600 young innovators, entrepreneurs and leaders are honored for their contributions and influences in revolutionizing business, technology, finance, media, culture and more.
The Forbes' list, which includes 20 categories, were chosen by a panel of experts in their respective fields such as Carmelo Anthony in Sports, Jessica Alba and Tory Burch in Retail and E-Commerce, and Shonda Rhimes in Hollywood and Entertainment, among others.
Under the finance category, Vlad Tenev, a 28-year-old Bulgarian-born, Washington, D.C.-bred UCLA dropout, was named as one of the 30 millennials who influences money flows in the global economy. According to Forbes, Tenev is the son of two World Bank staffers and the cofounder of Robinhood. He dropped out of UCLA's Math PhD program to establish state-of-the-art trading software for hedge funds and banks, with the help of his college friend Baiju Bhatt.
Tenev and Bhatt eventually switched their company's concentration to retail consumers, targeting to utilize technology, design and affordable pricing to challenge existing retail brokers such as E-Trade and Fidelity.
Launched just a year ago, Tenev's company Robinhood, a commission-free stock trading app available to all smartphone users, has already executed more than $2 billion in trades that are completely free of charge. Together with Bhatt, Tenev hopes to make money via the interest on cash in customers' accounts and by lending people money to buy stocks on margin. As of late, they have raised $66 million from top investors.
"Financial services is blending in with information technology. The next-generation financial companies getting started right now are all to some extent software companies," Tenev said. He also shared some words when it comes to investing, "People perceive investing in the market as risky. The bigger mistake is leaving a lot of money in your savings account."
Aside from Tenev, the list also featured several top private-equity experts who have quickly climbed the corporate ladder at the largest investment firms on Wall Street. And these rising talents are 29-year-old Adam Gross of BC Partners, 29-year-old Robert Kalsow-Ramos of Apollo Global Management, KKR's Michelle Domanico and Josh Lederman, both 29, and 29-year-old Frank Yu of Blackstone Group, Business Insider noted.
Meanwhile, there are also several people from Goldman Sachs who made the Forbes' "30 Under 30" list. They are 29-year-old Darren Dixon, 29-year-old Moritz Baier and 28-year-old Seda Arca. They were all chosen by a panel of judges including hedge fund SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci, Vista Equity founder Robert Smith and Tracy Britt Cool, the CEO of Pampered Chef and a financial assistant to Warren Buffett.
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