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Robinhood's Baiju Bhatt Says Numbers Lie. Talking to Users Doesn't.

By Baiju Bhatt · Product & Building · 1 min read

Bhatt and his co-founder got rejected by 75+ investors. One told them they were paying themselves too much at $60K. They stopped paying themselves entirely.

Key Points

Over 75 investors said no to Robinhood's seed round
Investors said mobile finance was crazy, that they were math people who couldn't build consumer products
Tim Draper said the idea was great but would never work -- and they were paying themselves too much at $60-70K
They agreed to stop paying themselves entirely to get the investment

We leave this meeting and we're just confused. Why is that a sticking point? 60K a year?

75 Investors Said No

Baiju Bhatt and his co-founder had been entrepreneurs for five years with nothing to show for it. They started pitching Robinhood and hit a wall.

Bhatt: "One of the numbers is 75, one of the numbers is 110 investors that we talked to for the seed round. No one was giving us money."

Bhatt: "One of the theses was that mobile is going to be people's computer. At the time that was viewed as crazy. It's like, 'What makes you think that people are going to want to have their finances on their phone?' And, 'You guys don't know how to build consumer products. You're math people.'"

It's like, 'What makes you think that people are going to want to have their finances on their phone?' And, 'You guys don't know how to build consumer products. You're math people.'

Tim Draper's Spider-Man Tie

Bhatt: "We went and met with Tim Draper. This man is larger than life. I remember going to his spot in San Mateo. There's a Tesla that had been cut in half in the middle of the place. He's wearing a Spider-Man tie and we're like, holy cow, we're meeting with Tim Draper."

Bhatt: "He's like, 'Great idea. It's never going to work. You're never going to get past these approvals. How much are you paying yourselves?' We're like, 'I don't know, like 60, 70, 80 thousand. Not enough to be able to live in the Bay Area and have an apartment.' He's like, 'That's way too much. Great idea. Never going to happen. You guys are paying yourselves too much.'"

Bhatt: "We leave this meeting and we're just confused. Why is that a sticking point? 60K a year? We're like, what?"

He's like, 'That's way too much. Great idea. Never going to happen. You guys are paying yourselves too much.' We leave and we're just confused. Why is that a sticking point? 60K a year?

Zero Salary. That Got the Check.

Bhatt: "After the meeting we're both feeling pretty dejected. We got burgers across the street and we have the idea that we'll tell them we're going to not pay ourselves until we get this approval. And he said yes."

Bhatt: "Then the gut check came. Like, okay, can I still afford gas? Or am I going to have to start biking to work? There was a couple months where it was like, we got to do this."

Bhatt: "Again, very clarifying. Very focusing. You have to take the setbacks and use them to bring out the best in yourself."

Very clarifying. Very focusing. You have to take the setbacks and use them to bring out the best in yourself.