Hello and welcome to the latest edition of Off to Lunch…
Robinhood is one of the fastest-growing companies in the US and today it has launched in the UK.
Robinhood offers commission-free share trading and investing through a mobile app. It has attracted millions of users in the US and is now valued at more than $15 billion (£11.8 billion). It claims to be helping to democratise finance by making it easier for people to buy and sell shares.
The app was at the centre of the Gamestop saga in the US in 2021. This involved ordinary investors using Robinhood to buy shares in Gamestop and take on Wall Street hedge funds who were betting against the video games retailer. This led to a remarkable surge in the Gamestop share price, as you can see in the graph below. This story has been turned into a film - Dumb Money.
The UK launch represents the first move for Robinhood outside the US. Initially it will only offer the opportunity to buy and sell shares in US companies, but it is looking to expand that. Robinhood abandoned a previous attempt to launch in the UK in 2020.
In the latest episode of our Business Leader podcast, we look at the story behind Robinhood and speak to Jordan Sinclair, the president of Robinhood UK, about the UK launch. He says:
“We have certainly learned from those previous attempts [to launch in the UK]. I think that's important with expansion and as a business - you have to learn. You have to take those learnings and do it better next time.
“At the time our business in the US was growing at such a rate that to divert capital, attention and focus to a different business in another market just wasn't the right decision for us. We focused on our domestic business.
“Hindsight's great. You fast-forward and we've reached this level of scale where we are profitable - over £100 million - and have 23 million customers. We've really reached a solid base in our domestic home market, which sets us up to now expand.”
You can listen to how Robinhood is approaching the UK launch, how it has dealt with past controversies, and how Jordan Sinclair is juggling running Robinhood UK with having young twin girls by listening to the podcast episode on Substack here, Apple here or Spotify here
Other stories that matter…
1. Unilever is to cut 7,500 jobs and spin-off its ice cream brands into a separate business. Unilever owns Magnum, Wall’s and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. “Under the growth action plan we have committed to do fewer things, better, and with greater impact,” said Hein Schumacher, the new chief executive. “The changes we are announcing today will help us accelerate that plan, focusing our business and our resources on global or scalable brands where we can apply our leading innovation, technology and go-to-market capabilities across complementary operating models.” You can read Unilever’s statement here
2. Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, is giving the annual Mais lecture at Bayes Business School this evening. This closely-watched event allows speakers to lay-out their economic vision. Rishi Sunak gave the lecture in 2022 while chancellor. Reeves is expected to say that a Labour government will launch a "new chapter in Britain's economic history". She will add: "I remain an optimist about our ability to rise to the challenges we face.” You can read a preview of the speech by the BBC here
3. Apple is in talks with Google about offering Google’s AI tool Gemini in all iPhones. Story by Bloomberg here
4. Julie Chen, the co-founder of The Cheeky Panda, has spoken to CityAM about the growth of her sustainable toilet roll business. “We went through a lot of failures, and I learned them very fast,” she says. “You have to make mistakes and then you realise, OK, maybe I need to do it a different way.” You can read the interview in full here
5. Teams within a business that are working on new innovations must be firmly linked to the strategic priorities of the venture, otherwise their creative work will produce ideas that do not boost overall growth, according to new research by Harvard Business Review. More here
The new Business Leader…
The new Business Leader website and magazine have now launched. We are building a new inspirational, aspirational and agenda-setting business publication for the UK. You can read our analysis, interviews and expert columnists on our website by clicking the image below. Our new magazine is now in shops and you can subscribe to your own print or digital version by clicking here
And finally…
I have finally got around to reading Shoe Dog by Phil Knight, the co-founder of Nike. It is a book that has sat on my bookshelf for a while but has been ignored in favour of other titles. I finally decided to pick the book up after I was recommended it again by Tom Beahon, the co-founder of Castore. Shoe Dog is the story of how Nike was built and offers a remarkable insight into the challenges and setbacks that entrepreneurs face. It is a brilliant book - one of the best autobiographies or business books I have ever read. There is not much I can say beyond that. This is a must-read for anyone. It is a page-turning story that also has you laughing out loud at Knight’s self-deprecating humour. I shouldn’t have waited so long to read it. You can find the book here
Thanks for reading. If you enjoy Off to Lunch then please share it with others and spread the word. If this newsletter was shared with you then please sign-up below to get Off to Lunch sent directly to your inbox