About this episode
Today's EpisodeRobinhood just crossed $100 billion in market cap. Its stock has 5.5x'd in the past year. It's one of the hottest companies in fintech.But here's what most people don't understand: building products at Robinhood isn't just about moving fast and breaking things. It's about moving fast while navigating regulations that could shut you down.Today I sat down with Abhishek Fatipurya, VP of Product at Robinhood, who's been there for 9 years - from intern to VP. He walked me through how they built products that democratized finance while staying compliant.If you're building in fintech or any regulated industry, this is your playbook.----? Timestamps:00:00 Intro01:34 Robinhood's AI Assistant: Cortex08:01 Advice for Products in Fintech12:10 IPO Stories14:37 Ads16:31 How To Build Innovative Products21:30 Why Most Fintech PMs Fail at Experimentation27:15 Ads28:54 Training the Team30:48 Abhiskek Journey at Robinhood39:40 Layoffs47:02 Robinhood's Scaling Journey (2016-2025)52:54 Should Prototypes Replace PRD's1:05:40 Why most Fintech PMs are Failing1:10:48 How To Build a Real Product1:18:08 Outro----Brought to you by:1. Kameleoon: Leading AI experimentation platform - kameleoon.com/prompt2. Mobbin: Discover real-world design inspiration - https://mobbin.com/?via=aakash3. AI Evals Course for PMs & Engineers: Get $1155 off with code ag-evals - https://maven.com/parlance-labs/evals?promoCode=ag-evlas4. Amplitude: The market-leader in product analytics - https://amplitude.com/session-replay?utm_campaign=session-replay-launch-2025&utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=organic-social&utm_content=productgrowthpodcast----Key Takeaways1. Build AI products around problems customers already have rather than creating AI for AI's sake - Robinhood identified core pain points like "why did this stock move?" then built solutions that fit existing workflows instead of forcing new behaviors.2. Write your product's "swipeys" (onboarding screens) before building anything to force clarity on value proposition. If you can't convince a customer to hit "get started" in one sentence on mobile, you don't have a great product.3. Curate upstream data sources and focus on information rather than recommendations when building AI for regulated industries. Robinhood secures licenses with news providers while ca
