Nothing says “millennials” more than instant gratification, zero fees, and mobile apps for doing things that once required hiring expensive experts.
And Robinhood, a San Francisco startup whose mobile app lets users buy and sell public stocks without paying brokerage fees, is making its service even more millennial-friendly by cutting out some of the most annoying delays as part of an upgrade to the app.
Now, Robinhood will front users up to $1,000 for each bank transfer into their Robinhood account so they can start to invest in stocks immediately instead of waiting for the funds to arrive. It’s also cutting out the three-day wait for the proceeds from a stock sale, which means that users can invest their newly-earned money right away and keep the stock trade high going.
Now, the pesky part: These new features are part of an upgrade to the app, and the company is forcing users to get their friends to sign up too so they can access the nicer service. It’s a melding of the waitlist and invite code models a growing number of apps have been using in recent years.
Robinhood debuted its stock trading app on iOS in December 2014, touting its zero-brokerage fee model with no minimum deposits, and beautiful mobile design—key features to attract today’s young adults. It has since extended to Android and is working to abroad eventually, starting with Australia. Other money-investing apps like Acorns are also targeting young adults by making investing simpler and packaging it in well-designed mobile apps.
