Robinhood’s referral solution to a unique challenge with waitlists In Mailbox’s case, most people got tired of seeing so many people ahead of them on the waitlist week after week. Mathematically, they were making progress by moving ahead 40,000+ positions in a week at a time. However, psychologically they felt that there are still zillion people ahead of them and started deleting the app. Robinhood took a very interesting approach to tackle this problem. They gamified it by giving users an option to get priority access by referring their friends and family. People love playing games, especially when those games are tied to rewards they actually want. Look at the screenshot above, there are options to refer friends via Twitter, Facebook, Email, LinkedIn. The more people join using a user’s referral link, the sooner she will get access. Giving users an option to control their position on the waitlist gives them a sense of autonomy — the feeling of controlling their own destiny. It’s one of the most important ingredient of intrinsic motivation. This played a very important role in the exponential growth of their waitlist. Launch before launch It was a Friday night, Robinhood team had been working on the waitlist in preparation for their press launch, which was on the following Wednesday or Thursday. The very next morning, founder Vlad Tenev opens up Google Analytics and surprisingly sees 600 active people on their site. It wasn’t normal for them as only a handful of their friends and family knew about it. Looking closely at the analytics — he saw a lot of traffic coming from Hacker News — A very popular site among the tech community all over the world. When he opened up Hacker News, he sees the post: “Robinhood: Free Stock Trading.” trending in the number 3 position. The challenge for them was that the waitlist system wasn’t ready and emails weren’t getting captured. So, the entire team rushed to the office to get everything up and running. With the semi-broken system, they ended up getting 10,000 signups that first day and over 50,000 on the first week — which is something they had never even dreamt of. Within a year, more than 1 million people joined the waitlist to use their service. The app was officially launched after getting all the regulatory approvals in March 2015, almost 2 years later. Just yesterday, the app closed a $660 million funding round. There is a lot to learn from other’s success as well as failures. Below are a few articles that I have written on the topic of growth using the referral program. Do read them to get interesting insights. How a millennial-focused investment App used Scratch Cards to 100x their referral program? Lessons from AppBrowzer Referral Program — 300k to 1.5 million users in 21 days (Part 1) Dropbox Referral Program — A Story of 3900% growth in just 15 months PayPal Referral Program — Case Study of the Internet’s first viral growth hack using referrals

1. Use a Referral Program to
Get 1 Million Users on
Your App's Waitlist Even
Before It Launches

2. Sounds impossible, right? How can a referral program get 1 million users waiting to try your
app even before launch?
Acquiring users for an app is hard, but it’s even harder when the app doesn’t exist yet. This is
the story of Robinhood, a US-based commission-free stock trading and investment app
which is now valued at $11.7 billion.
As of today, the app is used by 13mn+ users across multiple countries. It was founded in
2013 with the aim to democratize finance for all.

3. The founding story

4. Before starting Robinhood, the founders were running an enterprise startup that used to sell
trading software to hedge funds. During this time, they realized that the big Wallstreet firms
pay nothing to trade stocks, while most Americans were charged hefty commissions for
every trade.
This compelled them to do something about it and that’s how the idea of the Robinhood
app was born.
In every country, anything related to stocks or investments requires a lot of regulatory
approvals and they can eat up a lot of time. The founders needed to test the market, so they
decided to go ahead with a pre-launch campaign similar to Mailbox.

5. Mailbox after its launch was
rolling out access to users
gradually to ensure that the
service works seamlessly for
everyone. The difference with
Mailbox’s waitlist was that you
had to download the app to
get on the waitlist and not the
other way round.

6. Keeping it Super Simple

7. Robinhood founders chose to create a simple website that had a description in very simple
language saying “Robinhood $0 commission stock trading Stop paying up to $10 every
trade”, an email input box, and a CTA button — “Get Early Access”

8. Unlike Mailbox, you didn’t have to download an app just to get on the waitlist. I really liked
their super simple landing page. It immediately tells the value proposition of their service
and compels me to take action by just giving an email address.
There was also a subtle option to Watch the video, in case someone wanted to know more
about them before giving the email to get early access.

9. Robinhood’s referral
solution to a unique
challenge with waitlists

10. In Mailbox’s case, most people got tired of seeing so
many people ahead of them on the waitlist week
after week.
Mathematically, they were making progress by
moving ahead 40,000+ positions in a week at a time.
However, psychologically they felt that there are still
zillion people ahead of them and started deleting
the app.
Robinhood took a very interesting approach to
tackling this problem. They gamified it by giving
users an option to get priority access by referring
their friends and family.

11. People love playing games, especially when those games are tied to rewards they actually
want.
Look at the screenshot above, there are options to refer friends via Twitter, Facebook, Email,
and LinkedIn. The more people join using a user’s referral link, the sooner she will get
access.
Giving users an option to control their position on the waitlist gives them a sense of
autonomy — the feeling of controlling their own destiny. It’s one of the most important
ingredients of intrinsic motivation.
This played a very important role in the exponential growth of their waitlist.

12. Launch before launch

13. It was a Friday night, Robinhood team had been working on the waitlist in preparation for
their press launch, which was on the following Wednesday or Thursday.
The very next morning, founder Vlad Tenev opens up Google Analytics and surprisingly
sees 600 active people on their site. It wasn’t normal for them as only a handful of their
friends and family knew about it.
Looking closely at the analytics — he saw a lot of traffic coming from Hacker News — A very
popular site among the tech community all over the world. When he opened up Hacker
News, he sees the post: “Robinhood: Free Stock Trading.” trending in the number 3 position.
The challenge for them was that the waitlist system wasn’t ready and emails weren’t getting
captured. So, the entire team rushed to the office to get everything up and running.

14. With the semi-broken system, they ended up getting 10,000 signups that first day and over
50,000 on the first week — which is something they had never even dreamt of.
Within a year, more than 1 million people joined the waitlist to use their service. The app was
officially launched after getting all the regulatory approvals in March 2015, almost 2 years
later.
Just yesterday, the app closed a $660 million funding round.
There is a lot to learn from others’ successes as well as failures.
Below are a few articles that I have written on the topic of growth using the referral
program.

15. Do read them to get interesting insights.
How a millennial-focused investment App used Scratch Cards to 100x their referral
program?
1.
Lessons from AppBrowzer Referral Program — 300k to 1.5 million users in 21 days (Part 1)
2.
Dropbox Referral Program — A Story of 3900% growth in just 15 months
3.
PayPal Referral Program — Case Study of the Internet’s first viral growth hack using
referrals
4.

16. THANK YOU
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