Robinhood is understood for propogating memestock mania, making its founders billionaires, and altering how Individuals make investments. However a mannequin of company governance and succession planning? Nicely, add it to the checklist. The corporate’s fastidiously deliberate CFO transition that underscores how far the corporate has come—from a scrappy startup navigating hypergrowth and market turbulence to an S&P 500 agency targeted on sturdy, disciplined execution.
The Menlo Park, Calif.-based fintech and buying and selling platform, which provides conventional asset and cryptocurrency buying and selling, introduced in November that CFO Jason Warnick is retiring. He’ll transfer into an advisory position within the first quarter of 2026 and stay with the corporate till Sept. 1, 2026, as Shiv Verma, SVP of finance and technique and treasurer, steps into the highest finance job. Fortune lately sat down with the duo at Robinhood’s Washington, D.C., workplace to delve into how they orchestrated the handoff—and what they realized alongside the best way.
At present Robinhood has a completely built-out finance group and a spot within the S&P 500. In 2024, the corporate earned $2.95 billion in whole internet revenues and annual internet earnings of $1.41 billion. This marked Robinhood’s first yr of GAAP profitability yr since going public in 2021. Robinhood is rising quick—its income is already approaching half the scale of mid-tier monetary companies like T. Rowe Worth and Broadridge.
However when Warnick joined the corporate in late 2018 after 20 years at Amazon, the finance operate was barely a dozen individuals. Verma had been employed as treasurer weeks earlier, plus there have been a handful of accountants, and one finance contractor.
In speaking with Warnick and Verma, each primarily based on the West Coast, they conveyed a startup-like vibe on the firm: casual, under no circumstances stuffy, and open to concepts and debate, and at instances, laughter. “I really advised him it’s not too late if he desires to vary his thoughts,” Verma quipped of Warnick’s pending retirement. “I’ll miss him as good friend.”
Verma considers himself as tremendous analytical. “I’m a math man; a former bond dealer,” he mentioned. However what he realized from Warnick is the flexibility to delegate. In any other case, you’ll be able to “begin at six within the morning and go until midnight,” he mentioned. “And I’ve a 3 month previous at residence.”
“His spouse is actually upset with me, proper?” Warnick quipped. “She loves Jason; she’s not such a fan of the timing,” Verma parried again. “Though, she is genuinely completely satisfied for each of us,” he added.
The camaraderie between Warnick and Verma started as members of a workforce, led by Robinhood CEO Vladimir Tenev, that navigated the corporate by means of some tough waters. In March 2020, Robinhood suffered a significant app outage on one of many greatest up days in market historical past, leaving customers unable to commerce because the Dow surged, Warnick recalled.
“We weren’t engineers, and you’ll really feel sort of helpless,” he mentioned. However he and Verma rapidly concluded that their position was to not repair code however to triage stakeholders. That meant calling bankers, traders, and board members in actual time and being as clear as attainable, Warnick mentioned. That groundwork, he believes, helped Robinhood increase billions of {dollars} in early 2021, when meme-stock volatility and surging volumes once more careworn the platform. The capital increase was aimed toward strengthening the corporate’s monetary place and supporting its fast development on the time, Warnick mentioned.
Constructing a successor by design
This transition was years within the making, one thing you may anticipate at a 100 yr previous Fortune 500 agency however not essentially a nimble disruptor. “We’ve been joined on the hip for seven years,” Verma quips. However over these seven years, Warnick steadily expanded Verma’s remit—from treasury to finance, then investor relations, company growth, benchmarking and buyer technique, and partnerships. Alongside the best way, Verma employed a devoted treasurer and a VP of finance, usually at Warnick’s urging, to permit him to step again and focus on higher-leverage selections.
That deliberate scope growth mirrored Warnick’s personal development at Amazon, the place his obligations grew, ultimately culminating in oversight of a 500-person finance group and a task as chief of employees to the CFO. At Robinhood, the identical mannequin meant that by the point the transition was introduced, Verma was already managing greater than half the finance group and appearing as a central node throughout the enterprise. He has attended each board assembly since Robinhood went public, co-presented earnings, and repeatedly joined audit and threat committee classes.
Verma describes the final seven years as a compressed Silicon Valley lifecycle: early buildout, pandemic-era hypergrowth, the GameStop frenzy and IPO, adopted by a pointy selloff. In 2022, Robinhood reduce roughly 30% of its workforce and shifted to a basic supervisor mannequin. “We’ve come a great distance,” Verma mentioned, “to a really expert public firm.”
Crucial talent of a CFO
At present CFOs are anticipated to personal the numbers, but in addition act as core strategist, digital chief, and enterprise change agent. Earlier in his profession, Warnick mentioned he was as soon as requested by a mentor, What do you assume is crucial facet of a CFO’s job? He answered, capital allocation.
“That’s necessary; that’s what drives future returns for the corporate,” he remembers his mentor telling him. “However you don’t get to allocate the capital your self.” Crucial talent a CFO has, Warnick mentioned, is influencing the final word decision-maker—the CEO. “So our job is to carry knowledge and finance into the dialogue and affect the end result,” he mentioned. “And I feel that that’s one space the place Shiv simply shines.”
Verma spends a number of time with Tenev, the board, and cross-functional leaders in engineering, authorized, compliance, and threat, specializing in the choices that matter most for Robinhood’s long-term trajectory, he mentioned.
For the finance leaders, what appears like succession planning was arguably actually the muse of a stable mentorship. “He’s nonetheless my first name after I’m fighting one thing,” Verma mentioned of Warnick.
As for Warnick’s retirement plans, they’re nonetheless being fleshed out, however will embrace journey together with his spouse, as they’re now empty nesters. One factor’s for certain: if Verma desires some recommendation, he’s solely a telephone name away.
