2026-06-16 Robinhood Layoff Translation(layoff-translator.pages.dev)

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Robinhoodies,
We’ve made the difficult decision to say goodbye to some of our team
members today. Those departing are being notified, and we’re offering
them full support through this transition, including severance. These
are good people who helped build the foundation we stand on today, and I
am deeply grateful for their contributions to Robinhood.

Translation: We have decided that certain employees are
now more valuable to us as a one-time severance expense than as
recurring payroll expenses. Many of the people leaving did exactly what
we asked them to do and helped create significant shareholder value.
Unfortunately, past contributions generate gratitude, not future budget
allocation.

I want to be transparent about why this is happening now. Robinhood’s
business has never been stronger. But to achieve the massive scale of
our mission, we cannot default to operating as a heavily-layered
organization. We must be a lean, hyper-focused team where every single
individual is empowered to make a massive impact. Our execution is
strong today, but our ambitions require us to continuously raise our own
bar. To achieve that, today we are flattening our org structure and
reducing our overall team size by 10% of headcount.

Translation: Since business is going exceptionally
well, we have the luxury of conducting layoffs from a position of
strength rather than necessity. Wall Street generally prefers companies
that produce the same revenue with fewer employees, so we are removing
10% of the employees and setting the expectation that the remaining 90%
will figure it out. We call this "flattening the organization" because
"asking fewer people to do more work" sounds less strategic.

Because our financial position is strong, we are making this change
proactively. The goal is to maximize our talent density and ensure that
our culture is defined by an absolute elite performance bar and a
superlative commitment to our customers. This transition creates even
more opportunities for our most talented people to grow and take on
greater responsibility. We will also continue hiring strategically,
investing heavily in top-tier talent, and utilizing frontier
technologies to push our execution even further.

Translation: We are not cutting costs because we have
to; we are cutting costs because the spreadsheet says we can. "Talent
density" means concentrating compensation, influence, and opportunities
among a smaller number of people while eliminating everyone who falls
below an increasingly subjective definition of exceptional. The
employees who remain will inherit additional responsibilities, and a
select few may even receive promotions. We will continue hiring in
anticipation of future rounds of layoffs and to ensure remaining
employees recognize the axe is ever-dangling.

I know it can be painful to say goodbye to teammates. It is the hardest
consequence of committing uncompromisingly to our values of being “Lean
& Disciplined” and demanding “High Performance.”

Translation: Fuck you.