Under 30's Throwback To 2016: The Biggest Moments From The Last Decade With Vlad Tenev, Ty Haney And More

"So imagine this: The year is 2016. You open Instagram (just a six-year-old app at that point) and posts of King Kylie and videos of the viral mannequin challenge flood your feed. As social media booms, so does the consumer industry. Many of today's cult-followed brands are launching and growing -like Khloe Kardashian and Emma Grede's Good American jeans, Jen Rubio and Steph Korey's Away luggage, and now megapopular health tracker Oura, to name a few."

"But it was also a year of financial shakeup. Brexit resulted in a $2 trillion loss across the global markets in just one day. And President Trump's first election in November jump-started a years-long fluctuation in the U.S. Dollar-emblematic with a midnight crash of the S&P 500 on election night, followed by a surge the very next day as business owners held out hope for massive corporate tax cuts and deregulation."

"Initially built for hedge funds and banks as customers, Robinhood eventually pivoted its focus toward consumers. The cofounders wanted to "use technology, design and rock-bottom pricing to undercut existing retail brokers like E-Trade and Fidelity," according to Tenev's Under 30 profile. So they rebranded in 2015 as a commission-free stock trading app that could be used by anyone with a smartphone."

2016 saw a social-media-driven surge in consumer brands, with companies like Good American, Away and Oura gaining traction alongside viral cultural moments. Brexit caused a $2 trillion global market loss in one day, and President Trump's election triggered volatile U.S. Dollar movements, including a midnight S&P 500 crash followed by a rebound as investors anticipated corporate tax cuts and deregulation. Uncertainty became commonplace while entrepreneurs and consumers pursued bold growth. Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt pivoted Robinhood from serving hedge funds to retail users. Robinhood rebranded in 2015 as a commission-free stock trading app accessible via smartphone, rapidly scaling trading volume.

Read at Forbes