1. Podcasts
  2. Origins: Inside Venture Capital
  3. Robinhood's Sarah Pinto: Bringing Private Markets to the Public
Origins: Inside Venture Capital

21 Sep 2026 · 38m · 19 chapters

Episode artwork

Robinhood's Sarah Pinto: Bringing Private Markets to the Public

In short

Sarah Pinto explains why Robinhood Ventures is bringing venture/private-market exposure to non-accredited retail investors via SEC-regulated 40 Act closed-end funds, amid the shift to later IPOs and reduced public-market access to value creation. She details RV1 (late-stage) and RV2 (YC-focused early-stage), including structure, liquidity/valuation mechanics, compliance, and the retail pitch to founders.

Guest background

Sarah Pinto is Head of Robinhood Ventures and President of Robinhood Ventures Fund 2. Previously ~8 years at Emerson Collective (led growth-stage investing; backed OpenAI, Anthropic, Coinbase). Earlier: World Bank’s IFC after studying international development at Harvard Kennedy School; then ~10 years in private equity/growth equity.

Key claims

~1% of Americans have private-market exposure; accreditation/invitation/illiquidity barriers exclude most people. Robinhood’s regulated wrapper enables “learn by doing” with daily-tradable fund shares. Retail investors are informed and less “fickle” than institutions mark-to-market daily.

Notable examples

OpenAI, Anthropic, Coinbase, Databricks, Stripe, Ramp, Revolut, Airwallex, SpaceX, Canva, 11:11 Labs, Whatnot. RV2: $200M BDC vehicle focused on Y Combinator seed-stage; roadshow streamed on Robinhood app/YouTube; went public Aug 13 on NYSE.

Written by AI. May contain mistakes.

Chapters

0:00

The Access Gap in Private Investments

Discussing the challenges average Americans face in accessing private investments.

“Only about 1 % of Americans have any exposure to privates because most people aren't accredited.”
1:14

Sarah Pinto's Journey in Venture Capital

Exploring Sarah Pinto's career path and her transition to Robinhood.

“Today's guest is Sarah Pinto, Head of Robinhood Ventures and President of Robinhood Ventures Fund 2.”
3:06

The Intersection of Investing and Purpose

Sarah discusses the purpose behind her investing philosophy at Robinhood.

“So the truth is I've actually been an investor for longer than that.”
6:30

Emerson Collective's Mission

Unpacking the focus and mission of the Emerson Collective where Sarah worked.

“And that's really what we're trying to solve at Robinhood and the purpose I see in this job.”
8:06

The Evolution of Robinhood's Funds

Sarah explains the differences between RV1 and RV2 funds at Robinhood.

“the problem we're trying to solve is companies just aren't going public anymore.”
9:42

Investing Through Robinhood's Fund Structure

Description of how Robinhood's venture fund operates and its investment strategy.

“And they told us there were really two categories of private companies that they were really excited to find a way to have exposure to.”
12:44

Liquidity and Market Access Issues

Discussion on market liquidity and accessibility of private equity for investors.

“I don't have to sell anything in my portfolio for people to be able to buy and sell.”
14:00

Understanding Market Liquidity

Explore the intersection of private and public market liquidity and its implications.

14:16

The Shift in IPO Timing

Discuss the changing dynamics of IPOs and their impact on investor returns.

“So venture is going to be even a smaller bet because private equity is such a bigger market.”
14:58

Challenges of Public Market Investing

Learn about the challenges and scrutiny involved in public market investing.

“Where companies go public so late that, yes, maybe there is still some value creation and hopefully there still is.”
Show all 19 chapters
16:01

Balancing Compliance and Innovation

Examine how Robinhood navigates compliance while fostering innovation.

“But it is the only way today that the SEC will let non-accredited investors invest.”
18:58

Crafting the Investment Pitch

Understand how to create a compelling pitch that resonates with founders.

“our companies and building for the long term while caring about the short term.”
20:06

Retail Investor Inclusion

Discuss the importance of including retail investors in the equity story.

“They they they would generally want to spread out that wealth creation more broadly, particularly with their customers.”
23:26

Learning Through Investment

Explore how Robinhood aims to provide educational opportunities through investing.

“that brings everyone along and where citizens are going to not oppose my thing, it's probably good to give them, you know, a piece of the pie.”
26:40

Evolving Investment Strategies

Learn about the evolution of investment strategies from RV1 to RV2.

“Are there other things that you change between RV1 and RV2 during your experience of having your first vehicle out there to your point about learning is doing?”
28:03

Building a Diverse Portfolio with YC

Learn how the speaker leverages YC to enhance investment opportunities.

“we also wanted to maximize the likelihood that we would get into the right companies.”
29:57

Innovative Roadshow Experience

Discover the unique approach taken for the roadshow using social media.

“we're using a vehicle called the BDC to take more percentage of each of these companies, which the closed end funds is very limited on, and then also to charge performance fees.”
31:23

Future Fund Development Plans

Understand the plans for developing new investment products.

“All of these systems were designed with the institutional in mind.”
33:09

Empowering Women Investors

Explore the importance of increasing female participation in investing.

“And so we could co-create funds with them, bringing their deal flow to our retail channels.”
A man walking through an airport, asking his phone a question

Ask about this episode

Get the gist, explore an idea or ask about something said.

Claude

On Origins: Inside Venture Capital, what are the key points of this episode?

Searching your listening

Transcript

Automatic transcript. May contain errors.

0:00Only about 1 % of Americans have any exposure to privates because most people aren't accredited. Even if you are accredited, you have to be invited into rounds. You have to be invited into funds. You have to have hundreds, if not tens of thousands of dollars to invest. And then you have to be able to bear the illiquidity. And for most people, those things just aren't true, which means that they can only watch companies like Anthropic or OpenAI emerge from the sidelines. They can't be a part of it. They can't actually benefit from that value creation. And that's really what we're trying to solve at Robinhood and the purpose I see in this job.

0:47This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Please see full disclosures in the show notes and in the end of this episode. Welcome to Origins, the podcast that dives deep into the business of venture capital, where we learn how the people behind the capital, both GPs and LPs, make decisions. I'm Beezer Clarkson, Managing Director at LGT Capital Partners. My co-host Nick Charles can't join us for this one, so you just get me today. Today's guest is Sarah Pinto, Head of Robinhood Ventures and President of Robinhood Ventures Fund 2. Sarah spent nearly eight years at Lorraine Powell Jobs' Emerson Collective, where she led growth stage investing and backed companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Coinbase well before they were household names.

1:31Before that, she started her career at the World Bank's International Finance Corporation after studying international development at the Harvard Kennedy School, then spent a decade in private equity and growth equity. A couple years ago, she joined Robinhood to help build something that hasn't really existed before, a publicly traded venture fund that lets anyone, accredited or not, buy shares in a portfolio of private companies on the same exchange as any other stock. What makes this conversation especially timely is that Sarah just launched Robinhood Ventures Fund 2, or RV2, which is a$200 million vehicle focused on Y Combinator startups.

2:08They kicked off the roadshow on August 3rd and went public on August 13th on the New York Stock Exchange. And unlike a typical IPO roadshow, which is reserved for institutional investors, this one was streamed on the Robinhood app and YouTube for literally anyone to watch. Let's bring her in.

2:29Sarah, it is so wonderful to see you again. It's been far too long and thank you for coming on Origins. Yes, 100%. It has been too long. It's so nice to see you and thanks for having me. Yeah. So for those that don't know, Sarah spent close to a decade investing in mission-driven and growth stage companies at Emerson Collective. And you have back names that are now incredibly familiar to everybody. But back when you did them, they were not. Folks like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Coinbase. And then you left to go build a public markets product at Robinhood. Could you just sort of walk us through the decision to leave and how that happens?

3:06Of course. So the truth is I've actually been an investor for longer than that. And even though I look like a fresh 25 year old, I've been investing since July of 2008, which was a very interesting time to start being an investor. But it means I, you know, I saw cycles early and I've been I've been focused on tech since 2010 and largely at the growth stage. So even if it is true that I invested in Anthropic before most people knew Claude, it's a little less true for companies like Coinbase than OpenAI, but I'll take the praise. The run at Emerson was absolutely incredible. And I'm incredibly grateful and proud that I got to build our venture efforts with Laureen and with Steve and the team.

3:58And it's the kind of job that is really, really hard to leave. I think the through line of my career and, you know, which which leads more directly to Robin Hood than you would think is really the intersection of investing and purpose. And I think investing is is such a fun job that I'm incredibly privileged to do because you get to revisit your priors constantly. The world, particularly when you're in tech, changes on you every single quarter, if not month, if not week with AI. And so you get to always learn. And then you get to walk in the footsteps of amazing people and learn from them and watch them defy gravity, which to me is it's the best job in the world.

4:44And so there's that. And then there's purpose. I went to the Kennedy School originally for grad school because I thought I wanted to work for the World Bank because really what I wanted to do was to use finance as a way to make positive change in the world. And so the kind of investing I was doing at Emerson was very aligned with that. And then today, the kind of investing that I'm doing at Robinhood is very aligned with that because it is giving people who historically didn't have access to what I think is the most exciting asset class in the world. It's creating products that give people that kind of access.

5:21And in my opinion, if you want to have a healthy democracy, everyone needs to feel like they can have skin in the game and that the best companies can be theirs. And that's just really challenging at a moment in time where companies aren't going public anymore. And you might not know this. And I didn't fully know this before joining Robinhood, but only about 1 % of Americans have any exposure to privates because most people aren't accredited. Only about 10 percent, 12 percent of Americans are accredited. If you're not accredited, you can't invest in privates at all. And then even if you are accredited, you have to have, as you as you know, right, you have to be invited into rounds.

6:04You have to be invited into funds. You have to have, you know, hundreds, if not tens of thousands of dollars to invest. And then you have to be able to bear the illiquidity. And for most people, those things just aren't true, which means that they can only watch companies like Anthropic or OpenAI emerge from the sidelines. They can't be a part of it. They can't actually benefit from that value creation. And that's really what we're trying to solve at Robinhood and the purpose I see in this job. And then just for folks that are not as familiar with Emerson Collective, and I just want to keep unpacking the through line between what you're doing.

6:41And I love how you talk about investing with a purpose and that intersection. What was the focus of your work at Emerson Collective? And then we can start with RV2 or RV1, because RV1 might have some of the same companies. If you just want to share, like, how does one pick? Yes, of course. So Emerson Collective is an organization that was founded and is still led by Lorene Powell Jobs, who's a wonderful figure here in Silicon Valley. She might be a little bit less well known by the rest of the world, but she's known for a lot of amazing things, including the fact that she was married to Steve Jobs.

7:16And she founded this organization to create positive change in the world through lots of different ways, including philanthropy, including policy work and including investing. And investing was very much part of the mission of Emerson. And the idea was to back consequential companies. So companies that were both successful in all the traditional ways and also changing the world for the better. my mission at Emerson was really to kind of carry that torch, find the next generation of amazing entrepreneurs, back them and kind of bring that ethos to their tap table and to their company. I know we're supposed to talk about RV2, but could you talk about the idea behind RV1 and what that looks like so people can appreciate the difference between the two products?

8:03Yes, of course. So as we thought about the, you know, again, the problem we're trying to solve is companies just aren't going public anymore. Or now, you know, we thought it was until they were worth hundreds of billions. Now, seemingly until they're worth trillions. I can't even keep my orders of magnitude straight in my head. But we have at least one or two companies in the private markets today that are worth over a trillion dollars. And so all of that wealth creation only benefits about one percent of people. And so we created we decided that we were going to use the 40 Act Fund product to bring private investments to everyone.

8:40The benefit of the 40 Act Fund product category is that it's highly regulated by the SEC. It is the one type of product that the SEC allows anyone to invest in, including non-accredited investors. The type of 40 Act Fund that we use, which is the family of closed-end funds, is accessible to everyone, has no minimums, and is exchange-traded, which means that it works like an ETF. So you can buy it every single day. You can sell it every single day. And so there's really true innovation in the wrapper around which people can access venture. But so that's the innovation in terms of the product. And then, you know, the fascinating thing about Robinhood is that it's both a company that has distribution.

9:28So about 30 million funded accounts from individual investors that are excited to invest and also ability to create product. It's both a distribution and product company, which is fairly rare. And as we listened to our investors, they told us they really wanted to access privates. And they told us there were really two categories of private companies that they were really excited to find a way to have exposure to. One is very late stage household names. So companies like Databricks and OpenAI and Stripe. And then very early stage, a diversified portfolio of early stage companies. And so that's essentially why we decided to go with RV1 and RV2.

10:09It's because those were the top two requests. So RV1 is our first fund, which we raised to an IPO in March of 2026. It's a$700 million now fund. And that one is focused on investing in a concentrated portfolio of later stage frontier companies. So we have 14 companies in the portfolio today. The largest are Databricks and OpenAI, but there's Stripe, there's Ramp, there's Revolut, there's whatnot, there's Mercor, there's Levin Labs, Boom Aura, and I'm probably forgetting SpaceX, probably forgetting a couple Airwallex. But really what we think are best in class companies that are still private and where in a lot of ways you can say, OK, maybe they've already won, but they're still we think there's still a lot of value, a lot of talent, a lot of wealth creation compounding to those companies as they continue to grow.

11:07So that's really where our VI is focused. And, you know, at scale, maybe it'll have 20, 30 companies, but it's a fairly small number. What is the mechanism then for you adding companies? Because it sounds like you can still add to the portfolio. Yes. So what we did is we raised primary capital through an IPO that was largely done through our retail channel on Robinhood. Most of the capital was raised from retail, which is very, very novel and very exciting. But we also have institutional capital, which we're very humbled and proud of. And so we raised primary capital. And then we now our role and my role as a portfolio manager is to invest that capital.

11:56And so when people bought a share at the IPO, they bought a share of we contribute. So our parents had pre-funded a portfolio that they contributed of about 250 million dollars. There was six companies at the time, Mercor, Ramp, Revolut, Airwallex, Boom and Aura. And so there was part of a portfolio, but a lot of it was cash, knowing that we would invest that cash within 12 to 24 months. And so that has been my primary job in the last eight months since I joined was to invest that capital. And so since I joined, we invested in 11 Labs and Stripe and OpenAI and Canva, in SpaceX and most recently and whatnot.

12:43um and so so we have this fund that owns shares directly into these companies and then it's it's all in a fund and people can buy shares of that fund so it's not it's not a synthetic product but it is a fund and so people buy shares in the fund the fund owns shares in the companies and then the shares of the funds are traded on the new york stock exchange but it's all secondary So I don't have to do anything. I don't have to sell anything in my portfolio for people to be able to buy and sell. And then if people don't like what you buy, let's say I bought today and then you added some new company and I, whatever, disagree with the valuation or I don't like the company or who knows.

13:28I can just sell out, but I sell the whole thing. I don't get to piecemeal which company. No, you don't. It's a fund in that way, right? It's like you own a share in the fund. And it's very clearly laid out in the prospectus, we are the fiduciary. So you invest in, you know, you've been an LP your whole career, you know this very well. You are diligencing the fiduciary in a lot of ways. You're diligencing the asset class. So people decide, do I like this asset class or not? But then they have to diligence me and Robinhood in general and say, do I trust these people to pick the right companies? I'm intrigued.

14:02You said something earlier about the lack of liquidity in the market in general, like both that intersection of I didn't realize it was only one percent, one percent of people in private companies, meaning venture backed versus private equity or the whole gamut. The whole gamut. Wow. So venture is going to be even a smaller bet because private equity is such a bigger market. It's very much the fact that before, in the Amazon and Google and Apple era, these companies would go public at a time when they had done a little bit of proving out and their history was somewhat behind them, but most of their history was in front of them.

14:41And so as you know, if you bought if you bought an Apple share in the IPO and you sold it today, you would have made most you know, you would have made as more money than someone who invested just in the private era. Right. And that is just not true anymore. Correct. Where companies go public so late that, yes, maybe there is still some value creation and hopefully there still is. And, you know, we bought three sacks of the IPO. So we think there still is. But making that argument that now you can benefit from most of the value creation in the public markets is harder to make. Yeah. So how does this work from from when you're looking at new investments?

15:20You've raised a pool of capital, but it fluctuates. So some days, is it worth more? Some days, is it worth less? Like or that's not true. And it's just the cash doesn't move. The value of the value of it does, but it doesn't affect us. So what the adjustment variable here is the share price. And so that's what I have to live with that, you know, most, you know, most of my GP equivalents at other funds don't don't have to be marked to market every single day, whereas, you know, I am. And so that's that is the challenge. And it's, you know, you can make a similar argument for private versus public companies.

15:59It comes with a lot of additional scrutiny and it comes with the volatility that you don't have if you are private. But it is the only way today that the SEC will let non-accredited investors invest. And frankly, for good reasons. Right. It's to protect retail. And so I think, you know, could we debate whether accreditation rules are well written? Sure. but you know it comes with a level of scrutiny and disclosure requirements uh that is is also healthy so what what does the public aspect of the valuation changing change how you manage or do your job because you've done it privately and now you're doing it publicly what what are the what do you do differently because of it yeah compliance has become a much bigger part of my life.

16:50Oh, I'm sure. I'm very, very fortunate that Robinhood is actually great at that. And there's lots of layers of that, right? They're really, really, I think, uniquely good at being both extremely regulated and very legal and compliance driven and also very innovative. And it is a real tension and it's really hard and it's really fun, right? Because it's like there, it's kind of like building in fintech, right? It's you are operating within a world that has rules and you need to find a way to do better within those rules. And so that's really part of, I think, what Robinhood is very good at. So it's caring about the general trend of the stock price without caring about the daily volatility.

17:45And that's hard. You have to watch it. And then you have to not let it drive your daily decision making. Because the inputs that I can control, which is where I need to focus my whole energy, is being in front of the best companies in Silicon Valley, talking to them, telling them our story, convincing them to take our capital. Because as you know, every single one of these rounds is incredibly competitive. it's you know at least two if not 10x oversubscribed and so I need to earn the right to be in those rooms and then I need to convince those people to you know cut back amazing investors to make room for me um and that's what I'm that's where I'm putting all of my energy and focus on and trying to not watch the the daily share price but still watch it um and and so I'm I'm very focused on on holding those two things.

18:41And I'm learning a lot from Robin Hood on that. But what would be the key learnings? Because I appreciate not many people sit in your seat on that tension, but living with a tension between two stakeholders is true for most people, right? And investing land. Yes, for sure. So it's doing right by our retail investors and doing right by our companies and building for the long term while caring about the short term. It's holding a lot. Yeah, yeah, that's right. But it's also really, really fun because, you know, every day I wake up and I tell myself I'm telling a differentiated story to companies and I'm fighting for the little guy.

19:24And that's that's cool. And so if it's not insider baseball that you can't share, what's the pitch? Where have you found the pitch resonate to companies? To your point, you've got to fight for access. And I don't know, do you roll in and say, hey, I would like to invest through this vehicle? And how do you counter the, oh, but Sequoia wants to come in or index or pick your lovely name brand that works for an entrepreneur as well? How does, it must be a very different story. And so how does that where do you find it resonate the most? Most founders, when they when they started their company, didn't do it, you know, just to make, you know, institutional investors wealthier, their employees.

20:07Right. They they they would generally want to spread out that wealth creation more broadly, particularly with their customers. Right. Like, you know, a company like Whatnot, for example, which is our last investment, is they rely on buyers and sellers on their platform. to grow this business. And so companies like that really resonate with the idea that they now have an answer to the question from all of these stakeholders who, you know, love the brand and the company as to how do I also invest? Like, I love your product. How do I get exposure? And so that piece tends to resonate with certain founders, not all, but certain founders.

20:48And if you think about what is the safe way to give retail exposure to my equity, I think we are kind of an N of one because we are the regulated vehicle and then we go to every single company and we get their approval, we get on their cap table directly. We're not relying, a lot of other retail products rely on, as you know, these like layered SPVs with lots of fees that don't have a lot of transparency. And so I think we can claim that we are the best solution for that. So that's part of what tends to resonate. The second piece is, you know, the CFO of the companies we invest in are very smart and they're very sophisticated and they know that retail is 25 to 30 percent of the stock market.

21:34And in order to have a successful IPO and a successful public story, you need retail. And in the same way that you bring crossover institutional investors in your late rounds, you know, you should probably bring retail as a constituency. Like it's the one consistency that you like don't talk to until your IPO and then you really need them. Yeah. And that's what we sell as well is, look, we are you know, we have 30 million very vocal investors who, you know, really read about the companies they invest in before they invest in. And so if you're Databricks and you have a B2B product, it's a great way to start telling your story to retail investors.

22:14and we build products with our funds that show, you know, that have a lot of information, kind of like what you would find on PitchBook about each of the companies, like, you know, who are they led with? What are their products? How much have they raised over time? At what valuations? Information that is easily accessible for people like you and me, but not necessarily for retail investors. And so that, and we're developing ways for that communication to also be more direct through hosting live streams and Q &A sessions between our portfolio companies and the retail investors that have invested in the funds.

22:50So that's another, I think, cool, unique thing. And then the third thing is, you know, I think it's a lot of companies, particularly in what I would say is the AI continuum, realize that people are feeling disenfranchised and maybe excluded from AI. And so including people and allowing them to have skin in the game is very healthy. And, you know, we see companies even offering to give equity to the government. I think this is, it's a similar theme, right, of if I want to be part of a healthy democracy that brings everyone along and where citizens are going to not oppose my thing, it's probably good to give them, you know, a piece of the pie.

23:43And so there is a lot of these elements to the story. So as you're thinking about all this, how have you sort of addressed that concern of is venture really a public product? Because there is the later stage companies might not be as much, but there's a long time duration if companies are going to take 15 to 20 years to exit. Private valuations and public valuations can be really different. All all the stereotypical concerns. It sounds like you guys have thought about this deeply. So here's what I would say to this. And of course, the general caveat is this is not investment advice. But I think there is a way to do this well.

24:20And that's what we're trying to do is to provide people with access and a way to learn by doing. And I think that to me is the strength of ramenhood is lowering the bar, providing the education, providing the disclosures, and lowering the bar for people to learn by doing. What do I mean by that? So we live in the world of highly regulated 40-act funds, so we have to publish the very detailed list of every company that we invest in, the securities we're in, the cost of our investments, and a quarterly map. There's really no way you would get that if you invested in certain types of... either you tried to build your own angel portfolio or you invested in certain types of SPVs.

25:07Our first fund has 2 % management fee and no carry. So it's also from a fee perspective, you know, quite, I think it stands in competitively pretty well against other products. And so doing right in terms of fees, doing right in terms of disclosure, you know, see what it does for you in the same way that, you know, kids sometimes put their allowance in the stocks that they know. And that gives them a taste for, you know, what compounding interest and compounding returns and appreciating assets mean. I think behavioral, I'm a believer in this behavioral economics idea that financial education doesn't really work.

25:48What works is trying it out for yourself. And so that's what we're trying to do is create products that give people the opportunity to learn, to try it out by themselves in a non-paternalistic way. and and figure out if it's something they want to put, you know, a piece of their savings in. And what I would say, you know, where the no investment advice piece applies, I think, is, you know, diversification and asset allocation theory, which, you know, a lot better than me would tell you, first of all, if you don't have extra savings, you know, don't invest money you don't have. And so that's what we're trying to unlock for people is the same optionality that exist if you're an institutional scale investor.

26:30Okay, RV2. What was the, remind folks what it is, and then maybe you change some, besides the underlying portfolio company exposure is obviously very different. Are there other things that you change between RV1 and RV2 during your experience of having your first vehicle out there to your point about learning is doing? Yes, absolutely. So RV1 is a concentrated portfolio of late-stage names, a lot less risky. RV2 is essentially the other side of the barbell. So a very diversified portfolio of very early-stage companies. So think seed-stage companies, which for you means something for most people doesn't.

27:07What it means is that it's companies that have existed for months, not years. And they might be slightly have a product and have revenue, but it's early in both of these things. There's a team and you're betting on a team. And as we thought about, so why do we like early stage? First of all, because it's very uncorrelated to anything else in the economy. Also, because we think in this moment in time where AI is widely available, it just opens up an amazing opportunity for people who didn't necessarily see themselves as like the best coder in their class. Well, now it turns out that the bar is lower for that.

27:47And also it turns out that every buyer on the planet, consumers and enterprise are looking at our tech stack and thinking, you know, should I actually change because this is old software? And so we think it's a really fun, it's a really exciting time to invest in early stage. And so as we thought about how do we build an excellent portfolio of early stage companies, we were very cognizant of the power law and the fact that you make most of your returns with a very small number of companies and so wanted to have that diversification. we also wanted to maximize the likelihood that we would get into the right companies.

28:23And so that's when we thought of YC. It was, you know, the top name on our list for incredibly high concentrations of very successful companies. I mean, the numbers are pretty mind boggling, right? It's like about 20 percent of all companies valued over five billion dollars came for YC in tech. Isn't that incredible? Right. And in RVI, where we had no YC mandates, five of our 14 companies are either directly YC or like OpenAI and Ramp YCLMs. And so it's a pretty incredible group of companies and accelerator incubator. And so we went to them and told the team, look, this is what we want to do. And they were very excited about the opportunity for their companies to be able to tap into retail capital and for retail to get exposure to YC.

29:15And so they helped us in a few ways. One is that they gave us a list of people we should hire to do this. And as you probably know, YC, it's a very high trust insider led universe. And so if you want to have a high signal investing strategy and if you want to be in the best companies, you better be part of that ecosystem. And so every batch now is about 200 companies. They have four a year. And so we'll invest in probably 150 companies a year. And so that's the strategy. It's essentially to fight for our investors to get allocation in the best YC companies. And then to answer the second part of your question in terms of structure.

29:58we're using a vehicle called the BDC to take more percentage of each of these companies, which the closed end funds is very limited on, and then also to charge performance fees. So while the first fund is a 2 % management fee, no performance fee, the second fund is a 2 in 20 fund. So it's very similar to most VC funds, as you know, and allows us to hire the best fund manager and line interest between us as an advisor. and investors. Well, talk about your roadshow for this. So you did your roadshow live on the Robinhood app, which I tuned in for and on YouTube. What was that experience? What we did is we filmed videos with, we went with our cameras to YC and we asked them questions.

30:47And then we did a live you with Sequoia and we tweeted and we, I don't know if it's called tweeting or X-ing. Clearly I'm not cool. But the really hilarious thing is that because roadshows are incredibly regulated processes, we had to file every single tweet or LinkedIn post. And so if you go on Edgar, They are official roadshow filings. And so it's like, we are probably the two IPOs that had the most Edgar filings of any IPO in history. All of these systems were designed with the institutional in mind. They weren't designed with the retail investors in mind. And so we are pushing the boundaries all the way to the limits on what we can do, which is so fun.

31:42Is there anything about the, given your learnings, I don't want you to share information that you're not ready to share yet, But what is the, you come up with two products in a year. Should we expect continued new product development? Our goal is to raise another fund this year. And we already have that fund defined and it's very exciting. The way that I would frame it is we want to give retail the same breadth of choices that institutionals have. And so there's so much more that we could do, right? There's lots of, you know, if you're even a high net worth individual, you can access private equity and you can access thematic funds and you can access funds that have sports teams and live events.

32:26And you can access arts and collectibles products and, you know, real estate, AI infrastructure funds. And so we're thinking about all of these as potential products that we could develop. I think the key question for me and for the team is what do we do ourselves end to end? So our first two funds, we decided to do ourselves end to end because we thought we could execute on them. And what do we partner for? And I think we want to be a great partner as well. And we want to have, we want to take the best product managers and by product and financial products. But, you know, there are amazing VCs out there.

33:08There are amazing funds out there that have great products that they don't know how to distribute to retail. And so we could co-create funds with them, bringing their deal flow to our retail channels. And that's really exciting to me. Oh, so interesting. OK, last question. No one really knows where private markets are headed, right? GPs, LPs, everybody debates this. What do you think people get wrong about opening up this asset class? Because obviously you're all in on it. So is there a couple of things people get wrong? Maybe just one major thing? I think there's two things that people misunderstand.

33:43One is they think that retail investors are not smart. And that is definitely not true. They are very smart. They are very informed. They read a lot and they're very educated. And then the other thing that people think is that they are fickle and that they are, that they move en masse and so that they sell a lot when the market goes down and buy a lot when the market goes up. That actually is entirely wrong from the data that I've seen. Sometimes institutional investors, particularly the ones that are mark-to-market daily, tend to be more daily nervous than a lot of our investors who buy and hold.

34:25Daily nervous. That's such a great description. And I see it. Like, you know, you know the type that I'm talking about, right? Like has to mark to market their portfolio every day and calls you and is like, what is happening? I'm like, I told you this was like a long-term old product. Like, don't call me every day. Yeah. No, I mean, it's tough. Yeah, I can see that. I can see it. Is there anything we haven't covered that you were hoping that we would and we don't have to, but I want to make sure since you're so gracious to come on that we cover all everything? Yes, there's one piece that is very near and dear to my heart.

35:02You and I met at a women in venture conference. I'm probably fairly obviously a woman. I'm a mother. And I've been in finance my whole career. And yet, I am still, I, it still took me a really long time to actually invest my money wisely. because, you know, I just, I was, that it was my job and I was a little bit lazy with, with my savings. And I had a lot of liquidity, but we still have a predominant majority of our clients on Robin Hood who are men and particularly for our products or maybe not particularly, but including for our products is still a, you know, an overwhelming majority. We love, I love men and I'm so glad that they're buying our products, but I would love to see more women invest.

35:53And, you know, again, the amount that they can invest from a discretionary perspective, but make sure that they are benefiting from these compounding returns over time, that they start early and that they stay invested. And so if there's one thing that, you know, having someone who looks like me and who's like a woman, a mother, an immigrant manage these kinds of funds, I'm really hoping that it gets more young women to start investing early. Oh, I will triple down on that statement. Well, thank you for coming on and sharing the message. And what you're doing is really exciting. It's I hadn't I knew I knew enough to know what I thought was inciting.

36:35But looking at all the layers that you've built in underneath it. And it's fascinating to me. And I understand why Robinhood is the vehicle for this in a much better way than initially. Given the innovation that was Robinhood to start and all of the things that you've done differently in the financial services market. Thank you so much, Beezer. Thank you. Thanks for listening to Origins, the show where we discuss the venture ecosystem through the lens of a GP and an LP. I'm Beezer Clarkson, your LP host today. Please rate and review this podcast. It's super helpful for us to hear your feedback and for other folks looking for venture insights to find our show.

37:13You can also keep an eye out for more by following me as well as OpenLP on X and LinkedIn. I'm Beezer Clarkson, and we'll be back soon. Thanks for listening.

37:43Sarah Pinto: or recommendation to buy or sell any investment or other specific product. Information is based on sources believed to be reliable, but no warranty is given as to accuracy or completeness, and it should not be relied upon. Alternative investments are speculative, involve complex instruments, and carry a high degree of risk. Investments and strategies discussed may fluctuate in value and may not be suitable for all investors. Listeners should make their own independent investment decisions.

From the publisher

What happens when you take the most exclusive asset class in the world and list it on the New York Stock Exchange? Sarah Pinto is finding out in public, every trading day.

Sarah spent close to a decade investing in mission-driven growth-stage companies at Emerson Collective, the organization founded and led by Laurene Powell Jobs, where she helped build the venture effort and backed names that are now household ones: OpenAI, Anthropic, and Coinbase. She began investing in July of 2008, which turned out to be an instructive moment to start, and has been focused on tech since 2010.

Today she is a portfolio manager at Robinhood Ventures, where she runs two funds built around a structural problem rather than an appetite one: only about 1% of Americans have any exposure to private companies, because most people aren’t accredited. Robinhood Ventures Fund I (RVI) is a ’40 Act closed-end fund that IPO’d in March 2026 and holds a concentrated portfolio of late-stage frontier companies: Databricks, OpenAI, Stripe, and SpaceX among them. Fund II (RVII) is the other side of the barbell: a BDC investing in a broad, diversified portfolio of Y Combinator seed-stage companies.

Beezer digs into the machinery and the tensions - why the ’40 Act and BDC wrappers make any of this possible, how she pitches founders against Sequoia and Index, whether venture really belongs in a public product at all, and what the data actually shows about how retail investors behave when the price drops. It is a conversation about access, structure, and the strange discipline of running a venture portfolio in full public view.

Quotes

“Only about 1% of Americans have any exposure to privates, because most people aren’t accredited. Which means that they can only watch companies like Anthropic or OpenAI emerge from the sidelines. They can’t be a part of it. They can’t actually benefit from that value creation.”

“Most of my GP equivalents at other funds don’t have to be marked to market every single day, whereas I am. That is the challenge. It comes with a lot of additional scrutiny and it comes with volatility that you don’t have if you are private. But it is the only way today that the SEC will let non-accredited investors invest - and frankly for good reasons.”

“The CFOs of the companies we invest in know that retail is 25% to 30% of the stock market. In the same way that you bring crossover institutional investors into your late rounds, you should probably bring retail as a constituency. It’s the one constituency you don’t talk to until your IPO. And now you really need them.”

Time Stamps

[01:05] Meet Sarah Pinto: Emerson Collective to Robinhood Ventures

[03:58] The Through Line: Investing at the Intersection of Purpose and Returns

[05:46] Why Only 1% of Americans Can Access the Private Markets

[07:10] What Emerson Collective Was Built to Do

[08:15] RVI and the '40 Act Innovation: A Venture Fund That Trades Like an ETF

[09:49] Robinhood as Both Distribution and Product

[11:29] How the Portfolio Actually Gets Built

[14:02] What You're Really Diligencing When You Buy the Fund

[14:33] Why the Apple IPO Math Doesn't Work Anymore

[15:44] Marked to Market Every Single Day

[16:44] What Changes When You Manage Venture Publicly

[19:38] The Pitch to Founders: Why Robinhood Is an N of One

[21:35] Retail as a Constituency Before the IPO

[23:58] Is Venture Really a Public Product?

[24:19] Learn by Doing: Fees, Disclosure, and the $25 Share

[28:01] RVII and the Other Side of the Barbell

[29:48] Why YC: The Power Law, Concentration, and Hard Data

[31:11] Taking a Seed Fund Through the LP Inquisition

[31:59] The Live Roadshow and the Most Edgar Filings in IPO History

[33:13] What's Next for Robinhood Ventures

[36:30] Getting More Women Investing Early

Links

Connect with the guest and host on LinkedIn!

Learn more about:

More from Origins: Inside Venture Capital

All episodes