Robinhood's co-founder reveals the brutal reality of surviving an 80% market crash, going "founder mode" to cut corporate bloat, and what actually happened during GameStop.

Vlad Tenev is the co-founder and CEO of Robinhood. Not only did he navigate the unprecedented GameStop crisis, but he completely re-engineered the fintech giant to thrive.

He breaks down the brutal transition from bloated hyper-growth to a lean machine, why a "juicy falsehood is more powerful than a boring truth", and the 3 distinct phases of AI integration separating the winners from the dead.

Believe it or not, GameStop was not his hardest moment.

-----

Approximate Timestamps:

(00:00) The Unprecedented Crisis

-----

Check out Vlad:

https://investors.robinhood.com/management/vlad-tenev

https://www.linkedin.com/in/vlad-tenev-7037591b/

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And a Big shout out to Wouter Teunissen who prepared a book on Robinhood that helped me prepare!

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Phil Knight is the founder of Nike, the brand that reshaped sports and became one of the most powerful companies in the world.

What would you do if your bank, your supplier, and your government all turned against you at the same time? Phil Knight didn’t have to imagine it. He lived on the edge of insolvency for nearly two decades.

This Outliers episode explores belief, trust, fear, and the price of growth through the story of Nike’s founding.

-----

Approximate Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction

(02:07) Lessons From Phil Knight

(11:25) How It All Began

(15:56) The Waiting Game

(22:26) The Darker Times

(32:56) The End of the Customs War

-----

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Nicolai Tangen is the CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management, the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund. He is responsible for managing $2.1 trillion. That's roughly 1.7% of every listed company on earth.

In this episode, we explore the intersection of massive wealth, high-speed decision-making, and the psychological traits required to survive the AI revolution.

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Approximate Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction

(01:09) What Are You Leaning Against?

(03:17) Tech Sector Evolution

(04:15) The AI Bubble

(05:44) Will AI Replace Humans in Investing?

(06:24) Lessons on Listening

(09:15) American vs. European Mindset

(12:09) Prime Minster For a Day

(14:27) Most Important Data

(16:00) Speed and Agility

(17:05) Ad Break

(18:35) Using Urgency as a Tool

(20:12) Can You Teach People to Change Their Minds?

(22:14) Positive and Negative Comments

(22:56) Testing Assumptions Before a Big Investment

(25:07) Attitude Towards Risk

(28:33) What’s Gotten Harder in Investing?

(29:07) The Rise of Passive Investing

(33:42) Why Did You Take This Job?

(35:04) Ad Break

(36:14) Sovereign Wealth Funds

(38:24) Voting Against Elon Musk’s Pay Package

(39:08) Building Long-Term Thinking

(43:17) Slowing Down Decisions

(45:13) Seeking Out Disagreement

(48:08) Hiring Checklist

(49:15) 140 Conversations To Prepare For A Huge Role

(53:33) CEO Evaluation

(01:01:25) What is Success For You?

------

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Follow Nicolai Tangen:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolai-tangen/?originalSubdomain=no

Learn More: https://www.nbim.no/en/about-us/leader-group/leadergroup-persons/nicolai-tangen/

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Michael Ovitz co-founded CAA and helped reshape Hollywood, then took the same playbook into tech investing and advising founders.

In this conversation, he breaks down the operating rules that kept CAA from losing clients, and the personal disciplines that kept him grounded when the stakes got massive.

You’ll learn how to build momentum, tell the truth without hesitation, read for context instead of noise, hire people who raise the standard, and package ideas into outcomes.

-----

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------

Approximate Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction

(00:58) Learning Machine

(03:41) You Don't Know Everything

(08:17) How People Go Wrong

(16:42) Don’t Fight Your Job

(18:28) Managing Relationships

(20:46) Hiring Top Performers

(26:47) Never Get High on Your Own Supply

(30:27) Identifying Greatness

(33:28) Meeting Marc Andreessen

(43:42) On Failure

(47:48) The Smartest Person I Ever Met

(52:49) The Genius of Patrick Collison

(57:51) A Good Idea Taken Too Far

(01:01:30) Information Consumption

(01:14:13) Business Education Curriculum

(01:16:28) Momentum

(01:18:16) Packaging

(01:24:43) What Would You Tell Your Younger Self?

(01:26:30) The Importance of Trust

(01:29:15) What is Success For You?

------

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LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/shane-parrish-050a2183/⁠

Follow Michael Ovitz:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeovitz/

Book: https://amzn.to/4kn9jb9

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Thank you to the sponsors for this episode:

Granola AI, The AI notepad for people in back-to-back meetings: https://www.granola.ai/shane

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Ray Kroc turned McDonald’s from a single roadside restaurant into a system built to scale.

At 52, after decades selling paper cups and milkshake machines, he opened the first McDonald’s in 1955 and helped grow it to nearly 8,000 restaurants worldwide.

This Outliers episode breaks down how standards, execution, franchising, and real estate created a business machine built to last.

-----

Approximate Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction

(01:46) Turning Dreams Into Action

(10:05) The Multimixer

(15:51) America's Roadside Revolution

(22:58) Building the Machine

(32:14) What Ray Kroc Really Built

(43:12) Epilogue: Grinding it Out

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Morgan Housel breaks down the exact framework he uses to build wealth, minimize financial stress, and buy freedom.

While most financial advice focuses on how to get rich, Morgan explains why the skills needed to stay rich are completely different.

You will learn why "boring" investing beats complex strategies, how to avoid the social traps that destroy wealth, and the specific equation for finding contentment.

Morgan Housel is a partner at Collaborative Fund and the bestselling author of The Psychology of Money.

Enjoy!

-----

Approximate Timestamps:

(00:00) Trailer/Introduction

(00:58) What Drives You?

(04:50) What Can Money Do For Us?

(07:22) Happiness vs. Satisfaction

(11:45) Becoming Financially Independent

(14:40) Survival and Contrast

(20:16) Ad Break

(21:05) Investing: Can You Beat the Market?

(22:32) When Is The Right Time To Buy a House?

(26:45) Housing Affordability and Equity

(28:39) Step by Step Investing

(35:08) Eras of Life and Spending In Those Eras

(43:50) Raising Kids With Money

(48:46) Social Media: Expectations and Comparison

(55:46) Lessons From the Vanderbilts

(01:01:21) Learning From Others Spending Habits

(01:07:51) Lessons From History: Depressions, Panics, Downturns

(01:11:40) Net Worth in Cash

(01:14:20) Passive Income and Financial Independence

(01:25:58) Massive Success: Doing It All Again

(01:32:27) What Should You Optimize For?

(01:38:24) What Do You Splurge On?

(01:40:38) What Can History Teach Us About Inflation?

(01:47:46) Index Funds Allocation

(01:53:36) What Is Success For You?

-----

This episode of the Knowledge Project is for informational purposes only. The views and opinions expressed by Shane Parrish or our guests are solely their own. Nothing in this conversation should be considered investment advice, financial guidance, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always do your own due diligence or consult with a qualified financial advisor before making investment decisions. It's time to listen and learn.

-----

Psychology of Money: https://geni.us/my3K

Morgan Housel

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LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/shane-parrish-050a2183/⁠

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Thank you to the sponsors for this episode:

Granola AI, The AI notepad for people in back-to-back meetings: https://www.granola.ai/shane

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Peter D. Kaufman is the Chairman and CEO of GlenAir, the editor of Poor Charlie’s Almanack, and was a decades-long friend of Charlie Munger.

In a talk that was never meant to be made public, one of the world's greatest business minds reveals the secrets to multidisciplinary thinking.

Peter allowed the complete talk to be transcribed and posted on FS.

-----

Approximate Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction

(01:49)  Why is Multidisciplinary Thinking Important?

(07:27) How The World Works

(18:39) The Biggest Blind Spots in Business

(22:05) You Only Get One Life

-----

Dive into Mental Models: https://fs.blog/tgmm/

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LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/shane-parrish-050a2183/⁠

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

James Clear is the author of Atomic Habits, a global bestseller that has shaped how millions of people think about habits, consistency, and long-term change.

In this conversation, James explains how habits shape identity, why progress often stays invisible before it compounds, and how to design your environment so good behavior becomes the default.

You will learn how to stay consistent when motivation fades, stop quitting too early, and build habits that work across different seasons of life.

-----

Approximate Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction

(00:56) The Role of Identity in Habit Formation

(03:38) Lack of Patience Changes the Outcome

(07:20) Seeing Invisible Progress

(09:58) Why Do We Change What's Working?

(13:46) Creating Conditions for Success

(17:44) Finding the Confidence to Start

(23:55) Playing to Win vs. Playing Not to Lose

(26:29) Internal Sayings to Live By

(30:36) Reputation

(34:32) Positioning in Business and Life

(44:36) Investment Philosophy

(47:18) Turning Reading Habits into Action

(50:31) Taking Notes While Reading...

(52:36) ...And Then What?

(56:06) Maintaining Focus on What You Want

(58:01) Lessons on Filtering Opportunities

(01:06:06) Longevity of Content

(01:07:21) Sequencing Through the Eras of Your Life

(01:11:22) What is a Habit?

(01:13:03) Is a Habit Working For You or Against You?

(01:15:20) Evaluation Framework for Habits

(01:18:32) Building or Replacing a Habit

(01:22:19) Social Media Detox

(01:25:34) The Most Important Upstream Habits to Create

(01:29:58) Relationship Check-In

(01:30:57) Thoughts on Popular Habits

(01:37:31) Become Stronger Than Your Feelings

(01:42:59) When Should You Deep Dive into an Idea

(01:48:12) Complexity vs. Simplicity

(01:54:40) Consistency vs. Intensity

(02:01:11) Learning New Subjects as an Adult

(02:06:40) Prioritization

(02:11:53) What is Success For You?

-----

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What do some of the greatest outliers in business history have in common?

For the past year, I’ve been sharing the stories of history's greatest outliers like James Dyson, Estée Lauder, Sol Price, Henry Singleton, Les Schwab, Rose Blumkin, Jim Clayton, and Andrew Mellon. These are names that deserve to be studied, but rarely are.

This episode explores the mindsets, systems and patterns history’s most notable outliers used to turn adversity into long-term advantage.

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Approximate Timestamps:

(00:00) - Introduction

(01:51) - Part 1: A Taste for Saltwater

(09:20) - Part 2: Do it now

(17:40) Ad Break

(19:37) - Part 3: Systems to Scale

(30:51) - Part 4: Understand What Really Matters

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Newsletter: The Brain Food newsletter delivers actionable insights and thoughtful ideas every Sunday. It takes 5 minutes to read, and it’s completely free. Learn more and sign up at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠fs.blog/newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/shane-parrish-050a2183/⁠

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This week, we're releasing a special episode of TKP with Pierre Poilievre.

While we don't often tackle politics on the show, we are trying to improve political discourse by offering a platform for both sides to speak with depth and nuance.

This episode covers the economy, media, free speech, immigration, corporate subsidies, and more. (And before you ask, the same invite was extended to both Pierre and Prime Minister Mark Carney).

-----

Approximate Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction

(01:31) What is the Role of Government?

(03:31) Canadian National Identity

(05:52) Canada's Global Role

(07:33) Immigration: Problems & Solutions

(09:37) What's Going Right?

(14:50) Second & Third Order Consequences

(17:52) Government Spending & Economic Prospects

(20:05) Positioning: Canada & the United States

(24:36) Canada & Foreign Companies

(26:57) Fighting for Canada Long Term

(30:05) Weaponized Complexity

(31:52) What Role Does the Media Play?

(37:49) Rapid Fire: Get to Know Pierre

(47:44) Maintaining Hope in Politics

(49:06) The Drug Crisis

(54:00) Bringing Hope into 2026

-----

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-----

Newsletter: The Brain Food newsletter delivers actionable insights and thoughtful ideas every Sunday. It takes 5 minutes to read, and it’s completely free. Learn more and sign up at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠fs.blog/newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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