Vlad Tenev

So I think there was a little bit of, we're rooting for these businesses.

I remember shopping at GameStop and buying video games and selling my old games when I was a kid.

So I kind of want them to succeed.

So I think there was just an environment where retail had, to some degree, extra money from the stimulus.

Yeah, big time.

So that also plays into the story.

I didn't know that.

Yeah.

And the other thing that happened that not a lot of people realized was in 2020, Robinhood actually had a big free stock referral program.

So anytime you joined, you would get a free stock.

Think of it as a referral incentive.

If you refer a friend to open up a Robinhood account, you'll each get one.

If you refer seven people, you'll get seven, right?

GameStop...

I think it was a fairly low-priced stock at the time, was one of the more common ones.

So a lot of Robinhood customers, which just, I mean, the customer base grew very quickly during 2020, had GameStop as their first stock on the platform.

So there was like an added level of connection.

Your first stock on the platform is everyone remembers to some degree their first stock, right?

At least I do.

And so then in December of 2020, I started noticing on Reddit chatter about GameStop.