Robinhood’s Hoodhacks VI in 2022 showcased a defining moment for the company’s culture and its mission to democratize finance for all. The hybrid event brought together engineers, operators, product teammates, and other Hoodies from across offices and remote setups to collaborate on ideas that could become future Robinhood features and internal tools. With 48 teams competing and seven winners celebrated at the All-Hands meeting, Hoodhacks VI reinforced Robinhood’s core belief that meaningful progress comes from inclusive participation and cross-functional collaboration. This rewritten piece expands on Hoodhacks’ purpose, structure, leadership, daily rhythm, and the personal perspectives of the people who planned and ran the event, while preserving the original insights and intent.
Hoodhacks: A Robinhood Hackathon at a Glance
Hoodhacks is Robinhood’s flagship hackathon initiative, a multi-day event designed to unearth innovative ideas from within the company’s own ranks. Since its inception in 2016, Hoodhacks has grown into a central cultural program led by the Engineering division, but its reach extends far beyond engineers. The premise is simple yet powerful: create a space where Hoodies from every department—whether on-site or remote—can come together to brainstorm, prototype, and challenge the status quo. The event emphasizes inclusion and leverages the diverse skills, perspectives, and experiences of Robinhood’s workforce to drive improvements in the company’s products, internal systems, and customer experience.
In Hoodhacks VI, the organizing team surfaced 48 distinct projects, each aimed at delivering tangible value for Robinhood users or for the company’s internal operations. The scope of these projects spanned a broad spectrum: from new customer-facing features that could enhance usability and trust, to internal tooling that optimizes workflows, to experiments designed to explore novel approaches to problems the business faces. The participants worked within tight timelines typical of hackathons, yet the outcomes were measured not only by potential business impact but also by creativity, feasibility, and alignment with Robinhood’s broader mission.
A highlight of Hoodhacks VI was the formal recognition of seven winning teams during the All-Hands meeting. The process involved rigorous judging, thoughtful evaluation of each project’s potential impact, and a public celebration of the creativity and teamwork on display. The monetary prizes attached to the winning teams underscored the company’s commitment to rewarding bold thinking, while the public praise during the All-Hands event reinforced the value Robinhood places on employee-driven innovation. The event’s success reflected the persistent energy and enthusiasm of Hoodhacks participants and organizers alike, illustrating how such gatherings can reinforce cultural values and spur meaningful product and process improvements.
In interviews with Hoodhacks organizers and participants, the event was described as more than a competition—it was a platform for cross-functional collaboration and a catalyst for ideas that might not surface within day-to-day responsibilities. Hoodhacks VI demonstrated the ongoing relevance of Hoodhacks as a cultural pillar at Robinhood: a space where ambitious projects can be developed in a supportive environment, where teamwork transcends departmental boundaries, and where the company’s core values—the empowerment of all employees and the willingness to tackle hard problems from first principles—are put into practice.
Hoodhacks has remained true to Robinhood’s overarching aim: democratize access to finance by empowering employees to invent, improve, and iterate in ways that could eventually benefit customers and the organization as a whole. The event’s format and outcomes reinforce a broader narrative about how large technology companies can cultivate internal innovation that resonates with customers and aligns with a mission of inclusivity and empowerment. Hoodhacks VI stands as a testament to Robinhood’s ability to translate organizational values into tangible projects, collaborative experiences, and a strengthened sense of belonging across the Hoodie community.
Hoodhacks and Robinhood’s Mission: Democratizing Finance for All
Hoodhacks is deeply embedded in Robinhood’s mission to democratize finance for all. The hackathon model supports this aim in several interlocking ways. First, by opening participation to Hoodies from every department, Hoodhacks broadens the set of perspectives that contribute to product design and operational improvements. This inclusive approach directly aligns with the principle that ideas can originate anywhere in the organization, not just from product or engineering cores. It recognizes that non-technical contributors—such as customer trust, safety, operations, marketing, and support—can offer critical insights that improve customer experiences and drive safer, more reliable platforms.
Second, Hoodhacks emphasizes practical, customer-facing value even when the work begins as an internal challenge. The projects pursued during Hoodhacks VI were described as focused on creating new Robinhood features, enhancing internal tooling, or delivering other forms of strategic value. This balance between external-facing innovation and internal optimization mirrors the company’s belief that small, thoughtful improvements can aggregate into a more accessible, transparent, and trustworthy financial ecosystem for millions of users.
Third, the event reinforces the culture of “Participation is Power,” a core value famously associated with Robinhood. By inviting all Hoodies to contribute ideas and by enabling leadership and cross-department collaboration, Hoodhacks democratizes the creative process itself. It reduces barriers to experimentation and invites individuals at every level to lead efforts, propose new directions, and help shape the company’s trajectory. The result is not only potential product breakthroughs but also a more engaged workforce that sees its contributions reflected in the company’s evolving roadmap.
Fourth, Hoodhacks emphasizes first-principles thinking—another staple of Robinhood’s cultural framework. Participants are encouraged to question assumptions, challenge the status quo, and develop solutions from foundational truths rather than inherited constraints. This mindset supports the broader objective of building robust, scalable systems that can cope with the demands of a rapidly evolving financial landscape, thus advancing the broader goal of widening access to financial tools and information.
Fifth, the event’s hybrid format for Hoodhacks VI demonstrates an investment in accessibility and inclusivity. By enabling both in-office and remote participation, Robinhood ensures that geographic and logistical barriers do not prevent talented Hoodies from contributing. This inclusivity further reinforces the mission: democratization is not a slogan but a lived practice that enables a diverse set of voices to influence the company’s innovations.
Overall, Hoodhacks serves as a living embodiment of Robinhood’s mission, translating abstract ideals into concrete outcomes and a vibrant, collaborative culture. It reinforces the idea that the path to democratizing finance for all is paved not only with customer-focused products but also with a workforce that is empowered to experiment, share, and learn together. Hoodhacks VI, with its hybrid format, broad participation, and recognition of standout teams, underscores the company’s ongoing commitment to turning those ideals into real-world impact.
The Hoodhacks Leadership and Roles: Organization, People, and Process
Hoodhacks is as much about the people who organize and execute the event as it is about the projects that emerge from it. For Hoodhacks VI, three key Hoodies—Jade Van Horn, Gerry Fernando Patia, and Palash Agrawal—played pivotal roles in shaping the event’s success. Their backgrounds within Robinhood illustrate a blend of customer trust and safety, machine learning infrastructure, and core engineering operations, all of which contributed to a well-rounded, well-coordinated Hackathon experience.
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Jade Van Horn (She/Her/Hers) is a Customer Trust & Safety Program Specialist within the Projects and Analytics team. In her role, Jade helps oversee product launches, implement process improvements, and oversee data collection for the Account Operations and Fraud Operations teams. Her involvement in Hoodhacks VI extended beyond the standard duties of her position. She joined the Hoodhacks Operations team—often referred to informally as HackerOps—to help plan Hoodhacks and ensure the event ran smoothly. Her responsibilities included coordinating the judging and awards process: collecting project submissions, developing a presentation schedule, and collaborating with a panel of judges composed of executive board members to finalize winner selection. Jade’s contributions highlight the importance of structured event management in producing fair, engaging, and high-quality outcomes.
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Gerry Fernando Patia (He/Him/His) is a Machine Learning Engineer on the Machine Learning Platform Team. The ML Platform Team is responsible for building tools and infrastructure that support Robinhood’s applications. Like Jade, Gerry served as part of the HackerOps team. Within this team, he helped ensure participants understood what to expect during the day of the event, organized team-formation activities, and assisted individuals seeking teammates to complete their projects. Gerry’s role emphasizes the critical nature of logistics, comprehension of the event’s flow, and support for collaboration among participants, which are essential to a successful hackathon experience.
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Palash Agrawal (He/Him/His) is an Engineering Manager for the Container Orchestration Team. In his capacity as Engineering Manager, Palash leads a group of engineers responsible for building, improving, and optimizing the core infrastructure services that power Robinhood. His leadership during Hoodhacks VI included serving as the Engineering Co-Lead for the event alongside Senior Engineering Manager Mike Yoffa. Palash also played a central role in updating and championing the Robinhood Hackathon developer guidelines, acting as the spokesperson at company-wide events in the run-up to and during the Hackathon, and ensuring participants had access to the right resources. He helmed the judging expo and hosted the awards ceremony at the company’s All-Hands meeting. The presence of Palash as a co-lead underscores the critical intersection of infrastructure excellence, developer experience, and event leadership in making Hoodhacks a success.
The triad of Jade, Gerry, and Palash illustrates how Hoodhacks brings together diverse leadership profiles to cover planning, execution, and presentation aspects of the event. Their combined efforts encompassed pre-event preparation, real-time day-of operations, and post-event recognition and reflection. The collaboration across Trust & Safety, ML Platform, and Container Orchestration demonstrates the cross-functional emphasis Hoodhacks seeks to foster, ensuring that the event remains inclusive, technically rigorous, and supportive of the broader mission to democratize access to finance. The structural approach—leveraging a dedicated HackerOps group and appointing senior engineers to lead different facets of the event—also showcases Robinhood’s commitment to scalability and consistency in its internal innovation programs.
In the visual material accompanying Hoodhacks VI, the lineup of leadership was presented as a symbolic trio of contributors toward the event’s success—three Hoodies who helped shape the day, the experience, and the outcomes. The emphasis on leadership roles within Hoodhacks demonstrates how the company places high value on program management, cross-functional coordination, and the dissemination of best practices across the organization. By drawing on Jade’s data-centric operations expertise, Gerry’s infrastructure and tooling perspective, and Palash’s enterprise engineering leadership, Hoodhacks VI achieved a balance between creative improvisation and disciplined execution. The result was a cohesive event that supported participants and ensured clear pathways from ideation to demonstration and recognition.
In practice, the Hoodhacks leadership model supports a larger philosophy: hackathons succeed when they combine clear governance with a flexible, inclusive energy that welcomes people from all parts of the organization. The presence of a dedicated operations team, a platform-focused engineering group, and an engineering management lead at the helm is a blueprint for facilitating collaboration, ensuring safety and reliability, and maintaining momentum throughout a multi-day event. Hoodhacks VI’s leadership structure demonstrates how Robinhood can scale its internal innovation programs while remaining faithful to its values of inclusion, evidence-based decision making, and first-principles thinking.
From this leadership framework, participants benefited from predictable processes—submission windows, judging criteria, and award mechanisms—while still enjoying the spontaneity and social energy that make Hoodhacks engaging. The event’s success was closely tied to these organizers’ ability to manage both the macro (timelines, logistics, communications) and micro (team formation, judging debates, live demos) aspects of the event. In turn, Hoodhacks VI reinforced the message that effective internal innovation requires both strong program leadership and a culture that invites wide participation and diverse viewpoints.
A Day in the Hybrid Hoodhacks: Format, Activities, and Energy
The 2022 Hoodhacks event was notable for its hybrid format, designed to enable both in-office participation at Robinhood’s headquarters and remote engagement across other locations. This structure reflected Robinhood’s commitment to accessibility and inclusion, ensuring that all Hoodies could contribute regardless of physical location. The day-in-the-life narrative of Hoodhacks VI begins with a hybrid kickoff that set the tone for collaboration, inspiration, and practical execution. C-suite messages and an MC helped orient participants, laying out expectations, timelines, and the big-picture goals for the next three days. After the kickoff, teams immediately rolled into project work, recognizing the intensities typical of hackathon environments: ambitious goals, tight timelines, and the need for rapid iteration and demonstration.
Over the course of the three days, teams pursued a wide array of projects. The schedule emphasized maximum collaboration and momentum, with long hours dedicated to designing, building, and refining their demos. Yet the experience was carefully balanced with social elements, designed to keep Hoodies energized and connected. Throughout the event, social activities punctuated the focused hacking sessions, providing opportunities to recharge and strengthen relationships with colleagues across departments.
One notable feature of Hoodhacks VI was its emphasis on hospitality and engagement beyond pure coding. The event included in-office treats and social experiences that helped participants decompress after intense work sessions. A DJ set by a Robinhood colleague, Tyler Vatcoskay, became a crowd favorite, adding music and entertainment to the environment and creating memorable moments that underscored the community spirit of Hoodhacks. In addition to the music and social activities, the event featured food trucks and catered options—elements that kept participants energized and ready to tackle their demos.
Another distinctive component of Hoodhacks VI was the day’s progression from ideation to execution toward a public presentation. Teams formed via structured activities designed to help participants find teammates with complementary skills and complementary objectives. The process included demonstrations of prototypes and functional demos as part of the judging expo, where teams presented their work to a panel of judges that included executive leaders. The day concluded with the awards ceremony embedded within the company All-Hands meeting. Leadership delivered the final announcements, and winners were celebrated in a public, company-wide format that reinforced the importance of employee-driven innovation.
The hybrid format also meant that there were parallel streams of activity: in-person gatherings at the Menlo Park campus and synchronized virtual experiences for remote participants. This structure allowed the Hoodhacks experience to be accessible to a broader audience while preserving the intensity and immediacy of a live event. The energy of the three-day event was palpable, characterized by bursts of creative problem solving punctuated by social interactions that fostered cross-team understanding and a sense of community. The immersive environment enabled Hoodies to push boundaries, share ideas, and develop solutions that could potentially scale beyond the hackathon context.
In sum, Hoodhacks VI demonstrated how a well-designed hybrid hackathon can cultivate a dynamic atmosphere where technical and non-technical contributions are equally valued. The day-in-the-life narrative highlighted the fast-paced nature of the event, the importance of structured coordination, and the social glue that keeps participants engaged across long hours of collaboration. The result was a powerful demonstration of Robinhood’s innovation engine: a disciplined, inclusive, and high-energy ecosystem where teams can experiment with bold ideas, learn from one another, and prepare to bring impactful projects into production.
Participants, Projects, and the Most Rewarding Aspects
Hoodhacks VI’s breadth of projects and the diversity of teams provided a vivid snapshot of the company’s internal talent and the potential for cross-functional collaboration. A hallmark of Hoodhacks events is the opportunity for participants to explore ideas that might not fit neatly into ordinary project cycles. In Hoodhacks VI, projects varied from customer-facing feature enhancements to internal tooling improvements, all aimed at delivering greater value to Robinhood’s users and to the internal operations that support a reliable, scalable platform.
The most rewarding aspects of Hoodhacks, as shared by participants and organizers, revolved around three core dimensions: collaboration, ideation, and impact. First, working with Hoodies from different departments broadened participants’ perspectives and allowed for more holistic problem solving. The opportunity to collaborate with colleagues who bring diverse skill sets—data, operations, customer trust, and engineering—facilitated more robust and grounded project ideas. Second, the process of ideation—turning raw ideas into feasible prototypes within a constrained time frame—provided a highly energizing experience. The intense focus required to convert concepts into demos, plus the chance to learn through hands-on experimentation, created a sense of achievement that goes beyond the satisfaction of winning a prize. Third, the potential impact of projects on Robinhood’s products and culture added a meaningful dimension to Hoodhacks. Seeing ideas that originate from within the company have the possibility of shaping customer experiences, risk减 mitigation strategies, and platform reliability demonstrates how internal innovation can translate into tangible customer and business benefits.
Hoodhacks also carried with it a cultural payoff that resonated with employees on a personal level. The program reinforced the company’s values—participation, inclusion, and first-principles thinking—by showing participants how these principles translate into real outcomes. The event’s emphasis on non-engineering perspectives—recognizing the value of customer-facing voices and domain experts outside software development—underlined the commitment to a more holistic approach to product development and problem-solving. The broad participation and the variety of prize categories (including categories such as Most Ambitious) highlighted the organization’s willingness to celebrate a wide range of ambitious ideas rather than rewarding only those that are technically sophisticated.
From a product perspective, Hoodhacks VI sparked discussions about how internal tools, workflows, and customer features can interoperate in more seamless, user-friendly ways. The experience illustrated how hackathon-driven innovation can feed back into the product development lifecycle, prompting teams to think more deeply about long-term viability, user impact, and operational efficiency. The All-Hands ceremony, where winners received recognition and public praise, served as a powerful signal that Robinhood values the energy and creativity that Hoodhacks brings to the broader company vision.
The participants themselves reported a sense of belonging and renewed energy after Hoodhacks VI. For many Hoodies, the event was a reminder of the company’s culture of collaboration and the possibilities for professional growth that arise when teams work together across disciplines. The experience also provided networking opportunities, enabling Hoodies to form connections beyond their immediate teams and to identify potential collaborators for future projects. In this sense, Hoodhacks VI functioned as both a catalyst for innovation and a catalyst for community building within the Hoodie community.
Advice for Hoodhacks Participants: Practical Guidance from Leaders
A recurring theme in Hoodhacks VI was practical guidance for participants seeking to maximize their impact and enjoyment during the event. The advice from Hoodhacks leaders and organizers emphasized several core principles: choosing a project that genuinely excites you, seeking opportunities to work beyond your usual domain, prioritizing collaboration and learning over mere competition, and maintaining a strong emphasis on safety and guidelines to protect participants and the company’s standards.
Jade Van Horn’s guidance stressed the importance of pursuing a project that lights a fire. She encouraged Hoodies to choose ideas that genuinely energize them and to actively expand their horizons by engaging with colleagues from other departments. Her message highlighted the value of stepping outside one’s comfort zone to contribute strengths in unfamiliar areas, ultimately fostering a more diverse and dynamic set of solutions. The core takeaway from Jade’s advice was not only about delivering a successful project but also about embracing the process and having fun while building.
Gerry Fernando Patia emphasized the broader purpose of Hoodhacks beyond winning prizes. He urged participants to enjoy the experience and to collaborate with external team members across the company. Gerry’s perspective framed hackathons as opportunities to connect with colleagues from different parts of the organization, reinforcing Robinhood’s cultural emphasis on shared ideas and cross-functional collaboration. He reminded participants that Hoodhacks is more than an engineering exercise; it is a celebration of the company’s culture and its capacity to unify diverse talents around a common goal.
Palash Agrawal’s advice centered on limitless imagination while maintaining safety as a priority. He reminded participants that nothing is too big or too small and that ideas at all stages of development are welcome. He also highlighted the importance of following the Robinhood Hackathon developer guidelines to ensure a safe and constructive environment for experimentation. Palash’s guidance underscored the balance between ambition and responsible execution, encouraging participants to push boundaries while adhering to established practices.
The overarching takeaway from these perspectives is clear: Hoodhacks participants should pursue passionate ideas, engage with colleagues across the organization, and maintain a mindset that blends curiosity with practical safeguards. The event’s success depends not only on technical prowess but also on the willingness to collaborate, learn, and adapt in a fast-paced, supportive setting. The leaders’ advice embodies a holistic approach to internal innovation, one that values enthusiasm and teamwork as much as technical output.
Inclusivity, Talent, and the Call to Action: Building a Diverse Hoodhacks Community
A persistent theme across Hoodhacks VI was the commitment to building a more diverse, inclusive Hoodies community. The event exists not only to generate innovative products but also to foster a culture where every employee feels empowered to contribute. The message from Robinhood leadership has consistently underscored the importance of inclusion as a core business practice, not merely a social initiative. Hoodhacks VI reinforced this narrative by welcoming Hoodies from different backgrounds, roles, and levels of experience to participate in meaningful ways, whether as contributors or as organizers.
The program’s openness extends to the broader talent strategy. Robinhood welcomes individuals who share the company’s commitment to diversity and inclusion and who are eager to contribute to an environment that champions collaboration and experimentation. The company’s openness to new ideas, the willingness to question the status quo, and a strong emphasis on first-principles thinking provide fertile ground for employees who want to grow, learn, and influence Robinhood’s future. The Hoodhacks ethos thus acts as a bridge between internal innovation and external talent acquisition, showcasing the company as a place where ambitious people can contribute to an ongoing journey toward democratizing finance for all.
As part of the ongoing outreach, Robinhood emphasizes connecting with a broader audience through its talent community and open positions. The call to action invites interested individuals to explore opportunities within Robinhood and to bring their unique perspectives to the Hoodhacks and the company at large. The emphasis on inclusion and collaboration resonates with prospective applicants who value a culture that champions diverse voices, cross-functional teamwork, and the empowerment of all workers to contribute meaningfully.
It is also important to note that Hoodhacks aligns with a broader corporate communications stance. In the context of corporate messaging, Hoodhacks serves as a tangible demonstration of how Robinhood translates its mission into real-world practice. By prioritizing inclusion, collaboration, and first-principles thinking, Hoodhacks becomes a visible, recurring indicator of how the company intends to operate at scale: empowering people, embracing curiosity, and delivering value that benefits customers and communities alike. The event’s outcomes, including its winners and the stories of its organizers, contribute to a narrative about a company that takes its mission seriously and invests in a culture that nurtures innovation through collaboration.
Conclusion
Robinhood’s Hoodhacks VI in 2022 stood as a comprehensive demonstration of the company’s commitment to inclusivity, collaboration, and innovation as pathways to democratizing finance for all. The hybrid format of the event made it accessible to a broad range of Hoodies, while the 48 teams and seven winners showcased the breadth of talent and ideas within the organization. The leadership team—Jade Van Horn, Gerry Fernando Patia, and Palash Agrawal—emphasized the dual importance of structured execution and flexible, cross-functional creativity. The event’s schedule, social elements, and culminating awards ceremony highlighted a culture that rewards bold ideas and teamwork, while maintaining a strong emphasis on safety, guidelines, and the shared mission to empower customers.
Participants spoke of Hoodhacks as a space where non-technical perspectives are valued, where cross-department collaboration can unlock new insights, and where the pursuit of ambitious ideas can be balanced with practical execution. The event’s outcomes—ranging from new features and internal tools to potential product improvements—underscore Hoodhacks’ potential to influence Robinhood’s roadmap and customer experience. The emphasis on participation, inclusion, and first-principles thinking reinforces a company-wide commitment to empowering employees to contribute to Robinhood’s mission—democratizing finance for all—and to build a more accessible, transparent financial system.
As Robinhood continues to evolve, Hoodhacks remains a critical vehicle for cultivating internal innovation, strengthening community ties among Hoodies, and reinforcing a culture that values curiosity, collaboration, and courage. The ongoing invitation to join the Hoodhacks community and explore open positions reflects a broader strategy: to grow a diverse, capable team that can contribute to Robinhood’s ambitious goals and continue advancing the company’s mission in meaningful, measurable ways. By maintaining a focus on inclusion, cross-functional collaboration, and principled experimentation, Hoodhacks will likely remain a central pillar of Robinhood’s innovation ecosystem for years to come.
