Vlad Tenev, co-CEO and co-founder of Public, joins the podcast from the New York Stock Exchange library. Public is a brokerage platform targeting serious investors with the tagline 'investing for those who take it seriously.' The company has raised $400 million and operates with headquarters in New York and engineering offices in Copenhagen.

The conversation covers Public's evolution from a social investing app to an AI-powered brokerage platform. Tenev discusses their recent launch of investment agents that automate trading workflows, their focus on the top quartile of wealth holders, and competition with traditional incumbents like Charles Schwab rather than other neo-brokers.

Key topics include the democratization of sophisticated investment strategies through AI, the future disruption of financial advisors, and Public's multi-asset approach spanning stocks, crypto, options, treasuries, and their innovative 'generated assets' product that creates custom indices based on AI prompts.

Targeting Serious Money: The Top 25% Strategy

Public deliberately focuses on the top quartile of wealth holders who have over $100,000 in assets and money left over each month to compound in markets

"85% of that money will be inherited by the top quarter, the top 25%. And so that's literally where the money is at in our space" - Vlad

The company competes directly with incumbents like Schwab, Fidelity, E*TRADE, Vanguard, and Merrill Lynch rather than other neo-brokers

Public's average customer age is 38, representing mid-millennials who are self-directed first due to early financial literacy from social media and accessible information

AI Agents Transform Investment Workflows

Public launched investment agents that automate any workflow in brokerage accounts, moving from button-clicking to expressing intent for complex strategies

Example workflow: "Look at my portfolio, show me if I could do five grand a month in income potential" automatically scans for covered call opportunities

The platform separates AI reasoning from execution - agents help build strategies but run deterministically to prevent hallucinations with real money

"I don't think people are ready to give their money to OpenAI and say make me money now please" - Vlad on the need for controlled AI execution

Generated Assets: AI-Powered Custom Indices

Generated assets allow users to prompt for custom investment themes like "companies that are founder-led, grow more than 30%, have no debt and are US-based"

The best performing generated asset is defense and weapons manufacturers, up 350% in the last month according to Vlad

Popular use cases include remixing existing indices like "NASDAQ 100 but truly take out anything that's not tech" to remove companies like Costco

The AI provides backtesting against S&P 500 returns and drawdowns before users invest in the custom asset

Financial Advisor Disruption Through AI

Financial advisors provide three functions: grunt work, advice, and emotional support - all replaceable by AI according to Vlad

"Financial advisors will have a really, really, really hard time moving forward" as AI agents handle portfolio management tasks

The average financial advisor age is around 60 and rising by one year annually, creating a massive age gap with younger inheritors

Vlad wants to create "is your advisor screwing you.com" to show lower fee alternatives and identify advisor kickbacks on recommended products

Multi-Asset Platform Architecture

Public offers four categories: asset classes (stocks, ETFs, crypto, options, treasuries, bonds), account types (brokerage, IRA, trust, entity), products (generated assets, treasury ladder), and platforms (mobile, web, API, agentic)

The company built an internal holding system enabling real-time money movements between asset classes - "if you sell bitcoin you can buy a T-bill with it the second after"

Trust accounts are the most requested feature for handling the great wealth transfer before people pass away

Public's lifetime value exceeds 25 years with essentially no churn since they serve portfolio builders who compound wealth over time

The Dark Side of AI Wealth Concentration

"Before we live in this oasis where no one has to work anymore, I think it's going to get really dark" - Vlad on AI's near-term impact

"Elon is going to own all the robots and the power disparity that's going to happen there is going to be so massive"

The wealth disparity already extreme in the US will become even more extreme as AI tools concentrate power among those who own them

Vlad predicts New York will feel more like São Paulo with armed security guards instead of doormen due to increased inequality and safety concerns

Universal Basic Income will be necessary for wealth redistribution, though Vlad emphasizes the importance of also providing people with purpose beyond just money