Building the First Agentic Brokerage with Leif Abraham, Co-CEO of Public

Public is positioning itself as the first truly agentic brokerage, where AI‑driven agents help investors both construct and run portfolios. The platform supports fractional stocks, bonds, crypto, treasuries, options and more, giving users a multi‑asset foundation. Its standout feature, generated assets, lets anyone prompt an AI to assemble a custom index—essentially a personalized ETF—complete with relevance scores, back‑testing against the S&P 500 and transparent performance metrics. By automating the research and execution workflow, Public aims to break the “cookie‑cutter” ETF loop that dominates retail investing today.

Trust and transparency are the pillars behind Public’s decision to abandon payment‑for‑order‑flow in 2021. Instead of hidden rebates, the firm offers an optional auto‑routing choice and a rebate model that returns a portion of market‑maker fees directly to users, making the revenue stream visible. This approach resonates with the affluent top‑quartile investors the company targets, who demand clear incentive alignment and sophisticated asset classes such as fractionalized bonds. By foregrounding openness, Public differentiates itself from legacy brokers that rely on opaque profit mechanisms.

The company’s leadership reflects its collaborative ethos: co‑CEOs Leif Abraham and Yannick split product design and growth responsibilities, while a network of duos runs legal, compliance and engineering. This clear reporting structure enables rapid decision‑making without the single‑founder bottleneck. Marketing leans heavily on organic referrals, positioning Public as a premium, zero‑commission platform with industry‑leading margin rates rather than a discount broker offering free stocks. While prediction markets are on the roadmap, Public views them as a portfolio tool rather than a core offering, reinforcing its focus on responsible, AI‑enhanced investing.