Joining Greenlight

Hello Friends,

I am pleased and excited to share that I have joined Greenlight Financial as VP/ GM of Credit.

What Greenlight has built is so true to the mission: shine a light on the world of money so that we can raise financially smart kids. In the world of credit and loans, we want to raise kids who understand the power of credit, but also grow up understanding the responsibility of maintaining good credit.

Since leaving Credit Sesame in 2020, I spent a lot of time on propelling startup ideas. A main startup focus is on how people without credit get credit. These are +20% of Americans who are outside the credit bureaus as Stale-Thin-Credit Invisible. Many foreign-born individuals and young people struggle with this problem of credit inclusion. It takes credit history to get credit, but without credit you can’t start a credit history — Chicken meet Egg. Egg, this is Chicken… Now move me to BCC and you two work out the details.

It was gratifying, but nailing product market fit and establishing market entry was a big hurdle. In the end, I had fallen in love with the problem of building positive credit for the excluded, but I had not yet found the right vehicle to solve. So I took a crack at a phone call to an old friend, Tim Sheehan.

I first met Greenlight Co-Founder and CEO Tim Sheehan when we were two young do’ers at E*TRADE in the go-go days of late 1990s. Tim ran a big chunk of our product, and I was chief of staff to CTO trying to keep the wheels on the bus. After E*TRADE, Tim went on to a bunch of other Fintechs, and I did the same. When I talked with Tim, he highlighted an opportunity to work together again at Greenlight. From there, I met a bunch of the Greenlight team and couldn’t resist hopping on board.

I’ve been incredibly impressed with all that Tim has done leading Greenlight as so mission driven and so team-oriented. At Greenlight, I get to work with passionate, hard-working, fun people who care deeply about building great tech, but care more deeply about our Greenlight families who are looking to feed financial smarts to their children.

Now, a word from our sponsor. If you are a parent and you don’t have Greenlight, go have a look at the kids’ debit card and banking app. Also, have a look at the 3% cash back credit card — The Family Cash Card. It’s a solid credit card where you can earn an unlimited 3% cash back if you spend $4k per monthly cycle. Plus, you can invest the cash back rewards into a college savings plan. Beyond the “what” of a credit card with top-lot cash back, the “why” is more exciting. We are building some really cool stuff with an even more solid mission to help raise credit smart kids! Teaching our kids to grow up right in the world of credit will do them a world of good as they go and grow.

Let’s go!