Transcript
WEBVTT
00:00:00.119 --> 00:00:08.009
When it finally launched, I was so excited to help to apply for the card that I helped create and I was denied.
00:00:08.009 --> 00:00:16.189
And you know that was a moment where, of course, you know, many of us have that experience of being rejected, unfortunately.
00:00:16.189 --> 00:00:20.231
But I think there are a few prevailing emotions that I had at the time.
00:00:20.231 --> 00:00:26.064
The first was OK, credit has felt like this very important test that no one taught me how to study for.
00:00:26.064 --> 00:00:36.610
And now, not only have I been rejected, I have no path forward, I don't understand what to do and also, had I known, I wouldn't have been in the situation in the first place.
00:00:36.610 --> 00:00:40.713
But how was I supposed to know the first?
00:00:40.713 --> 00:00:58.512
And the second was just looking around and realizing okay, this financial system there's something really intrinsically wrong with it.
00:00:58.972 --> 00:01:02.634
Hey babe, what are we talking about today?
00:01:03.594 --> 00:01:14.618
Today we are talking about women and money because we know this industry is just flooded with dudes, which is so annoying.
00:01:14.618 --> 00:01:23.667
But today we are talking to somebody who is totally changing the game, getting the dudes out of the picture because we've had enough.
00:01:23.667 --> 00:01:28.022
No offense, babe, getting the dudes out of the picture because we've had enough.
00:01:28.022 --> 00:01:28.362
No offense, babe.
00:01:28.362 --> 00:01:31.088
And we're going to be focusing on women in money today with Virenda Gupta.
00:01:31.088 --> 00:01:32.471
I'm so excited.
00:01:32.471 --> 00:01:34.944
Her story is absolutely incredible.
00:01:34.944 --> 00:01:37.914
We're going to get into her bio but high level notes.
00:01:37.914 --> 00:01:50.268
She helped create a very popular credit card and then went and applied for that credit card and was rejected, and that is what is kicking off our story today.
00:01:50.268 --> 00:01:52.347
Virenda, we are so excited to have you.
00:01:52.347 --> 00:01:55.087
Thank you for being on the Sugar Daddy podcast with us.
00:01:55.890 --> 00:01:58.867
Of course, I'm a huge fan and I'm super excited to be here as well.
00:01:59.349 --> 00:01:59.811
Yay.
00:01:59.811 --> 00:02:02.965
Well, let's make sure everybody knows exactly who we're talking to.
00:02:02.965 --> 00:02:07.334
We'll get into this bio and then, as you know, we're going to kick off with your first money memory.
00:02:07.334 --> 00:02:19.413
So Vrinda Gupta is the CEO and co-founder of Sequin, the first debit card and banking platform in US history, designed by and for women and minorities.
00:02:19.413 --> 00:02:31.912
She is a globally recognized credit expert who helped launch the popular Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card at Visa, but when she applied for that card she helped create, she was rejected.
00:02:31.912 --> 00:02:34.046
This inspired Farinda to act.
00:02:34.046 --> 00:02:45.313
She quit her job at Visa to found Sequin to recognize women's financial power and fight against the injustices that opposed it, including credit card debt and the pink tax.
00:02:45.313 --> 00:02:53.602
Money is power and this first-generation Indian immigrant is on a mission to design a world where women have more of both.
00:02:53.602 --> 00:02:55.407
Yes, just snaps.
00:02:55.407 --> 00:03:04.969
She has been featured by Forbes, ABC7 News and FinTech Magazine and has been named as one of the top 10 women to watch in fintech Girl.
00:03:04.969 --> 00:03:06.051
That is a bio.
00:03:06.051 --> 00:03:10.004
Yes, I'm so excited for this conversation.
00:03:10.004 --> 00:03:12.188
Thank you for being with us.
00:03:12.229 --> 00:03:14.193
Same here, of course.
00:03:14.193 --> 00:03:14.800
Thank you.
00:03:14.800 --> 00:03:15.965
So, verinda.
00:03:15.965 --> 00:03:46.320
We always kick off when we have a guest with the first money memory, because we really feel like your first money memory has an impact on how you perceive money, work with money, you know, process money, and so we'd love to hear your first money memory today this is great.
00:03:46.341 --> 00:03:59.121
So what I think about my first money memory, most of my life comes back to my mother, and you know, growing up as a first generation Indian immigrant, as we immigrated to the US, I was always looking to my parents for cues about life and this new place that we're living in.
00:03:59.121 --> 00:04:27.127
And my mother, I think like anyone that has an immigrant mother, or most mothers are extremely fierce and you know you do not want to get in their way and one of the memories I would have would you know, even being really young and hearing my mother on customer service calls and she has this thick Indian accent, but she was not to be messed with and I was just like you know what customer service rep please just concede to my mother, because you know that's going to be the outcome anyway.
00:04:27.127 --> 00:04:36.651
But the one time that I saw my mother feel small was when she would be talking to anyone related to finances.
00:04:36.651 --> 00:04:41.028
So she needed to call the bank for something and she would just be so timid.
00:04:41.028 --> 00:04:42.961
I was like this woman is not my mother.
00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:44.245
What did you do with my mother?
00:04:44.245 --> 00:04:59.442
And she would pass the phone to my dad to make you know those calls and ultimately make financial, big financial decisions for my family, and so I think early on, that's when I realized money is power and you're able to make financial decisions.
00:04:59.442 --> 00:05:14.416
And not that you know, my dad didn't respect my mom or anything like that, but she just didn't have a strong of a voice and so you know, ultimately, I think that's that really informed my attitudes about money and making sure that you were educated and understood how it all worked.
00:05:15.781 --> 00:05:17.874
So, hearing that, I have a question for you.
00:05:17.874 --> 00:05:29.497
Yeah, do you feel as though a part of it obviously part of it being your mother being a female, obviously part of it, obviously part of it being your mother being a female, obviously, but do you also think that a part of it was that she was probably working?
00:05:29.516 --> 00:05:39.788
with someone that was you know male born in america, you know, not used to speaking to people of different ethnicities, different races, and do you think the accent over the phone played a role in that?
00:05:39.788 --> 00:05:41.800
And the reason I asked that is that I would.
00:05:41.800 --> 00:05:55.689
I had a friend of mine that I've known since middle school, who I was helping her mom out because her financial advisor seemed to not really connect with her, and she's from Puerto Rico and her mom, speaks English, fine, completely understood.
00:05:55.759 --> 00:06:05.922
But maybe this guy just couldn't understand it or didn't take the time to talk to her, and she felt very same ideas, like a woman who is very strong in nature but felt very insecure in that scenario.
00:06:05.922 --> 00:06:07.365
So that's why I asked that question.
00:06:08.648 --> 00:06:09.891
Yeah, you know it's hard to say.
00:06:09.891 --> 00:06:15.011
It's my first memory, so I think I was young and didn't know what was going on on the other side.
00:06:15.011 --> 00:06:17.023
I mean, you know who knows, right?
00:06:17.023 --> 00:06:41.074
I think this is all so many different factors come together and you know, maybe on the other side there's a factor, maybe that was something, that she just didn't feel as confident and so she didn't know the right questions to ask or didn't feel like it was a safe space to ask, and I think anyone who has called their banking institution I am yet to hear that being a positive and happy experience in the best part of your day.
00:06:41.074 --> 00:06:45.769
So, yeah, it's hard to say, but I can definitely, yeah, I can definitely empathize with that.
00:06:46.591 --> 00:07:02.788
Yeah, and it wasn't even like I wasn't putting it, that the person on the other end was having some issues, more or less like they were not giving your mother the grace and respect to try to work through maybe some of the differences that you could, you know, maybe over the phone, or especially, like I've been assuming that English wasn't your mother's first language.
00:07:02.788 --> 00:07:07.757
So therefore, sometimes the translation doesn't quite do the same.
00:07:07.757 --> 00:07:14.101
So, like, for example, like when I was working with my friend whose mother is Puerto Rican, um, certain things that, like, I wanted to make sure that she understood.
00:07:14.101 --> 00:07:25.050
Obviously I don't speak Spanish, unfortunately, but I would be there in person with her and her daughter would translate it and make sure that everything is, you know, understood to the best of her knowledge yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah, absolutely yeah.
00:07:25.091 --> 00:07:29.990
I mean, I've heard so many of those experiences and I'll have to ask my mother if she felt that way.
00:07:29.990 --> 00:07:34.408
But, um, you know, I think it just it's hard, right, there's so much misinformation.
00:07:34.408 --> 00:07:35.560
You don't know what you don't know.
00:07:35.560 --> 00:07:42.968
You're talking to this person of authority on the other side and it's very easy to feel like they know something you don't know.
00:07:42.968 --> 00:07:47.173
You might say the wrong thing and you know these fears are valid.
00:07:47.173 --> 00:07:49.615
I think is the main piece to share here.
00:07:49.615 --> 00:08:11.237
Right, I think from my mother's perspective, there was a lot of gotchas in the financial system, and she's not wrong, right, you know you make one mistake or you start getting, you know, into a cycle of credit card debt or whatever that thing is credit card debt or whatever that thing is and and it's extremely scary to be able to be on the other side of this, you know large institution that was really not designed for you.
00:08:11.237 --> 00:08:18.026
So, yeah, I mean, I think it's great that you're able to help your friend and, yeah, you know there's there's a lot of challenges here.
00:08:18.788 --> 00:08:22.925
Have you been listening to our podcast and wondering how am I really doing with my money?
00:08:22.925 --> 00:08:25.661
Am I doing the right things with my investments?
00:08:25.661 --> 00:08:28.346
Am I on track to reach my financial goals?
00:08:28.346 --> 00:08:30.130
What could I be doing better?
00:08:30.130 --> 00:08:45.365
If you answered yes to any of these questions, then it's time for you to reach out to Brandon to schedule your free yes, I said free 30-minute introduction conversation to see how his services could help make you the more confident moneymaker we know you could be.
00:08:45.365 --> 00:08:47.067
What are you waiting for?
00:08:47.067 --> 00:08:54.610
It's literally free and at the very least, you'll walk away feeling more empowered and confident about your financial future.
00:08:54.610 --> 00:08:56.240
Link is in our show notes.
00:08:56.240 --> 00:09:11.245
Go, schedule your call today, brenda, walk us through that moment and then you ending up at Visa building one of the most popular cards available to us today.
00:09:11.245 --> 00:09:13.493
I mean, we have a Chase Sapphire card.
00:09:13.493 --> 00:09:26.842
You know we love our points, we believe in our points, in points we trust right, so walk us through that experience, how you got there, you know, and then ultimately, of course, how that founded Sequin.
00:09:28.086 --> 00:09:29.909
Absolutely yeah, yeah, this is great.
00:09:29.909 --> 00:09:34.865
And yeah it is, it's a great product, so you helped build it.
00:09:34.865 --> 00:09:42.485
So, yes, I know I'm slightly biased, but no, no, it's yeah, it's great, okay, so, yeah.
00:09:42.485 --> 00:09:52.903
So growing up, realizing money is power, realizing that my mother not having that same confidence or know-how or understanding of the financial system meant that she had less of it.
00:09:52.903 --> 00:10:07.283
And both my mother and my father said it is so important for you to be financially independent, for you to understand how the financial system works in the US, especially for you to understand how the financial system works in the US especially.
00:10:07.283 --> 00:10:10.451
And so I said, okay, well, what better way than to literally be in the center of the financial world?
00:10:10.451 --> 00:10:19.023
And so my first job out of college was at Visa and I had this great opportunity to be building and launching popular credit cards.
00:10:19.023 --> 00:10:23.155
And you know it was incredible to understand.
00:10:23.155 --> 00:10:25.177
You know what the financial incentives are, the different parties.
00:10:25.177 --> 00:10:26.258
I found payments, what the financial incentives are, the different parties.
00:10:26.258 --> 00:10:39.268
I found payments in the financial world very interesting, because most of us will engage with a payment tool multiple times a day, but there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes and I found that all so interesting.
00:10:39.268 --> 00:10:43.049
And, of course, the financial system is one of the most important systems.
00:10:43.049 --> 00:10:47.609
It keeps economies running and I found it all really interesting.
00:10:47.609 --> 00:10:53.451
So I worked on a very popular product called the Chase Sapphire Reserve.
00:10:53.451 --> 00:11:00.609
I worked on the Visa side, so it was actually the platform powering the product, and we did so much research.
00:11:00.609 --> 00:11:14.849
It was really fascinating because up until then, the products I was working on I didn't find really that interesting for me in particular, but this was the first time where we were building a product that I was very excited to use.
00:11:14.849 --> 00:11:19.524
It was geared towards a young, urban, millennial population.
00:11:19.524 --> 00:11:23.188
It had airline lounge access, which was so cool.
00:11:23.188 --> 00:11:32.052
It was something that I never thought I would have access to at that age and so, yeah, it was really interesting building these products.
00:11:32.052 --> 00:11:47.144
We spent multiple years building them, flying out, doing customer interviews, researching, deciding, okay, what is that best package to build, and even everything down to what the card looked like and how much it should weigh and the sound it should make when it hits the table.
00:11:47.144 --> 00:11:50.831
There's so much that goes into these products.
00:11:50.831 --> 00:11:53.562
Yeah and yeah.
00:11:53.562 --> 00:11:55.586
So years and years working on this.
00:11:56.467 --> 00:12:04.408
When it finally launched, I was so excited to help to apply for the card that I helped create and I was denied.
00:12:04.408 --> 00:12:12.913
And you know that was a moment where, of course, you know, many of us have that experience of being rejected, unfortunately.
00:12:12.913 --> 00:12:16.970
But I think there were a few prevailing emotions that I had at the time.
00:12:16.970 --> 00:12:22.731
The first was okay, credit has felt like this very important test that no one taught me how to study for.
00:12:22.731 --> 00:12:27.947
And now, not only have I been rejected, I have no path forward.
00:12:27.947 --> 00:12:34.951
I don't understand what to do and also, had I known, I wouldn't have been in the situation in the first place, but how was I supposed to know?
00:12:34.951 --> 00:12:37.299
So I think that was the first.
00:12:37.701 --> 00:12:47.090
And the second was just looking around and realizing okay, this financial system, there's something really intrinsically wrong with it.
00:12:47.211 --> 00:12:58.831
If I am building these products and I'm being left out of them, what must be happening to so many other people, especially people like me, who are women, who are minorities in any way?
00:12:59.352 --> 00:13:10.075
And I just said, you know, if, if someone doesn't do something about this, then my daughter is going to be sitting in my seat, you know whenever, and she's going to be having this experience as well.
00:13:10.075 --> 00:13:24.202
And that was just something that, for the first time in my life, I felt like if someone needs to do something about this, and I don't know how many people have had my experience, but also have my experience to be able to do something about this.
00:13:24.202 --> 00:13:45.166
So I went on this journey, understood who the financial system was and was not designed for, actually learned that this year is the 50th year anniversary of women not needing a man to sign for us to open a bank account and a checking uh, to open a bank account and a credit card.
00:13:45.166 --> 00:13:49.131
And that was, you know, 50 years ago.
00:13:49.131 --> 00:13:50.474
It was just not that long ago.
00:13:50.474 --> 00:13:51.640
My mother was an adult.
00:13:51.640 --> 00:13:58.633
It really was like yesterday, I mean yesterday only because you weren't born.
00:13:59.014 --> 00:14:09.445
but I mean, I'm 41 years old, so that's nine years before I was born, which is not crazy no, it's not.
00:14:09.445 --> 00:14:13.331
Yeah, it's wild so I'm sorry, go ahead.
00:14:13.331 --> 00:14:15.315
Go ahead, I was going to ask so.
00:14:15.315 --> 00:14:19.489
Did you find out specifically what it was that caused you to get rejected?
00:14:20.171 --> 00:14:20.731
that's the question.
00:14:20.773 --> 00:14:41.528
I was okay, we're right here babe you know that, know, that was the hard part, right, I know now, but at the time, legally, what needs to happen is after you are rejected from a credit product, you receive a notice in the mail that says why you were rejected, but it's usually they give you five reasons.
00:14:41.528 --> 00:14:46.528
This could be one of five reasons, right, and it is one of those.
00:14:46.528 --> 00:14:55.101
But it's really not personalized, it's not actionable and you're like, great, every time you get rejected, right, that's a hard pull on your credit report and so your credit score gets worse.
00:14:55.101 --> 00:14:57.071
It's this chicken and egg kind of situation.
00:14:57.071 --> 00:15:07.283
So I think that's what was the biggest challenge at the time for me was again, okay, I was never taught how to do this, and now that I've been rejected, there's really no path forward.
00:15:07.283 --> 00:15:08.567
So what does this mean for me?
00:15:08.567 --> 00:15:11.605
Am I just left out of the financial system for the rest of my life?
00:15:11.764 --> 00:15:24.364
And and that was the feeling, and I think that's so relatable- I want to know, going back to your parents, because my mom is German and I have a lot of friends with immigrant moms as well, and so what you?
00:15:24.364 --> 00:15:33.592
Said at the beginning really resonates, Cause I think when you have an immigrant parent you just have a whole different experience in life because they are built different.
00:15:34.154 --> 00:15:35.178
It just is what it is.
00:15:35.220 --> 00:15:36.162
They are built different.
00:15:36.403 --> 00:15:36.884
Your mom is.
00:15:36.884 --> 00:15:41.035
I'm going to leave it at that.
00:15:41.496 --> 00:15:43.402
That's not what this podcast is about today, babe.
00:15:43.402 --> 00:15:50.354
Um, but you know, even coming here, my mom married my dad, who was from Florida.
00:15:50.354 --> 00:15:53.344
He's an American and it was just always.
00:15:53.344 --> 00:15:57.693
I always grew up like you only spend what you have, you save.
00:15:57.693 --> 00:16:00.428
We're not putting anything on credit cards.
00:16:00.428 --> 00:16:02.327
You know our cars were bought outright.
00:16:02.821 --> 00:16:05.659
The only debt that my parents had was a mortgage, you know.
00:16:05.659 --> 00:16:10.110
So I'm curious to know was that your experience as well?
00:16:10.110 --> 00:16:12.602
Or, you know, were your parents also like you?
00:16:12.602 --> 00:16:14.327
Pay for it in cash and that's it.
00:16:14.327 --> 00:16:17.264
Those are the only options we have, or what was your experience there?
00:16:18.369 --> 00:16:27.722
Yeah, I mean, I think living within our means was really important, I think culturally, as Indian immigrants, but also in my parents' situation.
00:16:27.722 --> 00:16:50.760
They moved to the US with very little money to their name and my parents are really well educated in India, but when they moved here, it's not like their degrees really transferred very well, and so I think, you know, especially early on growing up, it was this kind of paycheck to paycheck mentality, mentality where you don't know, you know when, when your next dollar is coming, and I think the idea of of debt was extremely scary.
00:16:50.760 --> 00:17:04.943
So, yeah, there's definitely this savers mindset and I think you know, even as my parents, you know, I, I just am so proud of what they've done with their lives and their careers and how they've set my brother and I up.
00:17:04.943 --> 00:17:10.334
It's, you know I, yes, being an immigrant is being built different for sure.
00:17:10.334 --> 00:17:33.103
But yeah, I think you know, even with that, there is so much of a lack of financial education on how do you actually set yourself up Well, how do you set your kids up Well, and so ultimately, what was happening to me was just, I wasn't building my credit history and when I went to apply for a credit card, even though I was making a decent income working at Visa.
00:17:33.463 --> 00:17:40.832
All of my credit history was attached to my parents and never was in my own name, and so that's ultimately what my situation was.
00:17:40.832 --> 00:17:42.758
But I do share that to.
00:17:42.758 --> 00:17:53.708
There's so many similar situation, right, it doesn't have to be just that specific one, it's just, you know, had I known, I wouldn't have used credit cards that way, had I known, I wouldn't have paid these banking fees.
00:17:53.708 --> 00:18:09.030
Had I known X, y, z, right, there's so much and and we see so many stats in my research kind of exposing the financial system that women and minorities are paying more in banking fees, more in credit card fees, more for credit, even though ultimately we're better to lend to.
00:18:09.030 --> 00:18:18.465
So there's just so, so much around that, and I look around and I'm like are all of these institutions built on the backs of women and minorities not knowing what to do?
00:18:18.465 --> 00:18:24.199
Yeah, that could be a logical deduction, so, yeah, I mean.
00:18:24.740 --> 00:18:33.172
I think also it needs to be said that the type of like money and how it functions from a financial standpoint in each country is different.
00:18:33.172 --> 00:18:35.241
A lot of people think that the way the U?
00:18:35.241 --> 00:18:38.718
S functions is how a lot of the other countries do, and it's actually very different.
00:18:38.718 --> 00:18:42.394
So you know, for your parents having grown up in India and then moving, to the.
00:18:42.394 --> 00:18:43.897
United States as adults, you know they.
00:18:43.917 --> 00:18:57.631
Obviously they were well-versed in how things work in India, which is completely different than how it works here so it's a whole learning curve in order for, you know, first generation kids to learn these things from their parents, because their parents are learning at the same time.
00:18:58.592 --> 00:18:59.012
For sure.
00:18:59.012 --> 00:19:01.136
There's so much privilege in that too, right?
00:19:01.136 --> 00:19:09.642
I think you know, as we talk about Sequin and I'll talk about, you know, a lack of financial education on the internet, on different platforms, right it's.
00:19:09.642 --> 00:19:12.356
You'll hear so much of, oh well, why would you even do that?
00:19:12.356 --> 00:19:13.701
I can't believe you got rejected.
00:19:13.701 --> 00:19:14.594
I can't believe this.
00:19:15.035 --> 00:19:23.478
And for me, I say I'm so grateful that you haven't had that experience, because that means that you had someone to share this to you.
00:19:23.478 --> 00:19:23.938
Right?
00:19:23.938 --> 00:19:31.359
There is this kind of generational privilege where you're able to say, okay, I know what to do, so I'll tell you what to do or I'll set you up well.
00:19:31.359 --> 00:19:40.037
And so, whether you are a minority or an immigrant or just someone whose parents didn't have access to financial education, the stuff isn't taught in schools, right?
00:19:40.037 --> 00:19:41.236
Where are you supposed to learn it?
00:19:41.236 --> 00:19:44.695
So I think that is really, really eye, eyeopening.
00:19:44.695 --> 00:19:48.022
If you know it, that's so amazing and that's such a position of privilege.
00:19:48.022 --> 00:19:55.613
And that's what I try to share is you know, keep on sharing those you know, share that with your loved ones, but realize that so many of us don't have that.
00:19:56.753 --> 00:19:58.036
I'm the way that I grew up.
00:19:58.036 --> 00:20:00.058
I'm definitely an outlier in the sense of.
00:20:00.058 --> 00:20:03.442
You know, I grew up my mother raised my brother and myself by herself.
00:20:03.442 --> 00:20:08.832
So statistically speaking, I'm the outlier because we were fortunate that we did have financial literacy.
00:20:08.832 --> 00:20:10.699
My mom did have a financial advisor.
00:20:10.699 --> 00:20:11.803
She was good with money.
00:20:11.903 --> 00:20:25.480
She did teach us a lot of stuff, but there was a lot of things that you know we weren't taught you know, and we're just building on that from like, from a knowledge standpoint, and we want to make sure that we build on top of what our parents have taught us and continue to teach us teach more to our kids.
00:20:26.482 --> 00:20:26.702
Yes.
00:20:26.903 --> 00:20:27.423
Amazing.
00:20:27.423 --> 00:20:27.924
I love that.
00:20:27.924 --> 00:20:40.240
When I first read your story I was thinking about I vividly remember my mom adding me as an authorized user to one of her American Express cards before I went off to college.
00:20:40.362 --> 00:20:48.020
Now now, looking back, right, the more you know in my head I'm like oh, she could have done that when I turned 13, instead of when I turned 18.
00:20:48.020 --> 00:21:00.923
Right, but the fact that she did that helped build my credit so that when it was time for me to, you know, graduate, move out, get my own place, that kind of thing I did have established credit history.
00:21:00.923 --> 00:21:10.290
So even something that small is impactful when you think about somebody's story that's similar to yours, where it's like hey I thought I was doing the right things.
00:21:10.351 --> 00:21:16.292
I was paying for things in cash, I wasn't living beyond my means, but somehow I still got bit in the butt for it.
00:21:16.393 --> 00:21:32.855
I mean my mom did the same thing and even though I had scholarship money for college but the amount that my mom had to pay or I was thankful that she did pay we actually took off student loans in my name and then she paid them off when I graduated and that was another credit boost.
00:21:34.612 --> 00:21:35.255
Yeah, for sure.
00:21:35.255 --> 00:21:37.154
Well, now, you are.
00:21:37.557 --> 00:21:46.452
Yeah, You're now educating women all over the country on these little things, these little nuances that most of us were not taught at home.
00:21:46.452 --> 00:22:02.241
So take us from you're fired up, you're feeling, you know, rejected from being rejected from the card that you helped build and you did years of research on and you know you really put your heart and soul into it, and then you're not seeing the benefit.
00:22:02.241 --> 00:22:06.071
Take us from that to I'm going to build my own card.
00:22:06.071 --> 00:22:09.599
I'm going to build what women and minorities need.
00:22:09.599 --> 00:22:10.782
Walk us through that process.
00:22:11.130 --> 00:22:16.942
Yeah, you know, after I got rejected, I had a few options right.
00:22:16.942 --> 00:22:18.203
The first one was okay.
00:22:18.203 --> 00:22:37.875
I think that was a moment where I was like there is a huge opportunity here to do something right, because, as I started looking and exposing the financial system and just seeing, you know who this is benefiting and who it's not, and, as I mentioned, women and minorities are paying more every step of the way because of misinformation.
00:22:37.875 --> 00:22:41.083
And you know, I said there's a huge opportunity here.
00:22:41.083 --> 00:22:45.409
My option is, I can you know, leave and do something on my own.
00:22:45.409 --> 00:22:51.482
I could, you know, accept the status quo and just kind of feel rejected, right, and keep going.
00:22:51.482 --> 00:23:02.781
And the third option, which is the one that I took, was I want to know everything there is about this financial system in order to build a product that is really going to solve a problem.
00:23:02.781 --> 00:23:09.641
And so I ended up sticking around Visa for a few more years, rising up the ranks and ultimately decided to get my MBA.
00:23:10.162 --> 00:23:16.943
And while I was in my MBA program, it just felt like the timing was so serendipitous, time's up was happening.
00:23:16.943 --> 00:23:21.256
Me too was happening, and that's when I realized women are.
00:23:21.256 --> 00:23:22.898
We have so much spending power.
00:23:22.898 --> 00:23:25.363
We control 85% of GDP.
00:23:25.363 --> 00:23:28.253
We're going to this in the US.
00:23:28.253 --> 00:23:29.017
We're going to this.
00:23:29.017 --> 00:23:35.199
You know, amazing places in society and you know, even today, in today's political environment, I'm really excited about.
00:23:35.199 --> 00:23:39.115
You know what's going on and it's it's so exciting.
00:23:39.375 --> 00:23:43.832
And, as I looked at, okay, where women are going and thinking the future is female, the present is female.
00:23:43.832 --> 00:23:45.207
And then I'm looking at the financial system and I looked at, okay, where women are going and thinking the future is female, the present is female.
00:23:45.207 --> 00:23:51.021
And then I'm looking at the financial system and I'm like, well, something isn't quite adding up.
00:23:51.021 --> 00:24:07.131
And yeah, you know, I just realized that if someone didn't do something about this, our years to gender equity just increase, just increase.
00:24:07.131 --> 00:24:16.134
And access to finances and access to financial know-how and access to products that can help you practice that know-how To me, that is the single best thing we can do in order to close gender financial gaps.
00:24:16.134 --> 00:24:26.454
And so I said, well, what is a better thing to do with my life than to really go after this opportunity and try to do something better and do something that hasn't been done before?
00:24:26.454 --> 00:24:36.383
And I spoke with hundreds I mean now, years later, like thousands of women, and just started with what are your problems with the financial world.
00:24:36.383 --> 00:24:38.115
Like what has happened to you?
00:24:38.115 --> 00:24:39.799
How long is that spreadsheet?
00:24:39.799 --> 00:24:42.915
Oh my gosh, you know what we have like.
00:24:42.915 --> 00:24:44.099
Yeah, it's.
00:24:44.099 --> 00:24:48.049
I've cried on those calls with our users.
00:24:48.049 --> 00:24:50.173
I've empathized, I've laughed.
00:24:50.173 --> 00:24:58.660
I mean it's been, you know, just so eye opening to see that we, as women and as minorities, are having different financial experiences.
00:24:58.779 --> 00:25:08.842
And whether it's, you know, being rejected from something, whether it's, you know, not feeling confident, not knowing that you can call the bank and say, hey, I got an overdraft fee, can you reverse that?
00:25:08.842 --> 00:25:12.117
And just not, you know, there's, there's so much around it.
00:25:12.117 --> 00:25:22.037
But even as I was looking at the credit cards that I was building at Visa, so many of them have rewards where men were more likely to spend versus where women were more likely to spend.
00:25:22.037 --> 00:25:36.711
So dining and travel right, those are like I know you both have Amexes and reserves and all those things, right, and that's so fun, and I obviously recommend those products that I help create to anyone who doesn't have credit card debt, right.
00:25:36.711 --> 00:25:44.865
But what I say is, if you have credit card debt, there are very few other financial priorities that you have outside of paying off that credit card debt.
00:25:44.865 --> 00:25:52.342
There are very few other financial priorities that you have outside of paying off that credit card debt, right, because if you invest on average, you're earning 7% to 8% in the stock market.
