Veterans Day in the U.S. is a day to remember and honor the sacrifices our military veterans have made to preserve the freedom we enjoy on a daily basis. How can banks and fintechs give back by connecting and serving this niche clientele in return?

We interviewed Dennis Cail, co-founder and CEO of Zirtue, who shared his experience as a U.S. Navy veteran-turned-fintech entrepreneur. Cail told us how his military experience impacts his work at Zirtue and what banks and fintechs can do to give back.

Tell us the basic idea of Zirtue.

Dennis Cail: Zirtue is the world’s first relationship-based lending application, simplifying loans between friends, family, and trusted relationships by turning informal promises into structured agreements and automating the repayment process. Zirtue’s mission is to drive financial inclusion and freedom, one relationship at a time.

Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Zirtue sits at the nexus between two major pain points: a person needing a financial lifeline to pay their bills and a company struggling with bad debt. Corporate partners use Zirtue as an alternative payment solution, allowing individuals with past-due accounts to request loans from friends or family members in order to pay their bills. Zirtue has raised $6 million of VC funding and more than $10 million in loans have been processed on the platform to help users keep their lights on, pay their rent, and get access to critical healthcare.

How did you come up with the idea of Zirtue? What was the impetus?

Cail: Growing up in Louisiana, I lived in public housing and neighborhoods often surrounded by payday lenders and check cashing services; the same was true of the areas surrounding the naval bases I lived on. It wasn’t until college when I saw how different communities attract different types of neighborhood businesses such as banks, and that many neighborhoods didn’t have traditional banks.

Looking back, I saw how clearly and deliberately predatory lenders target those with few financial options and no access to traditional banking services, like my neighborhoods in Monroe and the Navy. These experiences led me to creating a loan option for these unbanked and underbanked folks that provided them with necessary loans and empowered them through the process. We all need a little help sometimes, and that is what Zirtue is all about. I also have experienced the challenges of loaning friends and family money myself. Even though I wanted to help my loved ones out, it made things awkward. I saw the impact that these friendly loans could have on my loved ones in terms of helping them achieve their dreams or simply make ends meet, without having to pay the high fees of predatory payday lenders who are the only available option for many.

As someone who has always wanted to found a company and had a background in finance, I knew I could create a solution for this problem that formalized these friendly loans, while simultaneously driving financial inclusion. Ultimately, this solution became Zirtue, and we’ve now processed more than $10 million in loans to-date and plan to continue until Zirtue is a payment option at every retailer you visit in-person and online.

You are one of a handful of military veteran fintech founders. First off, thank you for your service. Can you tell us about your military experience?

Cail: As a Systems Engineer in the US Navy working with hardware and software to ensure we had ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore communications, my military experience gave me the technical foundation I needed to start a successful career in technology. The military is also a place that either makes or breaks you. At the very least it reveals who you are at your core and I learned a lot about myself during my military experience.

Funny, but true story… I didn’t know how to swim when I joined the Navy and when I shared this information with my civilian friends after I left the Navy, they would naturally ask me, “why did you join the Navy if you couldn’t swim?!” The answer is that I joined the Navy to learn how to swim and to serve my country. This may sound a bit extreme. However, entrepreneurs have to be extreme on some level if they are going to achieve what most people would consider impossible or too risky. Long before I became an entrepreneur and a fintech founder, I had the spirit of an entrepreneur with a high tolerance for calculated risk. My military experience only amplified that entrepreneurial spirit.

How does your military experience impact your work at Zirtue?

Cail: The military has absolutely influenced my career and led me to found Zirtue. First of all, the military taught me how to be a strong leader and how to navigate stressful situations – which are both imperative to founding a company and handling the complexities of entrepreneurship. Further, the military taught me to always look out for your partner, or in my case shipmate, and that we either win together or lose together. This concept has shaped the way I interact with my team, our customers, partners, and other entrepreneurs – we have to take care of each other.

Finally, being in the military taught me about the importance of structured, detailed plans, which has helped me integrate further structure into entrepreneurship and supported business growth for Zirtue. Looking back, I am incredibly thankful for my military experience for shaping me into the man I am today and forming a solid foundation as an entrepreneur and CEO.

What advice do you have for banks and fintechs looking to connect with and serve military veterans as clients?

Cail: It’s extremely important that banks and fintechs alike do all they can to help military veterans transition back into civilian life so that we can put them in the best possible position to be successful with skills that are highly transferable. Given the sacrifices made by these men and women, my advice is simply to be intentional about their DEI efforts to connect with military veterans with formal programs that include military veterans.

At Zirtue we actively recruit from this amazing source of talent and encourage military veterans to apply for any open jobs we may have. I would also like to call out that banks like USAA and Navy Federal Credit Union are very active in their efforts to support veterans and their families with financial products and customized lending options. Their efforts should be applauded and replicated.

After finalizing the deal with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Fusion Acquisition Corp. this week, MoneyLion is now publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol ML.

For additional insight into this milestone, we spoke with MoneyLion CEO and Co-Founder Dee Choubey. Prior to co-founding MoneyLion in 2013, Choubey spent over a decade on Wall Street inside the largest banks learning about the inefficiencies that exist within banking. He built MoneyLion to create a private banking experience for everyday Americans by offering credit, banking, and investing in a single app.

Talk to us about MoneyLion’s journey so far. What has growth been like since the company was founded in 2013?

Dee Choubey: We founded MoneyLion with the goal of rewiring the consumer finance system, giving hardworking Americans access to previously exclusive private banking services. At MoneyLion, we bring consumer finance into the future by combining AI, machine-learning technology, and behavioral science to create a full-service, digital financial platform for our users. Since 2013, we have engaged with over 8.5 million Americans, empowering them with a digital banking platform that helps them better manage their finances today and build wealth for tomorrow.

This has been a historic year for the company. Since announcing we were going public via a SPAC in February, to listing on the NYSE on September 23rd, we’ve continued to see consistent growth and a validation of our business plan. Entering the public markets will enable us to scale our capabilities and reach even more hardworking Americans. Since the start of 2021, we’re up across all key financial and operating metrics, including 100%+ year over year growth in net revenue. Our user growth has also accelerated this year, with total customers increasing almost 60% in the first half of 2021 to 2.3 million.

Earlier this month, we raised our annual revenue guidance for fiscal years 2021, 2022, and 2023 to reflect higher projected user growth, along with expected revenue contribution of planned product launches including our new crypto and Buy Now Pay Later offerings. As a public company, we will remain laser focused on positioning ourselves for optimal execution on our well-defined growth objectives.

How did you know that a SPAC was right for MoneyLion?

Choubey: For us, we’d spent the last eight years focusing on building proprietary technology. As we saw the product market fit of MoneyLion accelerating, we knew it was time to take MoneyLion’s innovative products to more Americans, and a SPAC provided us with an entry point to enhance our public presence as well as capitalize the business. As with everything we do at MoneyLion, it ties back to our mission: to provide top-notch financial access and bespoke advice to every hardworking American.

Listing via a SPAC was the best option for us due to its efficiency in allowing us to strengthen our balance sheet. With the capital we raised through this transaction, we are now able to accelerate the execution of our growth strategy, deliver against our mission, and provide incredible value to our customers and members.

What has been the hardest part of the SPAC process?

Choubey: If anything, our biggest challenge was timing. We announced the merger with Fusion Acquisition Corp in late February, expecting to be public somewhere in June or July. It took longer than anticipated to get through the whole process, in part due to the number of deals coming to the market.

With the merger behind us and our balance sheet fortified, we’re all very excited about this next chapter in the MoneyLion journey. For the past eight years we have been focused on building our proprietary tech stack, and we think we have one of the best platforms, not only here in the United States, but globally. We’re poised to build on that strong foundation and make MoneyLion a daily destination for all hard working Americans, combining our robust financial products and services with highly personalized content and advice to help our customers take control of their finances and achieve their life goals.

What advice would you offer other fintechs considering the SPAC route?

Choubey: Find the right partner with whom to go public. And that usually entails the sponsor’s knowledge of its investor base, their willingness to do whatever it takes to accurately position the company, as well as a specific understanding of the capital markets including the pipe market. At the end of the day, the fintech needs to have public market fit and a good sponsor can help create an efficient framework.

Will anything about MoneyLion change now that the acquisition is finalized?

Choubey: We’re no longer trading under FUSE; we’ve officially taken over the ML ticker on the New York Stock Exchange. For those that remember, ML was Merrill Lynch’s ticker, an iconic American financial institution. Today, we are immensely proud to have that ticker as we grow into our own iconic American brand. As we like to say, the ‘bull has become the lion’.

In terms of what’s happening within MoneyLion, we are going to continue to work hard and deliver against our mission: harnessing the power of technology to empower millions of hardworking Americans to take control of their finances so that they can achieve their life goals.

Photo by Corentin Marzin on Unsplash

Providing services for Generation Z is increasingly on the minds of both banks and fintechs alike.

One such fintech, EarlyBird, is making it easy for a child’s community to invest in their future. We spoke with the company’s CEO Jordan Wexler on the current childhood investing environment and what it takes to compete.

Talk to us about the current state of financial literacy in the U.S.

Jordan Wexler: The numbers tell us that most American families aren’t doing a great job at teaching financial literacy. According to a recent survey, 19% of Americans reported that their household spent more than their income over the past year. Add in the fact that 43% of adults say they haven’t got a rainy day fund, and that means huge chunks of our society simply aren’t prepared to face financial hurdles. This shows that good financial habits and knowledge aren’t being effectively passed down either.

Research suggests there isn’t much time to sow the seeds of financial literacy into a kid’s headspace. Children generally have their financial habits set by the age of seven. That means to set kids up for financial independence, they have to be taught the basics of financial literacy sooner rather than later. Not only will you instill good habits early, but you’ll also be setting them up to make smart investment and financial choices throughout their lives.

Most wealthtech tools target high net worth individuals. What benefits are there to having a young client base that typically has no income?

Wexler: The benefit of helping the youth is that we’re trying to set them up for financial success in the future. We aren’t encouraging spending – we’re instilling good financial habits early on that will help kids flourish in their adult lives.

With EarlyBird, our vision is to have parents start investing in their children from day one. That way, in 18 years, they will have a solid financial foundation for their child to give them the freedom to pursue their aspirations – traveling the world, going to college, starting a business, whatever it may be.

EarlyBird was built for more than the children with their name on the custodial account. It’s for parents, family, and friends that want to give meaningful and purposeful gifts to the children in their lives to help support them financially. We’re making it accessible to all because it doesn’t matter which household income bracket a family falls under, investing just a little bit each month for your child can go a long way.

What elements do you use to cater EarlyBird to such a young audience?

Wexler: We’re catering EarlyBird to parents, their children, and also the community around them that wants to see them succeed. For parents, we’ve simplified the process to kickstart their child’s future by opening a custodial investment account. It doesn’t matter if the parent is a beginner, novice, or expert in investing in the stock market, we’re allowing families to gift meaningful and sustainable financial contributions for all life’s milestones.

For children, we’re creating a platform that allows them to learn about finances. They can better understand investing/saving, watch their money grow, and then one day have a bank account with accumulated funds to use as they please. Our hope is that from being a lifelong EarlyBird user, they’ll know how to manage those assets responsibly.

We’ve also created a great user experience for the ‘givers.’ They are able to record a video memory with their contribution and can use it as an opportunity to pass down stories and knowledge from the world of money. Video memories are placed into an archive on the EarlyBird app for the children to look back on and learn from forever.

EarlyBird was founded in 2019. How have you seen the childhood financial services space grow since then?

Wexler: Being in the weeds in the childhood financial services space, it’s apparent that there’s been massive growth and that it’s on an upward trajectory, especially with latest funding news from services like Greenlight, Current, Step, and Till Financial.

One thing we are noticing right now is that “kids” and “children” are being somewhat generalized into one category of fintech. The reality is – there are different offerings in the space that make sense for different ages and parental comfort levels. I feel that we’re at the point where parents need to start to consider their “ideal mix” when it comes to the fintech tools and apps they use to save for their children, teach them financial literacy, and also get them started with spending when it’s time.

For example, parents can get started with EarlyBird when their child is born and then later on incorporate an app with teen-focused debit card to begin digital banking. This is similar to the “old school” trajectory of starting off with a 529 account then adding a standard savings account and later a checking account.

It’s great to see so much growth, innovation, and potential happening in childhood financial services. We’re beyond excited to be a part of this movement and to set the next generation up for financial freedom!

Photo by Katerina Holmes from Pexels