VIDEO: Avant Co-Founder and CEO Al Goldstein
–July 2015 Founders’ Stories —
How the fast-growing company raised $1.4B to date by providing loans to consumers that need them most
Our July 2015 guest was Al Goldstein, co-founder and CEO of Avant. Avant is an online marketplace lending platform that’s changing the way consumers obtain credit by lowering the costs and barriers of borrowing.
By utilizing advanced algorithms and machine-learning capabilities, Avant offers a unique and highly customized approach to the personal loan process. Al started the company after noticing that many of the consumers who need financial support most are unable to attain it.
Now, Avant has secured more than $1.4 billion in funding to date and issued more than 200,000 loans.
In this edition of Chicago Founders’ Stories, we hear about how Al got his start in entrepreneurship while first working in finance, what’s inspired him to launch a new company every four years, and how he envisions the growth of financial technology.
Content Breakdown:
0:00 Introduction and backstory
11:05 What it was like to transition from the finance world to entrepreneurship
20:11 Shifting Al’s first company from brick and mortar to online, and why he did it
24:58 Why Al’s second company, Pangea Properties, had nothing to do with finance
29:20 How Avant was born
41:42 How Avant was able to quickly acquire customers while moving into a crowded market
49:40 Q+A
Essential Quotes:
“We are really a technology company that is providing a financial product.” @Avant_US founder Al Goldstein http://bit.ly/1KPMcgx Tweet this
“’Big data’ and ‘machine learning’ are probably two of the most overused and misused terms in all of venture.” http://bit.ly/1KPMcgx Tweet this
“If you have a decent idea and a really good team, you can accomplish almost anything.”@Avant_US CEO Al Goldstein http://bit.ly/1KPMcgx Tweet this
“I don’t think we’re in a bubble. I think companies are solving real problems and it’s not that easy to raise money.” http://bit.ly/1KPMcgx Tweet this
Al Goldstein of @Avant_US on the #Chicago startup community: “The only thing we need to do is have more wins.” http://bit.ly/1KPMcgx Tweet this
This video is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License. You can view details of this license here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/legalcode
