Misha Esipov is the co-founder and CEO of Nova Credit. In this episode of The Eric Ries Show, I talk with Misha about what it takes to build a company inside one of the hardest parts of finance to break into.

Misha immigrated to the United States from the Soviet Union as a child and watched his parents rebuild their lives from scratch. Years later, after a conventional path through math, finance, and business school, that experience resurfaced as a question that wouldn’t let go. Why do capable people lose access to credit simply because they cross a border?

Nova Credit began by tackling that problem directly, starting with international students and immigrants who were being shut out of the system. Then the pandemic hit. Immigration stopped, and the company’s core market disappeared almost overnight.

Misha shares what it was like to lead through that moment, how crises clarify where leaders should focus their energy, and how Nova Credit found a way forward without abandoning its original purpose.