Credit Karma grew despite challenges, including raising funds during the Great Recession and selling during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Credit Karma's success came from using remnant media for advertising and focusing on tailored financial product access.
Deep dives
Building Credit Karma
Ken Lin shares the backstory of Credit Karma, a platform that provides free credit scores and helps consumers find the right financial products. He explains how the idea formed and the challenges they faced in securing partnerships with credit bureaus.
Discovering Remnant Media
Lin discusses how they stumbled upon the idea of using remnant media for advertising, after realizing they couldn't compete on traditional advertising platforms. They shot a low-budget commercial and saw immediate results, leading to significant growth for Credit Karma.
Overcoming Challenges and Securing the Intuit Deal
Lin delves into the difficulties they faced during the Intuit acquisition. He highlights the uncertainties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact on revenue. The process of getting regulatory approval and navigating challenging market conditions are discussed.
The Future of Credit Karma
Lin shares the vision for Credit Karma under Intuit's ownership, focusing on automating and optimizing consumers' financial lives. He discusses the synergies between Credit Karma and Intuit's existing offerings, such as tax refunds and payroll. The goal is to help consumers achieve their financial goals through better management and automation.
Building Credit Karma was not easy. Ken raised the company’s first major round in 2009 during the Great Recession and in 2020 navigated the sale of the business during the early days of the covid pandemic, during which Credit Karma saw dramatic declines in revenue and faced the prospect of layoffs. But the company has come through those events and more stronger than ever. Despite the pandemic, Intuit closed the acquisition for a record setting $8 billion in late 2020. Since then, Credit Karma has continued to grow and is projected to deliver over $1.5 billion in revenue in FY 2022. Even more importantly, Credit Karma continues to create huge benefits for their 110+ million members by bringing transparency to credit scores, which in turn affords tailored access to the best financial products–across card, mortgage, auto and more–for their unique situation.
Cambrian is a community for fintech founders and builders. Check out our website to subscribe to our newsletter, join our meetups and check out our other initiatives!