Mass Appeal #16. Affordable Life for All: The Story of an App with Good Intentions - Akshay Krishnaiah (Beem)
Learn the story of Akshay Krishnaiah, the founder and CEO of Beem, an app harnessing the power of AI to improve the financial wellbeing of the world’s working population. Unlike most fintech apps focused on markets that will produce a profit, Beem intentionally serves people regardless of income, immigration status, or credit score. Five million downloads later, find out how Beem has grown organically, thanks in part to their pressroom that cranks 400 to 500 pieces of content every week.
Before founding Beem, Akshay was the Global Product Head of Research Labs at PayPal, where he led a team of innovators and filed 75 consumer fintech patent publications in areas such as digital wallets, identity platforms, and hybrid tokens. He is based in San Francisco.
Questions Akshay answered in this Episode:
- What drives you to be an entrepreneur?
- What were some of the transformative experiences you had on your way to founding Beem?
- How do you go about educating people about your product?
- How is AI exemplified in your product?
- How did you get 5 million downloads organically?
Timestamp:
- 2:50 Akshay’s background and first hustle
- 10:20 Akshay’s path to founding Beem
- 15:18 Beem’s origin story
- 22:18 Beem’s approach to financial empowerment
- 27:35 Finding Beem’s market
- 31:07 Bringing good intention to AI
- 36:10 Growing Beem’s millions organically