Intuit Credit Karma’s CEO says he got the top job by taking roles no one wanted

Good morning! Fortune writer Natalie McCormick here, filling in for Ruth.

How does a Philadelphia-bred college student end up in China for their first job post-graduation? It’s a question I recently posed to Intuit Credit Karma CEO Joe Kauffman.

After graduating in 1999, Kauffman landed a role as a project specialist at The Coca-Cola Company, where he biked from supermarket to supermarket, assisting merchandising teams with setting up in-store Coca-Cola displays. Now at the helm of the personal finance company Intuit Credit Karma, Kauffman credits his rise to consistently taking on jobs no one else wanted—and excelling in them.

“It was the Wild West [at Coca-Cola] in the 1990s. Everything was changing quickly, multiple changes in leadership, and I was always the guy who moved and did stuff,” Kauffman said.

Kauffman’s fascination with China began at Williams College in Massachusetts, where he studied Chinese and spent time abroad in Beijing and Harbin. Over his five years at Coca-Cola, he held various roles, including acting as a liaison between bottling companies in China and consultants from global distribution centers. He eventually rose to the position of deputy general manager, overseeing operations responsible for 20% of the brand’s net profit. These roles gave him valuable customer-facing experience and insights into improving the products he sold.

He returned to the States to attend Harvard Business School, where he realized his ambition to become a CEO before returning to China after graduation. This time, he embarked on a decade-long career at high-growth tech companies. Kauffman, however, recognized that as a non-Chinese individual, there were limitations to how far he could advance.

“There’s just a ceiling there based on the fact that I didn’t grow up in China or experience the education system, so I never had that credibility,” Kauffman explained. “A big reason for my move back to the U.S. was to have that opportunity to be CEO someday.”

Kauffman joined Intuit Credit Karma as the chief financial officer in 2015, helped it raise Series D and E funding, and played a pivotal role in Intuit’s acquisition of Credit Karma in 2020. There, he again raised his hand for roles few wanted. When the firm opted not to hire a COO, Kauffman volunteered to oversee business operations, facilities, HR, and legal functions alongside his CFO duties.

When Kauffman expressed his aspirations to become a CEO, Credit Karma’s founder-CEO, Kenneth Lin, allowed him to lead a recently acquired mortgage company. Reflecting on the experience, Kauffman said, “I gained exposure to product engineering and product design—areas I hadn’t worked in before.” The experience also shifted his mindset. “Overseeing a zero-to-one business and seeing it grow from nothing to over $100 million in revenue boosted my confidence,” Kauffman explained.

In 2021, he transitioned into the role of president, managing the majority of the business while Lin focused on new initiatives, such as launching Credit Karma Money. Kauffman officially became CEO of Intuit Credit Karma in August.

Natalie McCormick
natalie.mccormick@fortune.com

Leadership lessons

For those aspiring to one day reach the corner office, Kauffman offered three key pieces of advice:

1. Take on the jobs no one else wants. And become a strategic partner to higher-ups. “Think about the next person up the ladder and what their superpower is. How can you compliment them with a kind of yin-and-yang focus to help them succeed?” he said.

2. Start in a junior, customer-facing role. “Jumping too quickly into strategic roles without first building a foundation in the less glamorous, hands-on positions can be a missed opportunity. There’s so much to learn at the ground level,” Kauffman explained.

3. Take risks early in your career. The lessons and growth from stepping outside your comfort zone can be invaluable.

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