Good morning. Yendo, a fintech that provides a vehicle-secured credit card has a new executive who turns startups into unicorns.
Thibault Fulconis is Yendo’s first finance chief. He joins the startup from unicorn Varo Bank, one of the first all-digital banks in the U.S. During his tenure as CFO, Fulconis helped Varo become the first consumer fintech to receive a new national bank charter from the U.S. government. He also led the team responsible for leading the company to a more than $1 billion valuation.
What attracted Fulconis to Yendo? The company offers “a unique proposition” to help customers who have difficulty obtaining access to credit, Fulconis told me. And he supports that mission.
Billionaire tech entrepreneur and investor Mark Cuban (No. 75 on Fortune’s Most Powerful People in Business list) is among Yendo’s backers, along with FPV Ventures and Human Capital, to name a few. Last May, the Series A startup raised $150 million in debt and $15 million in equity, Fortune reported.
Yendo is geared toward subprime customers—those with credit scores that fall below a certain threshold, which amounts to around 30% of U.S. adults—who may not qualify for another type of credit card or non-predatory loan, Fortune reported.
Founded in 2021 by Jordan Miller, George Utkov, and Daniel Ashy, Yendo now operates in 41 states with a mission to eliminate predatory lending, said Miller, who serves as CEO.
“What you would see from a standard credit card is that someone with a 500 FICO score typically can’t get anything,” Miller told me. With Yendo’s vehicle-secured credit card customers can use the equity of their car to gain access to up to $10,000 of revolving credit at interest rates comparable to unsecured super-prime credit cards, he explained.
Yendo’s fixed annual percentage rate (APR) is 29.88% for purchases. In comparison, Amex’s variable APR ranges from 18.24% to 29.24%, depending on the card and the applicant’s credit standing, for example.
“To be honest, the larger unsecured players are much more affected by the interest rates than us,” Miller told me. “So we actually have seen a significant widening of our addressable audience as interest rates go up.”
Technically, the customer’s car must be newer than 1996, he said. There is also an option to refinance your auto loan with a Yendo credit card, Miller said. “To date, we’ve saved people over $100 million in interest and fees,” he added.
‘Startup spirit’
The company works on building positive relationships that they say increase the odds they’ll get paid back. Yendo currently serves tens of thousands of customers, according to the company. And supporting this growth is where Fulconis comes in.
“We got super lucky, and we met Thibault,” Miller said. “We knew he was the one.”
Fulconis’ more than 30 years of financial experience also includes serving in vice chairman, CFO, and COO roles at the Bank of the West. He’s worked at startups and established organizations. But he enjoys being a part of the “startup spirit” the most.
“It’s challenging, but also very refreshing to be able to drive a strategy from the very beginning and not to inherit it from a very large institution,” he said. His experience as a former COO also comes into play, including understanding how technology helps the organization achieve goals, he said.
And Fulconis is prepared for the competition in the industry. Besides his vast work experience, he’s been a fencer since his teenage years. “I love fencing,” he said. “It’s very strategic.”
Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com
Leaderboard
David Sparacio was appointed CFO of ServisFirst Bank, a subsidiary of ServisFirst Bancshares (NYSE: SFBS), effective March 10. Sparacio is a seasoned financial executive with over three decades of experience in banking and financial management. Ed Woodie has served as interim CFO since October 2024.
Amy Cohen was appointed CFO and chief compliance officer at Carr’s Hill Capital Partners Management, LP. Cohen most recently served as CFO at RestorixHealth, a private equity-owned health care company, and at Bernhard Energy Solutions. She was also previously the senior director of SEC Compliance and Financial Reporting at DIRECTV.
Big Deal
President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that automotive, semiconductor, and pharmaceutical import tariffs could be 25%, with an announcement coming as soon as April 2. Automakers are closely monitoring how tariffs will impact their business.
At a Barclays conference on Wednesday, General Motors CFO Paul Jacobson said that if U.S. tariffs became permanent, the company would have to consider moving plants, but also commented that those decisions have not been made yet, Reuters reported.
“If they become permanent, then there’s a whole bunch of different things that you have to think about in terms of, where do you allocate plants, and do you move plants, etc.,” Jacobson said at the Barclays conference, according to Reuters. “Those are questions that just don’t have an answer today, because I can tell you, as much as the market is pricing in a big impact of tariffs and lost profitability, think about a world where, on top of that, we’re spending billions of capital, and then it ends.”
Going deeper
CEOs are considered the primary leaders of a company’s reputation. A new survey by Pew Research Center gauges the perception of two CEOs of Big Tech companies—Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.
Two-thirds of Americans have an unfavorable view of Zuckerburg, CEO of Meta. This includes 26% who are very unfavorable toward him. Another quarter views him favorably, including just 2% who see him very favorably.
Meanwhile, just over half of U.S. adults (54%) say they have an unfavorable view of Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, including 36% who have a very unfavorable opinion of him. About 42% express a favorable view, including 11% who are very favorable, according to the report.
Overheard
“It’s not that Gen Z doesn’t believe in experts. Rather, it’s that social media has rewired the way they think about credibility. TikTok influencers are now our ‘friends.’ The algorithm repeats and reinforces what we already believe.”
—Iman Pabani, a 15-year-old student at Dwight School London, studying the International Baccalaureate, was asked by Fortune to interview her peers about why teens increasingly don’t trust—or don’t even read—information from experts. She writes about her findings in a new Fortune opinion piece.