009 | "Your Rent Payment Can Now Raise Your Credit Score" (Samir & Abbey at Esusu)

Jul 19

Today’s guest on the “Phil with Forbes 30” podcast is Samir Goel & Wemimo Abbey - Co-CEO’s of Esusu

Forbes List: USA
Year: 2020
Category: Social Enterprise

I had the privilege of interviewing the two founders of Esusu, a company that helps individuals save money and build credit scores by working with landlords and linking rental payment data to credit unions.

Our conversation includes:

How Wemimo and Samir met at the Clinton Global Initiative conference
Sharing the joy of making the Forbes 30 under 30 list which has less than a four percent acceptance rate – even more selective than Harvard.
Wemimo’s life in the slums of Lagos, Nigeria and her Mom’s insistence on education, immigration to the United States and learning first-hand about predatory lending.
The beliefs and facts of predatory lending in the United States and the idea of where you come from can determine where you end up.
Credit scores in the U.S. can hold people back in reaching financial goals.
Samir’s immigrant family came from New Delhi, India and emigrated to the United States. He shared the same financial obstacles as Wemimo when arriving in the U.S.
After graduating from NYU and working at the United Nations, Samir wanted to leave bureaucracy and to find out how businesses worked. He later joined LinkedIn.
Both Wemimo and Samir acknowledge their parent’s journey and their sacrifices and how obstacles made both of them wanting to give back.
The premise of Esusu is based on when a person pays rent that they should also get a credit score rating like someone who pays a mortgage.
Esusu has established credit scores for people in the range of 620, which is considered a good credit score, upwards to 722 points which is considered a very good credit score.
Using landlords as part of the marketing strategy.

The challenges of hiring the best people and competing with Silicon Valley in the start-up stage; understanding the legal issues of protecting people’s data; protecting the reputation of a startup; finding technology that is scalable.

I also had an important discussion with these co-founders on the importance of building personal relationships with all stakeholders.

Samir and Wemimo have made a commitment to helping renters through their rent relief fund, especially given this time of COVID-19. The commitment comes from years of hardship and having unwavering faith in knowing that everything is possible. Contribute to their Rent Relief campaign at: http://givebutter.com/EsusuRent

I continued our very insightful conversation that has left me admiring these two individuals with their personal hardship stories, plus thoughts on innovative ideas, minority ownership, perseverance and leadership. And they both share fantastic examples about life lessons and experiences that brought them to their success today. For sure, it wasn’t easy.

I hope you will enjoy how open and vulnerable they both are. You may even be inspired to listen to this episode more than once.

Thank you for joining us and I hope you will contribute to the Rent Relief campaign at: http://givebutter.com/EsusuRent

ABBEY's “Under 30 Seconds Round”

1. What is the book you’ve gifted more often than any other book, and why?

Never Eat Alone, Keith Ferrazzi – a great book about networking

2. What’s one of the best investments and one of the worst investments you’ve ever made and why?

Best - Esusu
Worst - Facebook stocks

3. What’s the most impactful thing you do in your Morning routine and most impactful thing you do in your Evening routine?

AM - Pray, faith reflection and meditation.
PM - Check the emails before bed so I have a running checklist in my head and I can sleep.

4. Pretend you won the Peter Thiel Fellowship and you were going to get money to start a business instead of go to college, what’s the very first thing you’d do to start a new business?

I would find the best co-founder in the world - hopefully Samir. And then I would understand how to best create value for the customers we're going to serve.

5. What’s something you never knew you needed?

Love.

SAMIR's “Under 30 Seconds Round”

1. What is the book you’ve gifted more often than any other book, and why?

Rich Dad, Poor Dad - Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter. It helps to change mindset.

2. What’s one of the best investments and one of the worst investments you’ve ever made and why?

Best - Investing in Airbnb
Worst - Investing in Facebook and in the “Netflix of China stock.”

3. What’s the most impactful thing you do in your Morning routine and most impactful thing you do in your Evening routine?

AM - Walk and reflect.
PM - Cook and share a meal.

4. Pretend you won the Peter Thiel Fellowship and you were going to get money to start a business instead of go to college, what’s the very first thing you’d do to start a new business?