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Leaders In Payments
Leaders In Payments
Arad Levertov, Co-founder & CEO of Sunbit | Episode 321
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In an industry where financial inclusion and innovation are paramount, the latest episode with Arad Levertov, Co-founder and CEO of Sunbit, stands out as a beacon of progress. The episode focuses on how Sunbit is revolutionizing the financial landscape for essential services such as auto repairs and healthcare, by offering hassle-free financing options to consumers. With a staggering approval rate of 90% for applicants, Sunbit's approach is not only inclusive but also indicative of a significant shift in consumer lending practices.
The impact of Sunbit's technology is not limited to the consumer experience. The company's innovative approach extends to its partnerships with merchants and the development of an ecosystem that transcends payment processing. Sunbit's emphasis on sales, partnerships, and the use of data analytics underscores the importance of a holistic approach to financial services—one that benefits all stakeholders involved.
As the fintech landscape continues to evolve, companies like Sunbit are at the forefront, steering the industry towards a more inclusive and customer-centric future. Arad's foresight and leadership have positioned Sunbit as a pivotal player in the fintech revolution.
Welcome to the Leaders in Payments podcast, where we talk to C-level leaders from across the payments landscape. We'll be discussing the products and services that impact the payment space today, as well as trends and predictions for the future of payments. We will also hear stories from our guests about their journeys to the top.
Speaker 2So the company has about over 500 employees founded in 2018. As I mentioned, in around 23,000 locations, we served millions of customers and we funded like billions of dollars, so we're growing. The good news is, you know, we're in the US. There are many people that drive cars, many people that have teeth, many people need healthcare.
Speaker 3That was Arad Levertop, the co-founder and CEO of Sunbit, and he is my special guest on this episode, episode 321 of the Leaders in Payments podcast, and I'm your host, greg Myers. Sunbit technology is used by thousands of people every day to pay over time for unexpected expenses. It's designed to approve 90% of people who apply with fair, transparent rates and no late fees, origination fees or penalties. Arad and I dive deep into Sunbit, including what makes it unique in the marketplace. We also discuss the value it brings to both consumers and merchants. We've got a great episode ahead, so let's get started. Hi Arad, thank you for being here and welcome to the Leaders in Payments podcast.
Speaker 2Thank you for having me. Greg, Happy to be here.
Speaker 3Great, so let's go ahead and dive right in, if you don't mind. Tell our audience a little bit about yourself, maybe where you grew up, where you went to school, where you currently live, a few things like that.
Speaker 2I grew up in Israel. I moved to the US in 2008 and went to business school at Duke. Then I worked for five years in a financial services company, which we'll talk about it later, and since I started Sunbit in 2016,.
Speaker 3I live in Los Angeles. Okay, great. Well, let's go ahead and talk about Sunbit, so tell the audience what Sunbit does. Before that, if it's okay, I will tell you how I thought about Sunbit.
Speaker 2So tell the audience what Sunbit does. Before that, if it's okay, I will tell you how I thought about Sunbit Absolutely In 2008,. When I went to school, it was literally hard to find a job because there was a previous subcrime crisis. Interesting that, the only company that actually offered me a job was a company that provides loans to customers who did not qualify for a credit card. So it was an online company. You come, you apply for the loan, the company approves the customer and then the customer gets the money to the bank and then goes buy whatever they want with the money.
Speaker 2I started as an intern and then I became the COO of this company. It's a public company and I had the opportunity to learn everything about fintech. At that time, I didn't know that I was actually one of these customers myself, because I did not have a credit. I just moved a few years back to the US and one day I went to Costco and tried to apply for a credit card, a store credit card. So you can think about it that I'm sitting in the cashier, just standing in front of the cashier, with about $300 worth of groceries that I need to pay for, and I said okay, let me apply for a credit card. And the cashier started asking me different questions when do I live, how much do I make, what is my social security number? And after about 10 minutes I look at the cashier. The cashier looks at me with a sad face and said unfortunately, I cannot help you this time you will have to get a letter in the mail. And basically you got declined.
Speaker 2And when I had this experience, I realized that over 50% of the people actually have this experience in a point of self-financing. I also realized that in my day job I get these customers. I pay a lot of money on marketing to market for these customers and then they go and buy at Costco. So I thought, okay, if we can find a product that will be really built into point of sale financing, which is fast, which is unique, which is accepting more customers, use a lot of technology, we can do a lot of things. First, we can I call it eliminate a lot of the unnecessary waste which means the customer goes to the website, take the loan. There is a lot of marketing involved. You just give the customer the money where they need it. And two, if you do it right, you can build a big company At that time. Many buying or needed. And two, if you do it right, you can build a big company At that time. Many buy now, pay later. Companies already started, but they all went to online, to e-commerce, but no one was trying to hit what he called the brick and mortar, the physical locations, and that's, in general, what we do. So Sunbit is a fintech for real life.
Speaker 2We have two products. One of them is the buy now, pay later, which basically allows customers to be at the point of sale and split the purchase over time. But, unlike other companies that go to do in line, we try to focus where people needed the most. So we are in right now in about 23 000 location across the? U US, growing about 500 per month. We are focused on where people need it the most. So, for example, we are in about 50% of the authorized dealership on the repair centers. So when you fix a car at Honda, when you fix a car at Kia, there is one out of two chances you will see Sunbit as a payment option over there.
Speaker 2We also growing really in the dental space.
Speaker 2We are in more than 10,000 dental locations, dentist offices, where we allow customers to get the treatment they need and pay over time. This is our first product. The second product is a credit card, and the credit card is being offered either to our customers after they made a few payments or with partnership with retail locations, when we allow them to do a co-branded credit card. The credit card basically allows the customer to purchase anywhere but with like a regular credit card, but then to pay each purchase, whether it's a debit, right away, the credit, or split into buy now, pay later. I would say that our focus in general, our mission, is to eliminate financial waste and pass savings back to the consumer. That's why we really focus on the consumer. We're inclusive, which means we approve a lot of customers, we never charge any fees and we are proud of our Google reviews and NPS, which is 84, and really try to do the best for the consumer and, of course, need to understand that we also need to be profitable and grow the company in order to keep serving more customers.
Speaker 3Okay, you mentioned a couple of verticals the car repair and dental. Are there other verticals that you also play in?
Speaker 2We are also in the retail credit card because we focus with retailers. We're also in eyewear and in veterinary and looking into healthcare providers and other stuff. The key is where people need us the most and we are there to help. But our approach is B2B, to see what we call it. We actually partner with the merchant, make sure that the merchant gets the benefit and able to close the sale and the customer able to get whatever she needs from this transaction.
Speaker 3Okay, and so all of the interaction is at the retail location, so they don't come to your website to get a card or to get you know right, correct, it is in the retail location.
Speaker 2Of course there is ability to do it. There is a lot of technology. They can get a link, they can do it pre-approved and they can do it with a lot of technology. They can get a link, they can do it pre-approved and they can do it from the retail location. If you go to wwwsunbecom, you will not be able to apply for a loan for the card. You will be able to find the location that you participate in and go and try to get a loan with them?
Speaker 3Okay, great. So how big is the company?
Speaker 2So the company has about over 500 employees founded in 2018. As I mentioned, in around 23,000 locations, we served millions of customers and we funded like billions of dollars, so we're growing. The good news is, you know, we're in the US. There are many people that drive cars, many people that have teeth, many people need healthcare and most of the innovation that came from fintech went into the e-commerce.
Speaker 2When you look what is available today in the brick and mortar when you need to get something even though about still close to 90% of the transaction actually happened in the brick and mortar the financial solutions that are there are still dominated by the old school banks, which means it's much less about technology. The experience, as I mentioned, will take about 10 minutes and about 40 to 50% will get approved and on the top of it is going to be with fees and all the things that are kind of hidden and not transparent. The innovation of the fintech went to the online e-commerce, which is faster, it's probably easier, but what we try to do, we try to go the route of going into where people need it, into the brick and mortar huge market. It just takes time, but we are growing.
Speaker 3Awesome. So what would you say? Differentiates Sunbit from your competitors out there.
Innovative Approach to Financial Services
Speaker 2I think it all starts with the mission. Again, our main competitors are, as I said, the old school banks that provide credit cards, and I think that their focus is to make money, which is important. We look a little bit differently. Our focus and mission is to add values to merchants and customers. I will call it our constraint we need to be super healthy and make money in order to continue to do it. And what does it mean? That means that we our innovation and we push harder ourselves to get better and to get more efficient so we can save more money for the consumer. It means that we are using data and technology not only in the underwriting of the process, but actually across the organization of the operations, which means we choose where do we go, which merchants we partner with.
Speaker 2There is a reason we started with auto and dental because we saw there is repeat usage. It's good usage, it's good custom. We did a lot of data to understand it. And then, of course, the underwriting, which we use a lot of machine learning to understand who is the customer and why this customer will get this specific loan on this location versus another loan on a different location and, of course, for the servicing of the customers. This allows us to grow fast and I would like to say basically, where Adder takes 10 minutes to approve 40%, we take 30 seconds to approve around 90% and still charge less money and, of course, still be at a really profitable unit economics.
Speaker 3So the buy now, pay later craze was going on a couple of years ago. I mean, did you see that? Because you are and you aren't that right, I mean that's one way to define you but you're much more than just the traditional, like you said, e-commerce, buy now, pay later company. So when that craze kind of hit, did that give you a tailwind? Did that help your?
Speaker 2business because of, basically, the buzz of buy now, pay later. So it did help to tell the story. So we said you know, easy, we are buying up a leather for brick and mortar. It helps to explain. The interesting thing is that our customers are actually pretty different. You know, I think that the average of buying a pallet depends on the company, but it's the early 20s the average age Our customers. We do have young customers, but our average is in the 40s, which means everybody needs it.
Speaker 2And, yes, it did help to explain mostly when we talk to investors, but when we go to the stores, we like to say that our salespeople they don't know anything about Binopilator, they know about the old school banks and they said we displace this, we replace these big banks that are taking a lot of time and with the new technology that we call it the magic trick, our product. Basically, we scan the driver license, the customer gives us the consent and then we approve the customer after taking all the data. So the way we sell, we show the magic trick and people say, wow, is it real? Yes, this is real. Go talk to our partners, read Google reviews. This is real and that's how we're able to sell about 500 plus merchants every month.
Speaker 3Wow, 500 is a lot. So do you have a sales team that goes out and sells, or do you sell through partner channels, or both?
Speaker 2Both. So let me you know, what I learned is that unfortunately, there are no shortcuts. That's our life right. So when you start, you knock on doors, you go one by one, by one, by one, and try to do it. When you go to, let's say, 100 Honda dealerships, we went to Honda and we told them look, we are already in 100 of your dealerships. You have 1,000. Look, because of our partnerships, your dealers are able to complete more work and the customers are happy. Why not you endorse us and help us to get into other dealerships? That's how we did with about 15 OEMs and we got some partnerships. Same in the dental industry.
Speaker 2We have approached one go, one by one, but also right now we partner with the entire ecosystem that actually works in the store, whether it's the software helper, whether it's the OEM, as I mentioned, and basically allows everybody to mention Sunbit. So the people will use it a lot. But yeah, we are in the DNA. It's interesting because here we are talking on a payments podcast, which is really part of what we do. However, we do have another retail operation DNA. Right, we see our. We do have another retail operation DNA. We see our. We work with our partners. We have about 23,000 locations partners, but also in these locations there are associates that work and we have about 150,000 associates registered to our system. We communicate directly with them, we provide them points, we do competitions. We're providing training as well in order to build this ecosystem, to help them to get more sales and to help the customer to get whatever they need as they come to the store.
Speaker 3Yeah, so it's much broader than just a payments type of company. You're doing a lot more.
Speaker 2Exactly, I think that's the approach. It's the ecosystem. Eventually, the product is the payment right, but the key is to use data and technology across the entire ecosystem because one, it helps you to be more efficient. Two, when the product is more efficient and it's easier to offer, you get a better distribution of customers that actually apply, which eventually leads more efficient and it's easier to offer, you get a better distribution of customer that actually apply, which eventually leads to even better financial results on the returns.
Speaker 3Right, right. So, speaking of payments, where do you see the payments industry headed, say, in the next three to five years?
Speaker 2You know and we are talking here after probably one and a half to two years of some headwinds for the payments and fintech world in general, because you know the interest rate and the macroeconomics, et cetera, et cetera. At the end of the day, when you look at other industries, when you look at the marketing industry, look at the media industry, it has changed a lot since whatever in the last 20 years and when it changed it basically became much more personalized. You would read a different newspaper that I read, right, but 20 years ago we could have read the same newspaper and got the same ads and much more efficient. The fintech in general and payments specifically are getting there, but it takes more time because it's like higher barriers to entry. You know the big banks control, they have low cost of capital and they have high brand and also high regulations.
Speaker 2But eventually it will get there the companies that it will get there because the customer deserves it. The customer deserves to get better products, no fee and personalized. The customer pays different than what I pay because your risk is a different place, right, we shouldn't pay the same cost for credit card. So it will get there and it will get there, whether it's like the next three years, the next five years. I think it will get there in the coming years and the companies that will get there will be the companies that one but number one focus on the customer, put the customer in the center and two, do it in an efficient way, which means leverage technologies, keep innovating and trying to do it to get better service to better customers, and then it will come because the customer will get the friends and everybody will do it Right right, okay, great.
Speaker 3Well, let's switch gears a little bit and talk about you, so tell us about your journey to your role there as the co-founder and CEO.
Entrepreneur's Journey to Fintech Success
Speaker 2Great. So, as I mentioned, I was at a different company and this was my first company that I worked in the US. It was literally a financial servicing lending company and I was lucky to really start as an intern and move across the position and became the CEO, managing about 600 people and literally dealing with different types of the business. But then I realized there is much opportunity to do better, as I said, to do better as a company but also better for the consumer. And then it was a big decision. But I decided to fund the company. So I collected three other co-founders, which I knew, each one of them, for 15 years plus. We had the head of sales, tal, the head of technology, onit, and the head of data science and machine learning, tamir, and started to tell the story to ourselves and build a plan.
Speaker 2And you know, when you are a founder, you just at some point need to look at the water, it doesn't matter how cold they are, just jump. So actually I used to live in Chicago. I moved from Chicago to Los Angeles. My co-founder moved from New York to Los Angeles. You know, we said we don't take money for two years we save, then we just do our best to succeed. And then it became the journey of, I think, every company, or most of the founding companies. That is ups and downs, ups and downs and never easy, but as long as you have the north star of what you try to do and you do it well, you ignore all the noise and you try to do best. So now we are, as I said, over 500 employees, offices across the nation and also globally, and serving customers. That's the most important thing.
Speaker 3So I always like to ask when there's a unique company name. So where did the name Sunbit come from?
Speaker 2That's a great question. So you mentioned unique company name. We wanted to be unique in the payment space and we were looking for something that rhymes with either credit or debit but doesn't have this credit into it. And Sunbit was a great match because, one, it has a transit. Two, it is positively in the sun. Three, it is bit which kind of technology with bits? And actually, fourth, it became paid bit by bit with Sunbit. So it kind of ticked all the points and we are in Los Angeles, which is sunny most of the time, so you know it worked well as well.
Speaker 3That's great. It's great that you didn't just put pay on the end, like most people do.
Speaker 2Right, exactly exactly exactly Because we look ourselves as a technology company that right now is at fintech for everybody for real life and we provide fintech solutions. Once you have this relationship unique relationship, as you mentioned with the merchants, with the associates that work in the merchant and with the customer, we leave those opportunities to really empower this ecosystem, to help them to do more commerce, and you know we have, as I mentioned at the beginning, there are a lot of people with teeth and driving cars, but in general there are a lot of people that go to a store to buy stuff and we see ourselves partner with them and help them to sell more and help them to buy more in the most efficient way. It could be a lot, a lot of opportunities in the future.
Speaker 3What are some things you're passionate about? Maybe one work-related passion and one personal passion.
Speaker 2About work. Honestly, I'm really passionate about the customer. I keep telling to every new employee that we shouldn't get blinded by the numbers. As I mentioned, we served over 3 million customers and billions of dollars, but we need to treat each customer like he or she was the only customer for Sunbit. When I go and I read Google reviews and I try to do this once a month most of them are good, some of them are not, but I'm learning from it. When I go to our call center in Nevada and listen to calls and talk to the agents, I'm passionate about how we help people and if we have to do something better, we try to fix it and do better. So this is literally the most thing that excites me and because we have such a great opportunity, I push the team to be bigger to help more customers. Like we don't have the luxury to stay small, we need to do better to get to more customers.
Speaker 2Personally, you know, first of all, about my family. I'm married with four kids and two. I like to run on the beach and to swim in the ocean. It actually keeps me away from all the phones and the distractions. So let me think clear.
Speaker 3Yeah, I'm sure with four kids you stay quite busy with all of their activities.
Speaker 2Exactly, yeah, oh yeah, there's a lot of activity, a lot of driving Right.
Speaker 3I was talking to someone the other day who had four kids and they were like I've become a spectator and a chauffeur, and that's what they do, sure swimming, soccer, scouts activity, but it's fun, you know, that's the fun thing.
Speaker 3Absolutely Well. You mentioned something about employees and people that first start with your company. So the next question is kind of about if someone wants to come into this industry say they want to build a career in fintech and they're just coming out of school and they come to you and they say, hey, I want to build a career in fintech and I'm looking for some advice to help me be successful, what would you tell them?
Speaker 2I would say a few things. First of all, some people ask me and I repeat the saying that unfortunately, there are no shortcuts. It takes time for you to learn and to understand what you need to do. Second, a lot of people today try to do a lot of things together, but the key is to focus. If you want to learn in fintech, go understand, learn the company and be perfect in what you're doing and focus.
Speaker 2It's easy to say it's really really hard to implement it, to do it day after day.
Speaker 2It's easy to say it's really really hard to implement and to do it day after day because you need to say no to other stuff, because you need to be good and move forward. So join a company, learn what they try to do, try to understand if this is doable in terms of business. At the end of the day, business should be revenue minus cost and it should be more than zero right. That's the basic of the business eventually. So you need to see if there is an opportunity to get there and then, once you choose to go to FinTech and it could be payment, it could be whatever, banking, it could be lending, it could be other stuff be subject matter, expert in what you do. And then the good news is that in fintech in general, it's a huge, huge, huge financial services. It's a huge market and if you find your niche and to be the subject matter expert, you will do well and then you will be able to apply to other places as well.
Speaker 3Yeah, I love that. It's great advice. So, arad, we've covered a lot of ground, obviously about the company and the industry and a little bit about you. Is there anything else you'd like to add before we wrap up the show? It was great talking to you. Really enjoyed it, okay, great. Well, thank you so much for being on the show. I know your time is very valuable, so I really appreciate you being here today.
Speaker 2Thanks, Greg, for inviting me. I had a great time.
Speaker 3Great, and to all you listeners out there, I thank you for your time as well, and until the next story.
Speaker 1Thank you for joining us this week on the Leaders in Payments podcast. Make sure you visit our website at leadersinpaymentscom, where you can subscribe to the show and where you'll find our show notes. If you enjoyed listening, please share on your social channels as well.