Speaker 1: Hey, hey, hey, we're back. We're black. We're extra brown today.
Speaker 1: Ambition ambition, ambition, ambition, ambition.
Speaker 2: Well we have some extra brown in the stew today. Yes,
Speaker 2: well one, First of all, Happy New Year. I don't
Speaker 2: know when you're hearing this, but y'all twenty twenty three. Okay.
Speaker 2: If twenty twenty three had a word, it would be
Speaker 2: what because I think it was so hard for so
Speaker 2: many people. But that's all right. We forgot about her.
Speaker 2: She's going, she's out of here. Twenty twenty four. As
Speaker 2: my sister Tracy said, it's gonna be a banner year.
Speaker 2: I can feel it. It's already starting off great for
Speaker 2: the most part. So we wanted to start the year
Speaker 2: off awesome by having awesome people in the stew And
Speaker 2: today we have a woman who is amazing who I
Speaker 2: was introduced to via one of my mentees. Hey, Berna,
Speaker 2: Bernad's awesome, and berna' said you have to be a woman. Vernda,
Speaker 2: she's awesome. So I'm gonna tell you a little bit
Speaker 2: about Verrenda that we're gonna welcome her into the stew
Speaker 2: and just chat.
Speaker 3: So.
Speaker 2: Vernda Gupta is the CEO and co founder of Sequin
Speaker 2: which is a women's banking and financial education membership club
Speaker 2: designed by women for women. Okay, she is a globally
Speaker 2: recognized credit expert by Forbes, ABC seven News and Fintech
Speaker 2: magazine who helped launch the popular Chase Sapphire Reserve credit
Speaker 2: card at Visa. Yes, that was Brenda. Y'all know I
Speaker 2: got the Reserve card. The joke is of Verenda that
Speaker 2: I never call it the right name. I'm always like
Speaker 2: the go get it Chase card, the travel around the card,
Speaker 2: travel around the world card. So she was the one
Speaker 2: who helped to launch that, and she received her MBA
Speaker 2: from Berkeley haz Am I saying that right. Brenda lives
Speaker 2: in San Francisco, California and is a proud we love
Speaker 2: this because you know I'm first generation, first generation Indian immigrant.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the studio, Verrenda.
Speaker 3: I'm so excited. Thank you so much for having me
Speaker 3: and I love hearing my bio out of your mouth.
Speaker 3: You are like my personal hype woman. This is great,
Speaker 3: well one.
Speaker 2: I heard to have to say that, like honestly, like
Speaker 2: I don't know if you've ever heard this, but Nigerians
Speaker 2: in which I am in first generation and Indians have
Speaker 2: so much in common because we too can only be doctors, attorneys, pharmacists, engineers.
Speaker 2: There's like a list of very small, you know, education
Speaker 2: past that we are allowed to go down, which is hilarious.
Speaker 2: And whenever I talk to my Indian friends kind of
Speaker 2: like of my upbringing, it sounds so similar. You know,
Speaker 2: parents were a little extra too strict. You know, education
Speaker 2: was most important, and yeah that there was just this
Speaker 2: expectation of excellence always, you know, and so like, so
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 3: Gluck company here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so one, I know that. So tell us a
Speaker 2: little bit about your background, how did you get here?
Speaker 2: And then I'd love to learn more about what sequences.
Speaker 3: I'm so excited to talk about my story with you, Tiffany,
Speaker 3: because I think I have a kindred spirit here. So, yeah,
Speaker 3: my story begins as a first generation immigrant. My family
Speaker 3: and I immigrated from India when I was very young,
Speaker 3: and I saw them navigating the US financial system, and
Speaker 3: I saw, disproportionately my mom having a lot of fear
Speaker 3: in that there might be gatcha so that she might
Speaker 3: make a mistake. And my mother is this, like many
Speaker 3: Brown mothers, a very feisty immigrant woman. She is not
Speaker 3: afraid of anything except for this one realm, which was
Speaker 3: the financial world. And so ultimately, when they were big
Speaker 3: financial decisions to be made, my dad would end up
Speaker 3: making them because my mom didn't feel confident. And I
Speaker 3: started associating money with power at a very young age,
Speaker 3: and since then, both my parents really encouraged me to
Speaker 3: become financial independent and really understand the financial system, because again,
Speaker 3: money is power. And so when I graduated, I actually
Speaker 3: wanted to get into financial services so I could empower
Speaker 3: myself and empower my mom and the women and just
Speaker 3: persons around me with this very important knowledge. And my
Speaker 3: first job out of college was at Visa, and I
Speaker 3: felt really fortunate to have that position because I was
Speaker 3: learning so much. I was a product manager. I was
Speaker 3: building popular credit cards, including the Chase Sapphire Reserve, which
Speaker 3: I know we talked about for a bit, and it
Speaker 3: was so fun, you know, working on this project, having
Speaker 3: so much ownership and for multiple years working on this
Speaker 3: huge product launch which was a big success. And I
Speaker 3: applied for the card that I had spent years building
Speaker 3: and I got rejected.
Speaker 2: Wow, yeah, so you applied for you built the club
Speaker 2: and couldn't get.
Speaker 3: In exactly exactly and you know, it was this moment
Speaker 3: where everything in my life had kind of come rushing
Speaker 3: to me, and it said, okay, well, you are literally
Speaker 3: in the center of this system, and you yourself are
Speaker 3: unable to get access to really important financial tools. And
Speaker 3: I just looked around and I said, you know, maybe
Speaker 3: I could be the one to break this generational kind
Speaker 3: of issue, especially as women are looking at money and
Speaker 3: looking at finances and not necessarily feeling as empowered and
Speaker 3: feeling as confident. And then I'm sitting there with this
Speaker 3: rejection screen in front of me and just had this
Speaker 3: moment of realization that, you know, if I wasn't able
Speaker 3: to do something about this, then my daughter in the
Speaker 3: future was going to be sitting in this exact same chair,
Speaker 3: having this exact same experience. And it kind of led
Speaker 3: me on this rabbit hole where I started understanding who
Speaker 3: the financial system was built for and who it wasn't
Speaker 3: And I actually learned that women minorities could be rejected
Speaker 3: from bank accounts, credit cards, business loans up until the
Speaker 3: nineteen seventies. And that's not ancient history, right, And even
Speaker 3: though it's illegal today, we all know that putting you know,
Speaker 3: laws in place does not solve the problem, and I
Speaker 3: kind of, you know, came to this realization that women
Speaker 3: and minorities have the largest spending power of any demographic. Ever, however,
Speaker 3: the financial system and the resources and the guidance and
Speaker 3: the tools themselves are really not designed around women or
Speaker 3: around minorities, and that's leading to less than optimal outcomes
Speaker 3: for us. And you know, that's kind of where my
Speaker 3: fascination with all of this started.
Speaker 2: And so when did you leave? Did you? Did you
Speaker 2: leave Chase soon after that? And like, is this what
Speaker 2: would would led you the starting sequence and what is sequin?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Absolutely, so I left, Lisa, I was working on
Speaker 3: the TA Yeah.
Speaker 2: Because they're activity. They know that I'm like, you know,
Speaker 2: the especially Mandy when it comes to the Chase staffire Reserve,
Speaker 2: I'm like the Chase the run and get on vacation
Speaker 2: that I get points to travel card.
Speaker 3: They know.
Speaker 2: So the fact that I called it, yes, that is
Speaker 2: so on brand. Yes, why do you let yes?
Speaker 3: Exactly?
Speaker 2: Yeah, So you was that like soon after that? You
Speaker 2: stayed for a little longer, Like what did that look like?
Speaker 3: I did? Yeah? So I stayed for a little longer
Speaker 3: because I had this realization that in order for me
Speaker 3: to fundamentally disrupt the financial system. I really wanted to
Speaker 3: understand how it worked, who it was built for, how
Speaker 3: it's designed, what the financial incentives are, how these products
Speaker 3: are built. And so after I got rejected, I actually
Speaker 3: had this renewed excitement and zeal for the payments industry
Speaker 3: because I felt if I could learn from the smartest
Speaker 3: people in the industry, I could actually take those learnings
Speaker 3: and then build something better. So I stuck around Visa
Speaker 3: for a few years after that, and I actually went
Speaker 3: to get my MBA at Berkeley HOSS. And when I
Speaker 3: was actually in my MBA program, I started surveying my
Speaker 3: classmates and I was realizing that even MBAs and these
Speaker 3: very very ambitious professional women were feeling less confident in
Speaker 3: our finances as compared to the men. And you know,
Speaker 3: I just realized that this was a huge opportunity to
Speaker 3: do something about it. So I had an MBA summer
Speaker 3: internship at one of the best design firms in the
Speaker 3: world called Ideo. And when I was there, I was
Speaker 3: kind of looking around and seeing what was going on
Speaker 3: in the world, and times up was happening, me too,
Speaker 3: was happening, and I just felt very strongly that women
Speaker 3: deserved better financial services that were actually designed around our needs.
Speaker 2: You know, you realized that there was this problem when
Speaker 2: it comes to women having access, and also not just
Speaker 2: women having access. I think that there was a confidence
Speaker 2: issue that you would look and to solve for. Is
Speaker 2: that accurate to say exactly? Yeah?
Speaker 3: I mean the issue was so multifascinating, and I think
Speaker 3: the deeper I dug, the more I saw. So the
Speaker 3: first piece at the highest level was I was looking
Speaker 3: at Visa data and I saw that seventy percent of
Speaker 3: women and every time I say women also with minorities,
Speaker 3: these stats are worse. So if you're interceptional, it's like
Speaker 3: if you're women and a minority, if these numbers are
Speaker 3: just worse and worse. But seventy percent of women were
Speaker 3: making avoidable mistakes when it came to money, when it
Speaker 3: came to credit, when it came to wealth, and those
Speaker 3: mistakes were solvable. It's just because the financial system was
Speaker 3: not designed with us in mind. We were also not
Speaker 3: being taught the same way, and the issues start really
Speaker 3: early where little boys are twice as likely to receive
Speaker 3: a lesson on credit and finances. By the time we
Speaker 3: reached high school, and then banks are spending thirty three
Speaker 3: times advertising to men they are to women, and thus
Speaker 3: women aren't having these conversations, and so that does lead
Speaker 3: to greater you know, not really understanding how some of
Speaker 3: these products and services are working. And then on top
Speaker 3: of that, when you actually look at the products and
Speaker 3: services themselves, you can see that credit scoring algorithms, for example,
Speaker 3: are taking into account, okay, the fact that there is
Speaker 3: a gender age gap, right, there is a pink tax,
Speaker 3: and that women's lives are costing more. And so you know,
Speaker 3: these algorithms are saying, are not actually seeing that, and
Speaker 3: they're just saying, okay, well, we are going to penalize
Speaker 3: you with some of those factors that you know, society
Speaker 3: has put onto us at no fault of our own.
Speaker 3: And so I started taking all these things, started looking
Speaker 3: at Okay, of course confidence, a lack of confidence is
Speaker 3: the result. But also these products were never designed with
Speaker 3: us in mind. We were never taught this industry is
Speaker 3: not designed to center women that look like you and me,
Speaker 3: So it makes sense that you know, we might not
Speaker 3: be engaging with them, or we might not feel confident
Speaker 3: using them.
Speaker 2: Well, where did you get the confidence to say you
Speaker 2: know what, I have seen the problem, and you know,
Speaker 2: I have seen the stats, and I want to be
Speaker 2: part of the solution. Like because a lot of people
Speaker 2: things happen all the time. I might say, oh, you know,
Speaker 2: I you know, I don't like on my street right
Speaker 2: now where I live, it's kind of a busy street,
Speaker 2: and I think to myself, oh, there should be a
Speaker 2: speed bump here, you know. But I just complained about it.
Speaker 2: But you know, sometimes there's a thing that makes you say,
Speaker 2: I'm actually not just going to complain about it. I'm
Speaker 2: going to do something like where did that energy come from?
Speaker 2: Is that like your mother's just seeping through? Like, no,
Speaker 2: the feistiness is still here.
Speaker 3: My mother is definitely my inspiration, and you know, I think,
Speaker 3: you know, to know me is to know my mother.
Speaker 3: But I think ultimately, when I looked around, I didn't
Speaker 3: really see anyone tackling this problem from the way that
Speaker 3: I really felt fundamentally the financial system needed a redesign,
Speaker 3: and you know, the education and the confidence and that component.
Speaker 3: I started seeing so many women start talking about that,
Speaker 3: which I thought was just so incredible, and women that
Speaker 3: looked like you and women that looked like me having
Speaker 3: these conversations and as I mentioned times up was happening,
Speaker 3: me too was happening, and I just felt like the
Speaker 3: timing for something like this was right. But the other
Speaker 3: part that I felt a lot of gratitude for and
Speaker 3: really understood my privilege in that I understood how to
Speaker 3: build financial products. And you know, as I looked around,
Speaker 3: even when I was working at Visa and especially now
Speaker 3: as a fintech founder, there wasn't anyone who looked like me.
Speaker 3: And you know, just having that experience where I was
Speaker 3: rejected from the product that I helped create, I don't
Speaker 3: know anyone else who's had that experience still in you know,
Speaker 3: my many almost a decade in fintech now, I haven't
Speaker 3: seen that. And I think with that perspective that made
Speaker 3: me really empathetic to the women who I'm building for.
Speaker 3: Where I had these conversations and I can say, okay,
Speaker 3: I also experience that problem. You're right right. You know,
Speaker 3: I got rejected because I wasn't building my credit history
Speaker 3: effectively and that's because I didn't know. No one taught me.
Speaker 3: And so as I'm talking to other women and building
Speaker 3: the products, it's also thinking about how do we not
Speaker 3: only give you the education that you need and the
Speaker 3: why behind everything, but also how do we design products
Speaker 3: and services that you can actually take those learnings and
Speaker 3: then practice with them and know that these products aren't
Speaker 3: going to have a bunch of gotchas around them. So
Speaker 3: to answer your question to me, I think I just
Speaker 3: didn't see anyone else with my unique perspective, and I
Speaker 3: felt this is something that should exist the world because
Speaker 3: when you give women and minorities more money, that's how
Speaker 3: the world moves forward. And it became a matter of
Speaker 3: gender equity and equity for minorities as well, where again,
Speaker 3: going back to money is power. Understanding how to leverage money,
Speaker 3: Understanding money, credit and wealth and actually having the tools
Speaker 3: to make those work for you is just so powerful.
Speaker 3: And it felt like probably the most important thing that
Speaker 3: I could do with my life. And so that's why
Speaker 3: I decided to take the plunge into entrepreneurship and build
Speaker 3: what is now Sequin.
Speaker 2: So let's talk about Sequin one. How did you come
Speaker 2: up with the name and what exactly is sequin?
Speaker 3: Yes, I actually love this question with the name, so
Speaker 3: it's actually an interesting kind of fun fact. So Sequence
Speaker 3: or Siica is the Arabic term for a coin, and
Speaker 3: around the Roman Empire timing there were these Venetian gold
Speaker 3: currencies as well, called sequence or sica, and as you know,
Speaker 3: the fall of the Roman Empire, the coins started losing
Speaker 3: value and so people would wear them as talismans and
Speaker 3: you know, decor and over time it became this kind
Speaker 3: of shiny not what we know a sequence, Kay, and
Speaker 3: I really loved that mix of you know, rooted and
Speaker 3: deep currency and gold coins, but also something that represents
Speaker 3: femininity and something that feels very kind of bright and
Speaker 3: loud and out there. It just felt like this perfect
Speaker 3: mix of you know, what we were trying to build
Speaker 3: and you know, the change that we're trying to make
Speaker 3: in the world.
Speaker 2: Now that we know how you got the name Sequin,
Speaker 2: what exactly because I know it's a women's banking and
Speaker 2: financial education membership club, but what exactly does that mean?
Speaker 2: If I were to go and we have a link
Speaker 2: in the description of our you know, if you're listening
Speaker 2: and like, I want to sign up for a Sequin
Speaker 2: after hearing, So if I were to go to to
Speaker 2: go to sequencar dot com, right, that's the site, right.
Speaker 3: Yes, exact seccard dot com right.
Speaker 2: And so then what can I expect? Like, what will
Speaker 2: I get there? You know that I can't find someplace
Speaker 2: self exactly.
Speaker 3: So the best part about Sequin is that we combine
Speaker 3: community and financial guidance with actual banking and financial tools
Speaker 3: for you to take the action. So you have guidance,
Speaker 3: you have accountability, and you have banking tools. And so
Speaker 3: we go through our three step money, credit and wealth
Speaker 3: program and at each step we actually say these are
Speaker 3: the things that you need to do, and actually in
Speaker 3: this order, because we get so many questions around should
Speaker 3: I be paying off debt first, should I be investing first?
Speaker 3: Should I have an emergency fund? And actually there is
Speaker 3: an order that works for most people, and so we
Speaker 3: say this is the order you can diy. We have
Speaker 3: a ton of amazing resources around money, credit, and wealth.
Speaker 3: We have workshops if you need accountability, and we do
Speaker 3: a lot of community work together as well. And then
Speaker 3: the best part is you get a Sequin high interest
Speaker 3: checking account and a Sequin depit card that has your
Speaker 3: own money mantra on its visa.
Speaker 2: Oh girl, you know those cards. You're like, where did
Speaker 2: you press the set staples? But now you're not if
Speaker 2: you're listening and you can't see it. It has the
Speaker 2: visa on it. I love that it has your money mants.
Speaker 2: That's amazing.
Speaker 3: Yes, it's great and it's really neat. So you know,
Speaker 3: one of our main products that will give you is
Speaker 3: sequent high interest checking, which is something that doesn't really
Speaker 3: exist on the market. And so with high interest checking,
Speaker 3: it means that your checking account is actually growing every
Speaker 3: single dollar. And what we hear so much of women
Speaker 3: is you know, either I'm not investing, which you know
Speaker 3: we're hoping to change, or I'm not growing my money
Speaker 3: and we want every single dollar of yours to grow
Speaker 3: in your checking account. So your paycheck goes into sequence,
Speaker 3: it grows at high interest. The raids subject to change,
Speaker 3: but right now it's three point five six percent and
Speaker 3: checking why in checking, which is over fifty times what
Speaker 3: you're gonna get with ye.
Speaker 2: I'm not the lead everyone, I'm not the one who
Speaker 2: is there like a minimum. It lookuld me for myself,
Speaker 2: I mean for the audience, it's.
Speaker 3: I know there are no gotchas. So that was one
Speaker 3: of the things that I felt very strongly about with
Speaker 3: my experience with my mom was there's a lot of
Speaker 3: gotchas in the financial world. Right, you get a free
Speaker 3: checking account for those of those of you can't see me,
Speaker 3: I'm putting clothes right, a free checking account. But there's
Speaker 3: so many gotchas. Right, there's overdraft fees, late peas. I
Speaker 3: always say, if you're not paying for a product, you
Speaker 3: are the product. Yes, And you know that's something that
Speaker 3: we wanted to kiss goodbye to with Sequin, where when
Speaker 3: you come in, everything is given to you and we
Speaker 3: have a monthly or an annual membership and once you're
Speaker 3: in there's nothing. And at a certain point with you know,
Speaker 3: if you connect your direct deposit to Sequin, you will
Speaker 3: likely earn more in interest than the membership fee. So
Speaker 3: you're learning, right, you're getting accountability. You're getting these novel
Speaker 3: banking tools that don't really exist on the market. High
Speaker 3: interest checking is gate kept, like American Express has it,
Speaker 3: but you have to have an AMEX card with an
Speaker 3: annual fee and then you get access to it. This way,
Speaker 3: there's no gatekeeping. You come in and we also have
Speaker 3: some other really amazing tools like credit tools where you
Speaker 3: can build credit, you can pay off debt all within Sequin,
Speaker 3: all in one place. So the idea is you can
Speaker 3: manage your entire financial life within sequin We'll tell you
Speaker 3: the exact order of things to do, will give you
Speaker 3: resources to actually practice take action. We'll give you accountability
Speaker 3: with the community, and we will give you novel banking
Speaker 3: tools that do not exist anywhere else really on the
Speaker 3: market and are definitely not all in one place together.
Speaker 3: So I love what we're building. And the best part
Speaker 3: is we want to design a financial system with women
Speaker 3: and minorities in mind for the first time in history,
Speaker 3: right if women could be and minorities could be rejected
Speaker 3: from again bank accounts, business loans, credit cards. Until the seventies,
Speaker 3: every single bank out there was not designed with our
Speaker 3: needs in mind, right, And so we always do feedback sessions.
Speaker 3: Every single product that we've built, and every single feature
Speaker 3: is actually built by a request from a member of
Speaker 3: our community. And so we really do listen. And that's
Speaker 3: why you know your reaction took me. Of high interest checking,
Speaker 3: we heard so many women say like, Okay, I do
Speaker 3: have an investment, but I need money every month, and
Speaker 3: I have a lot of money in my checking account
Speaker 3: and that should be growing, and every single dollar of
Speaker 3: yours should be growing. And so we're like enter high
Speaker 3: interest checking.
Speaker 2: I love that. So what one currently? So it depends
Speaker 2: if you're listening to this podcast five years and nat,
Speaker 2: this might not be accurate. But for now, what is
Speaker 2: the annual fee? And then what aside from this high
Speaker 2: interest checking, what else does it get you access to?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Absolutely, So when you join our membership, our monthly
Speaker 3: right now is thirteen dollars a month. Our annual we're
Speaker 3: actually doing a promotion. We'll do a promotion with We'll
Speaker 3: give you a specific link with brand ambitions so you
Speaker 3: can get forty percent off, So we'll share that as well.
Speaker 3: In annual membership. But you get everything, so you get
Speaker 3: all of the financial guidance that I mentioned. So our
Speaker 3: money Credit Wealth Program, which includes courses, it includes workshops,
Speaker 3: and includes DIY resources to help you do things like
Speaker 3: calculate your emergency fund. It does things like help you
Speaker 3: figure out the best way to pay off debt, It
Speaker 3: does things like help you understand the best way to
Speaker 3: get started investment. And then you also get access to
Speaker 3: our financial tools which are high interest checking right so
Speaker 3: you're able to grow every single dollar at insanely high
Speaker 3: interest and it's totally liquid to you. You get access
Speaker 3: to all of our credit tools that help you build credit,
Speaker 3: payoff debt. You literally just connect your credit cards to
Speaker 3: Sequen and the tools smart enough to tell you are
Speaker 3: you in debt payoff mode or credit building mode. And
Speaker 3: the best part is all of it is in one
Speaker 3: place and it's all accessible to you. You're not going
Speaker 3: to be charged overdraft fees, late fees, penalties. We actually
Speaker 3: every time you make a transaction, text you and tell
Speaker 3: you how much you have left in your account, so
Speaker 3: you are never going to be overdrafting. You're always aware.
Speaker 3: So those are kind of small features that we just
Speaker 3: provide for nervous system regulation, but we're constantly building new
Speaker 3: features and everything is accessible to you as a SEQUENCE member,
Speaker 3: Like I.
Speaker 2: Have so many cut I'm like, right, and everybody knows me,
Speaker 2: they know work.
Speaker 3: Es.
Speaker 2: I'm like okay, So question, do you have joint accounts available.
Speaker 3: Us yet? And actually, you know, it's something that we
Speaker 3: could consider. But one of the things that we are
Speaker 3: trying to prevent here is women and minorities are twice
Speaker 3: as likely to be the authorized or the secondary user
Speaker 3: on a joint account. And with Sequin, we really want
Speaker 3: this to be your bank account, Like this is your banking,
Speaker 3: and there's not really anyone else like this is you,
Speaker 3: you know, and you can manage your financial life if
Speaker 3: you want to connect you know, your partners credit cards
Speaker 3: into it, or if you want to kind of use
Speaker 3: it together, you can. But it really is meant to
Speaker 3: be an account for you to be able to keep
Speaker 3: organized and on track.
Speaker 2: Okay, now that makes sense. So a second question, do
Speaker 2: you guys do business accounts yet?
Speaker 3: Not yet? But we do have so many entrepreneurs in
Speaker 3: our community, which is really amazing, and for their money, Mantrell,
Speaker 3: a lot of them will just put their business name
Speaker 3: and that keeps them really accountable. So it's not a
Speaker 3: business account, but you can store your business funds in
Speaker 3: sequin if you would like. It's just not meant to
Speaker 3: be used as a business account, but you can grow
Speaker 3: those business funds and sequence if you will.
Speaker 2: Okay, even if you know, I'm just thinking like, okay,
Speaker 2: good to know. Look at me, I'm like and because
Speaker 2: you see me like, I'm back in all these questions
Speaker 2: for the audience aka Tiffany Gus.
Speaker 3: Let's get you signed up.
Speaker 2: Do you guys offer savings accounts yet?
Speaker 3: Chree, it's all checking. We just wanted everything to be
Speaker 3: very liquid. One thing that we are working on again
Speaker 3: community requested, is buckets, and so you can separate out
Speaker 3: let's say your emergency fund, right, will help you calculate that.
Speaker 3: We'll do a workshop with you and we'll say, okay,
Speaker 3: now put that money into sequin where it's going to
Speaker 3: grow with high interest. And so we're working on building
Speaker 3: out our buckets functionality, but for now it's all kind
Speaker 3: of in checking and we don't like your to be
Speaker 3: locked away. We just want you to have access to it.
Speaker 3: But if you do need to separate it out, that's
Speaker 3: where the buckets come in.
Speaker 2: Okay, Now, I love that. I'm a bucket girl. So
Speaker 2: I wanted I know one of the the drawbacks of
Speaker 2: a savings account, which I mean, I obviously love a
Speaker 2: high yield savings account, but I know that there is
Speaker 2: like you can't do more than six transfers a month,
Speaker 2: I believe, So are there is there like an amount
Speaker 2: of transfers that you can't do? Okay?
Speaker 3: No? So yeah, So I love these conversations because I all,
Speaker 3: these women are so smart, right, and you're always asking
Speaker 3: like the fine print kind of questions. And that's one
Speaker 3: of the things that we wanted to avoid here with
Speaker 3: Sequin is you come in and you just have nervous
Speaker 3: system regulation. Your money is always available to you. There's
Speaker 3: no gotchas, there's no restrictions, there's no minimums. When you're
Speaker 3: a Sequin member, you have access to everything. We just
Speaker 3: open the door and you have access to the whole
Speaker 3: the whole kingdom here.
Speaker 2: So just this before I forget. So also my question is, oh,
Speaker 2: is there bill pay available? Because I'm a big bill
Speaker 2: pay girl, you know where like people come in, I
Speaker 2: mean I automate bill payments, and of course bill payments
Speaker 2: come in, but is there a bill payment option available yet?
Speaker 3: So it's not you can't send like a check to
Speaker 3: your you know, bill pay or anything like that, but
Speaker 3: you can definitely pay your bills from Sequin. And we
Speaker 3: have a entire session actually and a bunch of materials
Speaker 3: around organizing your finances and so much of it is automating,
Speaker 3: like you mentioned, and so we actually go through what
Speaker 3: is that checklist of what you need to do just
Speaker 3: to again reduce that mental load monthly and make sure
Speaker 3: your bills are paid and you know you're not going
Speaker 3: to miss payments, et cetera. So it's not an official
Speaker 3: bill pay functionality, but you can definitely connect your bills
Speaker 3: to sequin.
Speaker 2: Okay, trying to think is there any like financial questions,
Speaker 2: I'm like, why else? It sounds really awesome, And just
Speaker 2: just for clarity, I just was looking the other day
Speaker 2: because I overdrafted because although I had a bunch of
Speaker 2: money in one account I and another joint account that
Speaker 2: I have my sister because to your point, I was
Speaker 2: helping her. My my monthly fee is twenty five dollars
Speaker 2: and I get nothing for that twenty five dollars nothing now, see,
Speaker 2: I know, so for thirty dollars to you know, so one,
Speaker 2: you know, it's significantly less than what probably you're paying
Speaker 2: quite honestly if you have a checking account. And then
Speaker 2: on top of that, you're also earning interests where I'm
Speaker 2: earning nothing. I mean, this is a big bank. So
Speaker 2: even in saving it's point like zero zero or one percent,
Speaker 2: but checking is like gird, you tried it, there's nothing
Speaker 2: here for you. And so you know if those of
Speaker 2: you who are hearing the fee that for the most part,
Speaker 2: you are likely paying a fee anyway, I know. Sometimes
Speaker 2: you know to your point that bank like if you
Speaker 2: have direct deposit that that fee gets waived. So some
Speaker 2: people take advantage of that, but I love the fact
Speaker 2: that there's this education component and the community component, which
Speaker 2: is so right up my alley. So I wanted to
Speaker 2: shift gears a little bit into because there we have
Speaker 2: a lot of entrepreneurs here and would let to get
Speaker 2: a better understanding of like what the business Like, this
Speaker 2: is me my curiosity. So is this like when I
Speaker 2: started the budget Nesta that I didn't have any money
Speaker 2: and certainly no one was trying to invest. You know,
Speaker 2: did you raise money to start Sequin? How was that
Speaker 2: process as a brown woman? If you did? Like what
Speaker 2: did that?
Speaker 3: Like? Oh my gosh, I love this conversation. Yes, So
Speaker 3: we actually decided to take the venture back to reach
Speaker 3: and one thing that was really important for me and
Speaker 3: hopefully you can all get the stuns as I'm talking,
Speaker 3: is living our mission end to end, and that is
Speaker 3: our investors. That's you know who works that Sequin, that's
Speaker 3: who we're serving. But we really care so much about
Speaker 3: empowering women financially. And part of that is even if
Speaker 3: you are an in having the opportunity to have a
Speaker 3: huge outcome, right, And so when I went to fundraise
Speaker 3: for the first time. First of all, I had no
Speaker 3: idea what I was doing. I was like me with
Speaker 3: a pitch deck. And actually, funny story, I walked into
Speaker 3: a woman who actually ended up investing later on, and
Speaker 3: you all know her name. But when I walked in,
Speaker 3: she said, uh, you know, don't you have friends and
Speaker 3: family who can invest? And I said, I actually don't.
Speaker 3: You know, that's one of the things right where you
Speaker 3: hear these stories of entrepreneurs and it's you know, I
Speaker 3: got a small loan of a million dollars.
Speaker 2: I did a friend and family round and I got
Speaker 2: three hundred thousand.
Speaker 3: I know, I know, And it's those types of things,
Speaker 3: and you know, to this investor's credit, I said to her,
Speaker 3: I said, one of the reasons why I want to
Speaker 3: start this company is to put more money in the
Speaker 3: hands of women. And I hope that one day I
Speaker 3: can be that person that someone comes to and says,
Speaker 3: I have this amazing business idea that's going to change
Speaker 3: the world. Do you want to invest? And I hope
Speaker 3: at that point I can say, yes, I have a
Speaker 3: little bit of money to give to you. But at
Speaker 3: this point, you know, as as a first generation immigrant.
Speaker 3: Part of it is you don't have generational wealth, right,
Speaker 3: that is the thing, and that's the thing that we
Speaker 3: are all working towards. And so you know, going in,
Speaker 3: I think taking it as a moment to educate and say,
Speaker 3: you know this type of thing, right, I do not
Speaker 3: have extremely wealthy friends and family to be investing, you know,
Speaker 3: hundreds of thousands of dollars into this. But the second
Speaker 3: piece that was really important to me was having women
Speaker 3: and women of color on my cap table. And it
Speaker 3: took me longer to fundraise to find those folks and
Speaker 3: really test the fit both ways. Right, It's not just
Speaker 3: me saying, oh, I need money to get started on
Speaker 3: my business, but truly was are you mission driven? Do
Speaker 3: you understand the huge opportunity that this is to change
Speaker 3: the world? Right? It's you know, putting hands and putting
Speaker 3: money in the hands of women, putting the money in
Speaker 3: the hands of minorities. This is a revolutionary idea. And
Speaker 3: are you in it for the long caul and are
Speaker 3: you in it for those ups and downs? And I'm
Speaker 3: so glad I made that decision to really be intentional
Speaker 3: about who is on our cap table, because as we
Speaker 3: have progressed year over year and done additional rounds. Almost
Speaker 3: all of those women have reinvested into the company, and
Speaker 3: so it made our rounds after that, you know, a
Speaker 3: lot easier. And we actually went through a startup accelerator
Speaker 3: called why Combinator, which has launched, yeah, some of the
Speaker 3: biggest unicorns of the last few years, Stripe, Instacart, door, Dash,
Speaker 3: et cetera. And it's been such an amazing experience to
Speaker 3: have that mentorship. But it is kind of interesting, you know,
Speaker 3: I am a huge fan of my peers, and they're
Speaker 3: some of the smartest and kindest people I've ever met.
Speaker 3: But they don't look like me, right, They look like
Speaker 3: them and they all kinds of very similar. They look
Speaker 3: like who the financial world is designed for. And I
Speaker 3: think I love that, Yeah, for sure. So I think that,
Speaker 3: you know, is the superpower right of being able to
Speaker 3: be empathetic with your community. And even as I do
Speaker 3: use their interviews almost every single day and do money
Speaker 3: therapy sessions, I'm crying on these calls with these women,
Speaker 3: right because I see they tell me the stories about
Speaker 3: you know, that them watching their moms growing up, and
Speaker 3: I'm like, that was me too, and you know, them
Speaker 3: getting rejected from products. I'm like me too, Right, how
Speaker 3: do we actually take that feeling and then actually solve
Speaker 3: it with products and services? So anyway, I digress. Yes,
Speaker 3: we took the venture back to route. But having mission
Speaker 3: driven investors is something that is so important and it's
Speaker 3: a smart business decision as well, because it's a long
Speaker 3: journey and you know, you're in this relationship with your
Speaker 3: investors for you know, decades. I hope I got to
Speaker 3: run this company for the rest of my life and
Speaker 3: so you know, these people are going to be along
Speaker 3: with me for the right No.
Speaker 2: I love that and for those because there are listeners
Speaker 2: who are like, what's the cat table? I heard it?
Speaker 2: I remember what? Jay Z has this great line. Have
Speaker 2: you heard that line? Like it's like he said, oh,
Speaker 2: this is great line where he's like, you know something
Speaker 2: something at the cat table? What the splits is something
Speaker 2: like you know? And I just love that, Like he's
Speaker 2: like integrating, like you know, a venture language into like rapin.
Speaker 2: But anyway, I just like, go, y'all google it, just
Speaker 2: say Jaz cat table.
Speaker 3: That's a venture fun too. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So he's very well, you know, but he said he
Speaker 2: had to learn like it's a different type of thing.
Speaker 2: So for those people who are listening and not familiar,
Speaker 2: I love that we get to see it through brown eyes,
Speaker 2: like oh okay, so yeah, what is a cat table?
Speaker 2: What does that mean? Yes?
Speaker 3: Absolutely, yeah, So CAP table just stands for a capitalization table.
Speaker 3: And so when you go to fundraise, you'll say, okay,
Speaker 3: I you know, it's kind of Shark tank vibes, but
Speaker 3: a little less uh, a little less theatrical, I would say.
Speaker 3: But yeah, so you know how they say, I'm, you know,
Speaker 3: looking for a certain amount of investment to own this
Speaker 3: portion of my company, and I value my company at
Speaker 3: this amount, and so it's basically what percentage ownership based
Speaker 3: off the amount that they've invested and at what valuation
Speaker 3: basically your company is. So basically it's kind of a spreadsheet,
Speaker 3: a fancy spreadsheet that shows you know the ownership of
Speaker 3: the company.
Speaker 2: So that's why jay Z say what the splits is right,
Speaker 2: because he's basically like, Okay, if I give you this
Speaker 2: amount of money, what's my cut basically of your company?
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, exactly, yeah, yeah, the famous words of jay Z.
Speaker 2: But so so for you because I've heard, like, like
Speaker 2: I said, have never I've never I never tried to
Speaker 2: raise money. Plus I don't even know, like, so we
Speaker 2: have been totally self funded. So I started the budget
Speaker 2: nathe them, funded it myself, like you know, a little
Speaker 2: by little, I made a little money, funded it more,
Speaker 2: and then I used the Budgetista as the bank. So
Speaker 2: when I launched other projects and companies, I would go
Speaker 2: to the bank of Budgenista. So when I started my
Speaker 2: online school, which we peaked at in like eight figures
Speaker 2: a year, I was like, but I think, like we
Speaker 2: needed thirty thousand dollars to get them, Like it was.
Speaker 2: We were paying professors, we were paying you know, for
Speaker 2: the like, for the content just and it was a lot.
Speaker 2: But I could have never started with thirty thousand dollars
Speaker 2: like ex preschool teacher Tiffany starting the Budgeanista. But you
Speaker 2: know then because by then the Budgetesta hadn't been in
Speaker 2: business like six or seven years, so the academy was
Speaker 2: able to say, hey, Budgenisa, can I borrow money, you know,
Speaker 2: And so the Budgetista lent it the thirty thousand that
Speaker 2: it needed. Yeah, and then its first year, I remember
Speaker 2: we put all that money to work. I remember we
Speaker 2: made thirty thousand dollars the first thirty minutes that we
Speaker 2: opened the doors. I had never made I used to
Speaker 2: make thirty nine thousand dollars a year as a teacher,
Speaker 2: and so that was like what you know, So that
Speaker 2: was kind of like my the funding as how I
Speaker 2: saw it, you know, because I thought, to your point,
Speaker 2: I didn't feel confident enough. Plus too, I wouldn't even
Speaker 2: know what to do. I didn't come from the corporate world.
Speaker 2: So I'm fascinated to hear like, okay, like how many
Speaker 2: people did you have to pitch to? Like what was
Speaker 2: your like pitch percentage? Like, oh, you know about two
Speaker 2: percent of people said oh yes, And is that normal?
Speaker 2: Like what did you find? How was that? Like, yeah,
Speaker 2: how many people did you pitch to? And you know,
Speaker 2: like what was your like closing rate? I guess, And
Speaker 2: it was that normal comparative to your to your peers?
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, So you know some of the stats and
Speaker 3: I try to take that bogged down by the stuff, right, So,
Speaker 3: but I intellectualized these numbers, and you know, less than
Speaker 3: two percent of venture funding goes to women, period, right,
Speaker 3: And then when you think about women in fintech, when
Speaker 3: you think about women of color, when you think of
Speaker 3: immigrants that never just gets smaller and smaller and smaller.
Speaker 3: And actually, I think someone told me I had a
Speaker 3: greater chance of winning the calif Or Neil lottery than
Speaker 3: I did raising money when you look at the percentages. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: and I was like, thanks, I tried not got to
Speaker 3: think about that. Luckily it was you know, after I
Speaker 3: finished razing and we raised about six million dollars, which
Speaker 3: is amazing. Yeah, and you know, from awesome investors. But yeah,
Speaker 3: I know that idea of going out there and pitching
Speaker 3: really requires you to take a very big bet on yourself.
Speaker 3: And you know, you're talking to the best investors right
Speaker 3: in Silicon Valley in our case, and their job is
Speaker 3: to tell you everything that can go wrong with your company,
Speaker 3: and it can really mess with your psychology. And actually,
Speaker 3: you know, in those moments, I really leaned upon three things.
Speaker 3: The first was my expertise and being able to say
Speaker 3: that I built the credit card that's been your wallet.
Speaker 2: We called it a flex around here, yes, And.
Speaker 3: You know, I it's interesting because when I first started,
Speaker 3: I for some reason just felt like, oh, my qualifications
Speaker 3: would speak for myself. And they knew that going into it.
Speaker 3: You know, when I'd send them an email saying I
Speaker 3: wanted to chat. It's I built the chase half I reserve.
Speaker 3: And you know, there's a voice inside my head again
Speaker 3: that I don't let get too loud. But I do
Speaker 3: feel if I were again a white man and they
Speaker 3: had known that, I don't think they would have. I
Speaker 3: got grilled. There was actually a woman partner who came
Speaker 3: up to me after one of my pitches and she says,
Speaker 3: I have never seen anyone get grilled like that. Good job.
Speaker 3: And at first I was like, wow, thank you, And
Speaker 3: then I started thinking about it more and I was
Speaker 3: like why is that? Though, Like, why as a woman
Speaker 3: do you need to be ten x better? But leaning
Speaker 3: into my expertise, I think helped a lot in saying, Okay,
Speaker 3: I know how to build these products. I've done it
Speaker 3: before you use a product that I built, I can
Speaker 3: do this. I know how to do this, and just
Speaker 3: getting confident in that in my body is not as
Speaker 3: an immigrant so much for is like humility, and I
Speaker 3: realized that wasn't the strategy here because the guys were
Speaker 3: not going in humble right. So that leads me to
Speaker 3: my second point, was just being able to sell a
Speaker 3: really really big vision that for me again was grounded
Speaker 3: and talked to thousands of women at that point and
Speaker 3: being able to say, I understand this population one because
Speaker 3: I am this woman, but also this woman has an
Speaker 3: incredible amount of spending power that she's just making avoidable
Speaker 3: financial mistakes with and if we can solve that, that
Speaker 3: is just so that unlocks so much opportunity for so
Speaker 3: many people. So that was the second piece, and the
Speaker 3: third piece was, you know, everyone has those days where
Speaker 3: just like one too many negative, you know, conversations and
Speaker 3: be like lying on my office floor with the lights off,
Speaker 3: like so tired that I just like pick up my
Speaker 3: phone and call my mom. My Mom's just like, women
Speaker 3: need this, And I feel so much more empowered going
Speaker 3: through the financial system, after going through Sequin and after
Speaker 3: being a part of sequin, and this is really really
Speaker 3: important and that just always refueled me. So I think
Speaker 3: going back to a really strong lie is you know,
Speaker 3: something that was just so helpful, and you know, just
Speaker 3: I love the people that we're building for because they're
Speaker 3: my sisters and my mom and my future daughters. Right,
Speaker 3: that's what's not to love.
Speaker 2: So yeah, we have in our slack channel, we have
Speaker 2: a channel called Testimonials where wherever somebody says something nice
Speaker 2: about us an email or social whatever, we take a
Speaker 2: screenshot and we all posted there because everyone has days
Speaker 2: where you're like, oh, oh no, we doing like today,
Speaker 2: I made a huge mistake with the brand we partnered
Speaker 2: with and it was just like and I was just
Speaker 2: like one am I doing fifteen years old? But you know,
Speaker 2: you get to go to the testimonials channel and women
Speaker 2: are like, I pay my bill for the first time
Speaker 2: I was able to save you red Like okay, okay,
Speaker 2: you know, like this is the why you know, so
Speaker 2: it doesn't important. I think it's important for women to
Speaker 2: hear like, no matter what level of success or whatever
Speaker 2: that you've achieved, you know it's still you know, you
Speaker 2: still have days. So thank you for being vulnerable. And
Speaker 2: I think my last big, huge question for you is
Speaker 2: like what is a desired outcome? Right, so five years,
Speaker 2: ten years from now, like, what what's your I call
Speaker 2: it dreamscaping. We just kind of like let your dreams
Speaker 2: just run around the landscape of your mind, Like what
Speaker 2: would you love to see that sequence? Has this many
Speaker 2: people signed up? It's doing this? Like what does that
Speaker 2: look like?
Speaker 3: This is such a great, great question. I want to
Speaker 3: be the number I want Seque to be the number
Speaker 3: one banking for women, and I want to be able
Speaker 3: to grow with you from your first checking account all
Speaker 3: the way to your entire life sneeds right, So checking account,
Speaker 3: then get into credit, then you get into you know,
Speaker 3: big life goals like investing, you get into buying a home. Right,
Speaker 3: we see that women are better to lend to, but
Speaker 3: mortgages are more expensive for women. Why the heck is that?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 3: There's you know, mortgages, there's weddings, there's kids in five
Speaker 3: twenty nine plans. We know with retirement, women have to
Speaker 3: be thinking about that differently because we live longer and
Speaker 3: you know, it might take a step back as caretakers,
Speaker 3: et cetera, et cetera. There's so many hidden costs to
Speaker 3: being a woman every step of the way, and there's
Speaker 3: so much guidance to be had, and there are better
Speaker 3: products to be built that are more transparent, like we're
Speaker 3: already doing with sequin right where we're educating you, were
Speaker 3: giving you the products. And so I want to be
Speaker 3: that place where you have a really big life goal,
Speaker 3: you get your first job, you get married, you have kids,
Speaker 3: you retire, and I want Sequin to be with you
Speaker 3: every step of the way. The place that you can
Speaker 3: feel is very trustworthy. You feel like there's no gotchas,
Speaker 3: and you feel like your banking is truly aligned with
Speaker 3: yours and what you are looking to accomplish, and it's
Speaker 3: really helping you get there versus you know a cause
Speaker 3: of stress or that you know your bank is making
Speaker 3: money when you make a mistake. I don't want that anymore. Right,
Speaker 3: access to finance is access to credit, access to wealth
Speaker 3: is directly equal to access to opportunity, and I just
Speaker 3: want women with women and minorities to have at least
Speaker 3: the same but if not opportunities.
Speaker 2: I love that access to wealth, access to credit, access
Speaker 2: to like really living this your financial life as you
Speaker 2: see fit is directly aligned with access to opportunities. That
Speaker 2: is so I think that people understand that when you know,
Speaker 2: you hear people say I'm going to pull myself up,
Speaker 2: or you should buy your bootstraps, but some people have
Speaker 2: no boots, so it's like, what does that even mean?
Speaker 2: And so I love that. So we are claiming that
Speaker 2: for you. Yeah, I love this. This was like so great.
Speaker 2: I thank you for being open to not just talk
Speaker 2: about the product itself, but like the business underlying the product. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, so you know that is something that I'm
Speaker 2: always curious about. I know our listeners are curious about,
Speaker 2: and I know they're Hopefully you have found this interview
Speaker 2: so as delightful as I have, because I just learned
Speaker 2: so much and it's just nice to see. I hope
Speaker 2: you know that there are people out there who are
Speaker 2: navigating from a place of good, you know, especially in
Speaker 2: this space. Sometimes I'm like, oh, I guess you know,
Speaker 2: when I'm thinking about the tools or resources that I
Speaker 2: have to use or recommend, because although the tool might
Speaker 2: be good, the underlying business doesn't really sit well. So
Speaker 2: I love, love, love that there are people out there
Speaker 2: who like me, are like, yes, of course I want
Speaker 2: to make money, but I want to make good money
Speaker 2: in a good way. You know. I tell people I
Speaker 2: want to do good right, I want to help good people,
Speaker 2: I want to make good money, and I want to
Speaker 2: live a good life. And so I just I love
Speaker 2: that you are right in the line with that, Vernda,
Speaker 2: and we thank you for so we thank you so much.
Speaker 3: Coming on, I feel again I have a kindred spirit
Speaker 3: here and I just love so much what you've felt
Speaker 3: in this community. And you know, as I mentioned to
Speaker 3: some of my inspirations when I first started this company,
Speaker 3: you were at the top of that list. So thank
Speaker 3: you for everything. Yes, I have actually a spreadsheet from
Speaker 3: when I first started. I said, who are my dream
Speaker 3: people who I would love to just meet and just
Speaker 3: love the work that they're doing, And it was Tiffany
Speaker 3: the budget me start if this feels very like manifesting
Speaker 3: in the world's you know, coming together. So thank you
Speaker 3: for everything that you do, and thank you for this
Speaker 3: platform to share my story and share what we're doing
Speaker 3: with sequin.
Speaker 2: No, absolutely so if you are interested in secret, because
Speaker 2: lord knows, I'm putting at least one of my checking
Speaker 2: accounts over there. Yeah, and you know there is a link,
Speaker 2: you know, as Vernda explained, there is a link, so
Speaker 2: you can certainly go to sequincard dot com. But with
Speaker 2: our link sequencard dot com slash brown Ambition, you get
Speaker 2: forty percent off. Is that where you're saying, Yeah, so
Speaker 2: exact the link is in the description, So go ahead
Speaker 2: and take a look. And Brenda, I'm actually going coming.
Speaker 2: I have to tape something for a brand and I'm
Speaker 2: coming to Oh, I'm coming to LA. You're in San Francisco.
Speaker 2: Why don't know?
Speaker 3: Why are you going to be in LA?
Speaker 2: I believe the third of February. I'm still we're still
Speaker 2: working on dates, but I don't let you know. You know,
Speaker 2: and then that way, keep me posted.
Speaker 3: I love LA. It's a quick trip, so maybe I'll
Speaker 3: just fly down and have some fun and Santa Monica and.
Speaker 2: See Monica too. All right, thank you and thank you
Speaker 2: b a listener. If oh, Brenda will quick. If they
Speaker 2: want to find you, where can they find you? Like,
Speaker 2: if they want to continue to learn more?
Speaker 3: Absolutely yeah. So you can follow us on our sequence TikTok.
Speaker 3: We're at Sequin Club, same on Instagram, same on LinkedIn,
Speaker 3: and if you want to follow me for whatever reason
Speaker 3: and follow my life I'm at Brenda dot gufta on
Speaker 3: Instagram as well.
Speaker 2: Well. Thank you. All right, y'all, see you next week.
Speaker 2: If you love this episode, share with a friend because
Speaker 2: sharing is truly caring. And we'll see you next week.
Speaker 3: Thanks so much. Bye,