Thought Leaders in Financial Technology: Grain Cofounder and COO Carl Memnon (Part 1)

Carl discusses Grain’s FinTech innovation, and also some of the unique ways in which his company has been financed. Excellent conversation.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by introducing our audience to yourself as well as to Grain.

Carl Memnon: I’m the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Grain. Grain is a mobile application that provides revolving lines of credit to consumers based on cash flow. On the backend, we partner with community banks. Our primary mission is twofold: to broaden access to credit and help support a system of thriving community banks across the United States.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s get a little bit of the genesis story. How did you come upon this? What is your background? What prompted you to solve this problem?

Carl Memnon: Myself and my cofounders, unlike most Americans, have been introduced to the nuances of credit by facing a challenge of either difficulty in accessing or getting into credit trouble. We have different experiences that each informed how we approach this problem. For example, the CEO and my cofounder, Christian, worked in tech in Silicon Valley for most of his career.

There was a point where there was a lot of protest around gentrification in the Valley. That was largely caused by these tech companies that were coming in. Recognizing that he worked in tech, he considered that aspect of what was causing that macroeconomic effect of gentrification. It boils down to credit and being able to afford how you live. That’s what got him interested in credit.

Christian and I grew up together. He went to a French school in Haiti and I went to an American school in Haiti. He called me. At that time, I was working on the Wall Street. I’m an attorney by trade. He knew I had worked in financial services. He brought this idea to me. It was appealing in terms of my journey. I grew up in Haiti. I did my undergrad at Cornell.

After graduating, being able to access credit was very difficult. I didn’t have a credit history. What I learned since then is that it applies across the board to immigrants to the United States. There are a lot of people who moved here with great jobs but really struggle to access credit. I had that experience. When he mentioned it, I brought that in.

That was the genesis. Christian and I started to work together. Our other cofounder, Patrick, had a similar experience when it comes to credit but on the other side. He grew up here. He was able to access credit. When he got a credit card, it over-extended him with credit.

Sramana Mitra: That is an American problem actually. Americans tend to take too much credit.

Carl Memnon: Because they’re giving too much credit. He ended up in unsustainable debt and it took him some time to pay it off. That formed another aspect of the product. We provide responsible lines of credit based on cash flow. That is very important. We’re looking at somebody’s wherewithal and saying, “Based on how much you spend and on how much you have coming in, this is a responsible line of credit you can afford.” Our experiences on multiple ends informed this product that has a broad appeal.

This segment is part 1 in the series : Thought Leaders in Financial Technology: Grain Cofounder and COO Carl Memnon
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