Thought Leaders in Financial Technology: Grain Cofounder and COO Carl Memnon (Part 5)

Carl Memnon: We have people who have a credit history but have struggled in the past. From talking to users, we’ve discovered that that’s a function of healthcare cost. Hospitalizations, oftentimes, put people in debt. Another is past job loss. That individual now has great cash flow. That user is now looking to repair their credit.

In both circumstances, our users are using it the way they use their credit cards. The credit aspect is almost a byproduct. Users who have that issue come to us. Then the third is a very interesting segment which are people who have great cash flow, great credit scores, and have traditional credit cards.

The reason the product is appealing to them goes back to the point of being responsible and not overspending. We provide guardrails. Those users know that they can’t overspend on their credit lines. What we’re seeing is their traditional credit card usage goes down and their Grain product usage goes up. There are a lot of products that do one thing or another to increase your credit.

We’re providing cash. There’s that aspect of it that somebody with a good credit score and traditional credit cards can still find value in the product because it’s not just credit building. It’s how you use the credit.

Sramana Mitra: How do you advertise? Whom are you advertising to?

Carl Memnon: I’ll be honest. I’m not as close to the advertising as I once was, but I will say we are targeting 24 to 35 year age group.

Sramana Mitra: Age is one of the factors.

Carl Memnon: I believe it is. I will say, with certainty, that our user base is primarily in that bracket. In terms of our existing demographics, we’re split half male and female.

Sramana Mitra: That’s a pretty broad – just age.

Carl Memnon: It definitely gets more granular than that. I just don’t have the details off the top of my head.

Sramana Mitra: It has to be more granular than that.

Carl Memnon: Right.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s talk about some metrics. What kind of usage are you getting on something like this? As you said, your competitors are the traditional credit card companies, but you’re offering something that’s a bit different. What level of adoption are you seeing?

Carl Memnon: We have 150,000 user accounts. Some portions of them are secured accounts. Over the last year and a half, we have grown about 40% month over month. We have seen steady growth and adoption of the product. At the same time, because we’re only on iOS, we’re cognizant of the fact that there are a significant number of people who can’t just use Grain yet. That is certainly a market opportunity that we’re going to be tackling.

We’re encouraged by the adoption we’re going to have in the next couple of quarters. People are going to need credit now more than ever with inflation rising. It’s not to say that people are going to lose their jobs necessarily. Things are going to get more expensive.

This segment is part 5 in the series : Thought Leaders in Financial Technology: Grain Cofounder and COO Carl Memnon
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