
He began by financing homes in Chile. A rate shock, a candid YC conversation and years spent watching transactions break taught him to build the machinery banks were missing.

A risk-averse German banker, a competitive gamer and a freshly minted Stanford MBA drove straight from graduation to Y Combinator. Three years later, Lukas Haffer is trying to make a 90-day loan feel almost ordinary in three.

A German golf prospect became a used-car founder, sold to Carvana, and came back for the least glamorous layer of finance: the moment a customer asks a credit union to say yes.