credit
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Sohel Roopani
Sohel Roopani is the co-founder and CEO of Exponent, a New York fintech building a financial operating system for America's multi-unit franchise operators. A former Visa and Stripe executive with an MBA from Columbia Business School, he raised more than $40 million in combined equity and credit to underwrite the operators behind Burger King, Dunkin', Buffalo Wild Wings and roughly 10,000 other franchised storefronts, replacing spreadsheets and month-end closes with charge cards, term loans and AI-powered bookkeeping.
Jeffrey Walker
Jeffrey Walker is the co-founder and CEO of CredEvolv, a fintech SaaS platform that turns declined loan applicants into mortgage-ready borrowers by connecting lenders, consumers, and HUD-certified nonprofit credit counselors in a single ecosystem. A four-decade mortgage-industry veteran who held senior roles at Fannie Mae, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, CitiMortgage, and SunTrust, Walker left the corporate ladder to attack a problem that kept him up at night: hundreds of thousands of creditworthy Americans denied home loans every year. Under his leadership CredEvolv has served 36,000+ consumers, earned him a HousingWire Vanguard Award, and landed him on Inman's Best of Finance list four years running.
Jake Cahan
Jake Cahan is the founder and CEO of January, a New York fintech rebuilding the debt-collection industry around compliance and compassion instead of harassment. Founded in 2016 (originally as Debtsy), January uses an AI-driven platform to help creditors recover money while treating borrowers like people, not criminals. After a slow, hard-fought start convincing credit unions and banks, Cahan raised a $12M Series B in December 2023 and has helped hundreds of thousands of Americans resolve debt. A Brown computer-science background and a stint as a venture investor at Third Prime preceded the company that has become his decade-long obsession.
Kristy Kim
Kristy Kim is the Co-founder and CEO of TomoCredit, a San Francisco-based fintech company that uses AI and alternative data to help credit-invisible Americans — immigrants, international students, and young adults — build credit without a traditional FICO score. A Korean immigrant who moved to the U.S. at age 11, Kim was denied auto loans five times despite earning a six-figure investment banking salary after graduating from UC Berkeley, simply because she had no U.S. credit history. That personal experience became the seed of TomoCredit, which has raised over $46.5M in venture funding (backed by Mastercard and Morgan Stanley), serves 4+ million customers, and generates $20M+ in annual revenue. Kim now leads the company's expansion into AI-powered financial wellness with the launch of TomoIQ.