lease-to-own
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R. Charles Loudermilk, Sr. and the ten-cent idea that kept coming back
Charlie Loudermilk started Aaron Rents with borrowed money and folding chairs. The business carried him far; his friendships, philanthropy, and affection for Atlanta kept bringing him home.
Kevin Song
Kevin Song is the founder and CEO of withco, a New York-based company helping small business owners buy the buildings they rent through a lease-to-own model. The son of Korean immigrants whose Brooklyn grocery store was lost when a landlord doubled the rent, Song turned that family loss into a venture-backed mission: turn tenants into owners. A Cornell economics graduate and former J.P. Morgan analyst named to Forbes 30 Under 30 for social entrepreneurship, he raised more than $30 million from Founders Fund, Canaan, NFX and Initialized, plus backers including Venus Williams, Kevin Durant, Will Smith's Dreamers VC and former HUD Secretary Julian Castro.
Neal Desai
Neal Desai is the CEO and co-founder of Kafene, a New York fintech that lets people without prime credit lease-to-own furniture, appliances, electronics and tires at the point of sale. A molecular biology major from Princeton who spent more than a decade trading equity derivatives on Wall Street, he later became CFO of powersports lender Octane before spending six months methodically studying 45-plus specialty finance niches and choosing lease-to-own. Kafene approves applicants in seconds for an average of roughly $2,700, assigns up to ten risk grades, reports to all three credit bureaus, and has raised well over $100 million from investors including Third Prime, Valar Ventures and Global Founders Capital.