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Company Overview

Progress Financial is a leading financial services company serving the needs of the growing Hispanic market. Our mission is to help our customers build credit in the United States and gain access to better lives and mainstream financial services. We understand the hard-working culture of our customers and believe in investing in their potential and desire for the American Dream.

Under the name Progreso Financiero, we offer unsecured credit to under-banked Hispanic families that lack FICO scores, credit histories, and traditional banking relationships. In the United States, our “worth” is determined by our credit record, and unfortunately, those who lack one (est. at 30-50MM people) are presumed to be “high risk” and as a result, left with very few and often, predatory options. We believe that if served correctly and fairly, our borrowers will prove that they are, in fact, “pre-prime”, and also very loyal, long term customers.

Our Approach: High Touch with High Tech

Our model combines “high touch” with “high tech”. We believe there is a lot to learn from the “high touch” world of international microfinance, where institutions lend to the poor at very low losses, primarily because of the personal bonds created between lenders and borrowers. Our goal is to combine best practices from the “high touch” world of microfinance with the “high tech” world of automation, statistical scoring, and CRM modeling employed by credit card companies in the U.S.

From a credit perspective, we have developed innovative ways to assess credit risk among Hispanic consumers and in turn, can lend money at fair rates and lower losses. As for marketing, our approach is simple: we serve our customers where they are and how they like to be served. We offer credit inside ethnic supermarkets and nationally recognized department stores using familiar faces from the local community. We offer loan contracts in Spanish and set up small, predictable and frequent weekly or bi-weekly payments to help our customers more easily manage their cash flow and loan obligations.

Our typical customer makes 16 to 24 small, in-person payments of equal amounts per loan, usually around the time of their paycheck. During the application process, we make sure that our customers can actually afford the loan and turn away those who cannot. We then set up fixed payment schedules to help our customers manage their credit responsibly. Best of all, once the last payment is made – rather than drowning in a sea of never-ending, revolving debt – we give our customers the satisfaction and peace of mind that comes with putting a loan behind them.

Founding Story

The idea for Progress Financial was born out of a research project at Stanford's Graduate School of Business led by MBA student, James Gutierrez, and sponsored by Professors Charles Holloway and Joel Peterson. Raised among Mexican immigrants, James aimed to start a business that helped hard-working Latinos achieve their American Dreams and break into mainstream financial services. James passionately believed in the strong moral fiber and commitment to obligations demonstrated in the Hispanic community, especially among immigrants, and believed these traits would translate into high credit worthiness.

The company was born in September 2005 and made its first loan out of a small supermarket in San Jose called Super Mercado Mexico in April 2006. James and the founding team spent the first months of the company working “behind the booth” in Super Mercado Mexico offering credit, taking loan applications, collecting payments, making servicing calls, and manually processing loans each night in a tiny back office in Mountain View.

From the beginning, James believed in the importance of understanding Progress’ customers and their needs first hand. After several months in the store, the company hired its first account executive – a former clerk at Super Mercado Mexico – and opened their 2nd booth inside San Jose’s large Latino supermarket, Mi Pueblo. Today, the company has 16 sales points spread across Northern and Central California with plans to rapidly expand in California, Texas, and many of the Western states. We believe in hiring from the communities we serve and investing in the development of our employees, as well as our customers.

Ultimately, we hope to offer many products and services, credit and otherwise, that will help our customers save, invest, and move up the financial services ladder. We are deeply committed to building a great business while also achieving social good, and will only hire people who share our values.