Ep. 25 | How a Startup Survived an Industry Shakeup | Naveed Iqbal, Founder and CEO of Dolr

We’ve seen this before…companies enter an unknown market shift and all of the sudden the business comes to a halt. Imagine that same experience as a startup, just getting up and going and trying to get your first customers. Enter the COVID lockdown and the immediate halt of student loan payments. Discover how this startup survived turmoil and found success in unexpected places. This entrepreneur's journey holds a surprising lesson that changed everything.

Our special guest is Naveed Iqbal, founder and CEO of Dolr. With a Ph.D. and a keen understanding of market dynamics, he has developed a deep insight into the financial challenges individuals face, particularly in managing student loan debt. His innovative approach in creating employer-based student loan benefits has garnered attention, positioning Dolr as a pioneering force in the industry. Naveed's pragmatic and strategic insights make him a valuable resource for entrepreneurs navigating market shifts to ultimately find a way to stay and fight for survival.

Key highlights in this episode:

• Employer sponsored student loan repayment acceleration
• Navigating market-halting shifts
• Making a choice to stay and fight
• How using employer sponsored student repayment benefits can improve the recruitment and retention of top talent.

We are here because we chose to be, we chose not to die. There were multiple times when we could have died where we were like, we don't have enough money. We're going to have to figure out, how we're going to pay this or how we're going to do that. - Naveed Iqbal

Maximizing student loan benefits: Employee benefits such as student loan assistance have become increasingly crucial in attracting and retaining talent. Dolr's innovative approach to streamlining the process for both employers and employees highlights the importance of maximizing student loan benefits as part of a holistic financial wellness strategy. The impact of education assistance benefits goes beyond alleviating student loan debt to nurturing a supportive and engaged workforce. Dolr's success in leveraging education assistance benefits to aid employees in managing their financial burdens underscores the transformative potential of harnessing such benefits to drive business growth and adaptability during market shifts.

Resources in the episode:

• Follow Naveed on LinkedIn
• Visit Dolr to learn more about the company and the services they offer to help employees with student loan benefits.

About Naveed Iqbal

Naveed is the co-founder and CEO at Dolr. Founded with a mission to lower financial barriers to education, Dolr is a student loan benefits platform enabling companies to accelerate their teams to $0 student debt resulting in higher engagement, retention, and recruitment. Before founding Dolr, Naveed worked in consumer risk and product at one of the largest consumer banks in the USA. He earned his PhD in Applied Math at the Florida Institute of Technology.

About Dolr

Dolr beats your student debt with cash from your work, shopping, village of supporters, and habits. With Dolr your team can beat student debt, save more for retirement, and build wealth.

Using our technologies we want to accelerate the members of our community to $0 debt by making it easier for you to form micro-habits. And we want to make all of this cheap and easy for you. We want to uplift the members of our community emotionally and empower you to live your best life both while you pay your debt and after.

The more indebted members of society are the more we are inhibited from true growth and continued evolution. Using our technologies we want to empower society to help the members of the Dolr community accelerate to $0 debt. This extends from individuals to groups of individuals orga