December 22, 2025 • 40 mins
I fancy myself something of a minor expert on Medicare and often have advised friends who are approaching 65 about their best options. Until a man I know approached me and asked for my advice. He added he was dually qualified for Medicare and Medicaid and he thought he probably qualified for food benefits, too.
Huh? I had no idea what he was talking about and had to admit to him I was useless in this case.
Today I advised him to find a credit union he could join that also is a customer of Starlight, a fintech with a focus on unlocking some $100 billion in government benefits that are potentially available to credit unions.
Starlight was on the show a year ago. It’s on again today because it comes with big news: it’s now a CUSO and has won funding from One Washington Financial, a CUSO that is wholly owned by Washington State Employees Credit Union, the same credit union that birthed Q Cash.
Scott Daukas, a principal at One Washington Financial is on the show to talk about the CUSO and, specifically, why it funded Starlight. He also briefly talks about Silvur, a portfolio company that also has been on the show.
And Starlight CEO Shreenath Regunathan s back to talk about how it is helping automate the often bewildering process of applying for government benefits - a process made all the more bewildering by massive changes that several big programs (such as SNAP, the food stamps program) are undergoing as the year ends.
Starlight is deployed at over a dozen credit unions and it is busy signing up more credit unions because frankly the need is there.
Along the way, there’s a discussion about Prizeout, an innovative ad tech company that also has been a podcast guest. In another episode a Prizeout consumer user sings its praises.
There’s rich content in this episode. Listen up.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_03 (00:00):
Welcome to the CU2.0 podcast.
SPEAKER_00 (00:05):
Hi, and welcome to the CU 2.0 podcast with big new
ideas about credit unions andconversations about innovative
technology with credit union andfintech leaders.
This podcast is brought to youby Quillow, the real-time loan
syndication network for creditunions, and by your host,
long-time credit union andfinancial technology journalist
(00:27):
Robert McGarvey.
And now the CU 2.0 podcast withRobert McGarvey.
SPEAKER_03 (00:35):
I fancy myself something of a minor expert on
Medicare and often have advicefriends who are approaching 65
about their best options.
Until a man I know approached meand asked for my advice, he had
to qualify for Medicare andMedicaid.
And he thought he'd probablyqualify for food benefits too.
(00:58):
Wanted to know how he shouldproceed.
I had no idea what he wastalking about, and had to admit
to him I was clueless anduseless.
But today I advised him to finda credit union he could join,
and also as a customer ofStarlight, a FinTech, with a
focus on unlocking some$100billion annually in government
(01:19):
benefits that are potentiallyavailable to credit union
members.
Starlight was on the show a yearago.
It's on again today because itcomes with very big news.
It's now a new QZO and has wonfunding from One Washington
Financial.
That's a QZO wholly owned byWashington State Employees
(01:42):
Credit Union.
The same credit union,incidentally, that birthed
Qcash.
Scott Dawkins, a principal atOne Washington Financial, is on
the show to talk about the QZOand specifically why it funded
Starlight.
He also briefly talks aboutSilver, a portfolio company that
has been on the show.
(02:03):
And Starlight CEO is back on theshow to talk about how Starlight
is helping automate the oftenbewildering process of applying
for government benefits.
A process made all the morebewildering by massive changes
that several big programs, suchas Snap, the Food Stamp Program,
are undergoing as the year ends.
Starlight is deployed at over adozen credit units presently,
(02:27):
and it's busy signing up morebecause frankly the need is
there, and Starlight has theexpertise to help.
Along the way, there's adiscussion about prize out an
innovative ad tech company thatalso has been a podcast,
frequent podcast guest.
There's rich content in thisepisode.
Listen up.
Yeah, I've uh talked with atleast one other of your
(02:49):
portfolio companies.
Um Silver has been on thepodcast a couple times.
SPEAKER_01 (02:54):
Oh, wonderful.
Yeah, Rian.
SPEAKER_03 (02:56):
I I she has a wonderful product.
I hope it's selling well.
SPEAKER_01 (03:00):
But yeah, it's doing she's doing so well.
Um, she's got like the oppositeproblem of like it's everybody
wants to now partner with herand and work with her, so she's
got to figure out how to scalequickly.
Oh, cool, cool.
It's a good problem, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (03:15):
Well, you also have an army of people turning 65 and
such like.
So I mean the demographics areperfect, really.
SPEAKER_01 (03:22):
That's right.
And a lot of uncertainty in theum in the regulatory space, and
you know, so she's she's gotshe's well positioned.
SPEAKER_03 (03:32):
Oh, and of course, I of course I I talked with Qcash
many times, at least three timeson the show.
Oh, nice.
I actually did an exitinterview.
Uh Seth was on, the CEO of thethe credit union was on, and the
a lawyer, uh, a guy from alawyer was on.
SPEAKER_01 (03:51):
Cool.
SPEAKER_03 (03:52):
And uh and it was it was it was a very cool Seth put
pulled that together.
It was very cool.
It's uh yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (03:58):
Seth is a unique, uh, a unique human being.
He he's uh he's one of ourfavorites.
SPEAKER_03 (04:04):
And uh and he's involved in ranks too, which is
one of your portfolio companies.
SPEAKER_01 (04:08):
Yeah, he actually left ranks about two months ago,
I'd say.
But uh I touch base with him onoccasion.
SPEAKER_03 (04:16):
Yeah, I also talked a long time ago with the fellow
who was the first CEO of uhQcash.
SPEAKER_01 (04:22):
Uh Ben Morales, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (04:23):
Yes, yeah, wholly different personality.
SPEAKER_01 (04:26):
Totally I only joined the the the WSCCU team
about a year and a half ago, butI worked my whole career in the
credit union space next door atTwin Star Credit Union.
So I've known those those guys,I've known all of these people
from as a um you know a friendin the industry.
So I've watched Qcash getstarted and get sold and all
that.
So now I'm happy to be on the onthis team.
(04:48):
It's it's good stuff.
Hi, Trini.
How's it going?
SPEAKER_02 (04:53):
Hey Scott, hey Rob, good to see you.
SPEAKER_03 (04:55):
Good to see you.
Hey, now let's start with you,Starlight.
What does Starlight do?
And uh how many credit unionsare customers of yours?
SPEAKER_02 (05:06):
Yeah, Starlight helps members of credit unions
proactively get financialassistance through their trusted
credit union by finding themgovernment assistance programs
that they're qualified for andhelping them navigate how to get
it.
And when we do that, our creditunions are happy because it
accelerates their mission, helpsour staff serve the members, and
brings longer engaged members tothe credit union.
SPEAKER_03 (05:28):
And how many billions of dollars are out
there waiting to be taken?
SPEAKER_02 (05:33):
It's over$100 billion that members are leaving
on the table.
And the complexity of getting itis quite high, and so we're
helping solve it for them.
And it's 14 credit unions.
We reached 700,000 plus membersnow through our credit unions so
far.
A couple more diligence, we'llsign in the next week and kind
of accelerating how many creditunions you can get to.
SPEAKER_03 (05:52):
Now the complexity is stunning.
I I was talking with a uh afellow I know who's just turning
65.
He's getting Medicare, but healso simultaneously qualified
for Medicaid and gets some kindof food assistance too.
Whole bunch of you know, there'sso many moving parts there.
And I'm I've fancied myself aMedicare expert.
(06:16):
This was way out of my league.
I mean, I man, I've never neverdealt with this.
You know, let's let's let's talkabout the problems with
advantage plants.
SPEAKER_02 (06:27):
It's crazy.
SPEAKER_03 (06:29):
So, how how does how do you have this automated?
SPEAKER_02 (06:33):
So we have parts of it automated and we're building
more and more of it as we buildStarlight.
So we start with the problem ofjust that people don't know what
they can get and don't know howthey can even apply.
And so we start with reducingthe complexity of finding the
right way to navigate it andthen giving them assistance as
they do it.
And then in a few programs, likein New York City, we've actually
(06:54):
done it where you don't have toever go anywhere else.
You stay within the credit unionstarlight experience, and then
we help those users get to thefinish line on applying for
utility assistance.
Like in the example of thecredit union here, it's like
members are hospital workerswho, because of like, you know,
the challenges of the cost ofliving, are also qualified for
utility assistance, but didn'tknow about it.
(07:15):
They heard about it from thecredit union.
70% of them were like, wow, thisis great.
I'm excited.
They got into like trying toapply.
Then they came to us and wesaid, Hey, through our product.
And then they were like, hey, wewant to like apply for this.
And we're like, are youinterested in getting assistance
in doing it or you want to do ityourself?
And they're like, yeah, sure,please do it for me.
And so then we just took itover, collected the info from
them, ran it through with thenonprofit that administers it,
(07:36):
submitted it, confirmed if itworks for them, and did a lot of
that navigation for them, andthen told them, Hey, you got 300
bucks more.
Thank your credit union.
Don't forget.
SPEAKER_03 (07:46):
And what's the fee structure to a credit union?
SPEAKER_02 (07:49):
Credit unions pay for it essentially as an
embedded product.
And right now it's very simple.
It's a flat fee based on themembership size.
We'll take the number of membersthe credit union has and then
discount all their indirect.
So they're not really activelyengaged, and then make sure we
charge for that cohort.
SPEAKER_03 (08:04):
And what's the size range of your credit unions?
SPEAKER_02 (08:08):
Um, our largest ones are in the orders of 200,000
plus members, you know, over 3,4 billion in assets.
Our smallest is like, you know,sub 5,000 kind of like members,
really small, like 40 million,30 million credit unions as
well.
So we work with credits of allsizes.
SPEAKER_03 (08:22):
And what's the geographic spread?
SPEAKER_02 (08:26):
So far, we're in 13 states without credit unions,
and I guess 12.
One of them's in two states, butuh 13 states without credit
unions.
Starlight's available in 35states, and we'll be in all 50
within the next month.
And so we're growing prettyquickly just because some of the
larger credit unions were like,hey, how quickly can you be in
all 50?
And we're like, we're on it.
SPEAKER_03 (08:45):
Uh did you see a bump in uh interest with the
Snap benefits suspended?
SPEAKER_02 (08:52):
Yeah.
In fact, it's it's grown a lotin two different ways with what
happened with Snap, right?
One was I think more and more ofthe credit unions, actually, gum
shutdown is the broader thingthat happened.
I'd say two things happened.
The government shutdown pairedwith Snap both happening at the
same time meant that more peoplerealized their members are in
financial stress.
(09:13):
Um, we had several credit unionswho have a lot of government
employees working who arealready on their deposit loss.
And so they were like, how do weaddress this?
And so immediate address wasthey were like, oh, well, like
not collecting loans that youhave with us and so on.
But the secondary impact wasthey're like, what can we do to
assist them?
And so a couple of our creditunions actually just sent a
blast to all of theirmembership, being like, hey, we
actually have a product thatactually serves you immediately.
(09:34):
Let's bring this to light.
On the Snap side, what'sinteresting is they were like,
hey, we want to react to Snapand do something right away, but
we don't know what to do.
And they were like, we werelike, oh, we already have it,
because we already indexed allof the food banks, know where
they are, know how to guidepeople.
Because one of the things thatwe realized when we launched
Starlight with some creditunions is a member might be in
stress, but not qualified forSnap.
So we had to have a backstop forthem to be like, what can I find
(09:57):
for you that's not Snap?
If you're not qualified, but youstill need food assistance.
And so we ended up originallyitself adding a lot of these
individual sort of nonprofitrelated benefits, with food
banks being a key one for thecategory of food.
So now that piece has become abigger part of our product, so
much so we ended up launchingsort of a quick side product
really quickly that we deliveredto anyone who'd been through
(10:18):
Starlight who was qualified forSnap and said, Hey, we found a
nearest food banks here wherethey are.
And now, actually, like in thelast two weeks, we're building a
next version of that, which is amuch more rich and easy to use
experience.
Because if you don't Google foodbanks, you kind of struggle
because you can't tell whichones are open, what the hours
are, when they are.
So the next iteration, we willactually start being like a bit
more proactive on this and likebe more targeted on like hours
(10:41):
of operations where it looks,it's almost like your experience
when you use Yelp or like GoogleMaps for restaurants, but making
it really smooth for the endusers.
Um, the members, we saw reallystrong engagement.
Our messages got like 35, 40%engagement on our food bank
messages because I think peopleneed it and we're like solving a
critical need.
And then from the salesperspective, several credit
unions reached out, being like,hey, we thought about your
(11:02):
product because like we saw youtalk about this at a conference
like X months ago, and now it'shighly relevant again.
So we've had several folks whoreached back out and said, Hey,
it's a good time for us tore-engage on this as well.
SPEAKER_03 (11:12):
Well, uh if I remember correctly, a bunch of
folks, I mean, millions of folksget bounced off snap at the end
of the year.
SPEAKER_02 (11:20):
40 million.
It's insane.
SPEAKER_03 (11:22):
And that's gonna create a real panic and flood of
what are the alternatives?
What are my options?
SPEAKER_02 (11:28):
Some of it is quite sad.
Like, I think one of the thingsone of the criteria members we
were helping in our benefitspecialist team were talking
about how they didn't know thatthese processes were changing
and they were like, they knowthere's a work requirement and
had it submitted it and ignoredsome messages, and now they lost
it.
So now we're like helping themre-enroll.
So there is a lot of complexityin the system.
And I think being the force ofguiding and helping people
(11:49):
becomes really tuned into thecriterion mission naturally.
Because I think our staffmembers already do this.
So, like at one of ourcustomers, they had a staff
member doing this who went onmaternity and they were like,
oh, Starlights actually like agood solved because we now have
another way to solve this.
And now actually we canbroadcast this to all our
members.
Previously, it was onlyreactive, where if someone came
into the branch and asked forhelp, they would like call this
(12:09):
person and then come back.
And so they were kind of holdingit as an L2 support model.
And now they're like, we canactually broadcast this to
everyone, bring it to ourmembers, bring it to our
customers, and scale it out.
So I think it's already aproblem that honestly, like a
lot of credit unions who arelike kind of leaning in have
been doing, but they've kind ofsolved it in their own localized
ways.
But Scott, actually, WashingtonState did does some really cool
(12:30):
work with warr notices and likelayoff notices and how they
bring that proactively tomembers who've lost their job
and telling them how to getthrough the next two months of
that process and how to helpthem.
So I feel like a lot of creditunions are doing like really
interesting and groundbreakingwork, and we're almost learning
from them and then digitizingand serving it at scale.
SPEAKER_03 (12:50):
Now, had you heard of Accuso uh before a few months
ago?
And I I ask because I've beenI've been writing about credit
unions for a number of yearsbefore I even heard of Accuso.
I met a guy Kirk Drake who had aCUSO.
I and I said, What the hell isthis?
SPEAKER_02 (13:12):
Um, I'll tell you the funny way I learned about
it, right?
I was at VentureTech, which isprobably like our first meeting
with Scott and the teams of likeFintex plus credit unions that
we learned.
At that time, I remember someoneasked us, like, are you guys a
QCO?
And we're like, What's a QSO?
And so it started the peak ofthe interest, right?
We were like, what does thismean?
And how does this work?
(13:32):
And we've like over time learnedthat it's sort of like one, it's
a really important way to likehave the credit unions who are
partnering with you be part ofyour journey as you grow.
And I think the history fromlike ATM networks being like
kind of the original sort of QSOmodel or like fair check
branching and like branchinglocations, like QSO's histories.
I got into the rabbit hole oflearning about it because I just
(13:54):
nerd out on stuff.
And then I started seeing likewho were like some of the early
QSOs and how did they spin up?
What were their goals?
How did they form?
How did they spin out QSOs fromlike other institutions, whether
it's like MDC or Filene doingwork and like kind of leading
into like shared services?
So the shared services leadingto QSO model was really
interesting.
(14:14):
FinTech's doing QSOs is fairlynew, and it's kind of like
something that we've beenlearning about from other
fintechs.
And to us, it was a veryinteresting model.
And like it allows us to alignthe incentives in a very
meaningful way.
Like Starlight's already apublic benefit corporation
because I don't want to haveinvestors or shareholders push
us to do things that are againstthe goals of the households we
(14:36):
seek to serve.
So QSL is almost like anextension of that into the
cooperative model of doing thesame goal, of like aligning
incentives between households weserve, how the partners we work
with benefit from it, and howStarlight and its shareholders
also benefit at the same time.
SPEAKER_03 (14:49):
And and the funding environment on Sandhill Road for
FinTechs is not as robust as itwas some years ago.
And uh Qzo's provided analternative funding vehicle for
fintechs.
True, false?
SPEAKER_02 (15:07):
Um I think true, and I think there's even a more
baseline argument here, which islike customers becoming
investors is a much strongersignal of your company's
thriving than investors who areonly investing, just because it
signals sort of long-termviability of your business.
So to me, there's like a hugepositive correlation, and like
we've seen this when we talk toeven our current investors.
(15:29):
They're like, oh, that'samazing.
Like Scott coming on and oneWashington coming in is a really
good signal for us because ittells us your business has
long-term survival, and you'renot just selling a mess to the
investors, you're sellingreality of like what the credit
unions would want to buy.
So in that sense, I think it's apositive.
The other thing aboutalternative funding, I think
that's more practical, is Ithink credit unions also like
(15:50):
buying from TISOs in a naturalway because you're helping grow
the ecosystem together.
And like in a practical sense,it gives not interest income if
you succeed and do well withthem for them, right?
So I think there's like arealistic alignment of like
their goals as well.
SPEAKER_03 (16:02):
I've said a number of times, although many in the
credit union world would throwbricks at me after hear it, is
that I think Hugh Z are vastlymore important to the credit
union industry than is the taxexemption.
I I think it's it's the secret,uh secret weapon, not so secret,
(16:22):
that really helps credit unionsbeat community banks, for
instance, on a lot of fronts, atech being one of them.
SPEAKER_01 (16:31):
Yeah, it's definitely an extension of the
cooperative model of creditunions, which is why it makes
sense.
Um and I I think that there's toall the things that Shrini said,
those are things are importanttoo, but people want to, in the
credit union space, they theywant to um, you know, there's
(16:51):
there's a high trust factor withwith a credit union neighbor,
right?
Your credit union neighbor, wewe reach out to each other, we
we collaborate on a lot ofthings.
And so if there's somebody thatwe respect and we say, what are
you doing to help solve thisproblem?
And they've got a solution likea starlight, it's it's a um it's
a much easier sell than if theyshould go to a conference and
(17:12):
they're being sold to by a thirdparty that's being perceived as
a third party.
So even if you think of it asthere's definitely like mission
alignment, um, missionenablement, but if you think of
it as just the the uh a reallyspecific go-to-market strategy
for a fintech, it's I think it'sa really, really powerful tool
tool.
So I I don't know, I haven'tthought about it in comparison
(17:32):
to the tax exemption, but that'san interesting point you're
raising.
Well, part of my logic there isjust numeric.
SPEAKER_03 (17:40):
Only a small percentage of credit unions
would actually be hurt by losingthe federal tax exemption.
Many, many, many thousands ofcredit unions would be hurt if
CUSOs went away.
Fair.
Now, how did you get interestedin how do you pick a portfolio
company?
(18:00):
Number one, there must be manymore hand with hands out, uh,
hoping to meet you at meetingsthan you can fund.
So, how do you pick one?
SPEAKER_01 (18:10):
And how why did you pick Starlight?
So I've been I've been doing QSOinvestment um in some form or
another for over 15 years now.
Um and and now at a dedicated ata dedicated you know role inside
of a holding company, it'sreally my my main focus.
So you're right, there areprobably more opportunities than
(18:32):
what we have um money to giveand time to evaluate, which is
interesting because I thoughtthat that was going to be the
big problem when uh when youknow coming aboard a new holding
company was how are we gonna getinto the middle of deal flow?
And that's not the problem atall.
Uh, there's there is our plentyof really, really smart,
passionate technologists thatare trying to solve real
(18:53):
human-centered problems um forcredit unions and their members.
How do we how do we go about it?
We everybody kind of does it alittle bit differently, but for
us at One Washington Financial,we've got three different
pillars that we look at.
We look at first from just froma strategic fit standpoint, we
look at does the fintechincrease the um equitable access
to consumers as a general rule,not necessarily WSECU's members.
(19:17):
Because and maybe just to kindof back up, I might have said
this already, but but we are thea wholly owned subsidiary of
WSECU.
So we look for equitable access,we look for financial um
wellness for our members and ourcommunities specifically, and
then we're also looking foranything that can increase
operational efficiencies.
Those three pillars really driveall of our investments, and then
(19:38):
from there, we've got um youknow a wonderful board that that
decides on the actualinvestments.
We we as the management bringthe recommendations to them.
We're looking for balance acrossnot just the um the topics, but
we're looking for balance onrisk, we're looking for balance
on um check sizes and so on.
And uh I met when I met Shrini,because our back.
(20:00):
As a my parent company uh creditunion's background is the
Washington State EmployeesCredit Union, is the is what
WSECU stands for.
Obviously, government benefitsis like, you know, it's it's
near and dear to our hearts, isto make sure that the citizens
of our state are are taken careof and have access to the the
different types of of uhprograms that we've that are put
out there for them.
(20:20):
It's just such a simple simpleis the wrong word, Trini,
because you're probably gonnasay it's not simple at all.
It's conceptually, it's justsimple to say, like, wow, this
is the problem with thebureaucracy that exists and the
lack of sort of technology thathelps people figure it out.
If you've ever had to go throughany state uh or local, probably
(20:42):
federal to program, you know, totry to try to navigate those
fields and figure out you do youneed a master's degree in that
particular area in order tofigure that out.
So Shrini and his company, youknow, it just made perfect sense
for us to want to be involved.
And then we started looking atthe business model, and and the
business model works for us.
So it's a it's a great it's agreat partnership.
SPEAKER_03 (21:02):
And and Washington State Employees Credit Union, as
you as you know, I mean, birthQcash, which clientele of Qcash
is not a clientele, JP MorganChase, Jamie Diamond sitting
there plotting how to get them.
You know, it's it's just not nothigh priority for him.
Whereas it became a highpriority for Washington State
(21:23):
Employees Credit Union.
That's right.
And and that's I I've always Iuh to me, Qcash is one of the
great wonders of the creditunion world.
SPEAKER_01 (21:31):
No, you're absolutely right.
If it fits this general thesisof of um financial wellness and
and and and well-being, and weare looking for novel solutions
to solve like the real problemsthat people, particularly in
Washington, because that's whereour core member base is, but but
but we we invest in companiesthat serve the credit union
industry.
So really we're looking forsolutions that help real people
(21:53):
with the problems that theyhave, particularly around
financial wellness.
What's your investment range?
We will make we'll make investwe typically say that our our
check, normal check size is250,000 to a million dollars,
and that's obviously dependentupon a lot of different factors.
We've made smaller investments,we've made larger investments.
So it it really does sort ofdepend, but that's generally the
(22:15):
range we're looking at.
And we're generally look lookingat the the seed, the seed level.
We're looking for early stagecompanies that we can help help
accelerate those companies, butalso we want to have a role in
in the you know the productdevelopment and the roadmap.
So we we want to give we want togive Starlight as much feedback
as we can and others so thatthey can build the thing that's
(22:35):
gonna work the best for creditunions.
So that's really where we liketo play.
And there's plenty of othercredit unions that want to be a
little bit later in in the game.
And of course, many of us areinvestors in other funds like uh
like the circle fund, etc.
But um, but as a directinvestor, that's where we play.
SPEAKER_03 (22:51):
And do you help a portfolio company do you make
introductions to credit unions,for instance, potential
customers?
SPEAKER_01 (22:59):
Yes, we make as many as we can, you know, at the risk
of also, you know, peopleunderstand that I'm I'm very
passionate about the job that Ido and then the companies that
we represent.
So I hope it doesn't come off asuh, you know, I'm shilling for
for the for the companies.
Um, I hope people and I thinkthat they do understand that
we've invested in somethingbecause we absolutely 100%
(23:21):
believe in them.
And so when you believe insomething, you want to tell
everybody about it.
SPEAKER_03 (23:25):
And you're not, yeah, I've I've talked with
fintech CEOs.
Uh I remember a painfulconversation I had with a guy I
knew pretty well who was uhselling his company to to a much
bigger entity.
And I I said, in effect, why thehell are you selling it to them?
They're just gonna ruin it.
And he said, I didn't have achoice.
(23:47):
My investors wanted to cash out.
And that's that's not a uniquestory to him.
That's that's that's a story.
You you don't seem to have thatshort fuse of patience since you
only you've only had one exitstrat one exit case, which is
Qcash.
SPEAKER_01 (24:06):
We had a partial exit earlier this year with one
of our portfolio companies.
We actually rolled um a goodportion of our initial
investment over.
But but you're right, I think wedescribe it as patient capital,
and we think that's one of theadvantages to staying inside the
credit union space.
We're not an impact fund, we'renot uh we're not a VC, we're not
private equity, we're more of astrategic fund to help improve
(24:29):
the lives of the credit unionmembers.
And so for us, we can afford totake a longer-term view on a on
a what's typically perceived asa shorter-term bet.
But we feel like that's like,you know, we we know that that
companies need time to make surethat they've got product market
fit, that they've made all thecredit unions are are
notoriously slow decision makersacross the board in terms of
(24:53):
their uh their partners, whichis is understandable and fine,
but it's a reality that that uha lot of fintech um founders
have to deal with, particularlywhen they've got that pressure
of funding.
So we have a three to five yearportfolio horizon.
That's what we have at OneWashington Financial, and so
we're we're okay to sit and uhand and watch and help and and
(25:16):
curate and and work with youknow side by side with our
founders for that time.
SPEAKER_03 (25:20):
Talking about the length of time it takes credit
unions to decide things.
I've often talked with fintechCEOs to say, Hey, I just had a
great, great meeting with blahblah credit union.
I'm I'm hoping we can get themon board fast.
And I said, they'll probablymake a decision in about a year.
Which and the fintech guys get,no, it's not possible.
I say, Well, it's it's realityof credit unions, man.
SPEAKER_02 (25:43):
It's uh yeah, I mean, I would just say just on
that one, it's pretty funny.
Like sometimes I've had peoplecome back to you where I thought
they went cold, I thought theyforgot about us, and they reach
back up being like, Hey, we gotapproval to talk to you and get
into deal mode.
And I'm like, we were gone forsix months and you haven't found
any.
SPEAKER_03 (26:00):
I've talked to fintech executives who get a con
get are contacted by somebodysaying, Hey, we really well,
okay, let's activate this deal.
It was so long ago that theytalked that the fintech
executive doesn't even rememberwho they are.
SPEAKER_01 (26:15):
Right.
And there's a lot, there's anumber of us on the direct
investing side, um, be it out ofholding companies or out of
credit unions directly that areworking together to try and
accelerate this process,particularly on the investing
side.
But you know, along with that,if we're going to be owner
users, we've got to figure out away as an industry to have the
parent credit unions, you know,come along at, you know, at the
(26:38):
same pace or somewhat close tothe pace that we're that we're
looking at in terms of ourinvestment.
So it's a challenge, but it's afun challenge, and we're we're
working together to figure thatout.
SPEAKER_03 (26:47):
Well, and as I'm sure you you see, AI is bumping
so many things off the stage atcredit unions because the the
executives only have so muchbandwidth to contemplate new
things, and they feel they mustcontemplate AI.
They have to.
So that's bouncing a lot ofthings out.
On the other hand, somethinglike Starlight or Silver, for
(27:08):
that matter, there's a kind ofpressing urgency there.
So, and it's it's it feels good.
It sounds good.
It's, you know, it's we'rehelping our members get more
government benefits that theydeserve, but they just can't
figure out how to apply forthem.
And so I think that could poundstuff that could still get some,
(27:29):
you just need somebody on theexecutive team who becomes like
a cheerleader for it.
SPEAKER_02 (27:34):
Yeah.
And that's that's that's a nicething about the work we do, is
we meet folks like Scott andothers in the credit union
movement who just been like,hey, I really like what you're
doing.
I'm gonna help you actuallybring this to more folks.
Like we've had folks reach outto us being like, hey, can I
advise you as you think aboutcredit unions and learn about
it?
I had a lending officer whotaught me how to read a call
report.
Because he's like, I just likewhat you're building.
I like our credit unions not agood fit for you, where like
income is different or we have apriority that's different, but I
(27:56):
want to dive in.
And so I think the movementalignment is very strong, which
helps because I think it helpsme learn and accelerate from
being like a tech guy tounderstanding credit unions
quickly.
SPEAKER_03 (28:06):
Now, do you have and this is I've I've talked to
other companies who do this,they have two companies.
They have company A, thencompany B.
Company B is a Q Zo.
Company A sells to Chase orwhoever.
It's not a Q so.
Are you set up that way or areyou more monogamous credit
union?
SPEAKER_02 (28:26):
Um, no, we're set up as Starlight as a parent, which
is a public benefit corporation,which is gonna serve low-income
households through whateverchannels they reach their end
goal of like helping them getbenefits.
And then Starlight QSO is thesubsidiary of Starlight the
Parent.
The reason is also twofold,right?
One is like, yeah, we want to bewherever 60 million households
need help, and how do we findthem?
And the second reason is morepractical is we'll have to start
(28:48):
partnering with like utilities,civic institutions, and so on.
And so actually being astandalone entity that does that
separate from the QSO helps uson the deal making for talking
to governments and being like,hey, we've got this setup,
here's why it works.
And it makes it a lot easier forthat secondary conversation with
I call it like source of fundsand working with them as well.
SPEAKER_03 (29:07):
Are you looking for more investors?
SPEAKER_02 (29:10):
Yeah, I think we're always looking for more aligned
investors, right?
Everyone, and you know, Scottknows this, and we've talked
about this in the start.
We want to bring in creditunions, we're gonna teach us how
to build the right solution forthem, right?
We have a core product and acore intent to build the right
thing, but the product isevolving.
And so if we get alignedinvestors who are gonna be
partner, owner, customerinvestors, that's exactly what
(29:32):
we want.
So, you know, we are even like,you know, and everyone who's we
brought on, like most of thefolks we have around our cap
table are folks that Scott's metand known.
And like some of them are likeadding a lot of insights for us
to guiding us on how to buildthe product correctly.
And both on go-to-market, bothon like member experience, some
are guiding us on how to even,like, for example, like one of
the insights from WashingtonState was how do you make sure
(29:55):
this works for recently laid offfolks for unemployment guidance?
It's like, okay, if you have alittle bit of a product there,
you've already been working onit.
Now, how can we makeunemployment insurance really
good?
Because some of our creditunions with SEG focuses need
this desperately urgently.
Because they're like, they justhad a layoff for 10% of their
workforce at one of their SEGs.
How can we show up tomorrow andsay the credit union's here for
your SEG?
(30:16):
So we built that out and nowwe're like improving it.
And those are the kinds ofthings where like having
investor partners guiding us isreally helpful.
So we would love to get morealigned credit unions coming in.
Um, we're talking about thatright now.
SPEAKER_01 (30:28):
I've I've seen and I've seen um recently, even in
the last two or three months,several times where where the
fintech founder has is has tomake a choice because they've
got they've got offers from formuch larger dollars from BCs at
higher valuations, and or to gowith uh more of a strategic
round with credit unions.
(30:49):
And it seems like, and again,it's a very small sample size
here, but but there's been morethat have come back to the
credit union side and said,like, there's just so much value
to us having the the patientcapital, the strategic
investment that that this iswhere we want to play.
And we and we're we're we'regonna turn down the VCs that
want that want to uh invest inus.
And that's a cool feelingbecause it because you know we
(31:10):
we want really smart fintechs,we're solving real problems, to
think of the credit union spaceas a space they can, you know,
win, win in, and not just uhit's not um yeah, that I'll just
leave it at that full stop.
We want them to win.
SPEAKER_03 (31:24):
Well, I think many credit unions recognize that
they need fintechs, they can'tgrow this stuff in-house.
I don't maybe Navy Federal growsa little bit in-house, but very
few others do.
JP Morgan just does everythingin-house, that's just the way it
works.
It's uh because they'll hireeverybody they need and have the
(31:45):
money to do that.
No, I I think it's it's awonderful thing.
So how many how many companiesdo you look at and reject for
everyone that you accept?
SPEAKER_01 (31:57):
Oh, that's an interesting way of phrasing
that.
I'm I talk to founders, I wouldsay almost every single day I
have at least one call with afounder, right?
So a lot of calls.
A lot of them are justintroductory calls, and and
we're I'm making that assessmentup front about the strategic fit
with our with our holdingcompany.
Um, many of those don't go pastthat first conversation because
(32:19):
they don't align.
But but but also I would saythat like there's just a ton of
value in meeting those folks.
They're gonna be in ourindustry.
Um, if I can help them in someway, I'm always I'm always happy
to do that with with whatever Ican do.
In terms of the ones thatactually start to move through
our pipeline, I would say umit's probably about two-thirds
that that come in that make itout to the other side, because
(32:41):
we are we are doing a good jobon the front end of of I think
assessing you know where thatfit is.
And then I think the way that wedo it is we look at it first
from strategic fit, and then wedo due diligence, like a lot
more due diligence around thebusiness model.
Because if if the strategic fitisn't there, then there's no
real reason to spend the timeand effort to do any of the
(33:01):
other work.
So I think that one-third of itusually is where something pops
in due diligence that maybe youknow is enough of a factor where
we it overrides our desire froma strategic standpoint to want a
partner.
Um doesn't happen very often,but it but it it does happen.
And um, yeah, so I would saymaybe about two-thirds go all
the way through, and then abouta third kind of drop off
somewhere in that cycle.
SPEAKER_03 (33:23):
And uh and a cool thing about credit unions is
that I've I've written a bit,I've done a couple of shows on
Prize App, which is a prettywell-funded uh Q.
And uh how are they growing?
Well, some of their uh creditunion investors are evangelists
for them, calling up othercredit unions saying, Hey, you
(33:44):
have to become part of this, youhave to become part of this.
You really need this, it's greatstuff.
And I can't see too many bankersdoing that.
You know, it's so true.
SPEAKER_02 (33:55):
And by the way, I talked to Matt from Prize Loud
just to get advice because I waslike, hey, you guys have done
this, you're like, you know, anexperienced fintech in the
space, teach me what you did.
And they were like, Hey, you'redoing the right thing asking.
And investors who are gonna becustomers and be advocates, and
like, here's how we learned,here's what we did in the early
days, here's how we've grown,because they're like a perfect
(34:15):
example of someone who's kind ofteaching the ways for like other
folks like me to follow.
SPEAKER_03 (34:20):
No, they they've told me on the record on the
show, didn't know a damn thingabout a Q zone until we found
out about it and said, Hey, wegot to do more with this.
SPEAKER_01 (34:30):
Yeah, they're they're a really great, they're
they're a great team, they'vegot a great idea, great business
model.
Yeah, that's cool that you'vehad them on a few times.
SPEAKER_03 (34:39):
Oh, they're I mean well, they've also gotten great
credit union people to come onwith them to sing their praises.
I mean, these these arewonderful people to talk to.
Yeah.
And uh uh and yes, they are allpart owners of it, but they're
they also are true believers.
They wouldn't be doing this ifthey weren't true believers.
SPEAKER_01 (34:59):
It's it's funny.
We put our money where our mouthis.
We really do.
Like it's it's it's it's a realit's it's really fun to to put
an investment in a company thatyou believe in with you know
wholeheartedly.
And frankly, you know, to Shrineand to to Dave and Matt at Prize
Out or Rian at Silver, any ofthem, we're making investments,
we're betting on founders,right?
(35:19):
There's this idea and thisconcept and this problem they're
solving, but it's up to them tofigure it out how to execute it,
how to make it scale.
And we want to we want to makebets on people who we believe in
can can do that workeffectively.
And uh so we we have we areprivileged, I think, to to have
this collaboration uh acrossmission-aligned uh people on the
(35:40):
credit union side and on thetechnology side.
SPEAKER_03 (35:43):
I'll tell you one thing prize out did with me
recently is they they wanted todo another show with me, and I
needed a new hook, and theysaid, Okay, fine, we'll give you
a credit union member who usesprize out.
And she and this is a womanworking in a factory in Indiana,
(36:04):
and she's talking about how shegot like 20 bucks so she could
buy some article of clothing forone of her kids.
I mean, it brings tears to youreyes, really, basically.
And I couldn't, there's no wayin hell I could have reached out
to this person independently.
You know, so those guys arereally smart about what they're
doing.
SPEAKER_02 (36:23):
They are I mean, we've we've now found over$10
million for members so far,right, of credit unions.
And like we're accelerating ineach story, right?
You know, we get thetranscripts.
There's sometimes we'll look atlike some of the like storylines
of what happens, and you'relike, people didn't know, they
got assistance, this hospitalworker got$300 more right in
Christmas, and you're like, thisis the real work that we can do,
(36:43):
right?
And I think there's anopportunity to kind of scale
that really effectively andbring that storyline to life.
And then the credit unions atthe center of it.
SPEAKER_01 (36:52):
You know, Sharine, you say that, and and I remember
our one of our firstconversations that we had, which
was at Finovate.
Um, and well, through CU 2.0, wemet originally, but then we we
met in person at Finovate in2024.
And I remember us, I remember ustalking about like you were
trying to work on the ROI modelrelated to like to help help
credit unions see kind of afinancial return to this, right?
(37:14):
And and there are ways to dothat, but I remember telling you
that like at the end of the day,the person who gets that help in
that moment, and and you know,Robert, the story you just
shared about the woman in thefactory, like those are like
these super meaningful eventsthat like they might be a public
speaker someday talking andrelaying the story about when
their credit union did thisthing for them, right?
(37:35):
Um, being a part of the dinnertime conversation that people
have uh about how we help them,it is emotional and it creates a
sense of loyalty.
Uh, it's the mission for whycredit unions exist.
And so, yes, we have to focus onum from an investment
perspective and where we put ourour energy on um returns, but
(37:56):
man, you this there's some realpowerful marketing forces that
come along with solving some ofthese problems for people.
That's hard to pinpoint what theexact return is, but we feel
pretty good about it.
SPEAKER_03 (38:07):
I think I got what I wanted from you, gentlemen.
Anything you want to say that Ididn't think to ask you?
SPEAKER_02 (38:13):
Oh, I would just say just that you know, I'm we're
just really excited because Ithink this is a question that
we've heard a lot about.
Like, hey, are you guys thinkingabout any of you so what's gonna
happen?
So Scott coming in is just thestart.
We're gonna grow and bring a lotmore credit in and use those to
come partner with us and growwith us.
So that's kind of like ourjourney is gonna be just this is
just the start of it.
SPEAKER_03 (38:33):
Yeah, and you these are the Qcash guys, man.
Yeah, I mean you're startingyou're starting with a good
team.
SPEAKER_01 (38:39):
So I I would I would need to in my my my like last
like thought or closing on thatwould be you asked if there's
other investors, uh if he'staking other investments.
I'd say like there's plenty ofroom in in this in this area,
but for Starlight in particular,for passionate mission-focused
credit unions who want to be onboard, right?
(38:59):
If if if you're if they'resomeone listening to that and
and that resonates with them,like talk talk to Shrini about
how you could get involved,because this is not an exclusive
you know club.
SPEAKER_03 (39:11):
We want we want to help everybody, and there's
plenty of before we go, thinkhard about how you can help
support this podcast so we cando more interviews with more
thoughtful leaders in the creditunion world.
What we're trying to figure outhere in these podcasts is what's
next for credit unions.
What can they do to really,really, really make a difference
(39:34):
in the financial scene?
Can't all be mega banks, can it?
It's my hope it won't all bemega banks.
It'll always be a place forcredit unions.
That's what we're discussinghere.
So figure out how you can help.
Get in touch with me.
This is RJ McGarvey atgmail.com, Robert McGarvey
again.
That's rjmegarvey at gmail.com.
(39:55):
Get in touch, we'll figure out away that you can help.
We need your support.
The Cu Two Dot O podcast.
Welcome to the CU2.0 podcast.
SPEAKER_00 (00:05):
Hi, and welcome to the CU 2.0 podcast with big new
ideas about credit unions andconversations about innovative
technology with credit union andfintech leaders.
This podcast is brought to youby Quillow, the real-time loan
syndication network for creditunions, and by your host,
long-time credit union andfinancial technology journalist
(00:27):
Robert McGarvey.
And now the CU 2.0 podcast withRobert McGarvey.
SPEAKER_03 (00:35):
I fancy myself something of a minor expert on
Medicare and often have advicefriends who are approaching 65
about their best options.
Until a man I know approached meand asked for my advice, he had
to qualify for Medicare andMedicaid.
And he thought he'd probablyqualify for food benefits too.
(00:58):
Wanted to know how he shouldproceed.
I had no idea what he wastalking about, and had to admit
to him I was clueless anduseless.
But today I advised him to finda credit union he could join,
and also as a customer ofStarlight, a FinTech, with a
focus on unlocking some$100billion annually in government
(01:19):
benefits that are potentiallyavailable to credit union
members.
Starlight was on the show a yearago.
It's on again today because itcomes with very big news.
It's now a new QZO and has wonfunding from One Washington
Financial.
That's a QZO wholly owned byWashington State Employees
(01:42):
Credit Union.
The same credit union,incidentally, that birthed
Qcash.
Scott Dawkins, a principal atOne Washington Financial, is on
the show to talk about the QZOand specifically why it funded
Starlight.
He also briefly talks aboutSilver, a portfolio company that
has been on the show.
(02:03):
And Starlight CEO is back on theshow to talk about how Starlight
is helping automate the oftenbewildering process of applying
for government benefits.
A process made all the morebewildering by massive changes
that several big programs, suchas Snap, the Food Stamp Program,
are undergoing as the year ends.
Starlight is deployed at over adozen credit units presently,
(02:27):
and it's busy signing up morebecause frankly the need is
there, and Starlight has theexpertise to help.
Along the way, there's adiscussion about prize out an
innovative ad tech company thatalso has been a podcast,
frequent podcast guest.
There's rich content in thisepisode.
Listen up.
Yeah, I've uh talked with atleast one other of your
(02:49):
portfolio companies.
Um Silver has been on thepodcast a couple times.
SPEAKER_01 (02:54):
Oh, wonderful.
Yeah, Rian.
SPEAKER_03 (02:56):
I I she has a wonderful product.
I hope it's selling well.
SPEAKER_01 (03:00):
But yeah, it's doing she's doing so well.
Um, she's got like the oppositeproblem of like it's everybody
wants to now partner with herand and work with her, so she's
got to figure out how to scalequickly.
Oh, cool, cool.
It's a good problem, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (03:15):
Well, you also have an army of people turning 65 and
such like.
So I mean the demographics areperfect, really.
SPEAKER_01 (03:22):
That's right.
And a lot of uncertainty in theum in the regulatory space, and
you know, so she's she's gotshe's well positioned.
SPEAKER_03 (03:32):
Oh, and of course, I of course I I talked with Qcash
many times, at least three timeson the show.
Oh, nice.
I actually did an exitinterview.
Uh Seth was on, the CEO of thethe credit union was on, and the
a lawyer, uh, a guy from alawyer was on.
SPEAKER_01 (03:51):
Cool.
SPEAKER_03 (03:52):
And uh and it was it was it was a very cool Seth put
pulled that together.
It was very cool.
It's uh yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (03:58):
Seth is a unique, uh, a unique human being.
He he's uh he's one of ourfavorites.
SPEAKER_03 (04:04):
And uh and he's involved in ranks too, which is
one of your portfolio companies.
SPEAKER_01 (04:08):
Yeah, he actually left ranks about two months ago,
I'd say.
But uh I touch base with him onoccasion.
SPEAKER_03 (04:16):
Yeah, I also talked a long time ago with the fellow
who was the first CEO of uhQcash.
SPEAKER_01 (04:22):
Uh Ben Morales, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (04:23):
Yes, yeah, wholly different personality.
SPEAKER_01 (04:26):
Totally I only joined the the the WSCCU team
about a year and a half ago, butI worked my whole career in the
credit union space next door atTwin Star Credit Union.
So I've known those those guys,I've known all of these people
from as a um you know a friendin the industry.
So I've watched Qcash getstarted and get sold and all
that.
So now I'm happy to be on the onthis team.
(04:48):
It's it's good stuff.
Hi, Trini.
How's it going?
SPEAKER_02 (04:53):
Hey Scott, hey Rob, good to see you.
SPEAKER_03 (04:55):
Good to see you.
Hey, now let's start with you,Starlight.
What does Starlight do?
And uh how many credit unionsare customers of yours?
SPEAKER_02 (05:06):
Yeah, Starlight helps members of credit unions
proactively get financialassistance through their trusted
credit union by finding themgovernment assistance programs
that they're qualified for andhelping them navigate how to get
it.
And when we do that, our creditunions are happy because it
accelerates their mission, helpsour staff serve the members, and
brings longer engaged members tothe credit union.
SPEAKER_03 (05:28):
And how many billions of dollars are out
there waiting to be taken?
SPEAKER_02 (05:33):
It's over$100 billion that members are leaving
on the table.
And the complexity of getting itis quite high, and so we're
helping solve it for them.
And it's 14 credit unions.
We reached 700,000 plus membersnow through our credit unions so
far.
A couple more diligence, we'llsign in the next week and kind
of accelerating how many creditunions you can get to.
SPEAKER_03 (05:52):
Now the complexity is stunning.
I I was talking with a uh afellow I know who's just turning
65.
He's getting Medicare, but healso simultaneously qualified
for Medicaid and gets some kindof food assistance too.
Whole bunch of you know, there'sso many moving parts there.
And I'm I've fancied myself aMedicare expert.
(06:16):
This was way out of my league.
I mean, I man, I've never neverdealt with this.
You know, let's let's let's talkabout the problems with
advantage plants.
SPEAKER_02 (06:27):
It's crazy.
SPEAKER_03 (06:29):
So, how how does how do you have this automated?
SPEAKER_02 (06:33):
So we have parts of it automated and we're building
more and more of it as we buildStarlight.
So we start with the problem ofjust that people don't know what
they can get and don't know howthey can even apply.
And so we start with reducingthe complexity of finding the
right way to navigate it andthen giving them assistance as
they do it.
And then in a few programs, likein New York City, we've actually
(06:54):
done it where you don't have toever go anywhere else.
You stay within the credit unionstarlight experience, and then
we help those users get to thefinish line on applying for
utility assistance.
Like in the example of thecredit union here, it's like
members are hospital workerswho, because of like, you know,
the challenges of the cost ofliving, are also qualified for
utility assistance, but didn'tknow about it.
(07:15):
They heard about it from thecredit union.
70% of them were like, wow, thisis great.
I'm excited.
They got into like trying toapply.
Then they came to us and wesaid, Hey, through our product.
And then they were like, hey, wewant to like apply for this.
And we're like, are youinterested in getting assistance
in doing it or you want to do ityourself?
And they're like, yeah, sure,please do it for me.
And so then we just took itover, collected the info from
them, ran it through with thenonprofit that administers it,
(07:36):
submitted it, confirmed if itworks for them, and did a lot of
that navigation for them, andthen told them, Hey, you got 300
bucks more.
Thank your credit union.
Don't forget.
SPEAKER_03 (07:46):
And what's the fee structure to a credit union?
SPEAKER_02 (07:49):
Credit unions pay for it essentially as an
embedded product.
And right now it's very simple.
It's a flat fee based on themembership size.
We'll take the number of membersthe credit union has and then
discount all their indirect.
So they're not really activelyengaged, and then make sure we
charge for that cohort.
SPEAKER_03 (08:04):
And what's the size range of your credit unions?
SPEAKER_02 (08:08):
Um, our largest ones are in the orders of 200,000
plus members, you know, over 3,4 billion in assets.
Our smallest is like, you know,sub 5,000 kind of like members,
really small, like 40 million,30 million credit unions as
well.
So we work with credits of allsizes.
SPEAKER_03 (08:22):
And what's the geographic spread?
SPEAKER_02 (08:26):
So far, we're in 13 states without credit unions,
and I guess 12.
One of them's in two states, butuh 13 states without credit
unions.
Starlight's available in 35states, and we'll be in all 50
within the next month.
And so we're growing prettyquickly just because some of the
larger credit unions were like,hey, how quickly can you be in
all 50?
And we're like, we're on it.
SPEAKER_03 (08:45):
Uh did you see a bump in uh interest with the
Snap benefits suspended?
SPEAKER_02 (08:52):
Yeah.
In fact, it's it's grown a lotin two different ways with what
happened with Snap, right?
One was I think more and more ofthe credit unions, actually, gum
shutdown is the broader thingthat happened.
I'd say two things happened.
The government shutdown pairedwith Snap both happening at the
same time meant that more peoplerealized their members are in
financial stress.
(09:13):
Um, we had several credit unionswho have a lot of government
employees working who arealready on their deposit loss.
And so they were like, how do weaddress this?
And so immediate address wasthey were like, oh, well, like
not collecting loans that youhave with us and so on.
But the secondary impact wasthey're like, what can we do to
assist them?
And so a couple of our creditunions actually just sent a
blast to all of theirmembership, being like, hey, we
actually have a product thatactually serves you immediately.
(09:34):
Let's bring this to light.
On the Snap side, what'sinteresting is they were like,
hey, we want to react to Snapand do something right away, but
we don't know what to do.
And they were like, we werelike, oh, we already have it,
because we already indexed allof the food banks, know where
they are, know how to guidepeople.
Because one of the things thatwe realized when we launched
Starlight with some creditunions is a member might be in
stress, but not qualified forSnap.
So we had to have a backstop forthem to be like, what can I find
(09:57):
for you that's not Snap?
If you're not qualified, but youstill need food assistance.
And so we ended up originallyitself adding a lot of these
individual sort of nonprofitrelated benefits, with food
banks being a key one for thecategory of food.
So now that piece has become abigger part of our product, so
much so we ended up launchingsort of a quick side product
really quickly that we deliveredto anyone who'd been through
(10:18):
Starlight who was qualified forSnap and said, Hey, we found a
nearest food banks here wherethey are.
And now, actually, like in thelast two weeks, we're building a
next version of that, which is amuch more rich and easy to use
experience.
Because if you don't Google foodbanks, you kind of struggle
because you can't tell whichones are open, what the hours
are, when they are.
So the next iteration, we willactually start being like a bit
more proactive on this and likebe more targeted on like hours
(10:41):
of operations where it looks,it's almost like your experience
when you use Yelp or like GoogleMaps for restaurants, but making
it really smooth for the endusers.
Um, the members, we saw reallystrong engagement.
Our messages got like 35, 40%engagement on our food bank
messages because I think peopleneed it and we're like solving a
critical need.
And then from the salesperspective, several credit
unions reached out, being like,hey, we thought about your
(11:02):
product because like we saw youtalk about this at a conference
like X months ago, and now it'shighly relevant again.
So we've had several folks whoreached back out and said, Hey,
it's a good time for us tore-engage on this as well.
SPEAKER_03 (11:12):
Well, uh if I remember correctly, a bunch of
folks, I mean, millions of folksget bounced off snap at the end
of the year.
SPEAKER_02 (11:20):
40 million.
It's insane.
SPEAKER_03 (11:22):
And that's gonna create a real panic and flood of
what are the alternatives?
What are my options?
SPEAKER_02 (11:28):
Some of it is quite sad.
Like, I think one of the thingsone of the criteria members we
were helping in our benefitspecialist team were talking
about how they didn't know thatthese processes were changing
and they were like, they knowthere's a work requirement and
had it submitted it and ignoredsome messages, and now they lost
it.
So now we're like helping themre-enroll.
So there is a lot of complexityin the system.
And I think being the force ofguiding and helping people
(11:49):
becomes really tuned into thecriterion mission naturally.
Because I think our staffmembers already do this.
So, like at one of ourcustomers, they had a staff
member doing this who went onmaternity and they were like,
oh, Starlights actually like agood solved because we now have
another way to solve this.
And now actually we canbroadcast this to all our
members.
Previously, it was onlyreactive, where if someone came
into the branch and asked forhelp, they would like call this
(12:09):
person and then come back.
And so they were kind of holdingit as an L2 support model.
And now they're like, we canactually broadcast this to
everyone, bring it to ourmembers, bring it to our
customers, and scale it out.
So I think it's already aproblem that honestly, like a
lot of credit unions who arelike kind of leaning in have
been doing, but they've kind ofsolved it in their own localized
ways.
But Scott, actually, WashingtonState did does some really cool
(12:30):
work with warr notices and likelayoff notices and how they
bring that proactively tomembers who've lost their job
and telling them how to getthrough the next two months of
that process and how to helpthem.
So I feel like a lot of creditunions are doing like really
interesting and groundbreakingwork, and we're almost learning
from them and then digitizingand serving it at scale.
SPEAKER_03 (12:50):
Now, had you heard of Accuso uh before a few months
ago?
And I I ask because I've beenI've been writing about credit
unions for a number of yearsbefore I even heard of Accuso.
I met a guy Kirk Drake who had aCUSO.
I and I said, What the hell isthis?
SPEAKER_02 (13:12):
Um, I'll tell you the funny way I learned about
it, right?
I was at VentureTech, which isprobably like our first meeting
with Scott and the teams of likeFintex plus credit unions that
we learned.
At that time, I remember someoneasked us, like, are you guys a
QCO?
And we're like, What's a QSO?
And so it started the peak ofthe interest, right?
We were like, what does thismean?
And how does this work?
(13:32):
And we've like over time learnedthat it's sort of like one, it's
a really important way to likehave the credit unions who are
partnering with you be part ofyour journey as you grow.
And I think the history fromlike ATM networks being like
kind of the original sort of QSOmodel or like fair check
branching and like branchinglocations, like QSO's histories.
I got into the rabbit hole oflearning about it because I just
(13:54):
nerd out on stuff.
And then I started seeing likewho were like some of the early
QSOs and how did they spin up?
What were their goals?
How did they form?
How did they spin out QSOs fromlike other institutions, whether
it's like MDC or Filene doingwork and like kind of leading
into like shared services?
So the shared services leadingto QSO model was really
interesting.
(14:14):
FinTech's doing QSOs is fairlynew, and it's kind of like
something that we've beenlearning about from other
fintechs.
And to us, it was a veryinteresting model.
And like it allows us to alignthe incentives in a very
meaningful way.
Like Starlight's already apublic benefit corporation
because I don't want to haveinvestors or shareholders push
us to do things that are againstthe goals of the households we
(14:36):
seek to serve.
So QSL is almost like anextension of that into the
cooperative model of doing thesame goal, of like aligning
incentives between households weserve, how the partners we work
with benefit from it, and howStarlight and its shareholders
also benefit at the same time.
SPEAKER_03 (14:49):
And and the funding environment on Sandhill Road for
FinTechs is not as robust as itwas some years ago.
And uh Qzo's provided analternative funding vehicle for
fintechs.
True, false?
SPEAKER_02 (15:07):
Um I think true, and I think there's even a more
baseline argument here, which islike customers becoming
investors is a much strongersignal of your company's
thriving than investors who areonly investing, just because it
signals sort of long-termviability of your business.
So to me, there's like a hugepositive correlation, and like
we've seen this when we talk toeven our current investors.
(15:29):
They're like, oh, that'samazing.
Like Scott coming on and oneWashington coming in is a really
good signal for us because ittells us your business has
long-term survival, and you'renot just selling a mess to the
investors, you're sellingreality of like what the credit
unions would want to buy.
So in that sense, I think it's apositive.
The other thing aboutalternative funding, I think
that's more practical, is Ithink credit unions also like
(15:50):
buying from TISOs in a naturalway because you're helping grow
the ecosystem together.
And like in a practical sense,it gives not interest income if
you succeed and do well withthem for them, right?
So I think there's like arealistic alignment of like
their goals as well.
SPEAKER_03 (16:02):
I've said a number of times, although many in the
credit union world would throwbricks at me after hear it, is
that I think Hugh Z are vastlymore important to the credit
union industry than is the taxexemption.
I I think it's it's the secret,uh secret weapon, not so secret,
(16:22):
that really helps credit unionsbeat community banks, for
instance, on a lot of fronts, atech being one of them.
SPEAKER_01 (16:31):
Yeah, it's definitely an extension of the
cooperative model of creditunions, which is why it makes
sense.
Um and I I think that there's toall the things that Shrini said,
those are things are importanttoo, but people want to, in the
credit union space, they theywant to um, you know, there's
(16:51):
there's a high trust factor withwith a credit union neighbor,
right?
Your credit union neighbor, wewe reach out to each other, we
we collaborate on a lot ofthings.
And so if there's somebody thatwe respect and we say, what are
you doing to help solve thisproblem?
And they've got a solution likea starlight, it's it's a um it's
a much easier sell than if theyshould go to a conference and
(17:12):
they're being sold to by a thirdparty that's being perceived as
a third party.
So even if you think of it asthere's definitely like mission
alignment, um, missionenablement, but if you think of
it as just the the uh a reallyspecific go-to-market strategy
for a fintech, it's I think it'sa really, really powerful tool
tool.
So I I don't know, I haven'tthought about it in comparison
(17:32):
to the tax exemption, but that'san interesting point you're
raising.
Well, part of my logic there isjust numeric.
SPEAKER_03 (17:40):
Only a small percentage of credit unions
would actually be hurt by losingthe federal tax exemption.
Many, many, many thousands ofcredit unions would be hurt if
CUSOs went away.
Fair.
Now, how did you get interestedin how do you pick a portfolio
company?
(18:00):
Number one, there must be manymore hand with hands out, uh,
hoping to meet you at meetingsthan you can fund.
So, how do you pick one?
SPEAKER_01 (18:10):
And how why did you pick Starlight?
So I've been I've been doing QSOinvestment um in some form or
another for over 15 years now.
Um and and now at a dedicated ata dedicated you know role inside
of a holding company, it'sreally my my main focus.
So you're right, there areprobably more opportunities than
(18:32):
what we have um money to giveand time to evaluate, which is
interesting because I thoughtthat that was going to be the
big problem when uh when youknow coming aboard a new holding
company was how are we gonna getinto the middle of deal flow?
And that's not the problem atall.
Uh, there's there is our plentyof really, really smart,
passionate technologists thatare trying to solve real
(18:53):
human-centered problems um forcredit unions and their members.
How do we how do we go about it?
We everybody kind of does it alittle bit differently, but for
us at One Washington Financial,we've got three different
pillars that we look at.
We look at first from just froma strategic fit standpoint, we
look at does the fintechincrease the um equitable access
to consumers as a general rule,not necessarily WSECU's members.
(19:17):
Because and maybe just to kindof back up, I might have said
this already, but but we are thea wholly owned subsidiary of
WSECU.
So we look for equitable access,we look for financial um
wellness for our members and ourcommunities specifically, and
then we're also looking foranything that can increase
operational efficiencies.
Those three pillars really driveall of our investments, and then
(19:38):
from there, we've got um youknow a wonderful board that that
decides on the actualinvestments.
We we as the management bringthe recommendations to them.
We're looking for balance acrossnot just the um the topics, but
we're looking for balance onrisk, we're looking for balance
on um check sizes and so on.
And uh I met when I met Shrini,because our back.
(20:00):
As a my parent company uh creditunion's background is the
Washington State EmployeesCredit Union, is the is what
WSECU stands for.
Obviously, government benefitsis like, you know, it's it's
near and dear to our hearts, isto make sure that the citizens
of our state are are taken careof and have access to the the
different types of of uhprograms that we've that are put
out there for them.
(20:20):
It's just such a simple simpleis the wrong word, Trini,
because you're probably gonnasay it's not simple at all.
It's conceptually, it's justsimple to say, like, wow, this
is the problem with thebureaucracy that exists and the
lack of sort of technology thathelps people figure it out.
If you've ever had to go throughany state uh or local, probably
(20:42):
federal to program, you know, totry to try to navigate those
fields and figure out you do youneed a master's degree in that
particular area in order tofigure that out.
So Shrini and his company, youknow, it just made perfect sense
for us to want to be involved.
And then we started looking atthe business model, and and the
business model works for us.
So it's a it's a great it's agreat partnership.
SPEAKER_03 (21:02):
And and Washington State Employees Credit Union, as
you as you know, I mean, birthQcash, which clientele of Qcash
is not a clientele, JP MorganChase, Jamie Diamond sitting
there plotting how to get them.
You know, it's it's just not nothigh priority for him.
Whereas it became a highpriority for Washington State
(21:23):
Employees Credit Union.
That's right.
And and that's I I've always Iuh to me, Qcash is one of the
great wonders of the creditunion world.
SPEAKER_01 (21:31):
No, you're absolutely right.
If it fits this general thesisof of um financial wellness and
and and and well-being, and weare looking for novel solutions
to solve like the real problemsthat people, particularly in
Washington, because that's whereour core member base is, but but
but we we invest in companiesthat serve the credit union
industry.
So really we're looking forsolutions that help real people
(21:53):
with the problems that theyhave, particularly around
financial wellness.
What's your investment range?
We will make we'll make investwe typically say that our our
check, normal check size is250,000 to a million dollars,
and that's obviously dependentupon a lot of different factors.
We've made smaller investments,we've made larger investments.
So it it really does sort ofdepend, but that's generally the
(22:15):
range we're looking at.
And we're generally look lookingat the the seed, the seed level.
We're looking for early stagecompanies that we can help help
accelerate those companies, butalso we want to have a role in
in the you know the productdevelopment and the roadmap.
So we we want to give we want togive Starlight as much feedback
as we can and others so thatthey can build the thing that's
(22:35):
gonna work the best for creditunions.
So that's really where we liketo play.
And there's plenty of othercredit unions that want to be a
little bit later in in the game.
And of course, many of us areinvestors in other funds like uh
like the circle fund, etc.
But um, but as a directinvestor, that's where we play.
SPEAKER_03 (22:51):
And do you help a portfolio company do you make
introductions to credit unions,for instance, potential
customers?
SPEAKER_01 (22:59):
Yes, we make as many as we can, you know, at the risk
of also, you know, peopleunderstand that I'm I'm very
passionate about the job that Ido and then the companies that
we represent.
So I hope it doesn't come off asuh, you know, I'm shilling for
for the for the companies.
Um, I hope people and I thinkthat they do understand that
we've invested in somethingbecause we absolutely 100%
(23:21):
believe in them.
And so when you believe insomething, you want to tell
everybody about it.
SPEAKER_03 (23:25):
And you're not, yeah, I've I've talked with
fintech CEOs.
Uh I remember a painfulconversation I had with a guy I
knew pretty well who was uhselling his company to to a much
bigger entity.
And I I said, in effect, why thehell are you selling it to them?
They're just gonna ruin it.
And he said, I didn't have achoice.
(23:47):
My investors wanted to cash out.
And that's that's not a uniquestory to him.
That's that's that's a story.
You you don't seem to have thatshort fuse of patience since you
only you've only had one exitstrat one exit case, which is
Qcash.
SPEAKER_01 (24:06):
We had a partial exit earlier this year with one
of our portfolio companies.
We actually rolled um a goodportion of our initial
investment over.
But but you're right, I think wedescribe it as patient capital,
and we think that's one of theadvantages to staying inside the
credit union space.
We're not an impact fund, we'renot uh we're not a VC, we're not
private equity, we're more of astrategic fund to help improve
(24:29):
the lives of the credit unionmembers.
And so for us, we can afford totake a longer-term view on a on
a what's typically perceived asa shorter-term bet.
But we feel like that's like,you know, we we know that that
companies need time to make surethat they've got product market
fit, that they've made all thecredit unions are are
notoriously slow decision makersacross the board in terms of
(24:53):
their uh their partners, whichis is understandable and fine,
but it's a reality that that uha lot of fintech um founders
have to deal with, particularlywhen they've got that pressure
of funding.
So we have a three to five yearportfolio horizon.
That's what we have at OneWashington Financial, and so
we're we're okay to sit and uhand and watch and help and and
(25:16):
curate and and work with youknow side by side with our
founders for that time.
SPEAKER_03 (25:20):
Talking about the length of time it takes credit
unions to decide things.
I've often talked with fintechCEOs to say, Hey, I just had a
great, great meeting with blahblah credit union.
I'm I'm hoping we can get themon board fast.
And I said, they'll probablymake a decision in about a year.
Which and the fintech guys get,no, it's not possible.
I say, Well, it's it's realityof credit unions, man.
SPEAKER_02 (25:43):
It's uh yeah, I mean, I would just say just on
that one, it's pretty funny.
Like sometimes I've had peoplecome back to you where I thought
they went cold, I thought theyforgot about us, and they reach
back up being like, Hey, we gotapproval to talk to you and get
into deal mode.
And I'm like, we were gone forsix months and you haven't found
any.
SPEAKER_03 (26:00):
I've talked to fintech executives who get a con
get are contacted by somebodysaying, Hey, we really well,
okay, let's activate this deal.
It was so long ago that theytalked that the fintech
executive doesn't even rememberwho they are.
SPEAKER_01 (26:15):
Right.
And there's a lot, there's anumber of us on the direct
investing side, um, be it out ofholding companies or out of
credit unions directly that areworking together to try and
accelerate this process,particularly on the investing
side.
But you know, along with that,if we're going to be owner
users, we've got to figure out away as an industry to have the
parent credit unions, you know,come along at, you know, at the
(26:38):
same pace or somewhat close tothe pace that we're that we're
looking at in terms of ourinvestment.
So it's a challenge, but it's afun challenge, and we're we're
working together to figure thatout.
SPEAKER_03 (26:47):
Well, and as I'm sure you you see, AI is bumping
so many things off the stage atcredit unions because the the
executives only have so muchbandwidth to contemplate new
things, and they feel they mustcontemplate AI.
They have to.
So that's bouncing a lot ofthings out.
On the other hand, somethinglike Starlight or Silver, for
(27:08):
that matter, there's a kind ofpressing urgency there.
So, and it's it's it feels good.
It sounds good.
It's, you know, it's we'rehelping our members get more
government benefits that theydeserve, but they just can't
figure out how to apply forthem.
And so I think that could poundstuff that could still get some,
(27:29):
you just need somebody on theexecutive team who becomes like
a cheerleader for it.
SPEAKER_02 (27:34):
Yeah.
And that's that's that's a nicething about the work we do, is
we meet folks like Scott andothers in the credit union
movement who just been like,hey, I really like what you're
doing.
I'm gonna help you actuallybring this to more folks.
Like we've had folks reach outto us being like, hey, can I
advise you as you think aboutcredit unions and learn about
it?
I had a lending officer whotaught me how to read a call
report.
Because he's like, I just likewhat you're building.
I like our credit unions not agood fit for you, where like
income is different or we have apriority that's different, but I
(27:56):
want to dive in.
And so I think the movementalignment is very strong, which
helps because I think it helpsme learn and accelerate from
being like a tech guy tounderstanding credit unions
quickly.
SPEAKER_03 (28:06):
Now, do you have and this is I've I've talked to
other companies who do this,they have two companies.
They have company A, thencompany B.
Company B is a Q Zo.
Company A sells to Chase orwhoever.
It's not a Q so.
Are you set up that way or areyou more monogamous credit
union?
SPEAKER_02 (28:26):
Um, no, we're set up as Starlight as a parent, which
is a public benefit corporation,which is gonna serve low-income
households through whateverchannels they reach their end
goal of like helping them getbenefits.
And then Starlight QSO is thesubsidiary of Starlight the
Parent.
The reason is also twofold,right?
One is like, yeah, we want to bewherever 60 million households
need help, and how do we findthem?
And the second reason is morepractical is we'll have to start
(28:48):
partnering with like utilities,civic institutions, and so on.
And so actually being astandalone entity that does that
separate from the QSO helps uson the deal making for talking
to governments and being like,hey, we've got this setup,
here's why it works.
And it makes it a lot easier forthat secondary conversation with
I call it like source of fundsand working with them as well.
SPEAKER_03 (29:07):
Are you looking for more investors?
SPEAKER_02 (29:10):
Yeah, I think we're always looking for more aligned
investors, right?
Everyone, and you know, Scottknows this, and we've talked
about this in the start.
We want to bring in creditunions, we're gonna teach us how
to build the right solution forthem, right?
We have a core product and acore intent to build the right
thing, but the product isevolving.
And so if we get alignedinvestors who are gonna be
partner, owner, customerinvestors, that's exactly what
(29:32):
we want.
So, you know, we are even like,you know, and everyone who's we
brought on, like most of thefolks we have around our cap
table are folks that Scott's metand known.
And like some of them are likeadding a lot of insights for us
to guiding us on how to buildthe product correctly.
And both on go-to-market, bothon like member experience, some
are guiding us on how to even,like, for example, like one of
the insights from WashingtonState was how do you make sure
(29:55):
this works for recently laid offfolks for unemployment guidance?
It's like, okay, if you have alittle bit of a product there,
you've already been working onit.
Now, how can we makeunemployment insurance really
good?
Because some of our creditunions with SEG focuses need
this desperately urgently.
Because they're like, they justhad a layoff for 10% of their
workforce at one of their SEGs.
How can we show up tomorrow andsay the credit union's here for
your SEG?
(30:16):
So we built that out and nowwe're like improving it.
And those are the kinds ofthings where like having
investor partners guiding us isreally helpful.
So we would love to get morealigned credit unions coming in.
Um, we're talking about thatright now.
SPEAKER_01 (30:28):
I've I've seen and I've seen um recently, even in
the last two or three months,several times where where the
fintech founder has is has tomake a choice because they've
got they've got offers from formuch larger dollars from BCs at
higher valuations, and or to gowith uh more of a strategic
round with credit unions.
(30:49):
And it seems like, and again,it's a very small sample size
here, but but there's been morethat have come back to the
credit union side and said,like, there's just so much value
to us having the the patientcapital, the strategic
investment that that this iswhere we want to play.
And we and we're we're we'regonna turn down the VCs that
want that want to uh invest inus.
And that's a cool feelingbecause it because you know we
(31:10):
we want really smart fintechs,we're solving real problems, to
think of the credit union spaceas a space they can, you know,
win, win in, and not just uhit's not um yeah, that I'll just
leave it at that full stop.
We want them to win.
SPEAKER_03 (31:24):
Well, I think many credit unions recognize that
they need fintechs, they can'tgrow this stuff in-house.
I don't maybe Navy Federal growsa little bit in-house, but very
few others do.
JP Morgan just does everythingin-house, that's just the way it
works.
It's uh because they'll hireeverybody they need and have the
(31:45):
money to do that.
No, I I think it's it's awonderful thing.
So how many how many companiesdo you look at and reject for
everyone that you accept?
SPEAKER_01 (31:57):
Oh, that's an interesting way of phrasing
that.
I'm I talk to founders, I wouldsay almost every single day I
have at least one call with afounder, right?
So a lot of calls.
A lot of them are justintroductory calls, and and
we're I'm making that assessmentup front about the strategic fit
with our with our holdingcompany.
Um, many of those don't go pastthat first conversation because
(32:19):
they don't align.
But but but also I would saythat like there's just a ton of
value in meeting those folks.
They're gonna be in ourindustry.
Um, if I can help them in someway, I'm always I'm always happy
to do that with with whatever Ican do.
In terms of the ones thatactually start to move through
our pipeline, I would say umit's probably about two-thirds
that that come in that make itout to the other side, because
(32:41):
we are we are doing a good jobon the front end of of I think
assessing you know where thatfit is.
And then I think the way that wedo it is we look at it first
from strategic fit, and then wedo due diligence, like a lot
more due diligence around thebusiness model.
Because if if the strategic fitisn't there, then there's no
real reason to spend the timeand effort to do any of the
(33:01):
other work.
So I think that one-third of itusually is where something pops
in due diligence that maybe youknow is enough of a factor where
we it overrides our desire froma strategic standpoint to want a
partner.
Um doesn't happen very often,but it but it it does happen.
And um, yeah, so I would saymaybe about two-thirds go all
the way through, and then abouta third kind of drop off
somewhere in that cycle.
SPEAKER_03 (33:23):
And uh and a cool thing about credit unions is
that I've I've written a bit,I've done a couple of shows on
Prize App, which is a prettywell-funded uh Q.
And uh how are they growing?
Well, some of their uh creditunion investors are evangelists
for them, calling up othercredit unions saying, Hey, you
(33:44):
have to become part of this, youhave to become part of this.
You really need this, it's greatstuff.
And I can't see too many bankersdoing that.
You know, it's so true.
SPEAKER_02 (33:55):
And by the way, I talked to Matt from Prize Loud
just to get advice because I waslike, hey, you guys have done
this, you're like, you know, anexperienced fintech in the
space, teach me what you did.
And they were like, Hey, you'redoing the right thing asking.
And investors who are gonna becustomers and be advocates, and
like, here's how we learned,here's what we did in the early
days, here's how we've grown,because they're like a perfect
(34:15):
example of someone who's kind ofteaching the ways for like other
folks like me to follow.
SPEAKER_03 (34:20):
No, they they've told me on the record on the
show, didn't know a damn thingabout a Q zone until we found
out about it and said, Hey, wegot to do more with this.
SPEAKER_01 (34:30):
Yeah, they're they're a really great, they're
they're a great team, they'vegot a great idea, great business
model.
Yeah, that's cool that you'vehad them on a few times.
SPEAKER_03 (34:39):
Oh, they're I mean well, they've also gotten great
credit union people to come onwith them to sing their praises.
I mean, these these arewonderful people to talk to.
Yeah.
And uh uh and yes, they are allpart owners of it, but they're
they also are true believers.
They wouldn't be doing this ifthey weren't true believers.
SPEAKER_01 (34:59):
It's it's funny.
We put our money where our mouthis.
We really do.
Like it's it's it's it's a realit's it's really fun to to put
an investment in a company thatyou believe in with you know
wholeheartedly.
And frankly, you know, to Shrineand to to Dave and Matt at Prize
Out or Rian at Silver, any ofthem, we're making investments,
we're betting on founders,right?
(35:19):
There's this idea and thisconcept and this problem they're
solving, but it's up to them tofigure it out how to execute it,
how to make it scale.
And we want to we want to makebets on people who we believe in
can can do that workeffectively.
And uh so we we have we areprivileged, I think, to to have
this collaboration uh acrossmission-aligned uh people on the
(35:40):
credit union side and on thetechnology side.
SPEAKER_03 (35:43):
I'll tell you one thing prize out did with me
recently is they they wanted todo another show with me, and I
needed a new hook, and theysaid, Okay, fine, we'll give you
a credit union member who usesprize out.
And she and this is a womanworking in a factory in Indiana,
(36:04):
and she's talking about how shegot like 20 bucks so she could
buy some article of clothing forone of her kids.
I mean, it brings tears to youreyes, really, basically.
And I couldn't, there's no wayin hell I could have reached out
to this person independently.
You know, so those guys arereally smart about what they're
doing.
SPEAKER_02 (36:23):
They are I mean, we've we've now found over$10
million for members so far,right, of credit unions.
And like we're accelerating ineach story, right?
You know, we get thetranscripts.
There's sometimes we'll look atlike some of the like storylines
of what happens, and you'relike, people didn't know, they
got assistance, this hospitalworker got$300 more right in
Christmas, and you're like, thisis the real work that we can do,
(36:43):
right?
And I think there's anopportunity to kind of scale
that really effectively andbring that storyline to life.
And then the credit unions atthe center of it.
SPEAKER_01 (36:52):
You know, Sharine, you say that, and and I remember
our one of our firstconversations that we had, which
was at Finovate.
Um, and well, through CU 2.0, wemet originally, but then we we
met in person at Finovate in2024.
And I remember us, I remember ustalking about like you were
trying to work on the ROI modelrelated to like to help help
credit unions see kind of afinancial return to this, right?
(37:14):
And and there are ways to dothat, but I remember telling you
that like at the end of the day,the person who gets that help in
that moment, and and you know,Robert, the story you just
shared about the woman in thefactory, like those are like
these super meaningful eventsthat like they might be a public
speaker someday talking andrelaying the story about when
their credit union did thisthing for them, right?
(37:35):
Um, being a part of the dinnertime conversation that people
have uh about how we help them,it is emotional and it creates a
sense of loyalty.
Uh, it's the mission for whycredit unions exist.
And so, yes, we have to focus onum from an investment
perspective and where we put ourour energy on um returns, but
(37:56):
man, you this there's some realpowerful marketing forces that
come along with solving some ofthese problems for people.
That's hard to pinpoint what theexact return is, but we feel
pretty good about it.
SPEAKER_03 (38:07):
I think I got what I wanted from you, gentlemen.
Anything you want to say that Ididn't think to ask you?
SPEAKER_02 (38:13):
Oh, I would just say just that you know, I'm we're
just really excited because Ithink this is a question that
we've heard a lot about.
Like, hey, are you guys thinkingabout any of you so what's gonna
happen?
So Scott coming in is just thestart.
We're gonna grow and bring a lotmore credit in and use those to
come partner with us and growwith us.
So that's kind of like ourjourney is gonna be just this is
just the start of it.
SPEAKER_03 (38:33):
Yeah, and you these are the Qcash guys, man.
Yeah, I mean you're startingyou're starting with a good
team.
SPEAKER_01 (38:39):
So I I would I would need to in my my my like last
like thought or closing on thatwould be you asked if there's
other investors, uh if he'staking other investments.
I'd say like there's plenty ofroom in in this in this area,
but for Starlight in particular,for passionate mission-focused
credit unions who want to be onboard, right?
(38:59):
If if if you're if they'resomeone listening to that and
and that resonates with them,like talk talk to Shrini about
how you could get involved,because this is not an exclusive
you know club.
SPEAKER_03 (39:11):
We want we want to help everybody, and there's
plenty of before we go, thinkhard about how you can help
support this podcast so we cando more interviews with more
thoughtful leaders in the creditunion world.
What we're trying to figure outhere in these podcasts is what's
next for credit unions.
What can they do to really,really, really make a difference
(39:34):
in the financial scene?
Can't all be mega banks, can it?
It's my hope it won't all bemega banks.
It'll always be a place forcredit unions.
That's what we're discussinghere.
So figure out how you can help.
Get in touch with me.
This is RJ McGarvey atgmail.com, Robert McGarvey
again.
That's rjmegarvey at gmail.com.
(39:55):
Get in touch, we'll figure out away that you can help.
We need your support.
The Cu Two Dot O podcast.
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