Careers at SoFi
Mission
Social Finance (“SoFi”) is a marketplace lender that provides a variety of loan options, including student loan refinancing, mortgages and personal loans.
History
SoFi was founded in 2011 by four former students of Stanford Graduate Business School: Mike Cagney (“Cagney”), Dan Macklin (“Macklin”), James Finnigan (“Finnigan”) and Ian Brady (“Brady”). The four founders gained support from fellow Stanford alumni in developing more affordable options for students taking on debt to fund their education. SoFi launched its inaugural loan program in 2012, a $2 million pilot aimed at helping students at their alma mater school, Stanford. A total of 40 alumni invested an average of $50,000 to help 1000 Stanford students.
Following this initial success, SoFi began attracting investment. In six rounds of investment, SoFi has received more than $1 billion in investment from 19 individual investors. Its investors include Discovery Capital, DCM Ventures, Lakestar and QED Investors. Recent reports estimate SoFi’s value at approximately $4 billion.
Benefits at SoFi
Business model of SoFi
Customer Segments
SoFi targets students, former students, young professionals and general consumers. It is designed to help customers that are seeking an alternative to traditional lending providers, who want a more flexible, accessible and easy-to-manage service.
The Company also provides its services to businesses and trade organisations, providing services to their employees and members.
Value Propositions
SoFi’s ending products are attractive as the Company does not charge in relation to loan originations or for prepayment services. SoFi also provides discounted repayments and additional support and services not offered by traditional lending organisations. This includes industry events, career guidance counselling and 24-hour support services.
The Company claims that its customers save, on average, around $18,936 on student loan refinancing.
SoFi’s services are available online and can be accessed easily through the Company’s website. It also provides wealth management services at a discount for its lending customers.
Channels
SoFi’s services are accessible via its website at www.sofi.com. Applications for products and services can be completed online, with support from the Company’s sales and marketing team. The Company can also be contacted directly over the telephone.
Customer Relationships
SoFi works under a largely self-service model, with consumers able to apply for various products through a series of forms hosted on the Company’s website. The Company provides ongoing customer support to its clients through online chat and FAQs, as well as via access to its sales and marketing teams.
SoFi interacts with its customers directly, keeping them up to date with changes and developments via its social media accounts with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Google+.
SoFi’s wealth management services are provided with a greater degree of personal care, with advisors discussing preferences and requirements directly with customers.
Key Activities
SoFi is a non-banking lender, that provides an alternative to traditional loan and refinancing service providers. The Company provides a number of products and services, including student loan and mortgage refinancing, parent loans, personal loans, MBA loans and mortgages.
SoFi also offers wealth management services, investing in a range of funds to suit individual customers. It also provides online and offline investment and trading advisory services.
Key Partners
SoFi partners with a number of organisations, including insurance providers, financial services companies, trade associations and professional organisations. SoFi offers two types of partnership: a standard partnerships and standard loan contributions. The first allows employees of members to access discounted rates on SoFi loans as well as to career services and networking events. SoFi also provides these partners with benefits not offered by traditional lenders, including unemployment protection and career support. The second enables partners to make regular contributions to the student loan repayments of employees or members, with SoFi offering reduced payments.
SoFi has partnered with numerous bodies, including insurance provider USI Affinity, the American Academy of Paediatric Dentistry, the Pennsylvania Bar Association, and venture capital firm Institutional Venture Partners. SoFi purports to have as many as 400 partners of this kind.
It is also a member of a number of national and regional professional organisations with which it collaborates, including the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators and the National Council of Higher Education Resources.
Key Resources
SoFi’s key resources are its personnel, its partners, its IT infrastructure and its associations with various trade organisations and groups.
The Company depends largely on the expertise of its employees and its network of contacts and partners in order to provide an efficient and cost-effective service to its customers. This is supported by SoFi’s online presence, with its services and support all available through its website.
While the Company is reported to be profitable, its financial backers also represent key resources.
Cost Structure
SoFi’s major costs come in the form of employee retention, the management of its partnerships and associations, maintenance of its IT infrastructure and costs associated with organising events.
SoFi must pay to retain its team of expert lending professional as well as a large teams devoted to customer support and advisory services.
The Company also accrues fixed costs in the form of rent and utilities through its network of seven offices across the US.
Revenue Streams
SoFi does not generate revenue through loan originations or prepayments. Instead, the entirety of the Company’s revenue is generated by the investor services and wealth management side of its business, in the form of management fees and service charges. According to its website, SoFi charges its wealth management clients $5 per month for every $100,000 invested.
The Company also charges a small service fee to its clients. SoFi claims to have been a revenue-generating Company since it was established. While it does not disclose details of its annual and monthly revenue, it purports to be a profitable entity.
Our team
info: Mike has served as SoFi’s Chief Executive Officer and Chairman since co-founding the Company in 2011. He also serves as Managing Partner of Cabezon Investment Group, an investment group he founded in 2005, and as Chairman of ReFlow Services, a tax solutions provider. Cagney has worked in the financial services industry for a number of years, and has held senior executive roles since the 1990s. In 1994 he was appointed Senior Vice President of Proprietary Trading and Financial Products at Wells Fargo, where he stayed until 2000. That year he founded wealth management technology company Finaplex, of which he served as Chief Executive Officer and Vice Chairman. Cagney left the Company in 2005 to found Cabezon Investment Group.
info: Dan has served as SoFi’s Vice President of Community and Member Success since 2015, having previously served as the Company’s Vice President of Business Development from 2011. Macklin is a banker by trade. Prior to co-founding SoFi he served as Head of Medium Enterprises and SME Banking for China at Standard Chartered Bank from 2008 to 2010. He also spent a year as a Sloan Fellow at Stanford Graduate School of Business from 2010 to 2011. Macklin previously graduated from the University of Durham in 1998 with a bachelor’s degree in Business Economics.