Solving Credit Access for Immigrants with Nicky Goulimis, COO & Co-Founder of Nova Credit

Summary: In our latest episode of the Wharton Fintech podcast, Miguel Armaza (WG'21/G'21) is joined by Nicky Goulimis, COO & Co-Founder of Nova Credit, a mission-driven company solving the problem of credit access for immigrants. Join us as Nicky shares her inspiring story. Nicky Goulimis is the co-founder and COO of Nova Credit. Prior to Nova, she was a consultant at Bain & Company where she worked with a number of European Retail Banks. Nicky began her career in the international development space working for Ethiopia's Ministry of Agriculture on its smallholder farmer financial access initiatives. Nicky is originally from Greece and grew up in the U.K. She holds a BA from Cambridge and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where she was awarded the Miller Social Change Leadership Award. Nova Credit is a mission-driven company solving the problem of credit access for immigrants. The company's platform offers cross-border consumer credit services that passes reports onto lenders, property managers and other domestic businesses so that they can make more informed determination on whether to accept or reject a credit application, enabling immigrants to seek financial services, housing and more when moving abroad through a digital credit passport software that helps lenders to view creditor's history. In this extensive interview, Nicky shares: (i)How the challenges Nicky faced as an international student at Stanford drove her and her co-founder, Misha, to build and launch Nova Credit (ii)Why she considers herself an accidental founder, what led her to fall in love with the entrepreneurial process, and how she decided to take Nova Credit from a class project to a full-fledged company (iii)Some of the nuances of launching a startup as an MBA student, including submitting Nova Credit's Y-Combinator application from the Mongolian mountains (iv)The initial steps they took to build Nova Credit and the importance of validating and iterating an idea with potential partners and customers (v)The process and reasons behind their rapid client transition from servicing small credit unions to quickly landing some of the biggest financial institutions in the world (vi)Their value proposition to international credit bureaus and the nature of their strong relationships with multiple regulators around the world (vii)The company's multifaceted recruiting approach to building a world-class team and their conscious effort to attract diverse talent and create a scalable culture of radical ownership (viii)Nicky's advice and words of wisdom for current and aspiring founders