This episode of Bay Area Ventures features Tim Chen, Co-Founder and CEO of www.nerdwallet.com. Tim is a former investment banker and private equity financer who was simply trying to help his sister find the best credit card. In doing so Tim discovered that it was not as simple as he first thought. Besides the obvious brand names such as Visa, Master Card and American Express, all cards vary in their annual fees, interest rates, sign-up promotions, cardmember services and whether they do or do not offer points or cash back. The list was long and the task was a real challenge.

When he was through he posted his results to his friends on social media and the demand was so great that he realized there might be a business opportunity to offer similar information to the public and, not only for credit cards but, for a host of other financial services from life insurance, to travel rewards to mortgages and banking.

Tim was not a tech entrepreneur but quickly learned to think like one and a soon decided to move Nerdwallet from his apartment in New York City to San Francisco. He discovered that the ecosystem and human talent of the Bay Area with their propensity for taking on something new to their deep network of like-minded startup veterans, was the ideal place to build and grow his company.

In this interview Tim talks about scaling his team and about how they all share knowledge internally and challenge each other to think about solving problems for the organization and their customers. He also talks about the financial industry as a whole drawing from his participation as a member of the Consumer Advisory Board to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Federal agency set up after the 2008 financial melt-down to protect consumer from banking, mortgage and credit card abuse and fraud.

Tim gives some great tips on managing your finances and, more importantly on being a successful entrepreneur.

Recorded on February 13, 2017, on SiriusXM Channel 111, Business Radio Powered by the Wharton School. Bay Area Ventures airs live on Mondays at 4:00pm Pacific Time, 7:00pm Eastern Time.

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