Meeting customers where they are: Leadership insights from Self Financial’s mission-driven growth strategy

In the challenging landscape of financial inclusion, Self Financial stands out helping underserved Americans build credit and access financial services. This case study examines CEO Julie Szudarek’s leadership approach since taking the helm just over a year ago.

With millions of Americans struggling due to limited credit history or damaged credit, Szudarek has implemented a strategic vision that balances business growth with genuine customer impact. Her background from customer-focused businesses outside fintech has brought fresh perspectives to addressing persistent financial inclusion challenges.

This case study was created from an interview I did with Julie that appeared on our podcast.

Executive Background

Julie Szudarek joined Self Financial as CEO with over 20 years of leadership experience from companies like Groupon and Atida. Despite being new to fintech, she brought valuable expertise in building customer-focused businesses that prioritize sustainable growth.

Core Leadership Principles

1. Customer-Centricity as a Foundation

Szudarek embeds customer understanding into the organizational DNA by making testimonials a central part of all key meetings.

• Implementation Strategy: Embeds customer focus in company values and meeting structures “We start many of our all-hands meetings, and every single one of our board meetings, with customer testimonials and really understanding who it is that we’re serving.”
• Practical Application: Conducts extensive consumer testing and research to understand customer needs and pain points
• Result: 25% of customers come through word-of-mouth referrals, indicating strong customer satisfaction

2. Product Decoupling for Expanded Access

By unbundling products that were previously linked, Szudarek removed significant barriers to entry for financially vulnerable customers.

• Challenge Identified: Recognizing barriers to entry for core products “We saw so much demand from customers who maybe didn’t want this credit builder experience but wanted a secured card.”
• Strategic Response: Decoupled products to create multiple entry points
• Innovation: Offered secured credit cards with only $100 deposit and no hard credit check
• Leadership Insight: Breaking down bundled offerings can increase accessibility and market reach

3. Educational Leadership in Financial Services

Recognizing the knowledge gap facing many customers, Szudarek positioned education as core to the company’s mission rather than as a marketing afterthought.

• Market Recognition: Identified that 65% of customers had no financial education growing up
• Response: Established dedicated customer and community relations team focused on education
• Philosophy: “Our goal is not just to sell a customer something and be one and done, but to change habits and life aspects of how people use credit and think about money.”

4. Lifecycle-Based Product Development

Instead of accepting customer attrition as inevitable, Szudarek reimagined the product roadmap to create long-term relationship opportunities.

• Strategic Gap Analysis: Identified that customers were being lost after completing initial products “Customers would get to the end of their journey with us… and we basically just said goodbye to customers.”
• Vision Shift: “We should be keeping customers on our platform forever.”
• Executive Action: Hired a Chief Product Officer with significant fintech experience to develop a strategic product roadmap
• Growth Strategy: Creating “graduation products” like unsecured credit cards to maintain customer relationships

5. Measurement-Focused Leadership

Szudarek implemented a forward-looking measurement framework that prioritizes indicators of future success over lagging performance metrics.

• Performance Framework: Implemented OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) company-wide
• Key Metrics: Focuses on forward-looking input metrics:
  1. Visitors (marketing effectiveness)
  2. Conversions (product and pricing effectiveness)
  3. Retention (customer experience)
• Customer-Aligned Solutions: Introduced flexible payment date selection based on customer feedback

6. Partnership Expansion Strategy

By identifying strategic partners whose missions align with Self Financial’s goals, Szudarek created multiple pathways to scale the company’s impact.

• Approach: Established dedicated partnerships team to scale reach
• Success Example: Partnership with Regions Bank to offer rent reporting solutions
• Organic Growth: Developed relationship with Pathway Homes after they noticed Self products on successful customers’ credit reports
• Leadership Insight: Partnerships function as both customer acquisition channels and mission expansion opportunities

Key Takeaways for Financial Services Leaders

• Leverage Partnerships for Scale: Strategic partnerships can extend your mission and reach underserved markets
• Meet Customers Where They Are: Understand your customers’ financial journey and design entry points that minimize barriers
• Evolve Products Along Customer Lifecycles: Don’t lose customers after their initial needs are met
• Combine Education With Product Offerings: Financial education creates stickier customer relationships
• Measure What Drives Future Success: Focus on leading indicators rather than just results

Julie Szudarek’s leadership at Self Financial demonstrates how fintech companies can address financial inclusion while building sustainable businesses. By decoupling products, prioritizing customer education, and focusing on lifetime relationships rather than one-time transactions, Self Financial has created paths to credit access for underserved consumers.

Szudarek’s approach shows that effective leadership in financial services today requires balancing innovation with empathy, measurement with mission, and growth with genuine customer success. For fintech leaders, Self Financial offers a blueprint for how customer-centricity can drive both social impact and business results in addressing long-standing financial inclusion challenges.