Explore every episode of the podcast The Free Toaster
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| E017 - Congruence | 04 Feb 2025 | 00:10:51 | |
What is Congruence? Aligning messaging from your ad, to your landing page, to your final conversion steps creates lift in your marketing funnel, reducing your CACs and increasing your customer acquisition volumes. It sounds elementary. Yet many organizations forget to do it. Today we dig into examples of marketing from Wells Fargo and Discover to illustrate what it means to be Congruent across your marketing funnel. The visuals from our Newsletter will help: https://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/congruence A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel: Streamline your lending application pages with 2-fields. To see a demo, click below to chat with their Head of Growth. https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=feb
Subscribe to the Free Toaster Newsletter: www.thefreetoaster.com | |||
| E016 - Kevin Bennett, CEO at Further | 27 Jan 2025 | 00:28:19 | |
We chat with Kevin Bennett, a successful entrepreneur who helped grow Caribou to a billion-dollar company. Now, he's back with Further, a platform focused on helping people afford their first homes. Kevin shares important lessons for early-stage founders and gives practical advice for growing a business.
We Discuss: Product vs. Distribution: Kevin explains why both product development and getting your product to customers are equally important. Experimenting with Marketing: Kevin talks about the need to test different marketing channels and how to do it quickly. Evaluating Marketing Channels: Kevin shares a simple framework to decide if a marketing channel is worth investing in: Does it resonate with your audience? Can it scale as you grow? Are the economics (costs and returns) good? How stable is the channel or partnership? Speed and Cycle Time: Kevin emphasizes the need to test ideas fast and make decisions quickly. Strategic Partnerships: Kevin talks about the value of finding strong partners who can help your business grow. A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel: Streamline your lending application pages with 2-fields. If you’re anything like us, friction on application pages makes you nauseous. It makes your CACs go up. It makes your volumes drop. It causes your CFO and CEO to say mean things. The trouble is, application friction isn’t easy to fix. Your prod/eng is busy. We get it. Spinwheel’s APIs streamline a lending application form with just a phone number and a birthdate - like magic (but it’s really just smart tech)! Then you get a 20-30% lift in your application rate. Additionally, they can give you real-time, verified consumer credit data and seamless payment processing, which can help you serve customers beyond the initial application. To see a demo, click below to connect with their Head of Growth and see this thing in action. https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=jan Subscribe to the Free Toaster Newsletter: www.thefreetoaster.com
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| E007 - Operational Maturity Pt 2 [Affiliate marketing] | 09 Jan 2025 | 00:44:10 | |
Today, we continue to discuss the 4 levels of Operational Maturity in affiliate marketing for lenders. We’ll go deep on 301 and 401 levels and wrap up with some tactical things you can do to land at the 401 level.
Summary of the 4 levels:
𝟭𝟬𝟭 - 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 We're focused on the volume of leads and the cost of acquisition. The rest of the operation looks a lot like affiliate programs in other industries. There's not much attention placed on the quality of accounts that we acquire.
𝟮𝟬𝟭 - 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗔𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲 We learn that not all leads are created equal and not all lead sources are created equal. We pay more attention to what happens to a customer post-booking.
How much revenue are they driving? What are the delinquency rates? What are the loss rates?
We start to think about the relationship between LTV and cost of acquisition.
𝟯𝟬𝟭 - 𝗙𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗽 𝗮𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲 We learn that when we make a change to our business, the affiliate reacts in a certain way, and that in turn has a knock-on effect on our business. We also start to overanalyze why volumes dropped and why applicant quality is changing. We often get distracted by a lot of these questions as there are often no actions we can take as a result of our curiosity.
𝟰𝟬𝟭 - 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 We learn that our success relies on delivering exceptional products and exceptional buying experiences for our affiliates' customers. Under this frame, we recognize that each affiliate's a little different. They all have different buying experiences, data assets, customer types, and integration capabilities. We try to reverse engineer our business to best fit each partner. We notice that we were overanalyzing the volatility in our programs, and conclude that our investigations were often unproductive.
Timestamps: (00:00) 301 Intro (04:20) 301 Strategy (15:55) 301 Challenges and realities (18:43) Recap of 101-301 (21:48) 401 Deep dive - becoming leaders (30:48) Model alignment (41:48) Wrap up
Where to find Carlos:
References: A written summary of the 4 levels of Operational Maturity: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/the-carlos-caro_operational-maturity-affiliates-activity-7204481122464907264-f_hC
Find Us: Don't forget to subscribe to Affiliate Marketing for Lenders. If you’re interested in being a guest on the show (or if you have questions for a future episode), send me a note on LinkedIn, Twitter/X, or at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com.
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| E006 - Operational Maturity [Affiliate marketing] | 09 Jan 2025 | 00:29:30 | |
Today, we introduce the 4 levels of Operational Maturity in affiliate marketing for lenders. We’ll go deep on 101 and 201 levels. The 301 and 401 levels will be covered in our next episode.
Summary of the 4 levels:
𝟭𝟬𝟭 - 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 We're focused on the volume of leads and the cost of acquisition. The rest of the operation looks a lot like affiliate programs in other industries. There's not much attention placed on the quality of accounts that we acquire.
𝟮𝟬𝟭 - 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗔𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲 We learn that not all leads are created equal and not all lead sources are created equal. We pay more attention to what happens to a customer post-booking.
How much revenue are they driving? What are the delinquency rates? What are the loss rates?
We start to think about the relationship between LTV and cost of acquisition.
𝟯𝟬𝟭 - 𝗙𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗽 𝗮𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲 We learn that when we make a change to our business, the affiliate reacts in a certain way, and that in turn has a knock-on effect on our business. We also start to overanalyze why volumes dropped and why applicant quality is changing. We often get distracted by a lot of these questions as there are often no actions we can take as a result of our curiosity.
𝟰𝟬𝟭 - 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 We learn that our success relies on delivering exceptional products and exceptional buying experiences for our affiliates' customers. Under this frame, we recognize that each affiliate's a little different. They all have different buying experiences, data assets, customer types, and integration capabilities. We try to reverse engineer our business to best fit each partner. We notice that we were overanalyzing the volatility in our programs, and conclude that our investigations were often unproductive.
Timestamps: (00:00) Why maturity matters (04:36) The 4 levels (10:18) 101 deep dive (17:56) 201 deep dive (26:15) Wrap up and next steps
Where to find Carlos:
References: A written summary of the 4 levels of Operational Maturity: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/the-carlos-caro_operational-maturity-affiliates-activity-7204481122464907264-f_hC
Find Us: Don't forget to subscribe to Affiliate Marketing for Lenders. If you’re interested in being a guest on the show (or if you have questions for a future episode), send me a note on LinkedIn, Twitter/X, or at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com.
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| E005 - Levers [Affiliate marketing] | 09 Jan 2025 | 00:34:44 | |
Episode 005: Today, we discuss the marketing levers lenders have at their disposal to improve the performance of their affiliate marketing campaigns.
We’ll discuss levers in the following categories:
Timestamps: (00:54) Recapping previous episodes (01:50) A big misconception (03:02) Key levers (09:30) CTR (18:37) Application rate (21:35) Approval rate (27:09) Funding rate (29:49) CPAs / payouts (31:43) Conclusion and final thoughts
Where to find Carlos:
References: Click-through rates by ad rank/placement on Google: https://firstpagesage.com/reports/google-click-through-rates-ctrs-by-ranking-position/ Outline of levers discussed in the show https://medium.com/@newmarketgrowth/your-affiliate-marketing-levers-9f98092ab37b
Find Us: Don't forget to subscribe to Affiliate Marketing for Lenders. If you’re interested in being a guest on the show (or if you have questions for a future episode), send me a note on LinkedIn, Twitter/X, or at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com. | |||
| E004 - Where To Play & Host Models [Affiliate marketing] | 09 Jan 2025 | 00:41:36 | |
Episode 004: Today, we tackle two simple, but important questions. The first: “What affiliates should I partner with?” And the second, “Where should I host my targeting model?”
We cover:
Timestamps: (00:43) Outline of today's episode (04:25) Building a list of potential partners (09:25) Why getting into publishers isn't easy (14:15) Crafting your pitch 18:18 Hosting your targeting model (18:18) Hosting Your Targeting Model (22:20) Targeting model platforms (36:56) Guiding principles (41:45) Wrap up / final thoughts
Where to find Carlos:
References: Credit Karma Lightbox https://www.creditkarma.com/about/commentary/credit-karma-welcomes-team-bitmatica Monevo Eagle Data https://medium.com/@carlos.ny/a-chat-with-travis-broad-ceo-at-eagle-data-a6409c6683a7 MoneyLion https://www.insidermonkey.com/blog/moneylion-inc-nyseml-q1-2024-earnings-call-transcript-1299056/
Find Us: Don't forget to subscribe to Affiliate Marketing for Lenders. If you’re interested in being a guest on the show (or if you have questions for a future episode), send me a note on LinkedIn, Twitter/X, or at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com.
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| E003 - Why Play [Affiliate marketing] | 09 Jan 2025 | 00:24:35 | |
Episode 003: Today, we tackle a big, foundational question. “Why should I bother promoting my lending products in affiliate channels?”
We cover:
Timestamps: (00:43) Why Invest in Affiliate Marketing? (01:22) Affiliate Channel Scale From Public Filings (05:08) What % Of Acquisition Volume Comes From Affiliates? (06:14) Convincing Your Org to Invest in Affiliate Marketing (08:01) Benefits for Different Departments (13:06) Selling into your CPO or Strategy Head (14:44) Selling into your CRO (16:42) Selling into your CFO (18:15) Building Exceptional Buying Experiences (20:42) Conclusion and Summary Pitch
Where to find Carlos: References (affiliate marketplace public filings):
Credit Karma Experian NerdWallet Lending Tree https://investors.lendingtree.com/static-files/6091a1b9-f0c2-4d4e-b6c0-990085edb7a5 QuinStreet https://investor.quinstreet.com/static-files/726eb814-7f4e-47ee-9d01-5a200817a027 MoneyLion https://investors.moneylion.com/news/detail/122/moneylion-announces-first-quarter-2024-results
Find Us: Don't forget to subscribe to Affiliate Marketing for Lenders. If you’re interested in being a guest on the show (or if you have questions for a future episode), send me a note on LinkedIn, Twitter/X, or at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com.
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| E002 - The Game [Affiliate marketing] | 09 Jan 2025 | 00:29:02 | |
Episode 002: In this episode, we describe affiliate marketing for lenders with tangible examples. From there, we talk through the dynamics of the affiliate game and how affiliate partnerships are structured. This provides a baseline 101 for anyone unfamiliar with the topic, and a recap for those who are more familiar with this space.
Additionally, we discuss:
Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction (01:04) Exploring Affiliate Coverage In Google Results (03:15) Behind the Scenes of Affiliate Marketing (05:49) Affiliate Deal Structures and Dynamics (10:40) Optimizing Conversion Rates (17:09) Our Super-Lever: Approval Rate (24:00) Cautions for Performance Marketers (26:55) Recap and Final ThoughtsWhere to find Carlos: Find Us: Don't forget to subscribe to Affiliate Marketing for Lenders. If you’re interested in being a guest on the show (or if you have questions you'd like me to address in a future episode), send me a note on LinkedIn, Twitter/X, or at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com.
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| E001 - How New Balance's CMO Turned Around A 15-Year Decline | 06 Jan 2025 | 00:18:00 | |
What we learned about brand marketing from New Balance's turnaround.
TL;DR - For 15 years, New Balance watched its revenues decline. Consumers saw its sneakers as “dad shoes”—safe, comfortable, but uncool. Traditional direct-response marketing wasn’t reversing the trend. In April 2020, a new CMO, Chris Davis, arrived with a bold idea: flip the marketing mix from a 70% reliance on direct-response ads to a brand-led approach. It was a big gamble that took nearly 19 months to pay off, but when it did, New Balance emerged as a revitalized global brand.
Written version: https://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/how-new-balance-s-cmo-turned-around-a-15-year-decline
About Us: The Free Toaster is a newsletter for at the intersection of marketing, lending, and fintech. We deliver news, data, and insights (like today's episode) to help you acquire more customers. Sign up to get it shipped weekly to your inbox.
This show is produced by Ghostmode.co, a media production studio for B2B Newsletters & Podcasts. To discuss how we can help with your show, contact us at nick@ghostmode.co. | |||
| E015 - Tomas Campos, CEO at Spinwheel | 09 Jan 2025 | 00:48:39 | |
We sit with Tomas Campos, CEO at Spinwheel. Spinwheel’s product caught my attention because affiliate marketers could use their product to reduce the friction in their application processes.
Timestamps: (00:00) Meet Tomas Campos, CEO of Spinwheel (02:30) Ideal customers and use cases (06:30) Success metrics (12:35) Challenges building the business (15:37) Partnering with lenders (22:41) Uplift from pre-filling application forms (28:12) What holds lenders back from buying (34:10) The NerdWallet integration (36:05) Other challenges lenders have (46:52) Bank account verification (47:10) Wrap up
Where to find Carlos:
Where to find Tomas:
Find Us: Don't forget to subscribe and review our show. If you’re interested in being a guest, email me at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com. | |||
| E014 - David Nohe - Unpacking the CFPB's Rule 1033 on Open Banking | 09 Jan 2025 | 00:41:40 | |
We sit with David Nohe, CEO of FinGoal, to discuss the CFPB’s Rule 1033 on Open Banking and the implications it has for bank marketers.
Timestamps: (00:00) David Nohe, CEO of Fingoal (01:59) The 101 on CFPB Rule 1033 (09:32) Consumer consent (18:04) Future of subscription models (22:52) Funnel dynamics / friction (24:09) Credit bureau vs. open banking data (26:43) Why be concerned or optimistic (32:10) Banks' strategic opportunities (41:37) Wrap up and dinner bet
Where to find Carlos:
Where to find David Nohe:
References: Ten Take-Aways on 1033 for Community Bankers https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ten-take-aways-1033-community-bankers-david-nohe-yo8cc/?trackingId=WR0OUVGdRGahil7tCSZ48w%3D%3D
Find Us: Don't forget to subscribe to Affiliate Marketing for Lenders. If you’re interested in being a guest on the show (or if you have questions for a future episode), send me a note on LinkedIn, Twitter/X, or at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com.
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| E013 - Personalization - The Case For Building Hyper-Niche Products | 09 Jan 2025 | 00:16:18 | |
Personal finance platforms (like Credit Karma) are now at scale, with the ability to recommend products at the 1:1 user level. Further, they’re incentivized to recommend niche products that are highly customized to each user. Lending products, however, are designed for mass audiences. This disconnect presents a huge opportunity for lenders.
Timestamps: (00:00) Why personalization matters (04:06) Hyper-niche lending products (05:37) Social media and niche content (08:43) Opportunities in financial services (12:57) Where I see this all going (15:01) Wrap up
Where to find Carlos: References: The case for building hyper-niche lending products https://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/hyper-niche-lending-products
Find Us: Don't forget to subscribe to Affiliate Marketing for Lenders. If you’re interested in being a guest on the show (or if you have questions for a future episode), send me a note on LinkedIn, Twitter/X, or at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com.
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| E012 - Tim Hong, CPO at MoneyLion | 09 Jan 2025 | 00:45:00 | |
Today we chat with Tim Hong, the Chief Product Officer at MoneyLion. He walks us through a partnership they’ve built with Plaid and other data providers to offer cash flow data at the marketing stage to lenders in the Engine marketplace.
Timestamps: (00:00) Tim Hong, CPO at MoneyLion (04:06) The Engine marketplace (12:02) Open banking and UX (22:48) User permissioned data (25:15) Sharing bank credentials (27:25) Cashflow data in lending (31:09) Spark platform (37:20) Future of open banking (44:17) Wrap up
Where to find Carlos:
References: Plaid & MoneyLion’s announcement: “The power of cash flow underwriting with instant onboarding: Introducing Layer and Consumer Report” https://plaid.com/blog/layer-consumer-report-instant-onboarding/
Carlos’ piece: “Where's The Consumer Demand For Cash Flow Underwriting (CFU)?” https://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/where-is-the-demand-for-cash-flow-underwriting
Find Us: Don't forget to subscribe to Affiliate Marketing for Lenders. If you’re interested in being a guest on the show (or if you have questions for a future episode), send me a note on LinkedIn, Twitter/X, or at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com.
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| E011 - Cash Flow Underwriting | 09 Jan 2025 | 00:24:59 | |
I’m starting to worry that we don’t have an economically viable way to distribute cash flow underwriting (CFU) products to consumers. In today’s episode, we discuss the opportunity and challenges CFU lenders will have in distributing their products through direct mail, paid search, and of course affiliates.
Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction to Fintech and Cashflow Underwriting (01:21) The Article and Its Insights (02:38) AI-Generated Overview of The Petal Case Study (09:21) End of AI-Generated Overview (09:26) Analyzing Cashflow Underwriting (11:36) Challenges in Cashflow Underwriting (15:54) Marketing Cashflow Products (20:03) Potential Solutions and Future Outlook (25:26) Final Thoughts and Next Steps
Where to find Carlos:
References: Carlos’ piece: “Where's The Consumer Demand For Cash Flow Underwriting (CFU)?” https://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/where-is-the-demand-for-cash-flow-underwriting
Alex Johnson’s piece on Cash Flow Underwriting: https://fintechtakes.com/articles/2024-05-22/cash-flow-underwriting/
Find Us: Don't forget to subscribe to Affiliate Marketing for Lenders. If you’re interested in being a guest on the show (or if you have questions for a future episode), send me a note on LinkedIn, Twitter/X, or at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com.
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| E010 - New Market Growth | 09 Jan 2025 | 00:15:53 | |
Today, we discuss the backstory behind my marketing agency, New Market Growth. I’ll share my background working in affiliate marketing at a connected home startup, my experience working on credit cards at Capital One, my 4 years at Credit Karma, and how my experiences came together to form a services business for lenders.
Timestamps: (00:00) What is New Market Growth (01:30) Early years in affiliate marketing (03:53) Credit Karma (06:50) My first business: legal services marketplace (09:10) Return to fintech + personal brands (12:19) Founding New Market Growth (14:27) Current focus + looking out to the future (15:55) Wrap up
Where to find Carlos:
Find Us: Don't forget to subscribe to Affiliate Marketing for Lenders. If you’re interested in being a guest on the show (or if you have questions for a future episode), send me a note on LinkedIn, Twitter/X, or at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com.
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| E009 - Measurement [Affiliate marketing] | 09 Jan 2025 | 00:22:21 | |
Today, we discuss high-level principles for your affiliate measurement (analytics) strategy. We’ll cover the 2 big questions your dashboards should be answering, we dig into 9 metrics you might not be watching, and we hit on the importance of connecting marketing stage and performance stage data.
Timestamps: (00:00) True North (01:34) Driving questions (01:53) Delivering for your partners (04:26) Partners delivering for you (06:35) Combining data sources (09:34) Effective dashboards (16:49) 9 key metrics to watch (22:26) Wrap up
Where to find Carlos:
Find Us: Don't forget to subscribe to Affiliate Marketing for Lenders. If you’re interested in being a guest on the show (or if you have questions for a future episode), send me a note on LinkedIn, Twitter/X, or at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com.
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| E008 - Common Struggles [Affiliate marketing] | 09 Jan 2025 | 00:20:29 | |
Today, we discuss the most common reasons that lenders don’t hit their volume, account quality, and growth goals in the affiliate channel. Based on Carlos’ experience talking to lenders in his affiliate marketing agency, New Market Growth.
Common struggles:
Timestamps: (00:00) Common Struggles in Affiliate Marketing (03:00) Reason 1: Lack of Cross-Functional Effort (04:54) Reason 2: Misaligned Targeting Model (06:36) Reason 3: Approval Rate Issues (07:59) Reason 4: Application Friction (09:01) Reason 5: Uncompetitive Pricing (10:39) Reason 6: Missing Major Marketplaces
Where to find Carlos:
Find Us: Don't forget to subscribe to Affiliate Marketing for Lenders. If you’re interested in being a guest on the show (or if you have questions for a future episode), send me a note on LinkedIn, Twitter/X, or at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com. | |||
| E037 - Spinwheel's Network Token with Tomás Campos, CEO at Spinwheel | 17 Dec 2025 | 00:42:54 | |
In this episode, Tomás returns to share what's changed since Spinwheel's $30 million funding round—including a strategic investment from Citi—and gives us an inside look at the Spinwheel Network Token, a piece of technology that changes how lenders can serve customers across the acquisition journey. Please note: Spinwheel is a sponsor of The Free Toaster Newsletter and Podcast. About The Spinwheel Network TokenSpinwheel's Network Token creates a persistent, consent-based identity layer using just a phone number and date of birth. Here's what that unlocks:
Early results show 20–30% increases in funded loans and up to 50% improvement in payoff completion rates for lenders using the token. Why This Matters for Agentic CommerceTomás makes a compelling case that this infrastructure is a prerequisite for the AI-powered future of lending. When consumers start using voice assistants or smart agents to find and execute loans on their behalf, those agents will need frictionless access to verified financial data—and the ability to act on it. Spinwheel is building that layer now.
***** A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=dec A word from our sponsor, Fintel ConnectDrive thousands of new accounts and billions in deposits with the only partner marketing solution built for fintech and banking – your all-in-one affiliate platform, partner network, agency, and marketing compliance engine. https://partner.fintelconnect.com/get-to-know-fintel-connect?utm_campaign=13897733-2025%20Partners&utm_source=The%20Free%20Toaster&utm_medium=podcast
A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth: New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others. Affiliate marketing involves marketing & credit risk expertise, and NMG's founders bring this with 21+ years of lending experience and 8+ years experience as executive affiliate operators. If you'd like help planning or implementing your affiliate marketing strategy, email us at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com
Subscribe to the Free Toaster Newsletter: www.thefreetoaster.com/ | |||
| E036 - Behind The Scenes - Nick Madrid, Co-Founder at The Free Toaster | 05 Dec 2025 | 00:32:34 | |
I sit with my co-founder Nick Madrid to discuss what we've learned in the last year of building this Podcast and Newsletter. About Nick Madrid - Co-founder, The Free Toaster. Former Bloomberg (10 years) and Chime (3+ years). Now building media properties including The Free Toaster and the Uncovered Media brand. Free Toaster Stats
Contact Us If: - Operators: you want to help us plan/execute an event - Sponsors: you want to sponsor an event - Consumer lenders: you want to hear about our events/attend Email us at: carlos@newmarketgrowth.com
***** A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=dec A word from our sponsor, Fintel ConnectDrive thousands of new accounts and billions in deposits with the only partner marketing solution built for fintech and banking – your all-in-one affiliate platform, partner network, agency, and marketing compliance engine. https://partner.fintelconnect.com/get-to-know-fintel-connect?utm_campaign=13897733-2025%20Partners&utm_source=The%20Free%20Toaster&utm_medium=podcast
A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth: New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others. Affiliate marketing involves marketing & credit risk expertise, and NMG's founders bring this with 21+ years of lending experience and 8+ years experience as executive affiliate operators. If you'd like help planning or implementing your affiliate marketing strategy, email us at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com
Subscribe to the Free Toaster Newsletter: www.thefreetoaster.com/
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| E027 - The State of Compliance In Lead Gen, With John Henson, Founder at Henson Legal | 26 Jun 2025 | 01:22:54 | |
I sat down with John Henson, a fintech-savvy lawyer who formerly worked at LendingTree (both as an attorney and a general manager). He unpacks the regulatory chaos swirling around lead generation in 2025 — what’s changed, what’s still risky, and how fintech marketers can navigate it without getting burned. In today's discussion:
...and much more. Memorable Quotes “Everything is UDAP.” “If you don’t understand how they’re generating the leads, you’re buying problems.” “Nobody ever got fired at a bank for saying no.” About John HensonJohn Henson is a rare breed: a lawyer who understands marketing. He spent 6 years at LendingTree running lead gen and compliance, so he knows the real-world challenges fintechs face. Now, he helps companies stay out of trouble while growing smart. Follow him on LinkedIn for sharp insights. *** A word from our sponsor, Fintel ConnectDrive thousands of new accounts and billions in deposits with the only partner marketing solution built for fintech and banking – your all-in-one affiliate platform, partner network, agency, and marketing compliance engine. https://partner.fintelconnect.com/get-to-know-fintel-connect?utm_campaign=13897733-2025%20Partners&utm_source=The%20Free%20Toaster&utm_medium=podcast
A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=june A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth: New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others. Affiliate marketing involves marketing & credit risk expertise, and NMG's founders bring this with 21+ years of lending experience and 8+ years experience as executive affiliate operators. If you'd like help planning or implementing your affiliate marketing strategy, email us at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com
Subscribe to the Free Toaster Newsletter: www.thefreetoaster.com/ | |||
| E026 - Positive & Negative Select (Think Like A Recruiter) | 13 Jun 2025 | 00:11:11 | |
I explain positive and adverse selection in lending using recruiting as an analogy. If you've ever hired someone, you'll instantly understand why your channels, pricing, and process determine your loan portfolio quality. Key TakeawaysThe Big Idea: Attracting great borrowers works exactly like hiring great people. The parallels... 1. Channel Quality
You can find a written version of today's content in our Newsletter: https://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/positive-negative-select-in-lending *** A word from our sponsor, Fintel ConnectDrive thousands of new accounts and billions in deposits with the only partner marketing solution built for fintech and banking – your all-in-one affiliate platform, partner network, agency, and marketing compliance engine. https://partner.fintelconnect.com/get-to-know-fintel-connect?utm_campaign=13897733-2025%20Partners&utm_source=The%20Free%20Toaster&utm_medium=podcast
A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=june A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth: New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others. Affiliate marketing involves marketing & credit risk expertise, and NMG's founders bring this with 21+ years of lending experience and 8+ years experience as executive affiliate operators. If you'd like help planning or implementing your affiliate marketing strategy, email us at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com
Subscribe to the Free Toaster Newsletter: www.thefreetoaster.com/ | |||
| E025 - Marketplace Madness (Success in one affiliate doesn't guarantee success in another) | 16 May 2025 | 00:13:38 | |
I talk about a surprising case study where a lending product thrived in one affiliate marketplace but completely flopped in another. We explore the key differences between marketplaces that can dramatically impact performance and provide actionable insights for fintech marketers. Key Insights
***** A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=may A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth: New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others. Affiliate marketing involves marketing & credit risk expertise, and NMG's founders bring this with 21+ years of lending experience and 8+ years experience as executive affiliate operators. If you'd like help planning or implementing your affiliate marketing strategy, email us at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com
Subscribe to the Free Toaster Newsletter: www.thefreetoaster.com/ | |||
| E024 - Playing The Game In Reverse | 25 Apr 2025 | 00:12:28 | |
Marketers sometimes like to enter new channels gradually, conservatively even. This works in many channels like paid search, social, and direct mail. But for fintechs, entering new affiliate channels like this can have catastrophic consequences. In today's Podcast, I share why entering into new affiliate marketplaces "cautiously" can be dangerous for new entrants. As an alternative, I'll walk you through how to play the game in reverse. Note: If you want to hear more about this in future Podcasts, email me at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com with your questions.
***** A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=apr A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth: New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others. Affiliate marketing involves marketing & credit risk expertise, and NMG's founders bring this with 21+ years of lending experience and 8+ years experience as executive affiliate operators. If you'd like help planning or implementing your affiliate marketing strategy, email us at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com
Subscribe to the Free Toaster Newsletter: www.thefreetoaster.com/ | |||
| E023 - Colin Gardiner, General Partner at Yonder Ventures | 15 Apr 2025 | 01:02:33 | |
We chat with Colin about how AI is changing marketplaces. His thesis: “The rise of agentic AI will transform marketplaces from passive aggregators to active facilitators of transactions.” To learn more, check out Colin’s take on how AI will revolutionize marketplaces: https://www.gardinercolin.com/p/ai-and-marketplaces-agent-led About Colin Gardiner Former economics/statistical researcher that now loves building sticky consumer facing products via iterative data-driven methods. Built products for both large corporations and seed level startups, always with a primary focus on acquisition, conversion and monetization.
***** A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=apr A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth: New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others. Affiliate marketing involves marketing & credit risk expertise, and NMG's founders bring this with 21+ years of lending experience and 8+ years experience as executive affiliate operators. If you'd like help planning or implementing your affiliate marketing strategy, email us at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com
Subscribe to the Free Toaster Newsletter: www.thefreetoaster.com/ | |||
| E022 - Jason Steele, Credit Card and Award Travel Expert | 09 Apr 2025 | 00:51:48 | |
We sit with credit card expert Jason Steele about what's happening behind the scenes in the industry. Jason shares how he went from tech work to becoming a respected credit card authority who writes for major publications and runs CardCon, the credit card industry conference.
We discuss:
Also:
And remember: Jason conference — CardCon — happens May 6-8 in Deerfield Beach, Florida. Use code "TOASTER" for $50 off registration at cardconexpo.com.
Where to find Jason: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-steele/
***** A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=apr A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth: New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others. Affiliate marketing involves marketing & credit risk expertise, and NMG's founders bring this with 21+ years of lending experience and 8+ years experience as executive affiliate operators. If you'd like help planning or implementing your affiliate marketing strategy, email us at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com
Subscribe to the Free Toaster Newsletter: www.thefreetoaster.com/
Want to chat with Carlos Caro, our host? Find him at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com | |||
| E021 - Tim Li, CEO at LendAPI | 24 Mar 2025 | 01:01:01 | |
LendAPI lets you create application flows, credit decision engines, and complete lending products through simple drag-and-drop tools—all without hiring engineers or spending millions. You can build and launch lending products quickly and efficiently, then use a working product to raise venture capital. Even non-financial businesses like boat dealerships are using it to replace clunky Excel-based applications. Tim in unsually transparent as an early stage founder. He shared:
LendAPI connects with all three credit bureaus, loan servicing systems, and identity verification providers that you work with daily. Tim's vision is to become the "WordPress of lending"—making it easy for your clients to launch financial products without technical expertise. Where to find Tim: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timothytli/ Substack (Tim’s build-in-public blog) LendAPI https://www.lendapi.com/ ***** A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=mar A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth: New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others. Affiliate marketing involves marketing & credit risk expertise, and NMG's founders bring this with 21+ years of lending experience and 8+ years experience as executive affiliate operators. If you'd like help planning or implementing your affiliate marketing strategy, email us at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com
Subscribe to the Free Toaster Newsletter: www.thefreetoaster.com/
Want to chat with Carlos Caro, our host? Find him at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com | |||
| E020 - Guru Sethupathy, Founder & CEO at FairNow | 18 Mar 2025 | 00:39:38 | |
In this episode, I catch up with my old Columbia PhD classmate Guru Sethupathy, founder of FairNow, an AI governance platform for financial services. About AI Governance:
Why It Matters for FinTechs:
Explainability Benefits:
Resources:
A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=mar Subscribe to the Free Toaster Newsletter: www.thefreetoaster.com/
Want to chat with Carlos Caro, our host? Email him at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com | |||
| E019 - Greg Cox, Group CEO at Quint Group (Monevo) | 04 Mar 2025 | 00:39:56 | |
In this episode, we speak with Greg Cox, CEO of Monevo, to discuss their recent acquisition by TransUnion and how they're transforming credit offer distribution. Greg explains how Monevo serves as a technology layer connecting lenders and publishers, allowing lenders to distribute highly qualified credit offers to third-party websites and aggregators. The platform helps lenders target the right customers across multiple digital channels while improving conversion rates. Highlights:
Greg shares insights on how Monevo makes both lender and publisher relationships more efficient by improving approval rates, boosting monetization for publishers, and delivering better-qualified users to lenders - all while maintaining flexibility in commercial agreements that align with good outcomes for all parties.
A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=mar Subscribe to the Free Toaster Newsletter: www.thefreetoaster.com/
Want to chat with Carlos Caro, our host? Email him at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com | |||
| E018 - Rich Walker, Direct Mail Deep Dive | 11 Feb 2025 | 01:39:36 | |
Rich Walker is a 35-year industry vet who’s been responsible for over 10 billion pieces of Direct Mail. Rich has led direct marketing teams at Capital One, the Winterberry Group, Deluxe Corporation, 2nd Order Solutions, and more recently, Aven. He also ran his own consulting shop - Pilot Performance Marketing - focused on helping lenders solve Direct Mail. So we jumped at the opportunity to get his take on how lenders can leverage Direct Mail to grow their customer acquisition programs.
We Discuss: 1️⃣ Why Direct Mail still matters -$3B in spend per year -The power of pre-screened marketing 2️⃣ Who should explore Direct Mail -High response, low LTV -Low response, high LTV -Breakdowns by product category 3️⃣ Direct Mail vs. other channels -How does it compare to affiliate marketing? -Attribution and overlaps 4️⃣ Unit economics -Cost per piece at scale (and subscale) -How costs breakdown by postage, data, creative/printing -Typical CACs & response rates 5️⃣ The mechanics of a campaign -Checklist of how to go to market -Typical GTM timelines -How to go from 0 to in market in 8 weeks 6️⃣ Building or renting a Direct Mail function -Case for keeping in-house -Case for out-sourcing 7️⃣ Optimizing the 3 big levers -List (targeting and modeling) -Offer -Creative 8️⃣ Ways to solve attribution -Invitation codes, QR codes, vanity URLs -GEO holdout tests 9️⃣ The future of Direct Mail A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=feb Subscribe to the Free Toaster Newsletter: www.thefreetoaster.com | |||
| E035 - Facing Credit: When AI Broke the Marketing Machine (Reposted from Fintech Takes) | 01 Dec 2025 | 01:12:58 | |
I recently sat with Alex Johnson on the Fintech Takes Podcast. I hope you enjoy! ***** (Show notes below from Fintech Takes) Welcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I’m Alex Johnson, joined by Carlos Caro (author of the Free Toaster newsletter and host of the Free Toaster podcast) for the second episode of Facing Credit, where we unpack what’s really happening in lending right now. This one’s about marketing; the overlooked starting point of every loan. Everything in lending sits downstream of how you acquire customers and what it costs to reach them. And right now, that system is in flux. AI has upended the old rules of digital acquisition. Google’s “Helpful Content” update triggered what Carlos describes in his writing as the “SEO Apocalypse”, a collapse that’s wiping out 50–90% of organic traffic and forcing publishers, affiliates, and lenders to rewrite their playbooks. The rise of AI-generated search results and zero-click answers means the economics of attention have changed for good. Carlos and I dig into:
Tune in for Carlos’s take on how lenders, publishers, and fintechs can survive the SEO extinction event (and what it’ll take to win attention in the AI age). Plus, we reference these three Free Toaster pieces throughout the conversation; consider them required reading: The SEO Apocalypse Has Arrived How New Balance's CMO Turned Around A 15-Year Decline Reddit Isn't an Affiliate Channel This episode was brought to you by Marqeta. Don’t sacrifice agility for stability. With Marqeta, launch payments experiences that perform at scale and flex with your business. Learn more at https://marqeta.com/ftt Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/ And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page. Follow Carlos Caro: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-carlos-caro/ Follow Alex Johnson: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson X: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson | |||
| E034 - Media Arbitrage vs. Brand Arbitrage | 29 Oct 2025 | 00:26:52 | |
I was recently a guest on another Podcast, and the host asked me a question about what will happen to publishers' organic traffic that disappeared with the recent Google / SEO changes. That question led me into a bit of a tangent / rabbit hole (I'll republish that episode here when it goes live in December), and I share some of my updated thoughts after having an evening to reflect on the question. PS: If you want to sponsor our Podcast in 2026, now's the time to get in touch. Email me at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com
***** A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=oct A word from our sponsor, Fintel ConnectDrive thousands of new accounts and billions in deposits with the only partner marketing solution built for fintech and banking – your all-in-one affiliate platform, partner network, agency, and marketing compliance engine. https://partner.fintelconnect.com/get-to-know-fintel-connect?utm_campaign=13897733-2025%20Partners&utm_source=The%20Free%20Toaster&utm_medium=podcast A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth: New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others. Affiliate marketing involves marketing & credit risk expertise, and NMG's founders bring this with 21+ years of lending experience and 8+ years experience as executive affiliate operators. If you'd like help planning or implementing your affiliate marketing strategy, email us at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com
Subscribe to the Free Toaster Newsletter: www.thefreetoaster.com/
| |||
| E033 - Compliance in Affiliate Marketing, The 6 Blind Spots - With Alana Levine, CRO at Fintel Connect | 16 Oct 2025 | 00:39:47 | |
Alana Levine, Chief Revenue Officer at Fintel Connect, returns to break down the compliance challenges that affiliate marketers face. As AI reshapes the affiliate landscape, financial institutions face mounting pressure to get compliance right—or face serious consequences.
In this episode, Alana shares her framework for managing affiliate compliance at scale, the real-world costs of getting it wrong, and how the rise of influencer marketing and LLMs is creating additional complexity for the next 12-24 months. We discuss...The Six Compliance Blind Spots
Managing Compliance at Scale
Publisher Adaptation and the Future
***** About Alana Levine Alana is the Chief Revenue Officer at Fintel Connect, an award-winning performance marketing technology company dedicated to driving growth in the fintech, banking and insurance space. They're on a mission to create greater transparency and become the place to be for innovative fintechs and banks to connect with targeted influencers and publishers in the space. As a leading banking and fintech affiliate network in North America, Fintel is proud to power the affiliate programs for partners like Scotiabank, Tangerine Bank, Ramp, Rho, BMO, and others.
***** A word from our sponsor, Fintel ConnectDrive thousands of new accounts and billions in deposits with the only partner marketing solution built for fintech and banking – your all-in-one affiliate platform, partner network, agency, and marketing compliance engine. https://partner.fintelconnect.com/get-to-know-fintel-connect?utm_campaign=13897733-2025%20Partners&utm_source=The%20Free%20Toaster&utm_medium=podcast
A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=oct A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth: New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others. Affiliate marketing involves marketing & credit risk expertise, and NMG's founders bring this with 21+ years of lending experience and 8+ years experience as executive affiliate operators. If you'd like help planning or implementing your affiliate marketing strategy, email us at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com
Subscribe to the Free Toaster Newsletter: www.thefreetoaster.com/ | |||
| E032 - Organic traffic to affiliate publishers is getting smashed | 26 Sep 2025 | 00:13:06 | |
We've all heard the rumors around SEO traffic drying up for publishers. Today I riff on what's going on, why it's happening, and what lenders should be doing about it. This is a supplement to something I recently published on The Free Toaster Newsletter. https://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/the-seo-apocalypse-has-arrived-9812 *****
A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=sep A word from our sponsor, Fintel Connect Drive thousands of new accounts and billions in deposits with the only partner marketing solution built for fintech and banking – your all-in-one affiliate platform, partner network, agency, and marketing compliance engine.
A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth: New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others. Affiliate marketing involves marketing & credit risk expertise, and NMG's founders bring this with 21+ years of lending experience and 8+ years experience as executive affiliate operators. www.newmarketgrowth.com If you'd like help planning or implementing your affiliate marketing strategy, email us at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com
Subscribe to the Free Toaster Newsletter: www.thefreetoaster.com/ | |||
| E031 - The AI Finfluencers Are Coming | 25 Aug 2025 | 00:18:46 | |
We explore how fintech lenders could revolutionize customer acquisition by partnering with AI-powered finfluencers, alleviating current concentration in affiliate marketplaces. Key TopicsThe Current Problem: 30-70% of fintech lender volume comes from affiliate marketplaces, creating concentration risk. Lenders spend $4B-$6B annually on affiliate marketing but lack control over rankings and algorithms. The Finfluencer Opportunity: Top creators are severely under-monetizing. Vivian Tu (Your Rich BFF) made $3MM from 5MM followers—just $0.60 per audience member. Credit Karma generates $12.31 per member. At Credit Karma rates, Vivian could earn $61.5MM annually. The AI Revolution: Digital twins will allow Finfluencers to scale 1:1 advice 24/7. These AI assistants will answer questions in the creator's voice, recommend products, and handle compliant application handoffs. The AI chatbot market is exploding from $14B (2025) to $47B (2029). Why This Will Happen: Consumers already trust AI for 80% of customer service interactions. Lenders historically resist new channels (internet applications, mobile banking, social ads) before eventually adopting them. Key Stats
A platform will emerge where Finfluencers launch always-on AI assistants with seamless affiliate integration. Early-mover lenders who master compliance will create an edge while more conservation competitors remain skeptical. Action Items for Lenders
Read the article in our Newsletter: https://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/the-ai-finfluencers-are-coming-dc2a
***** A word from our sponsor, Fintel Connect Drive thousands of new accounts and billions in deposits with the only partner marketing solution built for fintech and banking – your all-in-one affiliate platform, partner network, agency, and marketing compliance engine.
A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=aug
A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth: New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others. Affiliate marketing involves marketing & credit risk expertise, and NMG's founders bring this with 21+ years of lending experience and 8+ years experience as executive affiliate operators. If you'd like help planning or implementing your affiliate marketing strategy, email us at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com
Subscribe to the Free Toaster Newsletter: www.thefreetoaster.com/ | |||
| E030 - Launching Affiliate Marketing Programs With Alana Levine, CRO at Fintel Connect | 06 Aug 2025 | 01:07:51 | |
We sit down with Alana Levine, Chief Revenue Officer at Fintel Connect, to uncover what financial institutions get wrong when launching affiliate marketing programs—and more importantly, how to get it right from day one. As someone who lives in the trenches and is often the first call when lenders want to activate the affiliate channel, Alana shares her unfiltered pre-launch checklist and the hard-won insights that can save months of frustration and wasted budget. We discuss... The Strategic Foundation
Operational Requirements
Common Pitfalls
Timeline and Commitment
Industry Context
***** About Alana Levine Alana is the Chief Revenue Officer at Fintel Connect, an award-winning performance marketing technology company dedicated to driving growth in the fintech, banking and insurance space. They're on a mission to create greater transparency and become the place to be for innovative fintechs and banks to connect with targeted influencers and publishers in the space. As a leading banking and fintech affiliate network in North America, Fintel is proud to power the affiliate programs for partners like Scotiabank, Tangerine Bank, EQ Bank, Borrowell and others.
***** A word from our sponsor, Fintel ConnectDrive thousands of new accounts and billions in deposits with the only partner marketing solution built for fintech and banking – your all-in-one affiliate platform, partner network, agency, and marketing compliance engine. https://partner.fintelconnect.com/get-to-know-fintel-connect?utm_campaign=13897733-2025%20Partners&utm_source=The%20Free%20Toaster&utm_medium=podcast
A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=aug A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth: New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others. Affiliate marketing involves marketing & credit risk expertise, and NMG's founders bring this with 21+ years of lending experience and 8+ years experience as executive affiliate operators. If you'd like help planning or implementing your affiliate marketing strategy, email us at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com
Subscribe to the Free Toaster Newsletter: www.thefreetoaster.com/ | |||
| E029 - Income Verification, With Kirill Klokov, CEO at Truv | 30 Jul 2025 | 00:33:00 | |
We sit down with Kirill Klokov, CEO of Truv, to break down everything lenders need to know about income verification providers. Vetting Income Verification Vendors
The Consumer Experience
Beyond Basic Income Verification
AI's Impact on Lending
Truv's New Business Model
Find Kirill Klokov on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirillklokov/ *** A word from our sponsor, Fintel ConnectDrive thousands of new accounts and billions in deposits with the only partner marketing solution built for fintech and banking – your all-in-one affiliate platform, partner network, agency, and marketing compliance engine. https://partner.fintelconnect.com/get-to-know-fintel-connect?utm_campaign=13897733-2025%20Partners&utm_source=The%20Free%20Toaster&utm_medium=podcast
A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=july A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth: New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others. Affiliate marketing involves marketing & credit risk expertise, and NMG's founders bring this with 21+ years of lending experience and 8+ years experience as executive affiliate operators. If you'd like help planning or implementing your affiliate marketing strategy, email us at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com
Subscribe to the Free Toaster Newsletter: www.thefreetoaster.com/ | |||
| E028 - 10 Direct Mail Pitfalls That Kill Programs (with Rich Walker) | 14 Jul 2025 | 01:49:44 | |
Rich Walker is back! After our first direct mail episode became the most popular episode on the show, we're back for round 2. The 10 DM Pitfalls We Discuss1. Attribution Nightmares People get your mail, then go to Credit Karma to respond. Your CFO freaks out about "paying twice" but that's just how the channels work together. Rich breaks down holdout testing and why you need to stop thinking about this as double-paying. 2. When Campaigns Go Off The Rails Your mail program is humming along, then suddenly a campaign tanks for no reason. 80% of the time you'll figure out what happened, but 20% you just shrug and move on. Rich walks through the diagnostic checklist and why organizations sometimes kill entire programs over one bad campaign. 3. The Unit Cost Trap Everyone obsesses over cost per piece, but Rich explains why lowering your mail costs often means you'll spend MORE money overall (and why that's actually good). 4. Complexity Overload You start simple, then add segments, then more segments, then product variations... suddenly only one person understands how your program works. We talk about how to dig out of this hole. 5. Testing Problems Direct mail is expensive to test, so you're always making decisions on samples that feel too small. Rich shares the "10 small tests, pick the 3 winners" approach. 6. Model Addiction Your response models get biased because you only mail to people who passed your last model. Universe testing is the cure, but it's a hard sell to the CFO. 7. Overthinking Non-Response 99.5% of your mail gets thrown away without being read. Stop trying to psychoanalyze why people didn't respond - most of them never saw your offer. 8. Funnel Blindness High click-through but low conversions? That's a signal, not a failure. Your audience is telling you something - listen to them. 9. No Testing Culture Organizations that say "we're really good at testing" usually aren't. Real testing culture means constant experimentation with the right infrastructure to support it. 10. Death by Committee Legal needs 5 days, then compliance needs 5 days, then brand wants changes... Rich explains how to get everyone aligned without killing your cycle time.
About Rich Walker: Rich Walker is a 35-year industry vet who’s been responsible for over 10 billion pieces of Direct Mail. Rich has led direct marketing teams at Capital One, the Winterberry Group, Deluxe Corporation, 2nd Order Solutions, and more recently, Aven. He also ran his own consulting shop - Pilot Performance Marketing - focused on helping lenders solve Direct Mail. *** A word from our sponsor, Fintel ConnectDrive thousands of new accounts and billions in deposits with the only partner marketing solution built for fintech and banking – your all-in-one affiliate platform, partner network, agency, and marketing compliance engine. https://partner.fintelconnect.com/get-to-know-fintel-connect?utm_campaign=13897733-2025%20Partners&utm_source=The%20Free%20Toaster&utm_medium=podcast
A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=june A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth: New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others. Affiliate marketing involves marketing & credit risk expertise, and NMG's founders bring this with 21+ years of lending experience and 8+ years experience as executive affiliate operators. If you'd like help planning or implementing your affiliate marketing strategy, email us at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com
Subscribe to the Free Toaster Newsletter: www.thefreetoaster.com/
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| News Pod #8 - Apple Just Put BNPL Into 65 Million Apple Pay Wallets | 27 Feb 2026 | 00:17:10 | |
Carlos and Nick discuss the implications of this week's headline story: Apple is now pushing the ability for Apple Pay users to pay with installments at the physical register, not just online and in apps. With iOS 26, installment options show up right inside the Apple Pay payment sheet when you tap to pay in store. What used to require opening a separate app or converting a purchase after the fact is now a one-tap decision at the moment of payment. Apple is not lending directly. Loans come from participating providers including Affirm, Klarna, Citi, and Synchrony. The feature is also rolling out internationally across Canada, the UK, France, Italy, Spain, Denmark, and Sweden.
Sign up for The Free Toaster Newsletter (www.thefreetoaster.com) to get our curated news at the intersection of consumer lending & marketing, published every Wednesday. And then come here on Fridays to get our hot takes on a select story (or two) from that edition.
***** A word from our sponsor, Bulldog Media Group: Bulldog Media Group is a leading performance marketing company that specializes in online customer acquisition for clients in the financial services industry. Since 2000, they have focused on financial services digital marketing as their core niche. https://www.bulldogmediagroup.com/ To support The Free Toaster Podcast, please visit our sponsors: A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=feb A word from our sponsor, Fintel ConnectDrive thousands of new accounts and billions in deposits with the only partner marketing solution built for fintech and banking – your all-in-one affiliate platform, partner network, agency, and marketing compliance engine. https://partner.fintelconnect.com/get-to-know-fintel-connect?utm_campaign=13897733-2025%20Partners&utm_source=The%20Free%20Toaster&utm_medium=podcast
A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth: New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others. Affiliate marketing involves marketing & credit risk expertise, and NMG's founders bring this with 21+ years of lending experience and 8+ years experience as executive affiliate operators. If you'd like help planning or implementing your affiliate marketing strategy, email us at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com | |||
| E040 - Mr. Beast Buys Fintech App Step: A Bold Bet or a Disaster in the Making? | 27 Feb 2026 | 01:16:45 | |
Our host Carlos Caro sits down with Alex Johnson (founder/author at Fintech Takes) to unpack one of the more surprising stories in consumer finance: Mr. Beast's acquisition of Step, a Gen Z-focused neobank. Alex breaks down what Step actually is — a once-hyped neobank valued at nearly $1 billion in 2021 that quietly faded into obscurity, struggling like so many of its peers to crack the user acquisition code. Mr. Beast, who filed a trademark for "Mr. Beast Financial" last year, reportedly scooped it up at a significant discount, inheriting a functional neobank with banking partner Evolve Bank and Trust and ~7 million users — a small number compared to his 467 million YouTube subscribers. The strategic fit makes surface-level sense: Step already targeted teens and young adults, emphasizes financial literacy, and has a history of celebrity investors (including Steph Curry). Mr. Beast's brand speaks the same language and operates at a scale no neobank has ever had access to. But the conversation gets serious fast. Carlos and Alex explore the darker structural forces at play — the industry's pull toward gambling-adjacent products, the monetization pressures that push fintechs toward high-risk features, and the very real consequences for young, vulnerable users. Alex draws a sharp line: financial services isn't like selling chocolate bars. It's one of the only industries, alongside healthcare, where the stakes are genuinely life and death. Both Carlos and Alex walk away cautiously optimistic — Mr. Beast has the scale and the right instincts — but clear-eyed about how narrow the path to doing this well really is. Follow Alex at www.fintechtakes.com ***** A word from our sponsor, Fintel ConnectDrive thousands of new accounts and billions in deposits with the only partner marketing solution built for fintech and banking – your all-in-one affiliate platform, partner network, agency, and marketing compliance engine. https://partner.fintelconnect.com/get-to-know-fintel-connect?utm_campaign=13897733-2025%20Partners&utm_source=The%20Free%20Toaster&utm_medium=podcast
A word from our sponsor, Bulldog Media Group: Bulldog Media Group is a leading performance marketing company that specializes in online customer acquisition for clients in the financial services industry. Since 2000, they have focused on financial services digital marketing as their core niche. https://www.bulldogmediagroup.com/ To support The Free Toaster Podcast, please visit our sponsors: A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=feb
A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth: New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others. Affiliate marketing involves marketing & credit risk expertise, and NMG's founders bring this with 21+ years of lending experience and 8+ years experience as executive affiliate operators. If you'd like help planning or implementing your affiliate marketing strategy, email us at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com | |||
| News Pod #1 - Apple & Chase Cobrand Deal | 08 Jan 2026 | 00:10:35 | |
In the News Pod, The Free Toaster founders - Carlos Caro and Nick Madrid - unpack select stories from the Wednesday news edition of www.thefreetoaster.com Sign up for the Newsletter to get our curated news at the intersection of consumer lending & marketing, and then come here on Fridays to get our hot takes on select stories from that edition. ***** To support The Free Toaster Podcast, please visit our sponsors: A word from our sponsor, Bulldog Media Group: Bulldog Media Group is a leading performance marketing company that specializes in online customer acquisition for clients in the financial services industry. Since 2000, they have focused on financial services digital marketing as their core niche. https://www.bulldogmediagroup.com/
A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=dec A word from our sponsor, Fintel ConnectDrive thousands of new accounts and billions in deposits with the only partner marketing solution built for fintech and banking – your all-in-one affiliate platform, partner network, agency, and marketing compliance engine. https://partner.fintelconnect.com/get-to-know-fintel-connect?utm_campaign=13897733-2025%20Partners&utm_source=The%20Free%20Toaster&utm_medium=podcast
A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth: New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others. Affiliate marketing involves marketing & credit risk expertise, and NMG's founders bring this with 21+ years of lending experience and 8+ years experience as executive affiliate operators. If you'd like help planning or implementing your affiliate marketing strategy, email us at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com | |||
| News Pod #7 - TU's $56MM Purchase of Monevo - How's It Going? | 21 Feb 2026 | 00:18:22 | |
In April 2025, Transunion completed its acquisition of Monevo (a UK-based credit prequalification platform). In today's News Pod, Nick discovers that TU paid $56MM and that TU expects the Monevo acquisition to be immaterial to FY 2026 growth for TU. (Sources of that information below). Carlos and Nick discuss the Monevo business model and speculate on why growth could be muted in the US market. Please note: While recording the Pod, Carlos thought he heard Nick say that TU expects the revenue contribution in 2026 from Monevo to be immaterial (instead of the growth contribution from Monevo in 2026 to be immaterial). That colored his commentary in the episode.
Sign up for The Free Toaster Newsletter (www.thefreetoaster.com) to get our curated news at the intersection of consumer lending & marketing, published every Wednesday. And then come here on Fridays to get our hot takes on a select story (or two) from that edition. ****** "In October 2021, we acquired a 30% equity interest in Monevo Limited (“Monevo”), which we accounted for as a Cost Method Investment. On April 1, 2025, we acquired the remaining 70% of the outstanding equity of Monevo and gained control of Monevo by exercising a call option we had obtained when we made our initial investment. The strike price of the call option paid at closing was $56.0 million, which was funded with cash on hand. Cash acquired from Monevo in connection with the transaction was $0.3 million, resulting in a net cash payment of $55.7 million. There was no contingent consideration related to this transaction."
"Additional revenue growth assumptions: The impact of our Monevo acquisition is expected to be immaterial for Q1 2026 and FY 2026."
***** A word from our sponsor, Bulldog Media Group: Bulldog Media Group is a leading performance marketing company that specializes in online customer acquisition for clients in the financial services industry. Since 2000, they have focused on financial services digital marketing as their core niche. https://www.bulldogmediagroup.com/ To support The Free Toaster Podcast, please visit our sponsors: A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=feb A word from our sponsor, Fintel ConnectDrive thousands of new accounts and billions in deposits with the only partner marketing solution built for fintech and banking – your all-in-one affiliate platform, partner network, agency, and marketing compliance engine. https://partner.fintelconnect.com/get-to-know-fintel-connect?utm_campaign=13897733-2025%20Partners&utm_source=The%20Free%20Toaster&utm_medium=podcast
A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth: New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others. Affiliate marketing involves marketing & credit risk expertise, and NMG's founders bring this with 21+ years of lending experience and 8+ years experience as executive affiliate operators. If you'd like help planning or implementing your affiliate marketing strategy, email us at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com | |||
| E039 - Is My Application Experience Broken? | 18 Feb 2026 | 00:13:42 | |
Today we walk through a list of questions to ask yourself to determine whether your application experience needs a tune up. ***** About The Free Toaster Podcast: Insights and interviews at the intersection of consumer lending, marketing, and technology. Hosted by Carlos Caro, co-founder at The Free Toaster and Managing Partner at New Market Growth, a growth agency for consumer lenders. ***** ***** To support The Free Toaster Podcast, please visit our sponsors: A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=feb A word from our sponsor, Fintel ConnectDrive thousands of new accounts and billions in deposits with the only partner marketing solution built for fintech and banking – your all-in-one affiliate platform, partner network, agency, and marketing compliance engine. https://partner.fintelconnect.com/get-to-know-fintel-connect?utm_campaign=13897733-2025%20Partners&utm_source=The%20Free%20Toaster&utm_medium=podcast
A word from our sponsor, Bulldog Media Group: Bulldog Media Group is a leading performance marketing company that specializes in online customer acquisition for clients in the financial services industry. Since 2000, they have focused on financial services digital marketing as their core niche. https://www.bulldogmediagroup.com/
A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth: New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others. Affiliate marketing involves marketing & credit risk expertise, and NMG's founders bring this with 21+ years of lending experience and 8+ years experience as executive affiliate operators. If you'd like help planning or implementing your affiliate marketing strategy, email us at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com | |||
| News Pod #6 - Guest Pod w/ Prithvi Prabhu + Mr. Beast's Fintech Acquisition | 16 Feb 2026 | 00:22:19 | |
This week Prithvi Prabhu drops in to help us contextualize Cash App Borrow's metrics from this Edition: https://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/cash-apps-invisible-200-billion-loan
Then, we discuss Mr. Beast's Fintech Acquisition and talk about why buying Fintech's could lead to trouble for the mega content creator.
Sign up for The Free Toaster Newsletter (www.thefreetoaster.com) to get our curated news at the intersection of consumer lending & marketing, published every Wednesday. And then come here on Fridays to get our hot takes on a select story (or two) from that edition. ***** To support The Free Toaster Podcast, please visit our sponsors: A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=feb A word from our sponsor, Fintel ConnectDrive thousands of new accounts and billions in deposits with the only partner marketing solution built for fintech and banking – your all-in-one affiliate platform, partner network, agency, and marketing compliance engine. https://partner.fintelconnect.com/get-to-know-fintel-connect?utm_campaign=13897733-2025%20Partners&utm_source=The%20Free%20Toaster&utm_medium=podcast
A word from our sponsor, Bulldog Media Group: Bulldog Media Group is a leading performance marketing company that specializes in online customer acquisition for clients in the financial services industry. Since 2000, they have focused on financial services digital marketing as their core niche. https://www.bulldogmediagroup.com/
A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth: New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others. Affiliate marketing involves marketing & credit risk expertise, and NMG's founders bring this with 21+ years of lending experience and 8+ years experience as executive affiliate operators. If you'd like help planning or implementing your affiliate marketing strategy, email us at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com | |||
| News Pod #5 - Fiserv & Affirm Join Forces To Bring BNPL To Debit Cards | 06 Feb 2026 | 00:08:30 | |
The Free Toaster hosts Carlos Caro and Nick Madrid add context to the story covered in the Newsletter earlier this week. https://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/wtf-2026-since-when-is-debit-now Sign up for The Free Toaster Newsletter (www.thefreetoaster.com) to get our curated news at the intersection of consumer lending & marketing, published every Wednesday. And then come here on Fridays to get our hot takes on a select story from that edition. ***** To support The Free Toaster Podcast, please visit our sponsors: A word from our sponsor, Fintel ConnectDrive thousands of new accounts and billions in deposits with the only partner marketing solution built for fintech and banking – your all-in-one affiliate platform, partner network, agency, and marketing compliance engine. https://partner.fintelconnect.com/get-to-know-fintel-connect?utm_campaign=13897733-2025%20Partners&utm_source=The%20Free%20Toaster&utm_medium=podcast
A word from our sponsor, Bulldog Media Group: Bulldog Media Group is a leading performance marketing company that specializes in online customer acquisition for clients in the financial services industry. Since 2000, they have focused on financial services digital marketing as their core niche. https://www.bulldogmediagroup.com/
A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=jan
A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth: New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others. Affiliate marketing involves marketing & credit risk expertise, and NMG's founders bring this with 21+ years of lending experience and 8+ years experience as executive affiliate operators. If you'd like help planning or implementing your affiliate marketing strategy, email us at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com | |||
| E038 - 7 Must-Have Traits for Your VP of Partnerships | 03 Feb 2026 | 00:24:09 | |
Today we cover the 7 traits of successful VPs of Partnerships, why they matter, and how to assess them during interviews.
***** To support The Free Toaster Podcast, please visit our sponsors: A word from our sponsor, Fintel ConnectDrive thousands of new accounts and billions in deposits with the only partner marketing solution built for fintech and banking – your all-in-one affiliate platform, partner network, agency, and marketing compliance engine. https://partner.fintelconnect.com/get-to-know-fintel-connect?utm_campaign=13897733-2025%20Partners&utm_source=The%20Free%20Toaster&utm_medium=podcast
A word from our sponsor, Bulldog Media Group: Bulldog Media Group is a leading performance marketing company that specializes in online customer acquisition for clients in the financial services industry. Since 2000, they have focused on financial services digital marketing as their core niche. https://www.bulldogmediagroup.com/
A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=jan
A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth: New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others. Affiliate marketing involves marketing & credit risk expertise, and NMG's founders bring this with 21+ years of lending experience and 8+ years experience as executive affiliate operators. If you'd like help planning or implementing your affiliate marketing strategy, email us at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com | |||
| News Pod #4 - Affirm's FDIC application and Credit Card Growth | 30 Jan 2026 | 00:11:35 | |
Affirm is officially making a play to become its own bank by submitting applications to establish Affirm Bank through a Nevada-chartered Industrial Loan Company (ILC). This strategic shift aims to strengthen and diversify their platform, allowing them to scale operations and offer FDIC-insured products directly to consumers. The Free Toaster hosts Carlos Caro and Nick Madrid comment on this and the growth in their credit card program. Sign up for The Free Toaster Newsletter (www.thefreetoaster.com) to get our curated news at the intersection of consumer lending & marketing, published every Wednesday. And then come here on Fridays to get our hot takes on select stories from that edition. ***** To support The Free Toaster Podcast, please visit our sponsors: A word from our sponsor, Fintel ConnectDrive thousands of new accounts and billions in deposits with the only partner marketing solution built for fintech and banking – your all-in-one affiliate platform, partner network, agency, and marketing compliance engine. https://partner.fintelconnect.com/get-to-know-fintel-connect?utm_campaign=13897733-2025%20Partners&utm_source=The%20Free%20Toaster&utm_medium=podcast
A word from our sponsor, Bulldog Media Group: Bulldog Media Group is a leading performance marketing company that specializes in online customer acquisition for clients in the financial services industry. Since 2000, they have focused on financial services digital marketing as their core niche. https://www.bulldogmediagroup.com/
A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=jan
A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth: New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others. Affiliate marketing involves marketing & credit risk expertise, and NMG's founders bring this with 21+ years of lending experience and 8+ years experience as executive affiliate operators. If you'd like help planning or implementing your affiliate marketing strategy, email us at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com | |||
| News Pod #3 - Cash App's "Invisible" Consumer Lending Business | 23 Jan 2026 | 00:10:26 | |
Cash App Borrow is quietly building a monster (and seemingly highly profitable) consumer lending business under the radar. The Free Toaster hosts Carlos Caro and Nick Madrid comment on the metrics they've seen published from the business. Sign up for The Free Toaster Newsletter (www.thefreetoaster.com) to get our curated news at the intersection of consumer lending & marketing, published every Wednesday. And then come here on Fridays to get our hot takes on select stories from that edition. ***** To support The Free Toaster Podcast, please visit our sponsors: A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=dec A word from our sponsor, Fintel ConnectDrive thousands of new accounts and billions in deposits with the only partner marketing solution built for fintech and banking – your all-in-one affiliate platform, partner network, agency, and marketing compliance engine. https://partner.fintelconnect.com/get-to-know-fintel-connect?utm_campaign=13897733-2025%20Partners&utm_source=The%20Free%20Toaster&utm_medium=podcast
A word from our sponsor, Bulldog Media Group: Bulldog Media Group is a leading performance marketing company that specializes in online customer acquisition for clients in the financial services industry. Since 2000, they have focused on financial services digital marketing as their core niche. https://www.bulldogmediagroup.com/ A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth: New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others. Affiliate marketing involves marketing & credit risk expertise, and NMG's founders bring this with 21+ years of lending experience and 8+ years experience as executive affiliate operators. If you'd like help planning or implementing your affiliate marketing strategy, email us at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com
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| News Pod #2 - Jenius Bank's Exit From Affiliate Marketplaces | 16 Jan 2026 | 00:04:58 | |
This week Carlos Caro unpacks what Jenius Bank's exit from affiliate marketplaces could mean for other prime personal loan lenders. Sign up for The Free Toaster Newsletter (www.thefreetoaster.com) to get our curated news at the intersection of consumer lending & marketing, published every Wednesday. And then come here on Fridays to get our hot takes on select stories from that edition. ***** To support The Free Toaster Podcast, please visit our sponsors: A word from our sponsor, Bulldog Media Group: Bulldog Media Group is a leading performance marketing company that specializes in online customer acquisition for clients in the financial services industry. Since 2000, they have focused on financial services digital marketing as their core niche. https://www.bulldogmediagroup.com/
A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel: Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo! https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=dec A word from our sponsor, Fintel ConnectDrive thousands of new accounts and billions in deposits with the only partner marketing solution built for fintech and banking – your all-in-one affiliate platform, partner network, agency, and marketing compliance engine. https://partner.fintelconnect.com/get-to-know-fintel-connect?utm_campaign=13897733-2025%20Partners&utm_source=The%20Free%20Toaster&utm_medium=podcast
A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth: New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others. Affiliate marketing involves marketing & credit risk expertise, and NMG's founders bring this with 21+ years of lending experience and 8+ years experience as executive affiliate operators. If you'd like help planning or implementing your affiliate marketing strategy, email us at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com | |||