Heard at Money 20/20

Shaquille O’Neal, Basketball legend and startup investor

O’Neal appeared at the conference on behalf of Steady, a startup he supports that helps people find work relevant to their skill set and location.

“I like being involved in companies that help people people,” O’Neal said. “With Steady, we want to help people gain income. It shouldn’t be hard to find work.”

When asked about other companies he involved with, he said, “I listed all the companies once and my mom said, ‘It sounds like you’re bragging, so cut it out.’ So I don’t talk about them anymore, because my mom’s out in there in the audience somewhere.”

Rob Frohwein, Kabbage Co-founder 

Frohwein said his company noticed that its customers were borrowing a little less money after they were issued Kabbage’s card.

“It was because customers were borrowing the exact amount they needed at the point of purchase.”

At first, Frohwein said they were concerned, but that ultimately “customers aren’t over-borrowing…and that’s excellent for customer loyalty.

Anthony Noto, SoFi CEO

Noto said he went to West Point for college, which was completely free for him. He said that he could have gotten student loans to attend other prestigious colleges, but he didn’t know if he could afford to pay it back.

With regard to how higher interest rates are affecting SoFi, he said, “higher interest rates have made our underwriting more conservative [and have forced us] to focus on quality.”

On the topic of potentially becoming an Industrial Loan Company (ILC) bank:

“An ILC could be in our future so that we have the same rates across all states we operate in…We are regulated and we’re comfortable with that.”

Todd Stone was a reporter for deBanked.