VrindaGupta

Sequin fronts the money to the merchant and pays ourselves back automatically from a connected bank account (unlike traditional debit cards).

We are an official Visa partner and deal directly with credit bureaus.

Spread the word, www.sequincard.com!

That's the hope!

We connect to your existing bank account and make the payments automatically to build credit. Traditional debit cards do not do this.

Thanks! The opportunity to evangelize the mission with Sequin is one of the coolest (and most challenging) bits.

That was the origin of the name!

Awareness is a key piece, yes - however, they product is designed for women in a few key ways: 1) women are putting 70% of spend on debit cards which don't build credit, this is a debit card that gives them the same control, but builds credit.; 2) women are more likely to make avoidable credit mistakes - this is a risk free, interest free product;3) credit scoring - we don't report credit utilization which disproportionately impacts women's credit histories.

You can use Sequin anywhere Visa is accepted (online, offline, etc). A cool feature is, you can actually set your daily limit on the card which protects against fraud - over traditional debit and even credit.

I'll answer here. :)

Banks spend 13x more advertising to men than women. Young women have the largest spending power of any demographic ever - this is a seismic shift in the market.

Credit card rewards target where men are spending 60% more of the time, versus where women are spending 60% more (and control 85% of GDP).

Yes! Great point.

We actively decided not to report credit utilization, as it was hurting women's credit more than helping (lower limits = higher utilization).

We built a credit reporting engine on top of a traditional debit card. Traditional debit cards are meant to access your checking account directly.

Thanks for sharing your experience! We designed Sequin with women in mind but it's open to anyone to sign up.

That's exactly what we're trying to solve here with Sequin. We're targeting young professional women / new grads to address the problem at the source.

Secured cards have high deposits ($200+) and can still get you into debt if you don't pay back / pay min / pay late - affects women more than men.

Young women are less likely to sign up for those products or be pre-approved (b/c lowest financial literacy levels and thus,lower awareness of products). Target market is young professional woman who missed these opportunities to build credit early.

Hi, I'm Vrinda Gupta. I worked at Visa Inc. for years, launching popular credit cards. But when I applied for the Chase Sapphire Reserve (the credit card I helped develop), I was rejected! I'm now the CEO and Co-Founder of Sequin, a debit card that builds credit for women risk-free with no credit history required. My co-founder, Mark Thomas, spent over a decade at PayPal leading ACH products in various EM roles.

I was rejected from the credit card I helped launch because, despite having a high income, I lacked credit history. I had been using my debit card and was an authorized user on my dad's card - neither of which was building my personal credit history.

I saw in Visa data that 70% of women's spend (concentrated around young women), was similarly on debit or cards in other people's names. As a result, women were disproportionately being rejected by credit cards or getting lower limits and higher interested rates - even though we are shown to be better to lend to. Young women have the largest spending power of any demographic in history, yet there is a clear gender gap in financial services. We're leveling the playing field.

Our first product, the Sequin Card is the first debit card that builds credit for women. Unlike traditional debit cards (which do not build credit), Sequin fronts the money for purchases in the background and repays ourselves automatically from a linked bank account daily. We then report repayment history to credit bureaus - and voila, you're building credit.

Sequin users are primarily young women who are new to the workforce, and are looking to establish or build credit more effectively (towards a higher value credit card). Soon, we'll launch our own suite of credit cards geared towards women with smarter underwriting, targeted rewards, and safer repayment options.

Anyone can apply for Sequin - we designed the product to center women's financial needs (for the first time in history - women could be denied a credit card without a male co-signer until 1974)!

Looking forward to your comments!