The Free Toaster

[Show notes reposted below from the LendAPI Podcast]   The Free Toaster Podcast is sponsored by: -Fintel Connect -Spinwheel -Bulldog Media Group ***** LendAPI Partner Podcast with Carlos Caro, Managing Partner & Founder of New Market Growth Guest: Carlos Caro   Host: Timothy Li   In this episode of the LendAPI Partner Podcast, host Timothy Li, Founder & CEO of LendAPI, sits down with Carlo...

REPOSTED FROM FINTECH TAKES. Alex's show notes below. I hope you enjoy!  -Carlos ***** Welcome back to Fintech Takes. I'm Alex Johnson, joined again by Carlos Caro (author of the Free Toaster newsletter and host of the Free Toaster podcast) to continue the conversation we started on Carlos’s podcast about MrBeast's acquisition of Step and what it means for the fintech ecosystem. This episode picks...

Tim Li , CEO of LendAPI, joins Carlos live in the DC studio for a wide-ranging conversation on how LendAPI is quietly becoming the infrastructure layer for modern lending. What We Cover: In-Store Buy Now, Pay Later Most BNPL players are built for online checkout — but 87% of commerce still happens in physical stores. Tim explains how LendAPI landed a major retailer (Sunglass brand Salmoiraghi &amp...

Carlos and Nick discuss Dave's record-breaking Q4 2025 Earnings Report. They also discuss Dave's rise to $4B valuation, drop down to a $50MM valuation, and pop back to $2.85B. Additionally, we break down their customer acquisition strategy and ask questions regarding their long-term viability given the DOJ case out there. They expand on the Free Toaster article recently published here: https://www...

Carlos and Nick try to make sense of NerdWallet's recent earnings report. They expand on the article they recently published here: https://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/can-nerdwallet-outrun-the-ai-disruption   Note: Carlos misspoke early in the episode when he shared the topline revenue and growth numbers. The correct numbers are $225.4MM topline revenue and 23% YoY growth.   Sign up for The Free Toas...

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...

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 acqu...

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. Pl...

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...

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...

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 o...

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 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,...

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 th...

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 eve...

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.  ***...

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, pleas...

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 Spinwhee...

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 1,200+ email subscribers (zero paid marketing), adding about 100 sub...

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...

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...

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 w...

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 lendin...

We explore how fintech lenders could revolutionize customer acquisition by partnering with AI-powered finfluencers, alleviating current concentration in affiliate marketplaces. Key Topics The 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 algori...

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...

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 Why most providers use the same underlying data sources The power of back-testing analysis on your own data Smart questions sophisticated lenders ask during RFPs The Consumer Experience Why 35% of users drop off at bank login screens H...