Brex’s 1st Employee On Thinking Like a Founder | Michael Tannenbaum, CEO of Figure

<p>Michael Tannenbaum is the CEO of Figure, the blockchain lending company he took public in 2025.</p><p><br></p><p>He was employee #1 at Brex, and before that ran the mortgage business at SoFi. Mike Cagney, who founded both SoFi and Figure, pulled him back to take Figure public in 2025.</p><p><br></p><p>This is a conversation on how to think and act like a founder, the framework he uses to run Figure, plus a look at how a lending business works under the hood, why he ran the broken mortgage business at SoFi to prove himself, the time Masa offered him a billion dollars, how he nearly walking away from Brex right before they launched, inside the SVB collapse, how Figure originates loans for $1,000 instead of $12,000, their recent Kiavi acquisition, and the gas station test his dad taught him.</p><p><br></p><p>Thank you to Mike Cagney, Art Levy, and Sam Blond for helping brainstorm topics for the conversation!</p><p><br></p><p>Thanks to this episodes sponsors!</p><p><br></p><p>Numeral: Sales tax on autopilot https://www.numeral.com</p><p>Flex: Premium banking, 60-day credit, 0% APR https://home.flex.one/referral/bananacapital</p><p>Amplitude: AI analytics https://www.amplitude.com</p><p>Merge: Every model, one API https://www.merge.dev/turner</p><p>Monaco: The revenue engine for startups https://www.monaco.com/</p><p><br></p><p>Timestamps:</p><p><br></p><p>(0:00) From Brex employee #1 to public-company CEO</p><p>(1:28) Operating vs managing a career</p><p>(3:23) Why he took the worst business at SoFi</p><p>(9:33) The Big Rock framework</p><p>(11:02) How to get real customer feedback</p><p>(14:58) The best nose for value in fintech</p><p>(17:49) Why banking the affluent beats down-market</p><p>(21:12) Figure: cutting mortgage cost from $12k to $1k</p><p>(25:41) Do you actually need to use blockchain?</p><p>(28:03) Why memecoins took over crypto</p><p>(32:17) Masa&#39;s billion-dollar offer</p><p>(36:29) Leaving SoFi for two kids in a kitchen</p><p>(39:05) Six months from almost quitting to a unicorn</p><p>(44:09) The finance guy who ran Brex&#39;s marketing</p><p>(47:03) Inside Brex during the SVB collapse</p><p>(51:09) The two SoFi insights behind Figure</p><p>(54:40) From direct-to-consumer to B2B marketplace</p><p>(56:41) AI can’t get you better credit ratings</p><p>(58:50) Figure is a modern Fannie Mae</p><p>(1:01:28) Buyers who commit before the loan exists</p><p>(1:03:59) Following customers into new products</p><p>(1:06:35) Buying Kiavi, the fix-and-flip leader</p><p>(1:12:15) Why more fintech’s don&#39;t become marketplaces</p><p>(1:14:46) The AI risk in outsourcing customer acquisition</p><p>(1:18:23) What going public actually takes</p><p>(1:20:14) Life as a public-company CEO</p><p>(1:22:38) Getting shorted</p><p>(1:24:12) The gas station test</p><p>(1:25:42) The reverse pyramid of big corporates</p><p><br></p><p>Referenced</p><p>Figure: https://www.figure.com/</p><p>Careers at Figure: https://www.figure.com/careers/</p><p>Kiavi: https://www.kiavi.com/</p><p><br></p><p>Follow Michael</p><p>Twitter: https://x.com/MBTannenbaum</p><p>LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeltannenbaum/</p><p><br></p><p>Follow Turner</p><p>Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak</p><p>LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak</p><p><br></p><p>Subscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/</p>