The man who built a bank for people banks don't want - Jason Wilk [Dave]

<p>On this episode of BILLIONS, I&#39;m sitting down with Jason Wilk, four-time founder and CEO of Dave, the neobank built to take on the predatory overdraft fees that quietly bleed billions a year from the Americans who can least afford them.</p><p>Jason&#39;s story is one of the wildest comebacks in fintech. After going public via SPAC in January 2022, Dave hit a $5 billion valuation, then the macro turned.</p><p>Rates spiked, growth capital dried up, and within nine months the stock had collapsed 98%, dragging the company&#39;s market cap down to roughly $50 million, less than the cash sitting on its own balance sheet.Most teams would have panicked, slashed headcount, or sold cheap. </p><p>Jason did the opposite: he froze hiring, refused layoffs, killed every non-core product, and put the entire company behind one number, unit economics. </p><p>Today Dave is back to a nearly $4 billion market cap, with 2026 guidance of over $700M in revenue and over $300M in EBITDA, a ~$400M earnings swing in just a few years.</p><p>In this masterclass, we break down:</p><ul><li>The $75 microloan bet : how Dave used cash-flow data instead of FICO to underwrite the smallest loan in the country, importing a model that worked in India and Africa but no one had cracked in the US.</li><li>120 meetings for a Series A : why traditional VCs had never even heard of overdraft fees, and what it took to finally get the check.</li><li>Surviving a 98% wipeout : the operational playbook Jason ran when growth capital ground to a halt and raising more was off the table.</li><li>Making millionaires at the bottom : how a Performance Stock Unit structure turned the crash into the biggest wealth-creation event in the company&#39;s history.</li><li>&quot;VC money is just very high-APR debt&quot; : why Jason wishes he&#39;d taken his $10M Series A as venture debt and kept the equity.</li><li>Eating other people&#39;s margin : Dave&#39;s new credit card and multi-product roadmap, aimed at the $100B+ a year Americans pay in credit card APRs and late fees.</li></ul><p>TIMELINE :</p><p>00:00 – Why he declared war on the $34 overdraft fee<br>01:55 – The $75 microloan that ignores your credit score<br>04:26 – 120 investor meetings to close the Series A<br>09:48 – Going public via SPAC at a $5B valuation<br>11:15 – How the stock crashed 98% in 9 months<br>16:19 – Making employees millionaires at rock bottom<br>19:38 – From burning $100M to $300M in EBITDA<br>23:17 – Why VC money is worse than a loan