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SoFi Checking & Savings $300 + $415 Signup Bonus (Nationwide; Requires $5,000 Direct Deposit)


Update 10/13/25: Swagbucks back up to $415 for some. 

Update 9/8/25: Rakuten back at $375/37,500

Inboxdollars is $415 for some

Update 9/1/25: $375/37,500 from Rakuten + $300 from SoFi. Not as good as the recent $400 deal but close. (Try stacking with this deal for an additional $75 with SoFi Plus.)

Update 7/30/25: $400/40,000 from Rakuten + $300 from SoFi. Highest ever. Today only. (Try stacking with this deal for an additional $75 with SoFi Plus.)

Update 7/23/25: Many people got an email from Rakuten that next week the offer will be $400/40,000. Highest ever.

Update 7/19/25: $375 in Rakuten app available again (ht ShawntheShawn)

Update 7/2/25: $375/37,500 Rakuten now available online or the Rakuten app. This matches the highest offer ever. Update: TCB is now at $350. 

Update 6/2/25: $350/35,000 via Rakuten website or $375/37,500 via the Rakuten app. This matches the highest offer ever.

(Expired) Update 6/12/25: $300/30,000 on Rakuten is back (ht Not Sam)

(Expired) Update 6/4/25: The $300/30,000 version is back

Update 5/25/25: [Expired] A lot of people are seeing $375/37,500 on Rakuten.

Rakuten link | Swagbucks link | another Swagbucks link | MyPoints link

Offer at a glance

  • Maximum bonus amount: $50 – $300
  • Availability: Nationwide
  •  Direct deposit required: Yes, $1,000 – $5,000
  • Additional requirements: None
  • Hard/soft pull: Soft (see also this comment)
  • Credit card funding: None
  • Monthly fees: None
  • Early account termination fee: ?
  • Household limit: None listed
  • Expiration date:  May 31, 2022 July 31, 2022 September 30, 2022 January 31, 2023

The Offer

Direct link to offer | Terms

  • SoFi is offering bonus of up to $300 for new customers who signup for their SoFi hybrid checking & savings account and receive direct deposit within 30 days:
    • Get $50 bonus with direct deposit of $1,000 – $1,999
    • Get $100 bonus with direct deposit of $2,000 – $4,999
    • Get $300 bonus with direct deposit of $5,000+

They seem to have rebranded from ‘SoFi Money’ to ‘SoFi Checking and Savings’.

 

The Fine Print

  • Eligible Participants: All new members who open a SoFi Checking and Savings account during the Promotion Period and all existing SoFi Checkings and Savings customers who have not previously set up Direct Deposit transactions (“Direct Deposit”) into their SoFi Checking and Savings account as of the beginning of the Promotion Period are eligible for the Program.
  • Bonus Terms:In order to qualify for eligibility for a bonus, SoFi must receive at least one Qualifying Direct Deposit (as defined below) from an Eligible Participant before the end of the Promotion Period. Qualifying Direct Deposits are defined as deposits of $1,000.00 or greater from an enrolled member’s employer, payroll, or benefits provider via ACH deposit. Deposits that are not from an employer (such as check deposits; P2P transfers such as from PayPal or Venmo, etc.; merchant transactions such as from PayPal, Stripe, Square, etc.; and external bank ACH transfers not from employers) and bank ACH transfers not from employers) do not qualify for this Direct Deposit promotion. The amount of the bonus, if any, will be calculated during the Evaluation Period as described and defined below.
  • Evaluation Period: The bonus amount will vary based on the total amount of Qualifying Direct Deposits received during the Evaluation Period. The Evaluation Period is defined as 25 days from the date your first Qualifying Direct Deposit is received. For example, if you receive $1,000-$1,999 in Qualifying Direct Deposits in the Evaluation Period, you will receive a cash bonus of $50. A member may only qualify for one bonus tier and will not be eligible for future bonus payments if inflows subsequently increase beyond the Evaluation Period.
  • Total Qualifying Direct Deposit amount in 30-day Evaluation Period Cash bonus
  • Payment timeline: SoFi will credit members who meet qualification criteria within 14 days of the end of the Evaluation Period.
  • This offer cannot be combined with the SoFi Checking and Savings Direct Deposit rate discount on a SoFi personal loan. Bonuses are considered miscellaneous income, and may be reportable to the IRS on Form 1099-MISC (or Form 1042-S, if applicable). SoFi reserves the right to exclude any Members from participating in the Program for any reason, including suspected fraud, misuse, or if suspicious activities are observed. SoFi also reserves the right to stop or make changes to the Program at any time.

Avoiding Fees

Monthly Fees

This account doesn’t have any monthly fees to worry about.

Early Account Termination Fee

Not sure if there is any early termination fee or not, but there is no monthly fee and it’s worth keeping the account open long term for the spending bonuses.

Update History

  • Update 5/12/25: A lot of people who saw the Rakuten bonus down to $300 are now seeing it back up to $375. (Personally mine dipped from $375 to $300 and still is showing $300 now.) Hat tip to r/churning
  • Update 5/4/25: $375 now on Rakuten, highest ever. (ht not sam and max) Update: apparently others are seeing $300 on Rakuten. That’s still from the best offers we’ve seen.
  • Update 4/7/25: Increased slightly to $265 and like $280 on Swagbucks/MyPoints. Still $250 on Rakuten.
  • Update 3/18/25: Currently the best offers are $250 on Rakuten, $230 on Swagbucks, and around $245 on MyPoints now. That’s on top of the $300 from SoFi.
  • Update 10/6/24: It’s up to $355 via the Rakuten app (app offer only). Combined with the $300 SoFi offering, this maxes out at $655 which is the highest ever. (ht Xander and yapp) Update: now $350 on Rakuten website as well
  • Update 8/20/24: The $350 Rakuten deal is expired. Best now is $230-$250 from SB/MP, plus the $300 from SoFi.
  • Update 8/19/24: Rakuten is now up to $350 which can lead to a total bonus of $650. Wow. (ht Peter and Jim)
  • Update 7/15/24: Rakuten is now up to $250/25,000; matches the best offer we’ve seen. MyPoints is around $250, Swagbucks $230. (ht Shawntheshawn)
  • Update: Now $200 and $300 for a total of $500.
  • Update 5/6/24: Rakuten is up to $250 and SoFi is at $300. I believe this $550 is the highest ever (and some people might even value Rakuten at even higher than $250).
  • Update 3/17/24: Both Rakuten and Swagbucks at $200 now; plus $300 from SoFi (ht Churnbaby)
  • Update 3/1/24: Currently $200 from Swagbucks and $300 from SoFi.
  • Update 11/26/23: Both Rakuten and Swagbucks at $200 now; plus $250 from SoFi (ht PN)
  • Update 11/25/23: Back to $200 on Swagbucks or $175 on Rakuten.
  • Update 10/18/23: Increased on Rakuten to $200/20,000
  • Update 10/13/23: This is still on Swagbucks for 20,000 ($200). It’s now also on Rakuten for $175/17,500 which some people might prefer. And you can still get $250 on top of that from SoFi directly when you use either link. (ht ShawntheShawn)
  • Update 6/26/23: Swagbucks is now up to $200 with $200 direct deposit. Plus you’ll get $250 from SoFi if you receive  $5,000 in direct deposits. Not as good as the all time highs of $520 total but now it’s close. (ht @addingpennies)
  • Update 4/28/23: Swagbucks/MyPoints are now at an extra $150 for $400 total. Not as good as the all time highs of $520 total but still a nice deal. Update 11/17/22: The Swagbucks/MP part is gone right now. The SoFi part is still at $250. Update 10/30/22: Swagbucks still at $220, but SoFi bonus part is down to $250 now (down from $300). Total bonus now of $470; Update 10/21/22: Swagbucks is now $220 on the home page + $300 SoFi bonus; Update 9/30/22: The $175 Swagbucks offer is back (direct link) and – like before – it links to the $300 direct deposit bonus page. Total $475 bonus possible. The $300 deal is valid from 10/1/22 through 12/31/22. Update 8/21/22: The $300 got extended until September 30th, the additional $175 Swagbucks bonus has still not returned. There’s a new referral offer which gives $325: $25 right away when signing up and depositing $10, plus $300 bonus with direct deposit mentioned below. That’s $25 better than the public link below. I don’t think we’ll make a referral thread for this now, you can google around to find a referral link. It might be smarter to wait to see if another Swagbucks deals comes back. Update 6/20/22: Swagbucks/MP component is gone for now. The $300 offer is still around.Update 6/14/22: Swagbucks is down to $75 now and MyPoints is gone. The $300 SoFi offer is still live. Update 5/27/22: The $300 SoFi bonus has been extended through July. We don’t know how long the Swagbucks/MyPoints component will last. (Another update 6/13/22: Reader thedailychurn suggests that if you click through Swagbucks before upgrading your SoFi Money account to become a SoFi Checking & Savings account the Swagbucks/MP can track the upgrade as a new account opening for the $175 bonus. You probably won’t get the $300 signup bonus, though, since it’s not a new account.) Update 5/2/22: They brought back the Swagbucks/MyPoints $175 bonus, so it’s back up to $475 now. Yay!; Update 4/24/22: The Swagbucks part of the deal has expired. The $300 SoFi bonus is still available.; Update: This $300 bonus seems to stack fine with the $175 Swagbucks deal we posted a few months back for a total $475. Simply click through Swagbucks (link | another link | MyPoints) and you’ll see the $300 offer on the landing page, so it should stack. I wonder if they’ll pull the Swagbucks offer as this $300 offer rolls out, so I’d sign up soon.

Our Verdict

I believe $300 is the most we’ve seen from SoFi Money bonuses, though this does require a $5,000 direct deposit. Some readers mention in the comments that SoFi is strict about what they consider to be a ‘direct deposit.’

It’s not clear how quickly you need to get the direct deposit, but it is clear that you have 30 days from when your first direct deposit posts to rack up the $5,000 in direct deposits. E.g. if you sign up on April 5th, get your first direct deposit on May 1, then you have from May 1st through May 30th to meet the $5,000 in combined total direct deposits to qualify for the full $300 bonus.

The fine print states that the income might be reported on a 1099-MISC form which might mean that it won’t get reported at all given the $600 minimum required for that form. Regardless, you’d be legally required to report the bonus.

Separately, the SoFi Money account is actually a nice account to have your regular direct deposit go to since they offer a nice, high APY rate for those who have a monthly direct deposit (any amount) post to their account. At time of this writing that rate is 1.25% APY with no deposit limit.

There’s one rumor in the comments that upgrading your existing SoFi Money account to the new SoFi checking and savings account will be eligible for the $300 bonus as well (though you’ll lose the free ATMs when upgrading), but I’m not assuming this is true unless it gets confirmed.

We’ve added this to our List of Best Bank Bonuses. 

Useful posts regarding bank bonuses:

  • A Beginners Guide To Bank Account Bonuses
  • Bank Account Quick Reference Table (Spreadsheet) (very useful for sorting bonuses by different parameters)
  • PSA: Don’t Call The Bank
  • Introduction To ChexSystems
  • Banks & Credit Unions That Are ChexSystems Inquiry Sensitive
  • What Banks & Credit Unions Do/Don’t Pull ChexSystems?
  • How To Use Our Direct Deposit Page For Bank Bonuses Page
  • Common Bank Bonus Misconceptions + Why You Should Give Them A Go
  • How Many Bank Accounts Can I Safely Open Within A Year For Bank Bonus Purposes?
  • Affiliate Links & Bank Bonuses – We Won’t Be Using Them
  • Complete List Of Ways To Close Bank Accounts At Each Bank
  • Banks That Allow/Don’t Allow Out Of State Checking Applications
  • Bank Bonus Posting Times
 
 
 

Jimmy Fallon and Bozoma Saint John on What It Takes for People, Products, and Brands to Break Through


 

ALISON BEARD:  I’m Alison Beard.

ADI IGNATIUS: I’m Adi Ignatius. This is HBR IdeaCast.

ALISON BEARD: Adi, you are very familiar with both of the guests on today’s show. One is a comedian and talk show host, Jimmy Fallon. The other is a marketing executive turned reality TV star, Bozoma Saint John. But what they have in common beyond TV is an expertise on how to create breakthrough moments for themselves, their offerings, and all of the brands that they’re associated with. We know that’s really important now because it’s an increasingly crowded, complex, confusing media and advertising market.

ADI IGNATIUS: Yeah. When you first told me you were going to interview Jimmy and Bozoma, my first thought was, okay, that’s pretty interesting. I’ve interviewed Boz, she’s incredible. She was an executive at Pepsi, at Apple, at Netflix. I get what she’s all about. Jimmy Fallon, I watched him on Saturday Night Live. I’ve watched him on The Tonight Show. He’s energetic, he’s entertaining. I’d be interested, what does he know about this? What does he have to say about marketing?

ALISON BEARD: They’re both people who over the course of their long careers in different ways, have shown a really uncanny ability to adapt to new trends, particularly technological ones, and keep capturing the attention and imagination of diverse consumers. Most recently, they’ve teamed up for a reality competition show called On Brand. It’s like Shark Tank, but it’s amateur creatives competing to design ad campaigns for companies like Dunkin and Southwest. I would say that the show vastly oversimplifies the business of marketing, but it is an interesting tool in and of itself because each episode functions as an ad, because it’s totally about one company. But it was a really good reason for getting them onto our show to talk about lots of issues, not just branding.

ADI IGNATIUS: No, I’m sure. Look, I mean, they’re both incredibly energetic and incredibly entertaining. Have an audience. I’m interested. What were some of those issues?

ALISON BEARD: In addition to talking about how to market companies and products, we talked about how to market yourself in your career. We talked about how they show up as leaders of creative teams and balance having strong points of view with being collaborative. We talked about how they innovate on different platforms like TikTok and YouTube, and then what type of marketing really does break through. Here is that interview with Bozoma Saint John, the former CMO of Netflix and Jimmy Fallon, host of The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Together, they host On Brand.

The entertainment media and marketing industries have changed dramatically since both of you started your careers. There’s cable and then internet, and then streaming and then social. So what would you say is really the secret to capturing attention now, whether it’s an individual or a show or a corporate brand?

BOZOMA SAINT JOHN: Sure. I mean, God, you made it sound like we started the Stone Ages, girl.

ALISON BEARD: I mean it’s, that’s when I started.

BOZOMA SAINT JOHN: I’m like, speak for yourself. No, but you’re right. Look, the landscape has changed dramatically in the last 20 years, right? The way that consumers listen to entertainment or watch entertainment has changed. I find that being on top of just what people are communicating with each other is the only way in which you can be part of the conversation. Whether you’re a brand or an individual, a show l ike ours, I mean, obviously Jimmy is on TV every day, and so he has the pressure of being able to evolve so that he can continue to keep the audience that he has. So I guess my perspective is just from a brand lens, which is that in order to stay relevant, you really do have to pay attention to the time.

JIMMY FALLON: I think it changes a day by day by day by day. You never really can – there’s probably a couple of weeks where you’re like, “Hey, this is where everyone’s going and then it changes.” You’re like, “Nope, they invented a new thing called flip-flop. Everyone’s on flip-flop.” And you go, “What? I hadn’t even heard of that.” And they go, “Oh, you got to sign up. You’re late to the game.” But it’s always changing and I’m always interested in seeing what the next moves are, especially social media. When we first started Late Night, I remember one of our producers, Gavin Purcell, who’s fantastic. He was like, “You got to get on Twitter.” And I was like, “What is that?” He’s like, “Well, it’s this thing.” And he’s explaining Twitter to me. I go, “Okay,” and then I’m like, “And we’ll put our shows on Twitter.” He like, “Yeah. We can do streaming shows just before we even start up Late Night just to get a following going.”

And I remember getting maybe a hundred followers and I was jumping up and down. I was that into it. I love metrics. I love data. I love to see how things are going up or down or sideways or what type of people are listening or retweeting. We just jumped on and tried everything when it comes out and see if it works for you and you kind of have to learn it and adapt to it. I think number one is still YouTube as far as growth and how much engagement with everybody. It’s just the biggest thing and I don’t know if there’s anything close.

ALISON BEARD: When you have though all these channels varying in popularity, but all the smart people and shows and brands are on them or trying all of them. How do you craft either a persona or a campaign that can break through all of that noise?

BOZOMA SAINT JOHN: I think some of it has to be consistency. Just back to the last question,  I also want to give props to Jimmy himself as a person because he really does throw himself into the creative and into the work. So yes, social media is a powerful tool, but without him actually being in it and doing the trend every day – my point is that it’s not just like, oh, there’s this tool on this platform out there and try to engage on it. Jimmy is putting himself in the work, and I think that’s actually necessary, whether it’s a show or a brand, the consistency is how you show up. If every day, you’re trying to be something different on the platform, nobody’s going to trust you. People, they don’t like that.

JIMMY FALLON: I think that’s also how you find your brand by trying everything on. You go, hey, do I wear bangs? Do I have a bob? Do I have a short hair? You have to try it to see if that’s your style. And you go, hey, I think I found my style everybody. I think for me growing up, I was a very fad type of person. I was ready into fads and trying new things, and I was wearing zipper pants. This is in the 80s and…

ALISON BEARD: Jams.

JIMMY FALLON: Jams is the best. I love my jams. Oh, my gosh. That generation I feel like there were things that were in for two years and then out. Even the music in the 80s, it’s a lot more one-hit wonder, I think, than any decade, but that was because everyone was trying new things and seeing what’s happened. So I think my brain, growing up in that generation of having one-offs and one-hit wonders and things constantly changing and what am I into probably influenced who I am today and how I can function with changing things, and are you good with change? A lot of people aren’t good with change and it freaks people out and they go, “I can’t have a new office. I’m used to my old office.” I go…

ALISON BEARD: Different platform. Same person. Yeah.

JIMMY FALLON: Yeah, I think so. But Bozoma was saying you have to try and you got to get up to bat and swing, and sometimes you hit a home run, sometimes you strike out, but at least you’re trying.

ALISON BEARD: Both of you have very strong personal brands, and I think a lot of that comes from authenticity. But how did you think about that as you built your careers? Bozoma for you in marketing with big jobs at Pepsi and Uber and Apple and Netflix and Jimmy for you with moving from stand up to SNL, to films, and then Late Night?

BOZOMA SAINT JOHN: A personal brand is such an interesting thing because many people will say that like, “Oh, that’s a waste of time,” especially if you’re in corporate settings, but really it’s just new language for what a reputation is. When I started out in this business, of course, I was trying to mimic the successful people ahead of me. It’s like I looked at the corner offices and said, okay, what are they wearing? How do they talk in meetings? What are the ideas they bring? How do they do the thing they do and why do people listen to them? And I just tried to mimic it.

Unfortunately, that did not work and it didn’t work for all the reasons that now as more mature adults we know is because it just didn’t fit and you can’t be authentic. And I know it’s an overused word, but like we were saying before, even as Jimmy explained about trying things on and seeing what fits, for me, it was like this unraveling of who I was trying to be versus who I am. My personal brand became what it is and is because it’s actually just me.

I do wear interesting clothes and I do gesture a lot with my hands and I cry because I get emotional and my hair is always something different. All of those things allow me the freedom to be exactly who I am in every room. And it has made me a better executive. It has made me a better mother. It’s made me a better friend. It’s made me a better contributor to society and a better creative for all those reasons. And so I think the personal brand gets a little confused. Sometimes people are trying to strategize around it and I’m like, no, if you just become more of yourself, then that actually will sustain over time.

JIMMY FALLON: Is it because people can trust you?

BOZOMA SAINT JOHN: Yeah. Right. Because you never come out of character. You know what I mean?

JIMMY FALLON: Yeah. I forget who said, but someone said, yeah. God, I always tell the truth because it’s too much work to lie.

BOZOMA SAINT JOHN: Yeah, it is too hard.

ALISON BEARD: What about you, Jimmy?

JIMMY FALLON: I think when I first started out, I was just hungry and I was focused on getting on Saturday Night Live. That was my goal. So I did stand-up and I did impressions of celebrities, because I knew that Saturday Live used those people on the show to do characters and impressions. So that was going to be my way into Saturday Night Live. So in my stand-up, I would do impressions of John Travolta. I’d be like, “Jeez, I swear to God. I can’t believe this over here. Sandy, what’s going on?” Right, yeah. I don’t know why but that led to other characters, which led to me doing Adam Sandler where it’s like [jibberish]. And you do all that type of stuff and then you go, oh, that stuff we can maybe use.

And I just think that was my ultimate goal is just getting into Saturday Night Live and let’s just check that off. That’s like the bucket list but that was my goal. And I got that at 23, and then once you get it, you go, okay, now what do I do with this? Because I didn’t plan ahead. I didn’t have three other goals. That was it for me. I’m like, uh-oh, I got to figure out what my next goal is.

Do you want to be a movie star? Do you want to be a sitcom star? Do you want to record music? What is your thing? I – So I’ve kind of had to think of a new goal and find it as I was going and see if it fit. I think always for me, as far as material-wise, it was very family friendly. I never really cursed in my act or I was kind of almost prudish.

I think it was my Irish Catholic upbringing, but that’s not really changed for me. So that kind of stayed on brand, but I think I just grew and said, well, maybe I can do this. And then with that didn’t work out. I tried movies, they didn’t really work. And then you just kind of go back to just trying stuff and seeing what sticks and getting into the talk show world, I didn’t really know what I was doing either there, but I got a lot of practice and I was on at 12:30 at night when no one was watching.

ALISON BEARD: I think a few people are watching.

JIMMY FALLON: Maybe like prison guards, and college kids. But I mean, I had to do that and kind of figure out there how to have an interview, how to talk to somebody. Am I nervous? I still get nervous but it’s fun because I care, I think, and I want to do a great job. But you get another opportunity and then you grow and you see how you can do that best.

ALISON BEARD: It sounds like you both very much found your distinct lanes, despite the fact that you’re both in crowded fields. How would each of you describe your leadership brand, right? Because both bosses, you’re running organizations, you’re running shows, you’re running teams of people. What is your unique style or the unique thing that you bring.

JIMMY FALLON: Boz is better at this than I am.

ALISON BEARD: Well, but you’re an informal leader even if you’re not called the CEO of The Tonight Show.

JIMMY FALLON: Yeah.

BOZOMA SAINT JOHN: But he’s still my boss. I still consider my boss, honestly. So I mean, hell, you’re a leader of me if nothing else. Okay.

JIMMY FALLON: Yeah, come on. But you have that feeling when you get in the room with Bozoma Saint John. You go, whoa, this is like, I can feel like-

ALISON BEARD: She’s in charge.

JIMMY FALLON: Yeah, well, you feel like someone smart is in the room. Whereas I’m here, it’s like, oh, my gosh, Uncle Buck is here.

BOZOMA SAINT JOHN: Oh, my God, that is so ridiculous.

JIMMY FALLON: Substitute teachers here. I’m always reading books, and I’d be curious to ask you also what books I should read too for management. And I love all that stuff and I love self-help books and learning constantly about how to do it better. And even if not, remind yourself of what works and what doesn’t work. Being mad doesn’t work. I know that.

BOZOMA SAINT JOHN: Yeah, being mad doesn’t work.

JIMMY FALLON: It just does, right?

BOZOMA SAINT JOHN: It’s so interesting. I think my leadership style has changed, of course, over years and different experiences. The way that I led my Apple Music team in launching the brand and the service itself was far different from the way I led when I became chief marketing officer of Netflix. One because they were so different in terms of not just the product but the time. I started Netflix, we were two months into the pandemic. And I remember my first staff meeting, I mean, there’s well over a thousand marketers, and I didn’t see anybody’s face. And I think I’m the kind of leader that does need to be in the room. I like in front of people. I want to see your face and your reaction and see if what I’m saying is inspiring. Is it funny? Are you confused by what I’m saying? I need all of that to be able to-

JIMMY FALLON: A reaction.

BOZOMA SAINT JOHN: Yeah, I need something! And it was such an impossible time of trying to inspire people to be more creative and think out of the box and all of the things that we say at a time when nobody knew what the hell was going on.

But the constant theme throughout, I think, for me in leadership has always been knowing the detail of what is going on, understanding what people are interested in on my teams, because the challenge is that you put all of the pressure on the results and you don’t think about the people. I have had the kind of career where in order to really do the work, we had to be so close to culture that I needed different types of people on my team, people who didn’t know what I know.

I take a lot from physics, which is the idea of matter. That matter is made up of molecules and you change one molecule and the entire matter changes. And for me, I’m like, matter is a team, the people that I’m working with, and you change one molecule and the whole thing changes. And so understanding the importance of every single person who is contributing, they can be the assistant or they could be the SVP of a region, their contributions are so important. So making people know that so that they want to show up to their job, they want to do the best job that they could do because they know how important they are, because I told them that has been a constant leadership tool for me.

ALISON BEARD: I love that.

JIMMY FALLON: Also what you just said too, also showing up I think is one thing that you learn as the more you do this is that all the great leaders show up.

BOZOMA SAINT JOHN: sYes.

JIMMY FALLON: Whether it’s a restaurant. I’ve seen restaurants fail because you go, hey, we had a great year. I don’t have to go in anymore. And you go, no.

BOZOMA SAINT JOHN: Wait, Jimmy, I’m going to interrupt you one second because actually, I have a story about Jimmy on his leadership, and this is going to embarrass you, so whatever, you just got to deal with it. We had over 270 crew members, I think, on On Brand, and I’ve always felt that I’m a friendly person. I see people, I say hello, all of that stuff, but I’ve never seen anyone do it like Jimmy does, meaning that we were walking onto set one day and somebody was nailing something on a wall, bent over in the corner, and Jimmy was like, “Hey bud, you’re doing a great job.”

I’ve never seen anybody do that in my life. You know what I mean? Just paying attention to the small things. And the showing up is also in recognizing people’s contributions. And so for Jimmy, I think leadership is not just how he commands a production to be done or his contributions to like, oh, let’s use this line or change this word, but also making people feel like they are part of something even bigger and that they’re important, and I saw that in action.

ALISON BEARD: Yeah. It sounds like the sort of infectious spirit that you bring to the show, to public facing engagements, you’re also practicing behind the scenes. Did you learn that leadership style, the idea of keeping it fun, of showing gratitude to even the smallest players? Did you learn that on SNL from people like Lorne Michaels?

JIMMY FALLON: Lorne Michaels, yes, definitely. I think that’s one of the things I learned from him is showing up and just being there for everybody. I think as the part of gratitude, one of my biggest lessons I learned from Cameron Crowe, who’s a great writer-director but he directed me. I was in Almost Famous. You can cue the applause now.

ALISON BEARD: We’re going to go straight to Fever Pitch, but okay.

JIMMY FALLON: No, I’ll start with my first one and I’ll go into my filmography after that. This podcast is three hours, right? All right, perfect. So I remember I was on set and I saw Cameron giving notes to this extra, and he was like, “Okay, you had a long day. Okay, you got three more tables and then you get to go home,” just giving direction to this extra, and then they did action, and the extras didn’t have any lines, just in the background.

And I was like, “Whoa.” No one was looking at him. He was just him and this extra talking and he made that person feel like a million bucks. And that made everybody go like, we are all doing this. Everybody’s worth something here. This is awesome, and I’ll never forget that. It was the coolest thing that he did. So I think combo of that, Lorne Michaels and Saturday Night Live, and I think all the different hosts that come in on Saturday Night Live too, and talking to all them and just seeing how, yeah –

ALISON BEARD: Some people brought that sort of positive addition to the matter that Boz was talking about, and some didn’t, I imagine.

JIMMY FALLON: Yeah, and caring and just go like, oh, that was great what you did. I like that. When these celebrities host Saturday Night Live, they’re coming to a place that they’re not used to. So if you have Robert De Niro, for example, I remember him asking me where his mark was. “Jimmy, where’s my mark?” I’m like, “I’m not going to tell Robert De Niro anything. You can stand wherever you want, dude, I’m good.” He’s like, “No, I don’t really know because I’ve never done this.” And I go, “Oh, it’s right there. And then you’re going to land, you’re going to say the lines facing that way.” He say, “Okay. Cool.” Just help each other. We’re on the team now. I’m like, I just totally helped. I gave direction to Robert De Niro, what is going on in my life? And he loved it, but we would laugh and it was just great.

ALISON BEARD: So we all know that the best creative teams come from putting people together with diverse points of view and everyone sharing their ideas and brainstorming together. But how do you all as strong personalities with good ideas, I imagine because you’ve been very successful, how do you balance expressing your own opinions, putting your own stamp on things with also working collaboratively and bringing in the opinions of others?

BOZOMA SAINT JOHN:

That’s a tough one.

JIMMY FALLON:

Yeah, that’s a good one.

BOZOMA SAINT JOHN: For me, I get very passionate in every job I’ve had, passionate about how the things should land because I’m like, oh, I know that’s going to garner results. Sometimes I’ve been wrong, but I always have a strong point of view. I’m thinking back to times when it’s like, look, as part of a creative team, you do have to follow the direction of whomever is in charge.

It’s kind of like any like a coach or general or something. If everybody doesn’t fall in line, it’s liable that you go wrong. And so at some point as a creative, you can have a strong idea. You can think it’s the best one, but if it is not the one that goes forward, you have to submit and help the next person. And so going back to your question about leadership, it is something I’ve always encouraged my teams, which is that once I’ve been in the seat as the CMO to decide which idea goes forward, and now everybody get behind that idea.

ALISON BEARD: Disagree, and then commit.

BOZOMA SAINT JOHN: Oh, I oh, we should have done this, should have done that. That’s when we’re all going to fail. So it’s like once an idea has been chosen to go forward, everybody put your energy into making sure that that idea is what wins.

ALISON BEARD: How do you steer people with good, well-meaning ideas in better directions?

JIMMY FALLON: This is just me, but I always like to say at least my point of view on something just to say it. And then there’s probably someone in the room that might be better at whatever the thing is, and I’ll let them hear my idea and hopefully, it sparks something that they can land the plane and I don’t need to take credit for it.

For instance, Southwest, we did this episode last night that you watched, but the challenge was to wrap a plane – basically paint the side of an airplane. So it’s a big thing and we’re going, well, blah, blah, blah. How do you do that? Well, this is going to be seen by a lot of people. And then Bozoma goes, “Well, when I wrapped a plane for Beats.” I go, “You wrapped a plane.” Who else? I mean, we’re talking to someone who’s done this. How many people do you know that wrapped a plane before?

ALISON BEARD: I don’t.

JIMMY FALLON: Yeah, I know now you do. Now you know two people but it’s wild. It was like she knows she’s done this. What hits? What do people look at? What do they see? What are the things that pop? And you kind of go, that’s great. We have someone that’s played the game before.

ALISON BEARD: So Jimmy, why at this point in your career did you feel qualified to host a show on branding and marketing?

JIMMY FALLON: I think because of all the years of Late Night and Tonight Show, and my job is basically selling things for my guests. I have them on and I pitch their movies or their music, or I’m selling their wares, their products. I’ve kind of enjoyed it when we have an integration or some brand goes, “Hey, is there any way you can mention toilet paper this week in the show?” And I go, “Love it, bring it on. What do you want? I can write whatever I want, right?” I go, “I will think of something.” And then I go, “Yeah,” and we’ll talk about, “Hey, do you put the toilet paper roll over the top or do you put the toilet paper roll with the paper coming under?” And you have a debate and people get in fights, and it’s funny. That’s a fun challenge. So I’ve done that for the past 15 years. So that’s a long time, a lot of shows. I think tonight’s hitting almost like it’s 2,300th show or something crazy.

BOZOMA SAINT JOHN: Oh, my God. That’s so amazing.

JIMMY FALLON: So I kind of love the stuff, and I had a weird, again, just an odd idea, and I didn’t have to throw them out to people. And so I pitched it to NBC. I typed it up, you know, bothered my wife with all these questions for months, and then I go, “I think this is something I could pitch,” And I pitched to NBC and they said, “No, but thank you so much. You keep these ideas coming buddy and stay strong at Late Night.” And you go, “Okay.”

And then I was like, I didn’t let it die. I was like, I really do think this is something you should give a chance to. I think it’s different. And as Bozoma was saying, at one point, we were talking about this and we’re like, because a brand new type of business structure, even to repaying for the show and all this stuff, but also what Bozoma was saying, it’s kind of like a new toy to play with for brands. Like, how much fun can we have?

ALISON BEARD: Yeah, the companies are sort of sponsoring each episode basically. And so the advertisement isn’t necessarily what’s generated by the contestants, it’s the show itself.

BOZOMA SAINT JOHN: I also want to say that I know Jimmy, he’s creative and he has done a lot of work with brands, but he’s also a student of marketing. W e were just on a show together where we’re playing a little quiz game of like, oh, the taglines and this and that, and Jimmy, he was getting them. And not only that, he’s got the jingles and he remembers. And so it’s like for someone who hasn’t had a formal career in marketing, he’s still an ad guy. I would consider him an ad guy. There’s a natural love and curiosity for the business of marketing and advertising. And so that I think also has a great deal to do with why it’s natural for him to be the one who developed the show and brought it to the world.

JIMMY FALLON: I mean, I love a good ad. Don’t you love to see a good campaign?

BOZOMA SAINT JOHN: Yes, absolutely.

JIMMY FALLON: I love a great campaign. I think Ryan Reynolds is knocking it out of the park.

BOZOMA SAINT JOHN:

Amazing.

ALISON BEARD: We actually, he’s going to co-author, an article in our next issue about Fastvertising and how to quickly capitalize on.

JIMMY FALLON: Oh, he’s best at that. And also probably people wouldn’t have normally given him a chance had he been on a team or a famous ad agency. I mean, I think he used his fame to go like, give me a chance. I’m going to roll the dice on this.

ALISON BEARD: Yeah. It sounds like you’re saying that in this very crowded marketplace as companies are thinking about how to break through, brand integration is one avenue that everyone’s keen on. There is a sort of obviousness to it though, right? So how do you do it in a way that does feel authentic and not just like, ugh, I’m being marketed to right now?

BOZOMA SAINT JOHN: Well, I think it should be obvious. I feel like that’s where brands go wrong when they try to be in a place where they’re not naturally. We excuse Jimmy because he can actually do it very well. So toilet paper maybe doesn’t belong on his desk but he’s going to find a way to bring it in. But the challenge most times is that brands are trying to find integration in scenarios where they simply shouldn’t be because it’s not natural for them to be there. And that’s why it falls apart, not because somebody was sitting there holding their thing and saying, hey, look at this thing, but because it just wasn’t natural to them. And so it’s like, look, when you’re in this space, it should be obvious that I picked up my Pepsi and drank it because I was thirsty.

ALISON BEARD: And then the second avenue you talked about was this idea of capitalizing on cultural moments. And Jimmy, you certainly do that with your show. Bozoma, you did it. I’m sure working at Netflix and Apple and all these sort of fast-paced consumer brands, talk about how you do that in a way that doesn’t seem ham-handed and actually does sort of reach the audience you’re trying to get to.

JIMMY FALLON: Again, there has to be some authenticity behind it too, even though it is the moment, but you take the moment and how do you make it you. So if it is doing a Taylor Swift dance challenge, I can do it with Taylor. The other way to do it is just do the dance challenge myself and be a 51-year-old man trying to do a dance challenge on TikTok, and that’s what it looks like. And it’s like that’s more authentic. And you go, he’s not trying to be a teenager. He’s acting his age. I mean, I’m feeling it now. My era, I’m feeling I’m going into my old man era or getting older era. I feel like if I’m at a high top table, if I go to a restaurant with a high top, if I drop my napkin, I’m not picking it up.

BOZOMA SAINT JOHN: No, no, it’s not.

JIMMY FALLON: My back will hurt.

ALISON BEARD: And we definitely can’t read the writing on the menus either, so.

JIMMY FALLON: I am not the person yet that turns the flashlight on, but I’m real close.

BOZOMA SAINT JOHN: I’m there. You know what I mean?

JIMMY FALLON: I’m real close.

BOZOMA SAINT JOHN: Yeah.

ALISON BEARD: So speaking of being of the moment, as a star, as a show, as a brand, it is a very divisive time politically in the U.S. We’ve seen companies come under fire for moves, celebrities canceled and executives are really unsure what sort of risks they can take right now. And I think the most recent example, obviously in your world, Jimmy, is ABC pulling Jimmy Kimmel off the air for comments about Charlie Kirk.

And you have made a point of being family friendly and apolitical. So just talk a little bit about why you’ve made that decision and are sticking to it. And then I’d love to hear from both of you on how you think that corporate brands can navigate this moment and sort of do the right thing, speak out in moments that they find appropriate, but then not get embroiled in controversy. Jimmy, why don’t you start?

JIMMY FALLON: I mean, it’s also tricky and it’s all kind of moving very fast. Obviously, if there’s a case of government versus the artist, I’m on the artist side. I think everyone should be able to say whatever they want. And I think for me, I’ve kind of learned from Saturday Night Live how close you can get to the edge for myself, which is being authentic. I think my monologues have kind of always been kind of the same. I have probably four or five jokes that are kind of about the political world, and then five jokes about fast food or something. I think if you look in the New York Times the next day, I’m up there, my jokes are up there with all the other guys, but I diversify myself with more poppy stuff. That’s just because of what I’m into.

They do it better than me, the politics stuff, and I’m happy that we have different voices out there and all talking. And if you want that, you can get it. So I think I just stick to what I do best, and whether it be me dressing up as a showgirl and dancing, with the K-pop Demon Hunters, that’s feels on brand to me. I’m not sure if I would want to see any of the other guys do that. So I can only pay attention to myself and do what I think is the funniest, sharpest, and most entertaining stuff every night.

BOZOMA SAINT JOHN: Yeah, I think in the executive world, it gets tricky because you’re representing yourself but you’re also representing the company. Where I think sometimes executives get scared, of course, is that their own personal view is going to be taken out of context or punish the company in a way. And I’m like, that is the truth. So grow up, take a stand, say something, and if you get fired, so be it.

And I remember that I was having a lot of these conversations five years ago when it is like Black Lives Matter was popping off and George Floyd had been murdered. And there’d been like, people were like, “Oh, should we make a statement?” And I had so many friends in the executive space. We were in our little group chats and people were like, “What should I say?” And I’m like, “Well, what do you believe?”

JIMMY FALLON: Start there.

BOZOMA SAINT JOHN: You’ve got to start with wherever you are. And first of all, this is way different from 20 years ago where the society did not expect to understand who’s behind the wall. It is like now people want to know what did the CEO think? What is their opinion on things? Where do they stand? What does the company care for? Those are all things that our consumers and our audiences want to know. And so you have to express it. And unfortunately, it’s like if that has backlash, then that is the job.

ALISON BEARD: What advice would you give to the senior leaders in our audience who are trying to make their brand stand out right now, especially when it’s hard to take risks?

BOZOMA SAINT JOHN: Well, I don’t know why you have your job if you can’t have a stance on something. You have to have an opinion, whether that is cultural opinion or it is an opinion about innovation and what you’re going to create next for your company. I don’t know of any senior leader who’s been put in the job just to tread water. It’s like you’ve got to actually make a change. You’ve got to actually make some impact in the work that you’re doing. And so I don’t have a lot of respect for leaders who come in and do nothing.

ALISON BEARD: Jimmy.

JIMMY FALLON: I think be different as much as you can, be different, take chances, take risks. Everyone says take risks, obviously, but I mean, really do something fresh, do something new and something we haven’t seen and that will pop. I think you’ve seen that with Super Bowl commercials, which I always go back to just a fan, but having a celebrity in a commercial used to be the big thing. Oh, my gosh, it’s Michael Jackson drinking Pepsi. Oh, my gosh. Now that’s every commercial. So now what do you do? Because that already is done.

So now sometimes it was a QR code and you go, what is that? That was the whole ad. I don’t even know if it worked, but it was something different and it popped and you go, people were talking about it. So I think there’s many ways to attack it from different angles. And I think just write them all out. See what way you can do it and try to see what’s the next or clever or different angle that no one else is doing and do that. And if you can do that and have people think that they’ve seen it before, that is the secret sauce. Because if you go like, oh, yeah, I’m used to, that’s of course. Where’s the beef? I always say that.

ALISON BEARD: Surprise that it becomes instantly familiar.

JIMMY FALLON: Yes. Well said. Well said.

ALISON BEARD: Okay, I have one recommendation for next season, an AI contestant.

BOZOMA SAINT JOHN: Oh, that’s interesting.

JIMMY FALLON: Wow.

BOZOMA SAINT JOHN: Wow. That would be something, because that’s a whole –

JIMMY FALLON: I think it would be-

BOZOMA SAINT JOHN: Alison wants us to be embroiled in controversy is what’s happening.

JIMMY FALLON: I think that would be…

ALISON BEARD: Really interesting.

JIMMY FALLON: … hilarious.

ALISON BEARD: Brainstorming. It’s developing concepts. It’s thinking out of the box.

JIMMY FALLON: Do you think it would work? I don’t think it would work.

ALISON BEARD: I mean, or maybe AI assistance something. I think it’s something to explore. Yeah. I did talk to an executive who said the one thing AI doesn’t have is taste, and so maybe that is the problem.

BOZOMA SAINT JOHN: That’s what it is.

ALISON BEARD: Okay.

BOZOMA SAINT JOHN: We got some people who didn’t have no taste either, so there you go.

JIMMY FALLON: Exactly.

ALISON BEARD: Well, thank you both so much for your time. I really appreciate it.

JIMMY FALLON: This was awesome. We loved it.

BOZOMA SAINT JOHN: Thank you so much.

ALISON BEARD: That was marketing executive Bozoma Saint John and comedian Jimmy Fallon, who also hosts the new NBC show On Brand. Next week, Adi looks at the impact of Freakonomics, 20 years after its publication, with author Stephen Dubner.

If you found this episode helpful, please share it with a colleague and be sure to subscribe and rate IdeaCast in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. If you want to help leaders move the world forward, consider subscribing to Harvard Business Review. You’ll get access to the HBR mobile app, the weekly exclusive Insider newsletter, and unlimited access to HBR online. Just head to HBR.org/subscribe.

Thanks to our team: Senior producer Mary Dooe, Audio product manager Ian Fox, and Senior Production Specialist Rob Eckhardt. And thanks to you for listening to the HBR IdeaCast. We’ll be back with a new episode on Tuesday. I’m Alison Beard.

This week’s economic calendar: Housing data, BoC speeches and more



Canada’s Thanksgiving-shortened week still packs several key developments for the housing market and interest rate outlook.

Builders, buyers and policymakers will all come under the spotlight through a series of data releases and central bank appearances that could help shape expectations for the Bank of Canada’s next rate decision on October 29.

Scotiabank economist Derek Holt notes that the latest housing figures will test whether August’s slowdown in construction is the beginning of a softer trend. “Housing starts in September will inform whether the pull-back to a still respectable 246,000 seasonally adjusted annualized rate level in August was the start of a new trend or not, following four months of readings closer to 300,000,” Holt wrote.

He added that existing home sales “have been on a four-month winning streak,” making this week’s update a key data point for gauging the health of the resale market as interest rates ease.

At the same time, both Governor Tiff Macklem and Senior Deputy Governor Carolyn Rogers are set to deliver speeches that could offer policy insight. Holt expects Macklem to “take the fight straight into Washington” during his Thursday appearance at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, with likely discussion of trade tensions, tariffs and Canada’s financial stability outlook.

Here’s what to keep an eye on:


Tuesday, Oct. 14 – Building permits and Carolyn Rogers speech

Statistics Canada’s August building permits report will offer a first look at how developers are positioning for the months ahead. July saw a marginal 0.1% decline, with multi-unit projects continuing to dominate as affordability challenges steer buyers away from single-family homes. Another soft reading would point to continued caution despite easing mortgage rates.

Later in the day, Senior Deputy Governor Carolyn Rogers speaks at the B.C. Business Summit on productivity and competition.

Wednesday, Oct. 15 – Existing home sales

Wednesday brings one of the week’s most closely watched housing updates. CREA’s existing home sales for September will be published in the morning, offering a read on how buyers and sellers are responding to easing borrowing costs. Sales have been on a four-month winning streak, and this update will show whether that momentum continued as listings increased and prices stabilized across much of the country.

Thursday, Oct. 16 – Housing starts and Governor Macklem

Thursday will centre on CMHC’s housing starts data, which will show whether August’s pullback to 246,000 annualized units marked the start of a slower construction phase or simply a pause.

Later that afternoon, Governor Tiff Macklem speaks in Washington, D.C., at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. His comments on Canada’s trade position, inflation progress and monetary outlook could influence market pricing for the Bank’s next decision.

Friday, Oct. 17 – U.S. housing indicators

South of the border, the U.S. will release housing starts and building permits for September, providing a broader read on North American construction trends. Starts are expected to rise modestly to around 1.32 million units, while permits are seen steady near 1.35 million.


Week of October 13, 2025

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Financial Management Explained in 11 minutes



What is Financial Management?
Financial management is the process of planning, organizing, controlling, and monitoring financial resources to achieve an organization’s goals efficiently and effectively. It involves budgeting, investing, risk management, and ensuring the business has enough cash flow.

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The Hidden Costs of Self-Managing Your Portfolio


This article is presented by Invest 5S.

It’s 11:47 p.m. on a Tuesday, and you’re hunched over your laptop, frantically searching for a plumber who’ll take an emergency call. Your tenant in the duplex has been texting nonstop about a burst pipe, and you’ve already spent two hours tonight coordinating repairs, reviewing invoices from last week’s HVAC issue, and updating your rent roll spreadsheet.

Sound familiar?

If you’re self-managing your real estate portfolio, this scenario probably hits close to home. You got into real estate investing for financial freedom, but somehow you’ve created a second job that demands your attention at all hours.

Here’s the brutal truth most investors won’t admit: The time you’re spending “saving money” on management fees might actually be costing you more than you think.

While you’re busy celebrating the 8% to 12% you’re not paying a property manager, you’re potentially sacrificing something far more valuable: Your time. Your energy. Your ability to scale. And, ironically, your overall return on investment.

Most investors can tell you exactly how much they spend on repairs, utilities, and mortgage payments. But ask them to calculate the hidden cost of their own time spent managing properties, and you’ll usually get a blank stare.

That hidden cost? It’s quietly eating into your profits every single month.

The Real Numbers Behind Self-Management

Let’s put some hard numbers to this time investment. According to industry data, self-managing landlords spend an average of eight to 12 hours per month per property on management tasks. For a modest five-unit portfolio, that’s potentially 60 hours monthly.

Break that down by activity:

  • Tenant communication and issue resolution: 15-20 hours
  • Maintenance coordination and vendor management: 12-18 hours
  • Financial tracking and rent collection: 8-10 hours
  • Property inspections and showings: 6-8 hours
  • Legal compliance and paperwork: 4-6 hours

Now, here’s where it gets expensive: If you’re a working professional earning $75,000 annually (roughly $36 per hour), those 60 monthly hours represent $2,160 in opportunity cost. Suddenly, that 10% property management fee on $8,000 in monthly rent ($800) looks like a bargain.

But the math gets worse when you factor in the stress multiplier. Emergency calls don’t always happen during business hours. Tenant disputes escalate on weekends. That burst pipe at 11 p.m.? It’s not just costing you sleep— it’s stealing time from your family, primary career, and mental health.

Studies show that 65% of self-managing landlords report feeling overwhelmed by the time demands, and 43% admit it has negatively impacted their primary income source. Meanwhile, properties with professional management see 23% less tenant turnover and 31% faster resolution of maintenance issues.

The opportunity cost isn’t just financial. It’s strategic. Every hour spent coordinating repairs is an hour not spent analyzing new deals, networking with other investors, or scaling your portfolio.

The Specific Time Drains You Don’t See Coming

Beyond the obvious tasks, self-management involves dozens of hidden time sinks that add up fast. These are the activities that experienced property managers handle systematically, but catch DIY landlords off guard.

Tenant screening rabbit holes

What starts as a simple tenant background check turns into hours of phone tag with previous landlords, employment verification calls, and income documentation reviews. First-time landlords often spend three to five hours screening per applicant, only to discover the “perfect tenant” has three evictions they didn’t disclose.

The maintenance coordination maze

A simple repair request triggers a cascade of time-consuming tasks. You research contractors, gather multiple quotes, coordinate schedules, supervise work, inspect completion, and process payments. What should be a 30-minute fix becomes a multiday project management ordeal.

Financial tracking nightmare

Rent collection seems straightforward—until tenants start paying partial amounts, sending payments to wrong accounts, or disputing charges. Reconciling bank statements, tracking security deposits, and preparing year-end tax documents can consume entire weekends.

Legal compliance land mines

Housing laws change constantly. Fair housing regulations, security deposit rules, eviction procedures, and habitability standards vary by state and city. Compliance requires ongoing education and documentation that most investors underestimate.

Emergency response fatigue

Water heater failures, lockouts, and HVAC breakdowns don’t follow business hours. Each emergency interrupts your day, requiring immediate attention and follow-up. The average landlord handles six to eight emergency situations annually per property, each consuming two to four hours of response time.

These “invisible” tasks compound quickly, especially as your portfolio grows. What feels manageable with one property becomes overwhelming with five.

The Scalability Problem

Here’s where self-management becomes a growth ceiling rather than a cost-saving strategy. Every successful investor eventually hits the wall where time constraints throttle their ability to scale.

The portfolio bottleneck 

Most self-managing investors plateau around three to five properties because they simply run out of bandwidth. While competitors are analyzing deals and expanding portfolios, you’re stuck fielding tenant calls and chasing contractors. 

 

The irony? You’re saving 10% on management fees, but missing 100% of the growth opportunities that would dwarf those savings.

Career impact creep 

Property management doesn’t respect your 9-to-5 schedule. That important client presentation gets derailed by an emergency repair call. Your focus at your primary job suffers because you’re mentally juggling tenant issues. Many self-managing investors find their performance in their main career declining, often resulting in missed promotions or reduced earning potential that far exceeds any management fee savings.

Opportunity cost multiplication 

Every hour spent on property management is an hour not spent on higher-value activities. Instead of researching emerging markets, networking with wholesale dealers, or analyzing potential acquisitions, you’re arguing with contractors about invoice discrepancies. The deals you miss while managing existing properties often represent 10x the annual savings from self-management.

Decision fatigue and burnout 

Managing multiple properties creates constant micro-decisions that drain mental energy. Should you approve that $200 repair? Which contractor quote is best? Is this tenant complaint legitimate? This decision overload leads to poor choices, delayed responses, and eventually, complete burnout.

The most successful real estate investors understand a fundamental principle: Your highest value is in deal-making and strategy, not day-to-day operations. Self-management keeps you trapped in low-value tasks while opportunities slip away.

The Solution: Systems-Based Efficiency

The answer isn’t necessarily hiring a property management company. It’s implementing systems that eliminate chaos and create predictable, efficient workflows. Smart investors are discovering that the right operational framework can deliver the time savings of professional management while maintaining control and maximizing profits.

The breakthrough approach comes from an unlikely source: the 5S methodology. Originally developed in Japanese manufacturing to eliminate waste and maximize efficiency, 5S has proven remarkably effective when applied to real estate portfolio management.

Here’s how the five pillars work:

  1. Sort: Remove unnecessary tasks and eliminate redundant processes that consume time without adding value.
  2. Set: Organize remaining activities into logical, repeatable workflows that create consistency across your entire operation.
  3. Shine: Maintain clean, up-to-date systems through regular reviews and automated updates that prevent small issues from becoming major problems.
  4. Standardize: Establish uniform procedures and templates that work consistently across your entire portfolio, regardless of property type or location.
  5. Sustain: Build monitoring systems and habits that maintain peak efficiency over the long term without constant manual intervention.

While the methodology is proven, most real estate investors struggle to implement systematic efficiency because they’re trapped in the very chaos they’re trying to escape.

This is where Invest 5S comes in.

Despite the similar name, Invest 5S isn’t a software platform or management system. Instead, they’re a family-owned real estate development company that offers overwhelmed investors a completely different solution: systematic passive investment opportunities that eliminate the management burden entirely.

Founded by Clay Schlinke with over 30 years of development experience, Invest 5S provides investors with turnkey duplex and fourplex investments in high-growth Texas markets. Their vertically integrated business model controls every aspect from land acquisition to ongoing management, delivering the systematic efficiency that individual investors struggle to achieve on their own.

Rather than teaching you to organize your existing chaos, Invest 5S offers pre-systematized real estate investments with defined two-to-three-year exit strategies. You get the cash flow and appreciation benefits of real estate without any tenant calls, maintenance coordination, or operational headaches. Their systematic development process—built on three decades of experience and over 4,000 lots developed—delivers consistent returns, while you focus on your primary career and family.

For busy professionals drowning in self-management tasks, Invest 5S represents the ultimate systematic solution: passive real estate investing that reclaims your time completely.

Take Action: Reclaim Your Time

Stop letting day-to-day hassles of real estate investing consume your life and limit your growth. If you’re an investor ready to escape the self-management trap, explore systematic passive investing with Invest 5S. Discover how their vertically integrated development approach delivers consistent real estate returns through turnkey Texas properties, without distractions, inefficiencies, or operational chaos.

Your time is too valuable to waste on midnight plumbing emergencies. Let systematic efficiency work for you instead.

European Venture Markets : AI Now A Dominant Factor While Exits Remain Uneven


European venture markets this year continue to tell two very different stories and contrasting narratives, according to a report from PitchBook. On one hand, artificial intelligence appears to have cemented itself as the dominant force, making up almost 40% of deal value YTD and delivering some of the year’s most sizable funding rounds, including those by Mistral AI and Nscale.

PitchBook also noted in its latest update that on the other hand, exits remain somewhat uneven, highlighted by BNPL Fintech firm Klarna’s recent initial public offering (IPO), which has significantly buoyed overall exit figures but largely left underlying activity lagging.

Meanwhile, the research report pointed out that emerging managers are reshaping the fundraising ecosystem, with relatively smaller, first-time funds steadily gaining market share, and venture debt activity has slowed down considerably after a very solid 2024.

In addition to these updates, the latest European Venture Report from PitchBook, sponsored by J.P. Morgan, analyzes several key shifts, from regional resilience in Israel and Southern Europe to the sectors that are said to be losing ground as investor capital crowds into AI.

For founders, investors, and LPs, these latest trends reflect a market that is seemingly recalibrating following years of “exuberance”—one that is a lot leaner, seemingly more selective, and increasingly being transformed by the unprecedented rise of AI.

Meanwhile, in other key developments, PitchBook noted in another update that European PE is showing real momentum. Q3 saw dealmaking accelerate considerably, with megadeals and US sponsors driving Europe’s expanding role as a global private equity hub.

Exit activity has also rebounded considerably, with major continuation vehicle transactions and middle-market deals offering much-needed liquidity as LPs begin to push for distributions.

However, it is worth noting that fundraising still remains quite challenging at the top end, with megafunds under consistent pressure. Nevertheless, the PitchBook report pointed out that middle market is doing reasonably well—especially in the United Kingdom, which appears to have cemented its status as Europe’s leading fundraising hub.



The AI App Store Moment


OpenAI has launched apps within ChatGPT in its bid to add functionality and improve monetization of the product.

In this podcast, Motley Fool contributors Travis Hoium, Lou Whiteman, and Rachel Warren discuss:

  • ChatGPT gets apps.
  • App opportunities.
  • A trillion-dollar question for ChatGPT.

To catch full episodes of all The Motley Fool’s free podcasts, check out our podcast center. When you’re ready to invest, check out this top 10 list of stocks to buy.

A full transcript is below.

This podcast was recorded on Oct. 08, 2025.

Travis Hoium: Is artificial intelligence in need of an app store? Motley Fool Money starts now. Welcome to Motley Fool Money. I’m Travis Hoium. I’m joined by Lou Whiteman and Rachel Warren. We’ve got to get to the big news of the week. We’ve got a couple of days to process this, that is OpenAI introducing apps. They have tried some of these things before, plug-ins, custom GPTs to varying levels of success, but obviously they’re going in a different direction now. But this was I thought a really interesting announcement because the vision here is a lot bigger than just being an AI tool. It’s being the operating system of your life, if you will. There are companies involved who are willingly building apps, companies like Zillow, Expedia, Booking.com. Rachel, what are you taking away from this and what should investors know about OpenAI’s move into apps? It’s not quite an app store, but they are making apps.

Rachel Warren: Yeah, it’s interesting. I think you can see how a lot of the efforts that they have leveraged in the past maybe have led them to this point. I want to talk a little bit about how this app store works and why I also do think this could be really different from what we’ve seen in OpenAI in the past. Their app store, is this new platform, it’s integrated directly within ChatGPT, and it basically allows users to interact with third party apps using conversation natural language. For instance, you could ask ChatGPT to create a playlist with Spotify or find houses for sale with Zillow and then those apps are activated from directly within the ChatGPT conversation. Instead of having to leave the chat to use another service, those apps run directly in the thread. I think the idea is to simplify the user experience. At launch they’re partnering with some really big companies, with Spotify, Booking.com owned by Booking Holdings, Expedia, Zillow, Figma which is newly public, as well as private companies like Canva. I think it’s interesting to note, their past attempts like plugins that you alluded to. These had been limited text-based access. They were really rigid invite-only systems for developers. The chat interface was really cumbersome. Importantly, monetization wasn’t really a core feature there. Now, these new apps, I think, are very much designed to be a funnel toward monetization where OpenAI could make money from more of a revenue sharing model. It’s really interesting to see what they’re doing with this.

Travis Hoium: Lou, is this the way that we’re going to be using AI in the future? The vision here I think is, look on an iPhone or something or another smartphone. You’re going to download apps and then you’re going to actually interact with the app. You’re not really calling them from something like Siri, but this is taking that to the next level and going, hey, Zillow why don’t you just build for this AI chatbot and we’ll just call your information. Is that the way that we’re going to go in the future?

Lou Whiteman: Maybe. I will say this, if it works as good as the demo, it’s gold. But I’ve learned I think we’ve all learned not to just buy the demo. What I worry about here is there’s a garbage in garbage out problem, I think, because AI isn’t actually smart, it’s just trained on data. Just to pick on one, Zillow, their walkability score is the biggest, I shouldn’t call it garbage so I’ll just call it sub-par. [LAUGHTER] You can’t actually know whether or not a house, you can walk around it from the walkability score. In the example of give me a house that I can walk you to restaurants from, if it’s based on the Zillow walkability score, I think it’s going to be sub-human responses. I think there’s a trillion of these problems to be worked out. I think there’s all sorts of questions that we can get to later about Walled Gardens versus everybody there and how you make this work. To me, I want to get excited. It looks really good on paper, but I wonder if this is one of these things that’s always going to look better on paper than it is in real world execution.

Travis Hoium: According to some interviews by Sam Altman in the past couple of days, the vision here is bigger, and it will all make sense in a few months. Maybe we need to hold a little bit on what the full vision is. But I think what was interesting with these apps and one of the reasons that this is pertinent to us as investors, I think it’s from a disruption angle. If you think about the biggest disruptions are moving to a different technology paradigm, so the PC. You have opportunity and disruption, the Internet opportunity disruption, mobile devices, same thing. If ChatGPT becomes the way that we interact with technology, now you don’t have Zillow as an aggregator. You don’t have booking.com as an aggregator. You have ChatGPT in the power position. Altman even said, we could have just who had gone out and called all the information that Zillow was calling, but we wanted to work with these partners like he’s being some philanthropist with the technology. But this is, I think, a risk for a company is if you’re losing that direct customer relationship and you’re giving it to ChatGPT, is this a good thing, even if you’re partnering with the leading AI company today, Lou?

Lou Whiteman: There’s so much here, so much unpacked. For one, the big thing is, before we even get into the brands, it’s privacy. OpenAI has a ton of data. Can OpenAI just ring off my wanting to book a trip without telling every other partner they have? Hey, Lou is going to be in Toronto next week. Why don’t you sell him stuff, things like that. There’s all sorts of just on that layer. I like only Expedia knowing if I’m going to Toronto. But the bigger thing here, this whole idea of the OpenAI as the new Windows. Windows became Windows because it worked with everything. That was it, whatever you wanted to build, you could do. There’s a chicken and the egg problem here. You need customers, you need a ton of customers to attract every retailer to come on board or every website to come on board, but you need retailers to lure the customers. In theory, yes, there is a perfect world here where it’s just I go to my OpenAI, and that’s all I ever need. But how we get there is a bear.

Travis Hoium: Yeah, Rachel, this does seem like an area where it’s possible for disruption if this vision works. But it’s pretty unclear exactly how this is going to play out, given the massive size of this vision, not only from a technology standpoint but also from a financial standpoint.

Rachel Warren: Yeah, I want to stress that I think there’s room for multiple winners here. You know, I don’t think OpenAI comes in, and then that standard business model from some of these flagship players just goes out the window. As you noted, it’s very early days. We’re still waiting to see how exactly is OpenAI going to monetize this? Are consumers going to adopt this at a broad scale. But I do think it is interesting to look at the Bear thesis for a minute. Who could face disruption here if this type of platform ecosystem really takes off? Obviously the most significant disruption, which is what you alluded to, would be companies whose core business is providing a user interface for specific tasks. You could think about how Apple, Alphabet Google, Microsoft, which obviously control their respective ecosystems could face market threats. Of course, there’s other companies you think of the Adobes and sales forces of the world. They’re already experiencing some market skepticism amid the AI revolution. Then there’s the traditional search engine business, which of course is dominated by Google. Could that be disrupted? OpenAI’s approach has been to collapse the search to convert process. That could allow in this new app store, users to interact with services directly within ChatGPT. You could even think about how companies like Uber or DoorDash, who have really built their value on having users interact with their specific app to book a service could face some threats, but I don’t think the actual reality is going to be this bleak. Honestly, I think more likely than not, if this new use case for AI succeeds, we’ll probably see consumers adopt it as one other tool in their vast toolkit in the digital age. I don’t think strong companies with robust competitive advantages are going anywhere. If anything, maybe they can use this type of tool to play to their strengths if they execute it right.

Travis Hoium: We’re going to talk about that potential widening the funnel in just a moment. You’re listening to Motley Fool Money.

Widening the funnel for some of these applications. Some that were announced as apps that are coming soon, Peloton, DoorDash, Target, it is possible that ChatGPT allows more customers to interact with these applications than they had previously. If you’re not somebody who has downloaded the Peloton app and signed up for Peloton, you don’t have access to that. Same thing with Target. Maybe you don’t shop at Target, but maybe just having a conversation with ChatGPT is a good way for them to broaden out and get more customers. Is that possible that some of these applications, at least, are going to see this as a way to bring more customers to them? It’s an opportunity instead of a threat, Rachel, because I think there’s always two sides to the coin here, and one of the things we’re going to talk about in a minute is how in the world does ChatGPT make money? Well, if you have a business that makes money and your problem is customer acquisition, maybe ChatGPT answers this for you.

Rachel Warren: Yeah, I do think it could widen the funnel. I also think an important point to make is, you see all of these major companies that are onboarding in the very early launch of this app store. I don’t think these companies would be coming to the table with OpenAI if they thought this was just going to cannibalize their business. I think they see this as an opportunity.

Travis Hoium: That’s usually the way that disruption works, to be fair. [LAUGHTER] As you see it, Disney sold their content to Netflix and basically armed the rebels.

Rachel Warren: To play the bull case here, I do think that a lot of these companies and others might view this integration into the OpenAI app ecosystem as an opportunity to widen their user funnel. The thing is, AI can commoditize very basic functions, but I think these companies are thinking that they can leverage OpenAI’s platform to maybe deliver more integrated, personalized, or even efficient experiences that would draw users back to their core services and data. You can actually take Zillow as an example, which Lou was talking about earlier. Say a user uses ChatGPT to find homes near a certain location. Let’s say they want to get the estimate valuations. They want to view the 3D virtual tours. They want to connect with a Zillow premier agent. They have to then go back to that app ecosystem. That could make them more of a gateway to some of that high value data. That’s just one example. I do think there could be a competitive opportunity for companies that play this right. I just think it’s too soon to know for sure what this is going to look like. I think it’s also fair to say to your point, Travis, there might be companies that are onboarding to this because they fear getting left behind. That’s also potentially a factor at play.

Lou Whiteman: Two thoughts here. For one, the idea of, so I’m not a Peloton customer. I maybe put in something in OpenAI, how can I get in shape? Then, am I going to get spammed with Peloton? [OVERLAPPING] I keep going back to this because this all just rings as something that sounds so much better on stage than it does in execution. I’ll give you another example of this. Who is the gatekeeper here? Booking and Expedia are both partners right now. If I want to fly to Minnesota, who gets that business? Who decides that? Is that a competitive auction thing? Because if it is, and it gets expensive, [OVERLAPPING].

Travis Hoium: As it works right now, you would have to specifically call booking.com. [OVERLAPPING]

Lou Whiteman: But if you do that, you’re not broadening the funnel. I’m already a relationship. If DoorDash and Instacart are both in this system, and one day, I say, I need milk. How does that work? There’s a lot of ways that, yes, in theory, if they can work all of this out, it is intriguing. But there’s all sorts of, I keep thinking of that meme where it’s like, step 1, do this. Step 2, 3, and 4 is blank, and step 5 is profit. There’s a lot of blanks in that middle right now as far as figuring out the economics here, who gets paid what and how it all works out. I get the vision, I just keep coming back to these execution things and wondering.

Travis Hoium: Well, that’s a question I think we should dive into a little bit is is this a TenX improvement? The concept for a lot of disruptions and moving people from what they’re doing today to doing something else is that it has to be 10 times better. If you go back to the advent of the PC. You’re moving from doing math, for example, on paper to doing it on a computer, way easier. The Internet, now suddenly the encyclopedias that we had at home you can just find all that information online. Mobile devices, now that all that information is just in your pocket. All these are easily TenX improvements. Is going to one app, and this is where maybe we’ll find out more about what the hardware future for OpenAI looks like over the next couple of months. But I do think that is a question, Lou is this the improvement in our lives that is going to necessitate us actually adopting OpenAI as our do everything application instead of the way that we’re doing things today.

Lou Whiteman: Yeah, and another point on this. If we get into retail in a second, we can do more. But look, most shopping is not as exciting as what these presentations would say. Most shopping is, I need a gallon of milk, I need something. It’s not I want to explore new fashion trends. I don’t know if that we need a killer app for all of this. I see the use case, I see the concept, the execution, it’s just the actual day to day implementation for us normies. I don’t know how you get there.

Travis Hoium: Let’s talk about one of those dark horses, Rachel. I thought it was interesting that Target was listed as one of their apps that’s coming soon. Every one of these other companies is a tech company. I guess all trails would be maybe not quite as much of a tech company. But there you have a retailer that’s struggling in the big box retail space. Maybe this is a way to attract some new customers. Could there be some dark horses here where you extend the long term? We’ve gone, especially in retail, I think that’s maybe the best example is that Amazon has sucked all the oxygen in the room because you choose to go to the Amazon app. Well, Amazon, guess what? They don’t want to be on ChatGPT and be disaggregated. Does that present an opportunity for companies that can, like you said earlier, go, hey, I’m not only not going to be left behind, but I’m going to take advantage of this because I don’t have the same digital footprint as a company like Amazon.

Rachel Warren: I do think there’s an opportunity there for companies like Target that are worth the classic brick and mortar that also have a strong online presence and others. But I think a lot of the utility of this goes back to how useful it is to the consumer. I think the core idea here is that if you are, say, shopping, you’re on ChatGPT rather than having to go and open up a series of different apps to find the things you want. You can tell ChatGPT to open up a specific app and search for the thing that you want within that user interface. I do think that’s something that is compelling to a consumer, particularly those of us who are on our phones, on our devices a lot. For Target’s part, as you mentioned, they’ve had a very rough few years, particularly coming out of the pandemic, as well as a host of other issues that have been very specific to them and they have also been, I think, very much adopting a lot of different AI tools into their overall business. They already use generative AI, for example, to improve a lot of their product display pages on their website. They had last year introduced a proprietary generative AI chatbot for store employees called Store Companion. I do think they could use some of that standoff attitude that Amazon has leveraged in the past and instead really focus on key areas where they can build competitive differentiation. I do think that could provide a seamless, more personalized experience. Does this save a company like Target from some of its current woes? No, but does it provide perhaps a more unified ecosystem that gets more eyeballs to its platform from users? I think that’s possible.

Lou Whiteman: I don’t want to pick on Target here because I enjoy Target, but Target is a destination for pragmatists, not for dreamers. I don’t know, back to my other point, Target is where you go when you need dog food or toilet paper or something. I don’t know if I need an AI customized experience for that. I’m not sure I’m ever going to be like, I’m hunting for some nice gift from my wife.

Rachel Warren: Some of us ladies are at Target dreaming as we walk through the aisles, Lou. You have no idea [LAUGHTER].

Lou Whiteman: Maybe so, but I don’t know. I like their curbside drop off and delivery. I think they’ve done good things. I keep going back to this, and I hate to be such a wet blanket, but it feels like a solution in search of a problem for Target here.

Travis Hoium: We’ll see out to see how this plays out and as this vision rolls out, especially with potentially new devices, maybe that will change the game. Next, we’re going to ask the trillion dollar question, and that is how in the world does OpenAI and all of their partners pay for this? You’re listening to Motley Fool Money.

Welcome back to Motley Fool Money. Look, here’s the trillion dollar question for OpenAI. We are through all their partners, spending somewhere around $1 trillion, probably more than that at this point. How are they going to pay for all this, are these apps going to be part of that solution? If you squint, you can see a monetization strategy, but it’s not really clear yet, Lou. Is this going to be the key to the future of OpenAI becoming that company that can pay for tens of billions of dollars of compute each year.

Lou Whiteman: Travis, let’s be clear here. Sam Altman says he’s focused on the customer experience and not monetization. Obviously, yeah, but come on. I do think back to a point you made about, is this a leap step forward or incremental? How do you turn this into a big moneymaker, if it is incremental? I come back to the chicken and the egg question. If you want to make money off of the consumer signing up for premium OpenAI, you darn well better have a lot of retailers, a lot of partners. But how do you get those retailers of partners if you don’t have a lot of people signed up. There is experimentation, maybe there’s losses. That’s why you focus on the customer experience now. Are we headed to Walled Gardens? Am I really going to want to use this if I can get Target but not?

Travis Hoium: It seems like that’s what OpenAI wants to build, even though they’re saying that’s not what they want to build.

Lou Whiteman: Right, well, by default. I think OpenAI would like to be so present everywhere that every retailer just has to be on it the way every retailer is. But right now I can get a Google search and see the world. Until maybe there is just a specialized thing like, I want to use Booking, and I know Booking is on here, and I like the interaction, so I will opt in that way, but that’s not the way to riches. I think there’s again, if this becomes an open field where everything’s involved like Google, I don’t know if OpenAI has the advantage there. I don’t know if commoditization is their friend and if it becomes harder to charge on the back end, so that’s, I think, why they would like just partners opting in. But I think that just makes it harder to get consumer adoption. I think it’s really, really hard to make this pay off in a big way. It could be a side feature, but this is not a core business here for the way they’re spending.

Travis Hoium: What do you think, Rachel? Is this the preview of how is the going to make money? Is it big enough?

Rachel Warren: I think it’s way too early to say. I think, honestly, OpenAI is trying to figure out their monetization strategy at this point. I think that’s fairly obvious. If you think about some of their most advanced models, like Sora. The huge challenge there, training and running those models, that requires enormous investment in computing, power, data centers, and now you have the new app store and the goal seeming is to take a commission on sales from commerce queries, rather than maybe relying on that traditional ad system. I saw one report that suggested there could be something like a 2% affiliate fee in the works, and then you’ve got, of course, this very high investment Sora product, and they’re reportedly moving toward a tiered subscription model.

Travis Hoium: Now, a 2% affiliate fee sounds like a lot. But if you look at how much companies spend [OVERLAPPING] on things like Meta ads. It’s significantly more than that. The customer acquistion cost can be 20, 30% of a purchase price.

Rachel Warren: That’s where you look at all this and you dig beneath the surface a bit, and it’s still really unclear how much of a revenue producing venture are these new initiatives going to be, much less driving the company toward profitability. Obviously, the most significant and immediate source of revenue is likely to be enterprise partnerships, and they do continue to raise massive funding rounds. I think they’re working on their monetization strategy, and they’re seeing what sticks. I think that’s really important to take away from all these recent announcements that we’ve been seeing.

Lou Whiteman: I think one filter to just as you look at all this, remember, OpenAI needs this more than their rivals. Meta has that fire hose of revenue coming in to fund this. Alphabet has Google funding this. OpenAI is the one here as an official nonprofit that, A, they aren’t subject to the same SEC rules, so they can do more of the Silicon Valley fake until you make it. I don’t mean that as against them, I think, as they should.

Travis Hoium: But it worked.

Lou Whiteman: Right, and that should be their strategy, but also they need to be saying, look at us, look at what we’re doing. It’s a neat vision of the future. I don’t think it’s a slam dunk they get there, as I look at this, it looks like a company that is wish casting as much as they are implementing. Part of wish casting is, like you said, Travis, see what happens and stick with what works.

Travis Hoium: I have heard you said that they have to keep spending because if they fall behind, they’re done. They have to keep up with the Alphabets, the Metas, everybody that’s investing tens of billions of dollars, so that’s why this vision keeps getting bigger. Maybe there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but we will see. As always, people on the program may have interest in the stocks they talk about, and the Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against, so don’t buy or sell stocks based solely on what you hear. All personal finance content follows the Motley Fool’s editorial standards and is not approved by advertisers. Advertisements are sponsored content provided for informational purposes only. To see our full advertising disclosure, please check out our show notes. For Lou Whiteman, Rachel Warren, Dan Boyd, behind the glass, and our entire Motley Fool team, I’m Travis Hoium. Thanks for listening to Motley Fool Money. We’ll see you here tomorrow.

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LendingTree founder, CEO Douglas Lebda dies in ATV accident



Douglas Lebda, the founder and chief executive officer of LendingTree Inc., died Sunday following an all-terrain vehicle accident. He was 55.

“We are deeply saddened by the sudden passing of Doug,” LendingTree’s board of directors said in a statement. The accident occurred on his family farm in North Carolina. He is survived by his wife, Megan Lebda, and his three daughters.

Lebda founded LendingTree in 1996 after “experiencing the frustrations and complexities of getting his first mortgage,” according to the Charlotte, North Carolina-based company’s website. He led the company through its initial public offering in 2000, and its sale about three years later to IAC Inc. In 2008, Lebda joined the newly rebranded LendingTree as it spun out as a separate company.

PAST COVERAGE: LendingTree hit with suit connected to Snowflake hack

LendingTree combines a network of hundreds of financial partners to help customers access lending products including mortgages, mortgage refinances, auto loans, personal loans, business loans and student refinances. 

LendingTree’s chief operating officer and president, Scott Peyree, is serving as president and CEO, effective immediately. Peyree was appointed by the company’s board of directors. Steve Ozonian, lead independent director, has been appointed by the board to serve as its chairman. 

“The news of losing Doug was devastating,” Peyree said in a statement. “But one of the most immediate impacts of his legacy is the strong management team he put in place at LendingTree.”

Lebda was a graduate of Bucknell University and earned an MBA at the University of Virginia, Darden School of Business, according to the company’s website. Before founding LendingTree, Lebda worked as an auditor and consultant.