Why I Joined Bloom Credit
I’m Ian Bazzoli, and I recently joined Bloom Credit as VP of People. I want to share why I’m here. It starts with three stories that have stuck with me.
I can still remember the frustration my wife felt sitting at a Subaru dealership about to lease her first car. She knew exactly what she wanted and had already picked the color. We both knew there was a chance she wouldn’t be approved in her own name, but she’d held a low-balance credit card ever since moving to the United States from abroad, paid on time, for seven years. We’d bought our first home that same year, and despite sharing the financial responsibility, the bank told her she could be on the deed but not on the mortgage.
So here we were again, attempting to work her way into the credit system the right way only for the dealer to tell her she wasn’t creditworthy, and the car she’d saved for would need to go in my name instead. She’d grown up in a household that believed if you can’t afford it, you don’t buy it: no debt, no credit cards, be financially responsible. I had to convince her to open that card when we started dating, trying to explain the convoluted credit ecosystem in America. She obliged. Paid on time every month, rarely used it. Her financially responsible philosophy didn’t matter, not at Wells Fargo earlier that year, and not at that dealership.
In one of my first jobs in New York, I became friends with an office cleaner named Ernesto. He’d show me pictures of his kids, tell me about his favorite soccer club, tell me about his life. One evening he shared that he wanted to start his own cleaning business. A friend had done the same, catering to wealthier clients on Long Island, and was making great money, with the flexibility to actually see his family. But Ernesto would need a van, supplies, some initial marketing, and cash for working capital, maybe $25,000-$30,000 to get going. “So I’ll be saving up for a while. I can’t get a loan, at least not a good one from a bank. I hope the opportunity is still there when I’m ready.” What struck me most was that he wasn’t frustrated. He’d made peace with it. That bothered me more than if he’d been furious. Accepting and matter of fact. Not bitter. That’s what stuck with me.
And then there’s the story a lawyer friend told me recently about a woman he was representing, around 50, in the middle of a marriage falling apart. Her husband had provided for the family and held everything in his name for decades. Her credit file was paper-thin; she had nothing beyond a single credit card. She was about to go looking for a new home and mortgage almost entirely on her own. Even with a settlement, the credit road ahead for someone in her position is steep and complicated. I didn’t know her, but I didn’t need to.
These stories stayed with me for a reason. My wife, Ernesto, the woman my friend represented, none of them had a credit problem. They had a data problem. The system simply wasn’t built to see the responsible choices they were already making.
I joined Bloom Credit because there are 100 million credit-thin people like these. Real stories, not statistics. What we’re building is the chance for financial institutions and lenders to give credit where credit is due: fair access for people who make payments on time that our outdated credit system typically doesn’t capture including rent, utilities, phone, internet. The chance to chase a dream when you have a plan and a track record, even if the system hasn’t caught up yet.
Few things bother me more in life than someone being treated unfairly. And few things shape a person’s future more completely, or more quietly, than the financial systems that decide who gets a loan, who gets a lease, who gets a chance.
At Bloom, we’re looking to update that system and we’re looking for builders. Teammates who want to own their work and see the outcome. People who are curious, fun, and work through hard problems without sharp elbows. We’re aiming to make the credit ecosystem more inclusive, and we think about our team the same way. Above all, we’re a group that cares about what we’re building, because we know it matters. If that sounds like you, let’s talk.
— Ian, VP of People
