Finance and Foosball

An Illinois graduate worked with a friend to build an online-lending company that has since been acquired by a major player

by Steve Joung

Steven Joung
Chief Operating Officer, CashNetUSA.com
BS, Class of 2002
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign College of Business

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Most people say to keep your work life and personal life separate—well, I decided to disregard convention when I left a job with GE Commercial Finance to come work for my good friend Albert. I've known Albert for quite some time—we attended college together, both pursued finance degrees, and even interned at Deutsche Bank (DB) together the summer before senior year. So when he asked me to join him and his brother in their new online venture a couple of years ago, I jumped at the chance of mixing business with friendship. So far, that decision has happily paid off.

Within two-and-a-half years of inception, our little startup had grown into adulthood. Last year, we sold CashNetUSA, an online payday loan service, to Cash America International (CSH), one of the largest companies in the industry—opening up a whole new realm of possibilities.

My role has changed dramatically over the past few years—from running operations with 20 employees to attempting to keep pace with an army of nearly 500. At least the days of sleeping on my office floor are long gone, and instead I put my time and energy into encouraging communication between departments, continuing to listen to our customers' needs, and dealing with technological issues.

Here's a typical day:

7:30 a.m.—After the alarm, I slowly regain consciousness, take a quick shower, put on a pair of jeans and one of my signature orange Polo shirts…it's another day at the office.

8 a.m.—I respond to e-mails on my Treo for any early-morning fire drills. After darting through hordes of morning commuters, I arrive at our Chicago Loop office in one piece.

8:45 a.m.—I power through another barrage of e-mails and add a few top-priority items to my laundry list for today. Then head over for a meeting in the conference room, where food and smoothies await.

9:45 a.m.—Get back to my desk, where I already have four internal AOL Instant Messenger screens flashing in front of me. I chat with someone who's changing a database query to make it work for our state-by-state reporting analysis.

10:30 a.m.—Run into our regularly scheduled operations meeting to review numbers from the previous week and to determine how to prioritize for the next week and beyond. Then receive an unhappy e-mail on my phone—looks like something is going on with the system….

10:40 a.m.—We feed as much information as possible to the tech team in order to isolate the cause of our system slowdown. After an hour or so of attempted fixes, the problem is miraculously solved.

12:40 p.m.—Albert, the boss-man, barges into my office to discuss everything from how to improve our credit-scoring model to his thoughts on a more effective organizational structure. Al's mind is usually racing at around 20 times the speed of sound, so I listen and take mental notes. A few others stop by to join the discussion, and we decide to grab lunch while talking about ideas.

2 p.m.—After lunch, I head over to get a triple shot from the fancy espresso machine in our snack room. I return to my desk and respond to even more e-mails. Topics include results from our customer feedback survey, status reports of ongoing projects, questions from HR on an employee concern, questions on the build-out of the new floors, etc. Later, I sneak in some "Steve" time and order a new auto-racing helmet online so I can drive my car in Michigan during the weekend—pretty much all my shopping is done that way.

3 p.m.—Get the team back together for the regularly scheduled meeting. A few people stay behind after the meeting, and we talk final user requirements for the new reporting engine that will soon move into R&D.

5 p.m.—I shut off e-mail and concentrate on my own project work. I'm looking at some process flow stuff on our past due accounts, and evaluating if there is an upside of throwing a resource at it. I'll sort through a few more of the things on my list, delegate some work, and wrap up the rest on my own.

7 p.m.—I close the office door. People are getting real loud in the lounge and talking trash at the Foosball table again…. I try to concentrate for five minutes, then come storming out of my office queued up to reign supreme. After getting embarrassed 10 to 3 in yet another hard-fought match, I head out to North Avenue Beach to play in the CashNetUSA four-on-four volleyball match!

9 p.m.—After the game, I meet my buddies for some Buffalo wings and Guinness in Wrigleyville, and we sit around watching the Cubs get blown out—yet again. I sporadically check my Treo to ensure the final batch files get sent to the banks.

11 p.m.—On the ride home, I mentally sort through the top things to attack tomorrow. My final glorious thoughts are usually conceived on the couch while falling asleep to late-night Discovery HD Theater, which is amazing, I might add.

If I do have one pearl of wisdom for those looking to break into the online market, it's this: Take a pass on the Intro to Golf class and use your electives to learn more about technology, computer programming, and statistics. Doesn't sound like much fun? Well, build your educational foundation now and later you'll be working side-by-side with the most creative and dedicated minds in the business world. In my case, they also happen to be my friends.

Joung can be reached at sjoung-bw@cashnetusa.com.