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From immigrating to Chicago at age 8 to building one of America's leading fintech platforms, Al Goldstein has spent his career challenging how Americans access financial services. The founder of Avant joins Inside the C-Suite to discuss his remarkable journey from Soviet-era Uzbekistan to Wall Street, his early success building and exiting a previous fintech company, and the lessons learned from more than two decades of entrepreneurship. Founded in 2012, Avant has served more than 4.8 million cumulative customers, issued over 3.3 million credit cards through its platform since 2017, and generated $2.43 billion in loan originations in 2025, while achieving GAAP profitability in 2024 and maintaining it since. Goldstein shares how his parents' sacrifices shaped his appetite for risk, why competitive sports taught him to embrace failure, and how he navigated the difficult decisions required to build a sustainable financial institution. He also explores his early adoption of neural networks in lending, the creation and eventual sale of banking technology company Amount, and Avant's ambitions to become a federally chartered bank. Throughout the conversation, Goldstein reflects on the evolution of consumer lending, the importance of expanding access to credit for middle-income Americans, and his ultimate ambition: building a business that will stand the test of time and outlive its founders.
Chapters:
Introduction: Al Goldstein and the American Dream
Growing Up in Soviet Uzbekistan and Immigrating to America
Learning Competition, Risk, and Resilience
Leaving Wall Street for Entrepreneurship
Building and Selling His First Fintech Company
Early AI and Neural Networks in Financial Services
Founding Avant and Navigating the Challenges of Growth
The Difficult Decision to Downsize in 2016
Turning Banking Partnerships into Amount
Avant's Ambition to Become a Bank
Building a Business That Outlives Its Founders
