Somehow, even with our rock-bottom expectations for lender Avant, the company still manages to slither under the bar. After years of offering high-interest loans to customers who had few other options, Avant is transitioning to a more ongoing type of exploitation, putting the full weight of its marketing efforts behind credit cards with an average interest rate of 28.5%.
That’s bad on its face, but part of what makes it so galling is the way the company tries to rebrand its age-old practice as some kind of tech-forward helping hand. When it launched, it was very much under the guise of a tech unicorn, not a run-of-the-mill financial services company. That sheen helped it rake in funding and avoid the bad publicity that might have stopped some of its scammier scams.
Now that the tech rose has faded, Avant is maintaining that it provides a service to people in need that no one else will offer. “If Avant and other (subprime lenders) aren’t there to provide access, what is the alternative?” the CEO bemoans to Crain’s. Some quick thoughts:
Lobbying for free and accessible healthcare to eliminate medical debt
Improving transit in underserved communities to reduce dependence on unreliable cars for work
Refusing to report default data back to the credit bureaus so as not to continue the death spiral of lower credit scores and higher interest rates for its customers
We could go on for quite a long while — forever really — before we would arrive at “profit off the backs of poor people just a tiny bit less and call yourselves heroes.” We understand that Avant is a for-profit company, we do. But when you’re making Discover and Chase look good, we have to ask if the profit is worth it.
Not everyone is committed to running their businesses in the worst way. Harley, as in the motorcycles, is repurposing its Milwaukee office and embracing a totally remote workforce. It’s a great example that other leaders should follow, both because no one should have to commute to an office and because no one should have to live in Milwaukee.
It’s been a great couple of weeks for your logistics-loving friends (us, it’s us). Transloop announced plans to hire roughly 100 employees to work out of new office space (see above re: bad idea). Though, to be fair, the freight broker is expanding into space abandoned by an ailing cryptocurrency company, which almost makes up for it. MVMT raised $20 million to provide more small and mid-sized businesses with the software to optimize their shipping. It’s also planning a hiring spree, and while it does tout a hybrid workplace, those jobs are all in Chicago.
BridgeMoney raised $6 million for its platform, which basically “rewards” you for sharing even more of your data than is already being siphoned off. The idea is that you’d link your bank account or debit card, and take surveys, all of which would be shared with third parties. In exchange, you get a little money.
Noted billionaire Eric Lefkofsky raised another $275 million for Tempus, his healthcare company, in part by selling more shares to existing investors at the same price they paid in 2020. Now, we’re not experts, but it does seem like the price of something should go up over two years, even if that 2020 valuation was $8.1 billion. The company — which aims to offer personalized healthcare tailored to your DNA — will use the money to continue scaling, though it’s not clear whether that means with staff or simply into new diseases.
Workplace automation platform Monday.com has opened up a Chicago office to accompany its U.S. headquarters in New York, and already has job openings posted should you be so inclined. Though we will admit that the name has strong Moviefone vibes.
DoorDash is continuing to launder its reputation with an incubator for local foods. Not going to work, but it is nice to see three Chicago businesses get $5,000 and some business classes in the process, even if the goal is to stock the shelves of DoorDash’s new grocery business.
Speaking of reputations, Starbucks is filing charges claiming that union organizers recorded bargaining sessions for workers who could not attend. Working to prevent people from hearing what you say to your workers — and walking out of negotiations in the process? Not a great look.
Good time for City Colleges of Chicago staff to come through with the reminder that striking is still legal! If you are a good enough person to hang with City Colleges as it fumbled its way through adopting remote teaching, you deserve a raise, full-stop.
Jobs, Glorious Jobs
Operations Coordinator, Senior Editor of Investigations and West Side Reporter at Block Club Chicago
OK, yes, any recommendation we give for a job in journalism is going to be tepid, BUT Block Club seems to be doing well financially, and we would love to see it start punching a little harder. The success of investigations like the Loretto Hospital scandal seems to have given the pub a taste for blood, which is only good news for the people who live here.
Job/Tool of the Week
My VA Rocks, a service that pairs smart people looking for flexible work with overworked people desperate to outsource something to make their lives easier — aka the two primary audiences for this newsletter. It doesn’t matter whether the work is managing a calendar, writing social posts or pulling together a crash course on basketball strategy. The idea is to have someone to take a bit of the mental load off, a TaskRabbit of the mind, if you will. The virtual assistants performing the work are largely mothers, entrepreneurs and other people looking for flexibility, making it a great place to get talent you wouldn’t otherwise have access to and a great opportunity for people looking to add a few extra paid hours to their weeks.
Inspiration of the Week
“We are waking up to the fact that our jobs are never going to love us back. And we are trying to adjust accordingly.”
— How can we not click on something with the subtitle “Hustle culture is dead?” The zombie #girlboss name of this newsletter notwithstanding, we write this biweekly screed to help ourselves recontextualize work as much as we write it for you.
We were “lucky” enough to have jobs that smacked us in the face with just how much they did not love us early on. That doesn’t mean that finding a new rubric for success has been easy, though. The adjustment period is real and painful, and positive sources of approval aren’t easy to find. It’s just that working at something hard is still so much better than chasing something you know deep down you’re never going to get.
Forward this email to anyone who’s adjusting. They can sign up here to get a twice-monthly cheering section through the rough parts.
Got a tip on an excellent job? Reply to this email, send us a new one at hey@gethustl.in, or reach out on Twitter.