Founder Friday: Jennifer Glaspie-Lundstrom, Sairam Rangachari & David Anderson, Co-Founders of Tandym 💳
Issue #27
Founder Friday is a content series from SuperAngel.Fund highlighting companies in our portfolio and the inspiring founders behind them.
In our 27th edition we are featuring Jen Glaspie-Lundstrom, Sai Rangachari & David Anderson, Co-Founders of Tandym, a payments platform that enables merchants to quickly and easily offer their own digital, private label branded credit card.
Until recently, it has been cost prohibitive for legacy banks and card issuers to work with SMBs and provide them with their own private label credit cards. While merchants like Bloomingdales, Victoria’s Secret, and The Home Depot have long enjoyed the perks of offering branded credit cards to their shoppers, many small businesses can’t afford the millions of dollars in expenses for integration, or wait out the year long approval process.
Enter Tandym, which has set out to level the playing field as the first-to-market company that enables eCommerce merchants of any size to launch their own private label credit cards quickly and cost effectively. Their solution is a win-win-win: Customers receive more valuable rewards and greater purchasing power at the stores they already shop at, merchants benefit from lower payment processing fees, higher lifetime values (LTVs) and average order values (AOVs), and Tandym obtains borrowers at a meaningfully lower customer acquisition cost (CAC) than traditional card issuers.
The founding team is comprised an all-star cast of industry veterans with deep expertise in payments, credit, loyalty and technology, including CEO Jen Glaspie-Lundstrom (former Managing VP at Capital One), CTO Sairam Rangachari (former Head of Engineering for card partnerships at Capital One and Global Head of Digital Banking at JPMorgan), and CPO David Anderson (former partnerships and lending at Capital One).
With their most recent $8m funding round, led by Google’s Gradient Ventures, merchants of all sizes will finally be able to reap the rewards and savings that were previously only available to the powerful few. And best of all, their customers will benefit as well! (Hint: feel free to request a demo here if you are interested in learning more).
Describe your company in 5 words or less.
Jen: Next-Gen private label credit.
Sai: Branded cards for amazing brands.
David: Branded cards for the best brands.
What was your primary motivation for starting your business?
Jen: As an executive at Capital One I saw how valuable private label credit cards are to retailers. However, because it is so expensive for the incumbent banks to set up these programs, they cannot profitably work with businesses <$1B in revenue. It blew my mind that such a valuable product was not available to a huge part of the market. It was a problem I became obsessed with solving.
Sai: We saw a huge opportunity in the market for brands to create a cohesive experience even with the payments aspects of their business. Brands have been losing too much to interchange to fund big banks loyalty programs and we saw an opportunity to flip it so they can fund their own loyalty program and drive better retention.
David: I'm a life-long builder who gets most energized when solving complex problems with undefined answers. Tandym is the perfect blend of each of those ingredients -- we are bringing together a world-class team to build a new product experience that will solve a huge pain point for merchants (transaction processing fees are too high), ultimately unlocking value for end consumers.
What piece of advice would you give an entrepreneur starting a business today?
Jen: Network like crazy. So many people want to help founders be successful; take their help. And pay it forward.
Sai: Conviction. You will need enough conviction in your plan A to put your best foot forward. Pivots and plan Bs are ok but only after you have put your best foot forward and that can't happen without strong conviction in what you are solving for.
David: Get used to hearing all the reasons why your idea can't work, won't scale, or isn't viable. Most people can't see beyond the status quo. Don't be afraid to be bold and take calculated risks!
What do you love to do in your free time?
Jen: I have two little people - a 14 year old daughter and a 7 year old son. I work a lot but when I take time off my favorite thing to do is to spend quality time with them. And my husband, he's cool too.
Sai: Kids and sports - I love spending time with my kids and just learning with them. Sports is how I blow off my steam and every 2 years I get into a team sport which happens to be cricket now :)
David: I'm a data nerd that loves tinkering with anything that can be taken apart, analyzed, and put back together (code, datasets, anything in my garage, my golf swing 😄). I'm also a new dad, so chances are good I've just changed a diaper or made a bottle regardless of when you read this.
What is the most interesting place you’ve visited recently and why?
Jen: For spring break we went on a family vacation to the House of AiA in Mexico. We spent a week of pure bliss - playing, laughing, eating, and generally partaking in soul-cleansing activities.
Sai: I had a chance to visit one of the cool, natural springs in Florida called Ichituknee Springs. It was fascinating to see the wildlife (gators, manatees, turtles, birds, snakes) just co-existing with humans...living the urban life, it's easy to forget we share this planet with other species.
David: I've used the combination of the pandemic and pregnant wife to force myself to find interesting places to explore closer to home. Chicago has so many places you can lose yourself on a summer afternoon. I particularly love the lakefront because it's such a stark contrast with the daily grind of the city.
What is your favorite app or tool in your work life and in your personal life?
Jen: Definitely. Not. Zoom.
Sai: Thanks to the Zoom world this has become hyper-focused. I spend a lot of time on Slack and Whimsical for work.
David: A Midori B6 notebook. I love tech and gadgets, but I still find value in writing out my thoughts when thinking through a complex problem. As a bonus, I'm also less distracted when taking notes by hand during meetings than on a device!
What do you believe is the most important skill or attribute of a successful founder?
Jen: Tolerance of uncertainty. And grit. Lots of grit.
Sai: GRIT.
David: Confidence and humility -- you have to be confident in your vision and abilities, but humble enough to know when you need to ask for help.
SuperAngel.Fund is an early stage fund that invests in Consumer, PropTech & Future of Work. You can learn more at SuperAngel.Fund.