Sam Miller is a serial entrepreneur with three successful exits and served as a Director at a top-10 venture capital firm, backing companies like SeatGeek, LevelUp, Octane Lending, House Party, and more. With over a decade in the startup ecosystem, Sam has a deep passion for innovation and disruptive technology.
Sam’s latest venture, Kasheesh, was founded during the COVID-19 pandemic in response to the rapid rise of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) solutions. While BNPL provided convenience, it often came with hidden fees and predatory practices. Kasheesh was built to offer a smarter, more transparent alternative for consumers seeking better payment options.
Where did the idea for Kasheesh come from?
It was 2020, peak COVID. I had sold my fintech company the prior year, so I was looking for my next opportunity. I was sitting at a friend’s house, and his fiance was on the phone with a retailer trying to buy something. She didn’t want to use Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) because of the perils that many BNPL services come with but also didn’t want to max out one credit card for the purchase, and the retailer told her if she came into the store it was possible to split the purchase across as many cards as she wanted but they didn’t have the technical capability to do it off-premise.
Almost instantly, my mind started building the plan for Kasheesh. I called my cofounder and technical genius Kevin Kim, and weirdly his brother-in-law was going through a similar experience, so he was all-in pretty quick as well. We got to work, and started Kasheesh as a browser extension, which led to a web app, and then a native app. And now, we have “tap to pay” for Google and Apple wallets, as well as a Rewards Program that functions like any traditional credit card points system where Kasheesh users can garnish additional rewards when using our platform.
What’s the problem you’re solving with Kasheesh?
As much as 80% of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck. Many feel like they simply lost control of their finances. That’s one of the reasons BNPL is so popular. It really showed consumer demand for alternative payment methods at checkout aside from the traditional swiping of a single debit or credit card. But there are a lot of problems with BNPL, namely that it pushes consumers into really restrictive loans with hidden fees, loan stacking, and predatory lending that don’t do anything to help their credit score while potentially putting them in a financial hole they can’t climb out of.
We embraced the idea of more flexible payment options. But instead of having to open a new loan, we make it possible for consumers to optimize the credit they already have. Now, people can avoid maxing out a credit or debit card by splitting the purchase up among several cards, including gift cards. They can also take advantage of promotions across multiple cards to earn more rewards. It’s really about making consumers feel like they have power over their spending.
What did you find about consumer buying behavior as you started Kasheesh?
When we were starting Kasheesh, we found that consumers were already paying with multiple cards, just in a super intense and inefficient way. They’d go and buy gift cards with different cards, then pool them together for bigger purchases. It really hit home for us how much of the country is struggling financially, and the need to stretch their dollars as far as possible. We also saw that in the meteoric growth of our customer base, which is now up 3,100% year-over-year.
In your view, why is BNPL not a good option for consumers?
The saying is true: BNPL is essentially layaway with lipstick. And lots of people are waking up to this reality: predatory loan stacking and lending, hidden fees, super high interest rates, etc.
Many of us already have thousands of dollars in available credit that’s been underwritten by financial institutions. They just needed a way to break out of the “one card, one payment” mentality. That’s why Kasheesh is like a super card – we empower consumers to take advantage of all their credit. It’s why we’re the first card they go to for so many of our customers.
How does Kasheesh help improve consumer credit scores?
Your credit score is, essentially, your financial social security number for life. It can fluctuate, but it’s really important that consumers pay attention to it, and are aware of the factors that influence it. Maxxing out a card can have a really big impact on your score. But until Kasheesh, consumers really had no other option. They were getting dinged 10, 20, 30 points – maybe more – on their credit score from a single purchase especially if their utilization rate went over 60%. How are consumers expected to build their credit and advance their financial well-being when their hands are tied to a flawed system in today’s economy? We help consumers their credit utilization low across all their cards with an emphasis on keeping all cards as close to below 30% utilization rate (at which point your score increases), an important factor the algorithms weigh when building your overall score.
What’s the future hold?
We’re going to continue to find ways to make paying for things as easy as possible. We just released a new rewards program that makes it super easy for users to earn points and spend them; they can even apply them automatically to future purchases. Again, all about giving consumers the flexibility they crave in their finances.
We’re looking at card linked offers where consumers will get discounts and even more rewards for using Kasheesh at retailers, group payments, ways for families, roommates, friends groups, etc. to link their individual cards into a single underlying one. We’re going to keep offering ways to educate our customers on how they can better maximize the points they’re earning on all their cards. We’re even exploring our own credit offering as we continue to analyze our consumer spending trends and data so that we can create offerings that are personalized and actually helpful to the individual and not just a blanket offer given to everyone.
Why New York City?
Obviously New York City is the financial capital of the world, so it made sense. But it’s also going through a huge shift. The growth of the fintech industry, and the startup scene in general, has given the city a new entrepreneurial energy that puts it on par with Silicon Valley. Lots of enthusiastic, smart, and driven founders doing some really innovative things. Plus there’s a lot more funding available. NYC is always the best place to be, but now more than ever it’s a great place to grow a business.
