The Free Toaster

You can learn more about the event and request an invitation here: The Affiliate Marketing Summit for Lenders & Publishers September 23rd San Francisco, CA events.thefreetoaster.com

On June 22, LendingClub became Happen Bank. Mark Elliot , Chief Customer Officer, ran point on it. He joined the company 3 years ago and asked Scott Sanborn about the name in his very first conversation. The business...

Carlos riffs solo on 3 stories from this week's News Edition... https://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/avant-goes-racing-stripe-goes-shopping ***** Are you an affiliate marketing leader at a consumer lender or publisher!? If...

Nicky Senyard , CEO and Founder of Fintel Connect , has been doing digital acquisition since 2002. Her read on this wave: affiliate marketing is still a bottom of funnel conversion tactic. On today’s show, we discuss...

Carlos & Nick add color to the most recent article on The Free Toaster Newsletter. https://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/nerdwallets-q2-26-earnings They discuss NerdWallet's pivot towards insurance and the top 5 takeaways...

Today, Carlos comments on the future of distribution in lending, how long it will take to get there, the key blockers along the way, and what CMOs can do now to prepare. This Pod covers his commentary from the most...

Capital One recently shared their Q2 earnings. Their marketing spend was $1.7B, up 23% year over year. Today, we dive into how Capital One is used that budget and the implications for marketers in lending. Carlos & Nick...

Recently, Carlos sat on the LendAPI Podcast with Tim Li to discuss the Summit he's organizing on September 23rd in San Francisco. ***** The Affiliate Marketing Summit For Lenders & Publishers Sponsored by Experian...

Samsung & Barclays just shipped a co-brand card. The economics (3% on everything you buy through the Samsung Wallet) are rich. Even better than the Apple Card! Plus, our predictions on whether Claude or ChatGPT will...

Carlos & Nick discuss this week’s story - “ Oportun and Column Announce New Lending Partnership to Expand Access to Responsible Credit. ” At first glance, not that exciting. Just a new partner bank. Then we dug into the...

Search is often just 10% of a lender's marketing mix — but Ross Cohen makes the case that it's the most powerful channel for experimentation and the best "shock absorber" when direct mail or affiliates come up short...

On July 13th 2026, Carlos spoke on a panel moderated by Danielle Lauzon (Fintel Connect) with Amanda Share (Pagaya), and John Hanley (Idaho First Bank). Big ideas Carlos discusses: 1. The dangers of blindly optimizing...

Klarna just filed to become a bank. They're the ninth major fintech since December, joining Affirm, PayPal, Upstart, Revolut, Bunq, Mission Lane, and OppFi. The OCC saw 18 de novo applications in 2025, nearly matching...

In this solo News Pod episode, Carlos unpacks the story underneath Lending Club’s recent rebrand to Happen Bank. The story was covered in this week’s Newsletter...

Carlos sits with Megan Bauer, Head Of Customer Success at Spinwheel, to discuss affiliate marketing & business lessons learned playing poker. ****** This episode is reposted from Spinwheel's Video Podcast - "What's Your...