Building Fintech Wealth, Financial Inclusion & New American Dream ft. Carlos Orellana

0:00competitors are SoFi and Robinhood. You know, how do you differ from these mega platforms outside of just being, you know, Hispanic focused? Yes. So number one, we can name six or seven right here in the U.S., but they all have one thing in common is they don't speak the language. But more importantly, they don't speak the culture because it's not just welcome to another episode of coffees. Because it's not just about speaking Spanish to the Hispanic and Latinos. They could just like convert their app into Spanish. Correct, yeah. So there's a whole different, not only a business acumen that you have to understand, but also there's the culture aspect of how do you approach them.

0:43And they all have different cultures. I'm from El Salvador, so my culture is very different from people that are from Mexico, from Colombians, Venezuelans, right? Argentina's, Peruvians. And so it's how are you able to talk to every single one, understanding not only their culture, but their challenges and what drove them to come here to the U.S. and make a life here. I feel like isn't El Salvador the biggest adopter of cryptocurrency in the world? Yeah, so actually number one. So, you know, Bukele has made such a tremendous change in the last seven years in El Salvador. So he brought innovation.

1:20He's promoting a lot of technology, which allowed us when he took presidency to go out. It was one of my business partners, Ronnie, in my dream to go back to El Salvador. And how do we give back to our country? How can we go back and create a company and bring in bright minds? Because there are a lot of intelligent kids over there and make them part of what we're building. Well, before then, the country was in complete destruction. There was a civil war, then there was the crime rate with the gangsters that were deported over there. But when he came up and cleaned the country, it was the opportunity.

1:56So we went over there, we created our headquarters, we got 22 amazing kids, our designers, engineers, developers, and about seven others that specialize in digital content and marketing. So for us, it's a big fulfillment to have gone back and the government received us with open arms and gave us a lot of credits and a lot of benefits to bring innovation and be able to help out a lot of families over there. Now, your story is very similar to mine. You're a third world immigrant. You came here at six years old. What do you remember most about that transition from third world country, El Salvador, to coming to America here?

2:36It's actually something that I'll never forget. something very memorable. When I was in El Salvador, I remember seeing the box and it said Crayola. So it was a teacher that would come from the city into our town and she would uncover the blackboard and she had white chalk in that box and that's where we knew, we learned our ABCs, auditions, multiplications, right, and our first words, first and second grade. When I arrived here to the United States, it was quite the experience because when you walk into the classroom on the first day, and this is why I teach my nephews and nieces and every kid that I come across is you can't take things for granted because they don't understand how lucky and blessed we are here.

3:25I remember walking in and your name would be on a name tag on that desk. What I didn't understand is that desk belonged to to me it belonged to you the next day that desk was there and everything you put in there was there and opening the box of cryolas crayons and that smell ah i can't forget that smell but it's the freedom of grabbing that and having endless white pieces of paper and you can draw all day if you wanted knowing that that paper and those crayons were readily available for you right where things that in our country we couldn't I don't remember ever having a journal or a mead paper note and being able to to write and and draw as the privilege that we had here so it's a big transition a big change from enjoying something as simple as having your desk sitting down being taught an amazing air conditioning classroom and having all the tools for you to be creative it's crazy because so many people probably listen to this podcast don't even realize how blessed they are to just open up a box of crayons and absolutely or or have endless pieces of paper yes i know my kids for sure aren't that they don't realize how much of a blessing that is true you know and uh actually it's my my business partner who told me you know one of his favorite things was back to school all you know going back to school and and he mentioned that smell of crants.

4:57He also is a third world immigrant from Jordan. So it's those small things that are just so big. Those blessings are so big. Growing up here, and you grew up probably poor, did you ever think you would become an entrepreneur, let alone start a company that's about to go IPO? No. When you come from a third world country, you're very limited when it comes to your mindset. set right you're not raised with be all you can be or you know you can become anything you dream of you don't hear those those phrases and motivational words as as you're a kid right it's always a lack of no we don't have we can't tough toughen up and so it's it was never a an idea or a dream that sort of happened through the years as I was raised here in California So those kind of dreams happened?

5:55You went to high school, you joined the Air Force, right? Now, after you joined the Air Force, you started to study computer programming. Yeah, so actually that's what got me to join the Air Force. It was either college and learn how to go into the computer world and pay or join the military. At that time, we had a good recruiter that came to Westminster High School, and he saw me on the idea of why not join the Air Force where you can get trained in computer programming and you get paid. So I did that. It was very interesting. I like the camaraderie and all the leadership skills that we learned, but I never did much like taking or following instructions.

6:41So it was kind of like the, you know, show me the rules and I'll bend them or break them. And that's what got me to eventually leave after I served my term. And I was introduced into the mortgage industry back when everything was taken down on paper. You know, at 1003, borrowers for authorization and having to fax it over to a client or the nearest, I think it was Kinko's call back then. And waiting 24 hours for them to send it back to you. Then you have to fax it to each credit bureau and then wait another day or two to get those credit reports and eventually be able to price. It was a lengthy process.

7:19The visionary at the time, a company was called Ditech Funding, converted to Ditech.com when the whole Internet boom was happening. When you worked with them? Yes. So it was interesting how we saw that. His vision was to transform the entire industry from something analog to digital. Yeah. So we started. And he was, Paul Radham did. Yes, Paul Radham, an amazing guy, Canadian, and I learned a lot from him. He was a great mentor. And it was always no was never the right answer to him or I don't know. So we had to figure it out, right? How do we all connect? So it was when Microsoft started coming up with Outlook and the little clipboard chat guy and being able to integrate with Equifax and TransUnion.

8:04I can't remember the other company, TRW, before it was called Experian. say with modems and being able to connect and obtain a credit report and populate into the antiquated black and green software screens, which was called DOS at the time. And that would be the new 1003, right? The application. So everything went from like a 90-day process of buying a home down to a 45-day, eventually 30 days, and eventually 21 days. And same thing for refinance. So I got a lot of experience at that time. I was fresh out of the military and everything was a challenge but we were able to group a very neat team and accomplish a lot of those things.

8:44Now it's making sense you started in the financial sector with the computer programming background and then you're that's where kind of like was that the motivation of starting DeNero because you had experience in the financial space and in the tech space concurrently? I think that was the motivation on understanding what technology was going to do in various industries. And I knew that that's where I wanted to pursue and continue. When Paul sold to GMAC for millions of dollars, it was a sad day when he announced that. But at the same time, it was great for us. We're understanding what the stock market did for many of these companies.

9:29the evaluations on financial companies, yet alone if you had technology. And that's where the inspiration came as to, like, how do we go and create something where it's a power play in financial and also in technology? From there, we went on and created a patent, the first application when mobile wallets were starting to become a thing, mobile apps, and being able to send digital gift cards to anyone, to your mom, your wife, your friends. So you sent a quick note saying, happy birthday. Here's$100. That was your patent? Yes. So the application was called Gift Sender and successful for about three years and then sold off to a company out of Australia, which still runs under Gift Sender.

10:18And, you know, I felt very lucky and very blessed because I remember talking to an entrepreneur and saying, you know, usually your first, second, third startup, they fail. 90 % of them fail. So how lucky my team and I were blessed to be able to launch our first startup and be able to get acquired three years later. We did regret it afterwards because we sold us about$8.75 million, and the company that we sold it to flipped it and sold it for$38 million a year later. I mean, that's a brilliant concept. I can't believe you're the guy who started that company. Yes, yes. Because I've used that. Oh, fantastic.

10:57Now, for me, I was always a big fan of Paul Redham. He was always like a mystical creature that I'd never have the opportunity to meet. And he was just the biggest titan in the industry at the time when I started in the industry. So, you know, I'm fortunate enough to meet with you. And let me ask you, what's the greatest lesson that you learned from such a great mentor? from paul is uh i remember that one time when i got interviewed by his right-hand guy at the time was vince bazoli and scott redham and i walk into the floor it was right down the street right here on macarthur and maine sixth floor on the wells fargo building and they had like 17 people working on cubicles but they had the entire floor filled with like 300 and something cubicles and i said wait so how many employees do you have so you're number 18 why do you guys have like you know hundreds of cubicles here i remember he grabbed me he said because you have to visualize you have to get prepared for growth and for me it was something a 22 year old kid i'm thinking like this guy crazy like how can you get cubicles computers and you only have 18 employees but all of a sudden he's thinking there's going to be hundreds of employees right and sure enough It was like nine months, 10 months later, and that floor was filled.

12:22Second floor got filled. Third floor got filled. Before you know, we had Ditech escrow and over 600 employees within three years. So I'll never forget the visualization aspect of it, right? It's like you got to see it in order to believe it, but you got to see it in your mind first. And for me, it was very impactful. Wow. So the manifestation of that reality, he manifested Ditech being that big. Yes. That's cool. That's cool. And my mentor is similar to that now. He's always just ready by design and always growing. And I'm the same way. I dream really big. And people think I'm crazy. But you've got to start somewhere.

13:12It's the crazy ones that make things happen. It makes the world function. Yes. Exactly. Now, when you ended up in the mortgage space during your early tech wave, what did those years teach you about the power of blending finance and innovation? You know, I learned early on that, you know, life along with many aspects in life, they don't ever stay the same. there's always change and you can try to stay where you're at but you'll become antiquated right or you can always try to adapt and learn same thing that's what's happening nowadays right with AI there's a lot of resistance right but if you don't adapt then eventually you're not going to be innovative.

14:09And at that time, when fax machines were the thing, everyone thought, well, we'll just continue using fax machines. But along came a little company called eFax. And that completely disrupted the internals. I wrote a store called Fedco. And my dad and I would go and he'd buy like the typewriters and then the mechanical typewriters and eventually a fax machine. Well, a few months later, there weren't any more fax machines. Why? Because eFax was something you can integrate with your email. And you get a virtual number, and you're able to scan things through a scanner. So then the market changed. And what were we buying?

14:52Scanners. You were able to buy the HP scanners, the IBM scanners. So understanding that when new things come, don't put resistance. Just be able to learn, be curious. and if you adapt then that's where you you'll stay always ahead and innovative yeah i mean like in my space specifically if you're not an early adopter you're and you know an on-time adopter you're already too late and if you're a late adopter you're out of business true so you got to be and anyone listening to this podcast my advice is just be an early adopter try new things Like for me, something comes out or I even hear about it, I'm on it.

15:34One of the things that I like to do is I'm on every single pilot of any of my, you know, any venture or any investor or any partner of ours. Like I want to be on all their pilots just because I like to invoke that vision in the beginning. Then it helps us with our pilots. Absolutely. And we're always in this like beta mode anyways at our organization. um now what do most people get wrong about the latino community when it comes to money opportunity and most importantly tech adoption yes you know what i it comes down to one word ignored and that's what i realized in in various industries uh they just tend to get ignored and that could be for various reasons right it could be uh you're judging the book by its cover from the beginning.

16:28You know, this person cuts yards for a living. He doesn't have any money. That person drives a truck and he goes out to Long Beach Port and delivers items to different places. He must not have a big amount to be able to buy a home, let alone save. And I think that's where they get it wrong. We're hardworking people. yeah we're not they may not be too savvy when it comes to well how do you invest in the stock market how do you buy crypto how do you go and buy silver without obtaining the actual silver in your hands or or gold right or how do you invest in new startups it's opportunities that us being americanized through the years we're able to learn for example you know you and i we've been blessed to surround ourselves in the circle people that are very successful that we've had mentors in the course of our lives that have impacted us and have taught us different things.

17:28Not all Latinos and Hispanic have their opportunity. So I would say to every entrepreneur out there, business owner, brands, don't ignore us. The collective power that we have, it's amazing. I mean, if you look at the latest report from McKenzie Deloitte,$4 trillion in GDP. That's the purchasing power that just here in the United States alone, Hispanics and Latinos have. And they did something very interesting. They came out of a report of the top 10 things that we Latinos and Hispanics consume. I don't remember all 10 of that, but the first three, it was liquor, which is alcohol, right? Two, we're Pampers.

18:14And three, beauty products. So I always like to say, as Latinos, we love to drink. We love to make babies. And three, we love to look very good. I think all of those tie into each other. You get drunk, you have sex, and then you got to put on makeup to do it all over again. To look good, yeah. Right? So, yeah, that's interesting, right? So we saw that report and it's like, huh. So it wasn't like, you know, you go out there and buy clothes or shoes. It was like the beer, the Pampers and beauty products. And Pampers. They're the biggest consumers of Pampers. Exactly. Yes. That's funny. Now, you've talked a lot about making things simple.

19:00Credit, life insurance, investing, buying a home. Where do you start when you're educating someone brand new to this entire financial world? you know as simple as opening up a checking account and i believe that the resistance starts there because yeah a lot of latinas i know don't even have that exactly and the making them understand that in order for you to be able to leave a legacy to your children to your family you have to come in and adopt yourself and integrate yourself into the system right you can't argue and fight the system you can put all the money you want underneath your mattress you can catch on fire you could lose it just just many things right but how do you leave what you've created and what you work for so hard such as a home right if you can pay the mortgage gets off for 30 years, that's a success.

20:01But what happens when you're gone? Do you have something as simple as a living trust? So that way the property doesn't get sold on probate. If you happen to get sick down the road and you made 18 years of mortgage payment, unfortunately something happens and you're gone, you move on. Then who takes care of the mortgage then so these are things that when you look at different families that have adapted to themselves in the system for them it's like well i got life insurance that coverages the mortgage in case something happens to me so my wife and my children don't have to worry about but most hispanic and latinos don't understand that they think i don't want to be thinking about dying right now so why would i be wanting to get a life insurance so they don't see this as an as a life

20:52a vehicle for investment, right? They see it more as something detrimental, like, what if I die? And I think that that's where professionals like us need to come in and provide that education and actually explain the benefits in a sense that they understand how they're protected, right? Rather than, no, it's not just when you die. It's how you're able to protect what you work for all these years, right? There's a study that read just last week, I read it, it said 80 % of homeowners, their children are more than likely to go to college, right? Because by the time they have equity in their home, when the child is ready to go to college, they can either get a second mortgage or get a line of credit, so that way they can help now their children fulfill their dreams, which is get a higher education for a better life so you know and then also us kids we're the mirror of our parents so we see our parent working having a home uh putting money in savings or investing in the market well you as a child are going to see that example and eventually be able to do that as you grow so i think that's the the hardest aspect is how do you teach them and sometimes the best way to teach them is by creating something that's very very neat and rewarding because there's a lot of companies out there in digital wallets that you can do pretty much everything that dinero does but what we've done is set up rewards and mechanisms that for every action and transaction that you do within dinero and with our business partners you do get rewarded gamified exactly Exactly.

22:36Yes. I see. Now, what does, with digital banking growing like insanely fast, it's the most rapidly growing sector right now, but the in-person experience is really disappearing. How do you make sure your community isn't left behind in that shift? Because they don't really understand the digital movement. All they know is, let me walk into Bank of America. Let me sit there for three hours. That's why Bank of America, I walk in there. It's like a line of Hispanics. Yeah, that's true. That's absolutely true. It just comes down to creating good content they can put out there in their language, in their culture to help them understand.

23:17But also, you know, there's that high tech and high touch aspect of things, too, especially in digital banking. So what we have set up in El Salvador is a call center, customer support center, fully bilingual. and they can reach out at any moment in case they need to figure something out, right? Such as, how do I add money to my bank account? What places can I go to, right? So the ability of what we've done lately is created partnerships where Hispanic and Latinos tend to go or tend to be already. So rather than partnering up with brick-and-mortar banks, is teaming up like Walmart, CBS, Walgreens, Rite Aid, and 7-Elevens, for example.

24:03And you can easily go pay a fee of$3.99 and load up to$1 ,000 a day and hand it over to the cash register. And the money gets loaded up within a minute or two to your dinero account. So therefore, creating these brick-and-mortar stores that you're already shopping, You're already there. So I might as well, oh, you know what? I need to load$1 ,000 to my checking account at DeNero. And so being innovative and finding those strategic partners that see the vision and are willing to create some sort of alliance so we can continue growing that market segment. Now, I am curious myself about the IPO process.

24:48You've been working on an IPO. what is that like taking a company public what's that experience been like for you oh that's the stuff where creatives get stuck on right and um i don't like the paperwork in the meetings and uh but what do you do is you surround yourself with uh people that do people that know how to do it people that do they're uh more intelligent in that field and uh we've been blessed to have met a great attorney has taken a few companies public he served with Arnold Schwarzenegger for about two terms when Arnold was governor here in California and you know he's he's also Hispanic and he sits on different boards of different Hispanic owned foundations so by doing all the legal paperwork and us providing the information that that they need in order for us to have everything in filing with our financials.

25:48Now it's about going after and doing our Series A, so what paperwork does the SEC require for us to do so. What round are you guys on now? We're finishing our Series – I'm sorry, we're finishing our seed round. Yes, and then from there – So we're at the end. Yeah, we're at the end. Yeah, raising our last$1.5 million from our$5 million race on seed round. We're friends and family. And then come March, April of next year, we will start doing our serious A round. That's about$60 to$70 million because that's what it takes in order for us to go ahead and do an IPO towards the end of next year. And it's exciting.

26:26But like I said, you've got to be able to surround yourself with people that know that they can do it and that we can continue focusing on what you're good at in the business. now one thing we've talked about a few times is legacy now you're building your legacy and legacy is not just a business right it's it's more about you know leaving something that's long lasting a lasting impression for the ages what does that word legacy mean to you personally To me, there's just two important things, right, and legacies. Number one is setting that example that an immigrant Hispanic kid from El Salvador came and was able to build something such as what we're building and surround ourselves with amazing people.

27:18So together we're able to build that and create it. then it sets the example that, hey, you know, you can, that person can, and follow those steps and that we can serve as an inspiration in many other fields. It can be in, you know, in the health sector. It can be in just different industries, right? So making possible the ability for others to be able to follow. and two most important for me is that fulfilling feeling i imagine sometimes you know talking about you mentioned the word a manifestation right and there's manifestation but also imagine myself sometimes you know charlie when you're in your deathbed and you're taking that one last breath Is it when a question arises, does that fulfill my purpose?

28:14Do I leave a happy individual? What do I leave behind? What difference did I make? And to me those are the important questions. Not so much if, you know, did I leave my kids with, you know, cars and homes and material things and a nice bank account. It's more like how much of an impact did you make, not only in your immediate family's life, but in the world, whether it be your culture, whether it be your people from your race or just everyone in general. And what I like about what we built in the company at De Nero is that everyone that have come and be part of the mission, that's the same mentality and the same mindset that they have.

28:59is when I ask every single team member, it's like, what made you come to De Niro? It's amazing how the same answer is because we want to be part of something greater. You know, we have team members that have left government jobs, secure jobs. We're making$200 ,000 a year. And I was like, are you sure you want to come and join us at a startup? And, you know, she's our chief compliance officer. She did forensic audit for the government, credible witnesses and different court cases. And she's like, I got to be something. I got to be part of something greater, something better. And so to me, that's a blessing.

29:38And I think that that's what's most important for me and the people that have joined our team. A couple last questions for you. This is a three-prong question. What's a personal goal that you have for yourself, a family goal that you have for your family, and a goal that you have for dinero? So the first question was the personal goal? My personal goal is to fulfill all our goals that we're aiming for right now, mainly with dinero. So then I go and fulfill that personal goal, which is when I was a kid, I grew up and I fell in love with the big old VHS video recorders. and I wanted to be a movie director.

30:29So maybe I won't direct the movie, but definitely produce a movie. Yeah, I don't think I'll leave this earth without that personal goal. Business goal. Business goal is to grow dinero, not only as a company, but as a brand, right? And yeah, just make a big impact. on everyone and have dinero be that company that is not only an example but that's empowering hispanic and latinos now more than ever without getting you know too political but i think right now it's that moment where we need to take whether it's a topic of adversity or obstacle or challenges or how you know we're seeing making that difference and making that change that we are here to contribute.

31:27We are here to grow. We are here to offer amazing experiences in cultures and loving people where we welcome all ethnicities to be part of what we're building. And most importantly, just be part of us. I think it's something that we forget as humans, is that collaboration with one another. Yeah. Yeah. And a family goal? Family goal. So that's a good one. You know, with family, I have amazing children, and they're my life. They're my reason why. I got a son, Jonathan, and two daughters, Angelica and Charlize. And I've had the privilege of enjoying their company for the last 10 years. They live with me.

32:10Even though I want them to go out and leave me alone sometimes, they don't want to leave home, right? So I'm blessed. I think if I have to say what a goal would be as far as a family goal is eventually marry that level of my life. You know, I've been single for about 10 years. I was divorced 10 years ago, and I like the whole family aspect. So I miss it, and I would want to make sure that, you know, when I do pass on, I leave someone amazing behind. I hope you hit your goals. One last question. when you're in front of the pearly gates what do you think god's going to tell you he's going to say charlie uh you did it yeah i love it charlie you've been a blessing to have on this show i hope you every single one of your goals hope dinero just crushes it when it goes public if people want to connect with you how do they find you oh yeah please follow us uh on our Instagram I'm sure it's published in the podcast right yeah definitely follow us with the news and everything that's coming here within two months we're having a big launch event that's going to be which you're going to be part of as well and love to have you that launch event is going to happen here in December and also we want to make sure that everybody knows everything that we're creating and building so I think it's important that Stay tuned.

33:44Follow us on social media. And, yeah, we're going to do amazing things. Charlie Oriana, you heard it first. Make sure when that stock goes public, you grab yourself some. Thanks for tuning in, guys. God bless.