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| Immigrant entrepreneur: | Nirit Rubenstein |
| Company: | Dovly |
| Place of birth: | Israel |
| Employees: | 13 |
| Age started business: | 41 |
Show notes
Nirit came to the United States when she was 4 years old but she still experienced struggles as an immigrant. Her household only spoke Hebrew and she only picked up English in grade school which made it extremely difficult to connect with other classmates.
She remembers her parents talking about how McDonald’s was a once a month treat for them and how all of their clothes were second hand.
Her dad couldn’t get a job for a period of time until he finally decided to volunteer at a mechanical shop. He soon took over the business and became a successful entrepreneur.
Nirit’s journey to immigrant entrepreneurship really stemmed from watching her father go through his entrepreneurial successes, but her tenacity and drive was the key that propelled her to launch a successful credit repair company, Dovly.
Quotes by Nirit
I actually really love to fail.
Every failure I’ve had in my life has pushed me to drive harder toward something else.
I really, really believe that failure is a blessing.
I love hiring immigrants. They’re the best employees ever.
Immigrants have a leg up because of their resourceful, scrappy way of thinking.
Have faith in yourself when everyone around you is going to say that your idea is not a good idea.
Expect it to be hard, but nothing in life that’s good is easy.
I really believe in networking.
I believe that you can always learn from something from people.
Where to find Nirit
[read more] Alina Warrick (0s):
Welcome to the Immigrant Entrepreneurs Podcast Episode 28. My name is Alina Warrick and I’m super excited to chat with Nirit Rubenstein about her journey to success. Nirit immigrated with her family from Israel when she was very young and her parents only had $500 in their pockets when they came. Although she practically grew up in the United States, she always had a special spot in her heart for Israel. In this episode, she shares how she ended up going back to Israel to serve in the Israeli Air Force and how that experience helped her in the entrepreneurial journey.
Alina Warrick (48s):
Not only did she serve in the military in Israel, but she also attended a college there to obtain her bachelor’s degree in Business and Economics. She launched her credit repair company, Dovly, when she had three kids and the age of 41. She’s a true inspiration, to many women entrepreneurs and immigrants as well. So let’s dive right in and hear all about her exciting journey. So Nirit, thank you so, so much for coming on to the Immigrant Entrepreneurs Podcast I truly appreciate your time and I’m so honored to share your story with the world.
Alina Warrick (1m 29s):
So how are you doing today?
Nirit Rubenstein (1m 31s):
I am great. I’m great. Thank you for having me on the show.
Alina Warrick (1m 34s):
So let’s talk about your immigrant journey. Tell us where you’re from and when did you come to the United States?
Nirit Rubenstein (1m 42s):
So I was actually born in Israel and when I was four, my family migrated to San Diego, California, and lived there for about 14 years and then moved back to Israel at the age of 18 to serve in the army, and I went to college out there and I ended up living there for about eight years before relocating back to the US.
Alina Warrick (2m 2s):
So although you were not living in Israel, you had to serve in the army at 18?
Nirit Rubenstein (2m 8s):
I didn’t have to. I wanted to. Obviously Israel is a huge part of my heritage and my culture, and I’ve never lived there as an adult. So I figured if I’m ever going to want to live there as an adult, being in the army is such a big part of the culture there that it’s probably something that I should do. And I decided to go and volunteer, and serve my two years. I gave up an opportunity to go to a top-notch colleges in the US on a scholarship in order to do that.
Alina Warrick (2m 36s):
Wow. wow. That’s amazing. And so for the listeners that don’t know. I know when I was in Israel, in the Israel army, you have to serve for two years, regardless if your a male or female. Is that right?
Nirit Rubenstein (2m 48s):
Well, it’s actually two years for women and three for men.
Alina Warrick (2m 52s):
Oh, got it. Okay.
Nirit Rubenstein (2m 53s):
Yeah.
Alina Warrick (2m 54s):
So just because your female, does not excuse you from serving out at the army?
Nirit Rubenstein (2m 58s):
No, it’s still very much a part of the culture and the life in Israel. And what you do when you live there.
Alina Warrick (3m 5s):
So what part of the army brands did you serve?
Nirit Rubenstein (3m 8s):
I was in the Air Force.
Alina Warrick (3m 9s):
Oh okay. And so what was it like transitioning from growing up in San Diego, living here for most of your early adulthood life to going back to Israel, what was that transition like?
Nirit Rubenstein (3m 23s):
It was really hard. I mean, I was definitely at that point when America and Israel was a huge part of who I am. My parents are Israeli and we spoke Hebrew at home, my parents refused to talk to us in English, when we tried to speak with them in English and at all of my business that just been visiting there and going to see family I’ve never lived there. And so I would say a pretty big culture shock to go from kind of a calm and respectful culture of the US and move to a place like Israel, where it’s just a very intense lifestyle to live there. Very intense, day to day. So it was a pretty big culture shock.
Alina Warrick (3m 58s):
Where were you there at all when some of the bombings were happening?
Nirit Rubenstein (4m 2s):
Yeah, I mean, I was there from ’94 until 2002. So yeah, there were definitely some kind of suicidal attempts, then bombings that were happening at that time. ’94 was really the, there was a lot of it then.
Alina Warrick (4m 19s):
And what were your emotions at that point? Did you want to quit and go back home?
Nirit Rubenstein (4m 24s):
No, never. It’s such a resilient culture. I think it speaks a lot to being an entrepreneur. It just makes you want to fight harder. Like, when you feel like someone is trying to eliminate your entire, you know, country, and is challenging who you are as a race, it makes you want to fight even harder to fight back.
Alina Warrick (4m 44s):
Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. So tell me a little bit about the struggles if you remember any, when you first immigrated at four years old. And I know I came here at four years old with my family too, from Russia. So I want to hear your side.
Nirit Rubenstein (4m 57s):
Yeah. We actually have a, when I was reading your profile, a lot of different things in common. So for me, you know, we came to the US, my mom was nine months pregnant with her fourth child.
Alina Warrick (5m 8s):
Oh wow.
Nirit Rubenstein (5m 10s):
Yeah. So my parents didn’t speak any English and they came to the US with $500 cash in their pocket. And my dad was a very talented electrical engineer who can pretty much fix anything, but he had a really hard time finding a job. He also had a hard time running an apartment, getting a credit card, doing all of those things, because he didn’t have an established credit score, which is, we can kind of talk about how I am now, in that field. So, you know, my parents struggled a lot. I mean, I don’t know that I appreciate it, how much they struggled. Now, I hear my mom talking a lot about how, you know, once a month we would get McDonald’s. And that was like the big treat of the month.
Nirit Rubenstein (5m 50s):
And a lot of hand me down clothes and she would buy chicken that was really kind of gross. And she had spent hours cleaning it before she cooked it and, you know, my mom talks a lot about the challenges, I being four didn’t really appreciate it any of those and then my dad eventually, couldn’t find a job, couldn’t find anyone to kind of give him a chance. So he ended up going to an electric repair shop and telling them I’ll work for free for two weeks. Then if I can’t do the job, then just don’t pay me. And he ended up being their top technician and eventually taking over the business. In the end that was kind of what had made my dad very well-off financially, was assuming that business and growing it, and my dad’s been an entrepreneur my whole life.
Alina Warrick (6m 38s):
And what about your mom?
Nirit Rubenstein (6m 39s):
My mom is, she’s always been a teacher. So she had her own daycare in Israel. And then when she came here, she worked as a teacher for a variety of different daycares, but she was, she was basically a homemaker for most of the time when we were in the US.
Alina Warrick (6m 54s):
And where did you end up picking up English? Was it similar to how my parents dropped us off at grade school and said, all right, there you go.
Nirit Rubenstein (7m 3s):
It’s exactly that. So I was not old enough to be in kindergarten. I’d missed the cutoff. I’m a December baby. So my birth date is 12/12. And so my dad had deleted the two and made it January of the same year and essentially making me 11 months and 32 days older than I was, and put me in kindergarten because kindergarten is public and you don’t have to pay for it, whereas the preschool you had to pay for. And so I remember being in kindergarten and not understanding a word of English. And I remember the kids laughing at me because to me, they were like speaking Japanese. I didn’t understand what they were saying.
Nirit Rubenstein (7m 43s):
And I remember just kind of being like, why are people laughing at me?
Alina Warrick (7m 47s):
I remember the times where we were bullied, because we would be walking home from school, we were like, right around the corner from the school. So we would walk home. And a lot of times we would just run home because we knew these kids are going to be outside waiting for us to bully us because we had, you know, broken English.
Nirit Rubenstein (8m 4s):
Yeah.
Alina Warrick (8m 5s):
Like you, we had no idea what’s going on. But it taught us a lot of lessons. So I’m glad that we went through that. Nirit, before you tell our listeners about your company, tell me a little bit about the path you took and did you try to go into any other fields before starting your business?
Nirit Rubenstein (8m 23s):
Yeah. I actually was fairly industry agnostic, but very lucky. I worked for really, really good companies and I’ve tried a variety of different roles within those companies, but this is really turned me into an overall general manager that knows how to handle a variety of different kind of responsibilities within an organization. And so I started my career at Amdocs, which is a large tech company in Israel. They relocated me to San Jose when they bought a small CRM company and I got recruited by Salesforce pre-IPO. And that today is by far the best company I’ve ever worked for. I was there for five years and then I went to business school and transitioned to do consumer packaged goods marketing, and then worked at that time Del Monte Foods, they owned Meow Mix, and Kibbles and Bits, and Milk Bone.
Nirit Rubenstein (9m 8s):
And I worked at some really big brands. And then I moved to LA after having my second child to be closer to my parents’, who had moved back from Israel to LA, and moved to LA and took a job with Green Dot, which is a large prepaid debit card company and work my way up to be the Executive with that company. And then from there, took a job being CEO of the private equity backed credit repair company. And that’s kind of the impetus for Dovly. I took a small hiatus where I went to work for between the CEO credit repair company and Dovly, which is the company I founded. I was recruited by one of our investors in that credit repair company to be a Chief Operating Officer of his much larger corporation called Nextiva.
Nirit Rubenstein (9m 55s):
And that’s what relocated me to Phoenix, but I realized about six months in that I was much more passionate about starting my own business. Then I decided to leave that company and start Dovly.
Alina Warrick (10m 6s):
So I have a few questions? So what did you study in school?
Nirit Rubenstein (10m 10s):
So on my undergrad, I did Business and Economics at Haifa University. And then I went to Business School and got my MBA.
Alina Warrick (10m 17s):
Got it. So, was there a point in your life where you were working at these corporate companies and you said, okay, I’m going to quit and start my own venture. Was there something that you can pinpoint to an experience or tell me a little bit about that.
Nirit Rubenstein (10m 32s):
I mean, I would say that I’ve always wanted, I’ve always had kind of an entrepreneurial drive and, but I’ve been very risk averse. I think a lot of it has to do with my parents need for security, not so much my own. And always kind of driving me to be the, you know, take the job that is very secure and stable and high paying and high profile. And that’s really what I’ve been doing most of my career. And so it took meeting a certain person in my life who I think got me to take the plunge and really believe in myself and I’ve always wanted to do it, but it kind of took someone telling me, this is your time that, you know, go in and it’s more complicated than that.
Nirit Rubenstein (11m 17s):
It wasn’t just them telling me this is your time. And it was also, someone who had gotten to know me very well. Who kind of understood what drove me. And was working with me for a long time as an Executive Coach. And so it was definitely an evolution, but it’s something that I’ve always known that I’ve wanted to do. But I was scared because it was, I was always making really, really good money and it took a lot to walk away from that. Especially, you know, when I did, which is having three kids and big mortgage and all the things that come with that.
Alina Warrick (11m 50s):
And did you start your business on the side, or did you just quit and then just go full force?
Nirit Rubenstein (11m 56s):
Yeah, I quit and went full force. I was going to, my co-founder and I were going to start the business after the credit repair company. But that’s when I got very aggressively recruited to be the Chief Operating Officer. And had a lot of money thrown my way and eventually kind of, was drawn to that offer and I called up my co-founder about six months in. And I said, Hey, I think I made a mistake. I’m tempted to start the company. And he says, yeah, let’s do it. Lets go for it. So we went all in and that was April 2018 and we’ve never looked back.
Alina Warrick (12m 28s):
Awesome. I love that. I love it. So tell us a little bit more about Dovly and what you guys do?
Nirit Rubenstein (12m 34s):
So Dovly is the first fully automated a credit repair platform that is based on a very sophisticated algorithm proven to improve credit scores. So we’ve developed an algorithm that looks at countless different factors and automatically creates a custom dispute plan for each individual with all three credit bureaus. So we work with the credit bureaus to remove items from your credit that are weighing down your score and it’s all automated.
Alina Warrick (12m 60s):
Okay. So this is for like anyone that comes to looking for a credit repair service. And you guys are the very first point of contact.
Nirit Rubenstein (13m 11s):
Well, about 70% of the US population need the service. So it’s a major problem in the United States. There’s lots of errors and inaccuracies and items on peoples credit that way down their score. And when you don’t have credit and then it becomes very difficult to do anything, you can’t get an apartment, you can’t rent a house, you can’t buy a car, you can’t get a cell phone. So your credit score is a very important factor in your financial well-being. But at the same time, you know, the system is very flawed and there’s a lot of issues and errors with the data and the credit bureaus don’t really take the time to correct those issues because we’re not at the end user, the end user is the companies they’re selling the data to and so there’s disconnect between us as the individual where the score’s so detrimental to our life at the same time the credit bureaus don’t really care about us as individuals and are making a lot of money selling our data, whether it’s accurate or not.
Nirit Rubenstein (14m 6s):
So for us, it’s about really being the first forward thinking company that puts the consumer at the heart of what we do. So there’s a lot of credit repair companies out there, but they’re all call center based with very aggressive call center agents locking you into very exorbitant monthly fees on average, 100 to $150 a month. And they’re not effective at all. They actually hurt you oftentimes more than they help you.
Alina Warrick (14m 30s):
Wow.
Nirit Rubenstein (14m 30s):
So for us, you know, it’s a much more a tactical scientific approach to the process. And we view ourselves first and foremost as a software company. And second, as a credit repair company.
Alina Warrick (14m 41s):
Yeah. It seems like you guys are providing more of a human approach that calling through a call center. So I like that.
Nirit Rubenstein (14m 47s):
Yeah.
Alina Warrick (14m 48s):
And I feel like, well, I hear a lot of people, when they want to fix something on their credit reports and they contact all of these companies. There’s absolutely no response for months and months until we get a hold of someone to get something fixed or corrected and is that still the case? Is that what you guys kind of like pick up the tab on that and get instantaneous results?
Nirit Rubenstein (15m 11s):
So it’s not instantaneous. There is nothing instantaneous about credit.
Alina Warrick (15m 15s):
A lot quicker for sure.
Nirit Rubenstein (15m 16s):
It’s the most efficient you’ll find for sure, but we, so the way it works, if you are trying to improve your credit on your own, you really have to know how to navigate the system. You have to know how to use the laws in your favor in order to get the credit bureaus and the creditors to do what you need them to do. And consumers don’t often know how to do that. And so the problem is there’s three different bureaus. There’s hundreds, if not thousands of creditors, there’s a lot of different factors that go into the mix. And so our algorithm, you come to our site, we pull your credit, we show you all of the negative items weighing down your score. You tell us which ones you want us to dispute.
Nirit Rubenstein (15m 57s):
And then our algorithm is determining, okay, you selected 10 items, which ones are the ones that are going to be the most impactful for your credit? Which items do we pair together to get the best effectiveness? There’s 32 different trade lines of parameters within the trade lines. And a trade line could be like your mortgage or your credit card and one of your credit cards. So all 32 of those parameters need to be accurate in order for that to remain on your credit. So knowing which one of those parameters to dispute, it’s a pretty complicated process that the average consumer just doesn’t know or understand. And nor should they, I mean, you need to literally make. My co-founder has been in this space for 20 years, so it’s been a long time in the making to get to his institutional knowledge that we’ve really built a product on.
Alina Warrick (16m 43s):
Wow. Thank you so much for breaking that down. I had no idea. It’s important for us to know about our credit scores.
Nirit Rubenstein (16m 51s):
For sure.
Alina Warrick (16m 52s):
So how old were you when you started your business?
Nirit Rubenstein (16m 55s):
So it was about three years ago, so it was 41.
Alina Warrick (16m 59s):
Awesome, awesome. And three kids?
Nirit Rubenstein (17m 1s):
Yup. Yeah.
Alina Warrick (17m 2s):
Important to notate that. And so Nirit, did you have to raise any capital to start your business?
Nirit Rubenstein (17m 8s):
So we’ve done a couple of raises. I mean, we first boot dropped it and put in our own money. And then we raised a pre-seed round of $600,000 in August of last year. And then we ended up raising a seed round of 2 million, 2.3 million in May of this year. So, we raised almost $3 million to date.
Alina Warrick (17m 32s):
Wow. That’s amazing. And anymore to go or are you guys are done?
Nirit Rubenstein (17m 35s):
It depends. I mean, were definitely on that trajectory of kind of going out and getting our series day and another 9 to 12 months or maybe even longer, but it depends, if some of our partnerships end up materializing sooner rather than later than we may not need to. So it really just kind of, depends on how our revenue and user base continues to grow.
Alina Warrick (17m 56s):
Thank you so much for saying that. Nirit, did you have any mentors that helped you out to start your business?
Nirit Rubenstein (18m 3s):
I mean, I don’t know if there’s mentors to help me start the business. I think there are mentors that I’ve interacted with throughout my entire life that I think of inadvertently mentored me to start my business, right? First and foremost, I think my father who’s a serial entrepreneur and I’ve kind of seen him run businesses since I can remember, and I think a lot of it has just being, I’ve been in business for, in one capacity or another for over 20 years. And I’ve had the fortune of working with some really great leaders and seeing them and how they operate and how they think about the business and also run businesses as myself from really small ones to really big ones that I think have helped me, you know, learning that on someone else’s dime, if you will, because I was working for a bigger company, was definitely beneficial.
Nirit Rubenstein (18m 49s):
And oftentimes I’m just blown away that these 20, 25 year olds end up starting a business and being successful because I feel so much of what I know is from years and years of being a manager and a leader myself. So it’s just an accumulation of knowledge and being involved with some really good people
Alina Warrick (19m 8s):
But you’ve had invisible mentors. They’ve been guiding you unintentionally, but you’ve been soaking it all in.
Nirit Rubenstein (19m 16s):
Right. And there are, I really believe in networking. I think it’s very important. I take the time to meet anybody who’s willing to talk to me or anyone who wants me to mentor them because I just believe in paying it forward. And I believe that you always always can learn something from people. And so it’s definitely something that helps. I take a lot of meetings and calls and ideas and talk to a lot of different people. I mean now, as a mentor, as one of our advisors, I meet with on a regular basis who’s a great mentor. And I also have an advisory board that we meet with that are phenomenal mentors. So we’ve got a whole lineup now of people that can help us with various things that we need help with on the business.
Alina Warrick (20m 1s):
I totally agree with that. Mentors help us in many, many ways. And we can’t do this all by ourselves, right?
Nirit Rubenstein (20m 7s):
Definitely not.
Alina Warrick (20m 8s):
Okay, so Nirit, where do you think you got your entrepreneurial drive? I know that you mentioned, you kind of always had it at the back of your head, but then also you’ve had your father who was an entrepreneur as well. So you saw him, you know, take a volunteer job and then eventually taking ownership of that business. So where do you think you got that entrepreneurial drive from?
Nirit Rubenstein (20m 30s):
Definitely, my dad. There’s really no question about it. He has been, I mean, he’s someone I look up to and admire and you know, he’s definitely one of my idols and someone I’m always, my whole life I’ve been trying to please and to make proud of. And so, you know, seeing him and seeing his journey as an entrepreneur and it’s been just a second nature in my house since as long as I can remember. So that’s definitely from my dad.
Alina Warrick (20m 58s):
I love it. So I’m really interested to know, how do you look at failures and how do you overcome them?
Nirit Rubenstein (21m 4s):
So I know it’s cliche and everyone says it, but it’s true. It’s really true. Like failures are where I’ve learned the most from. I actually really love to fail. I think you learn a ton and it’s when you fail more than once on the same thing that you need to be worried, you know, make the same mistake once, don’t ever make it again. But every failure I’ve had in my life has pushed me to drive harder toward something else and has made me much better at whatever it is that I’m trying to do. So, you know, I really, really, really do believe that failure is a blessing. I mean, my mom, when one door closes two windows open, right?
Nirit Rubenstein (21m 44s):
Like it’s about being able to see the opportunity and knowing when to move on.
Alina Warrick (21m 50s):
I absolutely love talking about failures because in a lot of people is the positives of being an entrepreneur, but they don’t see the negatives. And I love touching on the fact that hay failure in our lives is okay. It’s okay to fail. And here’s why. And you’re just showing proof that you’re excited about failing.
Nirit Rubenstein (22m 10s):
Yeah.
Alina Warrick (22m 10s):
So that’s refreshing to hear. Thank you. So let’s switch gears and talk a little bit about the successes. Are there any successes that you would like to outline from your Immigrant Entrepreneur journey?
Nirit Rubenstein (22m 23s):
Look, I think being both an Immigrant and an Israeli has given me a lot of my characteristics, like it’s really turned me into who I am today, which is someone who is super resilient and stubborn and resourceful and scrappy and nimble, and all of those characteristics that regardless of whether I was running a multi-million dollar corporation or a small startup, these are all things that have come in handy. And so I am relentless when it comes to business and financials. I am a huge consumer advocate. I am, I know how to ask for what’s mine, which especially for females, I think is really challenging.
Nirit Rubenstein (23m 5s):
And I often see so many women kind of second guess themselves or not want to ask certain things. You know, man will ask first and then kind of prove themselves. Whereas women have to prove themselves and then ask for what they want. And it’s just a very different kind of way of thinking. And I think that confidence and respect that I command has a lot to do with being an immigrant and being Israeli, it’s a combination, but I can tell you, I love hiring immigrants. I just, they’re the best employees ever. There are so loyal. There are so hard working. They are so not entitled. They are so humble, no ego, you know, that’s the culture that we really strive for at Dovly, which is just like a flat organization where we have a ton of respect for each other, a lot of camaraderie and teamwork, no egos, you know, hardworking everyone rolls up their sleeves and does what’s needed to be done, whether it’s low level or high level.
Nirit Rubenstein (24m 1s):
And a lot of those characteristics are present in an immigrant.
Alina Warrick (24m 5s):
And I think immigrants bring a lot of different cultures together and not so much diversity and brain power put into one room that I have this amazing. Looking back at your entrepreneurial career and knowing what you know now, would you want to change anything or do anything differently?
Nirit Rubenstein (24m 24s):
No, I really wouldn’t. I think everything I’ve done has led me to the point where I am today. Obviously there are different business things that we’ve done that were stupid that I wouldn’t do again, but the, you know, as they pertained to running a business on a day to day basis, but in terms of major life decisions or career moves, or, you know, when to start the business, I wouldn’t change a thing, I honestly wouldn’t.
Alina Warrick (24m 49s):
So what are some business goals for you? What’s next for you? Say for the next couple of years?
Nirit Rubenstein (24m 54s):
It’s all about growing Dovly. We really want to build a name for ourselves and change the industry as it stands today. And our ultimate goal is to become a billion dollar company and to do it within five years, that’s the ultimate goal. That’s driving us, getting this in the hands of as many people as possible.
Alina Warrick (25m 13s):
I’m sure you’re going to 60 that goal.
Nirit Rubenstein (25m 16s):
Amen.
Alina Warrick (25m 17s):
Yes. Yes. So is giving back either volunteering time or giving back to the community something that is part of your business values?
Nirit Rubenstein (25m 27s):
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, both Tedis and I are veterans, granted of different militaries, he’s a Marine and I’m an Israeli army. And so in general veterans are very close to our hearts. I would say in the same way immigrants are, he’s an immigrant too, by the way. And so we are looking to do programs where we provide free services to vets and in terms of giving back, I mean, honestly, for me, I give back a lot of my time and I do as much as I can to mentor and coach women and entrepreneurs and business people in general. And that’s kind of where I spend a lot of my time and, you know, in general our business model, is giving back to the people in need.
Nirit Rubenstein (26m 10s):
I mean, that’s the entire premise of our business. We launched a product earlier this year that we lose money on because we felt like with COVID people needed the product more than ever. And so it’s much more than just Oh, we’re part of this program or part of that program. Everything that we do as a business is all about taking care of people in need. So really in our DNA.
Alina Warrick (26m 32s):
So has COVID affected you guys at any point?
Nirit Rubenstein (26m 36s):
Yeah, it did. It definitely affected us in the sense that, you know, not we, we were a growing company and we ended up having to hire people remotely, which was very difficult to build a culture. And then the other way that it impacted us from a business perspective is we decided to launch what is called Dovly Starter, which is our kind of leaning product. Now it’s become one of our most popular products where were giving this to people for the most affordable price that’s ever existed in the marketplace. I mean, we did a Black Friday deal for a $1.99 a month where you can repair your credit for a $1.99 a month. So it’s completely unheard of.
Alina Warrick (27m 14s):
Practically free.
Nirit Rubenstein (27m 15s):
Practically free. And really that’s what we’re driving towards. Eventually, we hope to be free and you know, in a lot of ways, it was making sure that our kind of, employees we’re okay and they felt supported. They had this support network that they needed, that we were able to still grow the company that our customers felt like they had the resources they needed in order to navigate the situation. Sadly, I think the impact of COVID is going to be really, really big on our business because more and more people are going to need the service probably in the next year or two. Especially with just where peoples finances are going to be, as well as the rise in identity fraud. It’s just completely out of control right now, what’s going on the internet.
Nirit Rubenstein (27m 57s):
My identity was stolen last week. So it’s a, yeah, it’s crazy. More and more people are going to need this service.
Alina Warrick (28m 4s):
Yeah. And I feel pandemic or no pandemic, we all need financial services. So.
Nirit Rubenstein (28m 11s):
Yeah, for sure.
Alina Warrick (28m 12s):
Yeah. You’re definitely in the right market out there and protecting the lives of consumers, that’s awesome. So, what are some things that you would advise the next aspiring Immigrant that wants to start their own business listening to you right now?
Nirit Rubenstein (28m 27s):
I mean, I think it’s the same thing for any entrepreneur. I don’t, I wouldn’t say that it would be any different necessarily for an immigrant. If anything, I think immigrants have a leg up because of their resourceful, scrappy way of thinking. But the best kind of advice that I give people is to just go, just do it. And never think that there’s going to be a better time to do it. So in other words, it’s kind of like having a baby or moving. There’s never a good time. You just have to jump in and do it and have faith in yourself when everyone’s going to tell you that your idea is not a good idea or how hard it is to start a business, is hard. So expect it to be hard, but nothing in life, that’s a good is easy.
Nirit Rubenstein (29m 10s):
So, you know, you want something good, you gotta work hard at it.
Alina Warrick (29m 14s):
So, so powerful. Thank you. Thank you so much for sharing that. So I have some super, super fast questions for you to wrap it up if you’re okay with that?
Nirit Rubenstein (29m 22s):
Sure.
Alina Warrick (29m 22s):
What time do you normally start your day?
Nirit Rubenstein (29m 25s):
5:00 AM.
Alina Warrick (29m 26s):
How many employees do you have?
Nirit Rubenstein (29m 29s):
13.
Alina Warrick (29m 29s):
And how often do you watch TV in a week?
Nirit Rubenstein (29m 36s):
Once or twice.
Alina Warrick (29m 37s):
Okay, and then how many hours of work do you normally put in, say in a week?
Nirit Rubenstein (29m 43s):
70 maybe. Maybe. Yeah, maybe on the weekends if you count the weekends.
Alina Warrick (29m 47s):
Okay. Awesome. Awesome. So Nirit, thank you so much for coming on the Immigrant Entrepreneurs Podcast that you are extremely passionate about the financial successes of all the consumers and I truly believe that you will surpass all of your business goals. Thank you so much for sharing your inspirational story with us.
Nirit Rubenstein (30m 9s):
Thank you.
Alina Warrick (30m 9s):
All righty, guys. Thank you so much for tuning in. I just wanted to ask if you can give me a quick shout out wherever you’re at listening to this podcast. I’d love to give you a shout out as well on a future episode of mine. Also, if you’re an Immigrant Entrepreneur listening to this show and would love to be featured on my podcast, go ahead and email me and we’ll get connected. I’ll see you guys all next time for another exciting and impactful episode. Take care.
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