SoFi’s Joanne Bradford: ‘Money is the Last Taboo Subject’

TalentZoo.com | Beyond Madison Avenue | Flack Me | Digital Pivot

Archives | Categories

By: Digiday

Joanne Bradford has a long history in digital media, with top jobs on the sales side at Microsoft, Yahoo and, most recently, Pinterest.

Following her departure from Pinterest last June, she opted out of the sell side of media and instead entered the hot space of “fintech,” where technology businesses are trying to barge into the stodgy and lucrative world of financial services.

Last year, she joined SoFi as chief operating officer. While Sofi is not yet a household name — 10 percent know it, according to Bradford — it has big plans: $1 billion financial backing to become a one-stop shop for financial services (and even a few dating options) for promising and responsible people. In order to do that, Bradford’s challenge is to build a strong and widely known brand from scratch.

“Money is the last taboo,” she said on this week’s Digiday Podcast. “Procter & Gamble made it OK to talk about having a happy period. Trojan made it OK to talk about having sex. People will still not talk about money. They’re uncomfortable with talking about how much they make, how much they save, what they can do with it.”

KEEP READING HERE