Atlanta Founder Stories: Nate Washington, Co-founder of Qoins
Qoins is raking in the dough! If you haven’t already heard, Qoins is a financial wellness app that helps you pay off your debt faster through education and automation, in fact the app has helped users pay off over $15 million of debt and has raised over $1 million along the way! This month, Startup Atlanta proudly kicks off this month’s Black Founders spotlight with Qoins co-founder Nate Washington to learn about his Black Founder Story.
Introducing Nate Washington:
My founder story is a “comeback story.” I became a founder during a tough part of my life, and out of necessity. I grew up in Savannah, GA and moved to Atlanta in 2009 to attend Georgia State University in 2009. Unfortunately, in 2014 I found myself struggling financially and couldn’t afford to go back to school. Things got so bad that I was evicted twice and even slept in my car for periods of time.
After that, I decided to focus on coding and building software while working two jobs at restaurants. I had originally taught myself some coding back in high school, but at this point with no degree, I dove back in headfirst. It was during this time I built my first apps/companies and experienced my first founder failures.
The start of something great!
In 2016, I met my cofounder Christian Zimmerman at a networking event. After shutting down my last two companies, I wasn’t looking to join a startup. At the event, I happened to stumble into a conversation he was having with someone else about the idea for Qoins. After meeting up with him afterwards, and thinking through the idea through, we decided to work on Qoins together and the rest is history.
One of the things that makes us the most proud as founders is being able to constantly see all of the people that we’re helping. So many people reach out to us every week to tell us how much debt they’ve paid off with Qoins, and that keeps us going. Considering where I’ve come from, that’s the best thing for me about what we do. So far, we’ve been able to help people pay off over $15 million of debt, and we’re excited to see where that number will be 3–4 years from now!
Another thing I’m incredibly proud of about us as a company is how resilient we are. 2020 was a tough year for us as a company. There were times when we weren’t sure we would make it. But we’ve adapted, bounced back and thrived. We were able to help people navigate a generational pandemic, and even managed to win a few awards in the process, such as the Google for Startups’ Black Founders Fund and Forbes 30 Under 30.
Despite what we’ve done so far, our story is still just beginning! We won’t stop until we’re a household name in our space, and we’re excited for what’s ahead.
—
Thanks for sharing your story with us Nate! For more exciting stories of the founders that are making our Atlanta startup communtiy so bright, stay tuned at StartupAtlanta.com.
