The Free Toaster
Insights and interviews at the intersection of consumer lending, marketing, and technology. Hosted by Carlos Caro, co-founder at The Free Toaster and Managing Partner at New Market Growth, a growth agency for consumer lenders.
Episodes
John Henson of Henson Legal is back for his 2nd time on The Free Toaster Podcast.
We start with a recent 7th Circuit TCPA case. 2 Allstate agents hired a live-transfer vendor, Transfer Kings, that wasn't on Allstate's approved list. When the lawsuit landed, Allstate investigated, confirmed the vendor was never approved, and barred every agency from using it. That quick response is what kept Allstate from b...
Today we sit with James Brandon, Head Of Product at Prism Data and David Friermor, Director Of Product Management at Engine by Gen.
Together, they share their newly announced product partnership that helps lenders access cash flow underwriting data at the marketing stage.
If you were at The Affiliate Marketing Summit for Lenders and Publishers in SF on September 23rd, 2026, you heard the announcement live.
In today's episode, yo...
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 had already moved from peer-to-peer lending marketplace to multi-product digital bank. The name hadn't caught up.
If you're a performance marketer who's never sat on the front line...
Carlos riffs solo on 3 stories from this week's News Edition... https://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/avant-goes-racing-stripe-goes-shopping
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Are you an affiliate marketing leader at a consumer lender or publisher!? If so, we have an event for you!
The Affiliate Marketing Summit For Lenders & Publishers
Sponsored by Experian, Engine by Gen, Prism Data, Tare.io, EXL, and ICS San Francisco - Septem...
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 everything sitting above it.
We get into:
- Why roughly 90% of LLM citations are non-branded, and what that does to a lender's odds of getting quoted
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 for card & personal loan marketers.
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Are you an affiliate marketing leader at a consumer lender or publisher!? If so, we have an event for you!
The Affiliate Marketing Summit For Lende...
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 recent Newsletter: https://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/the-future-of-distribution-in-lending
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Are you an affiliate marketing leader at a consumer lender or publisher!? If so, we have an event for you!
...
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 used that budget and the implications for marketers in lending.
Carlos & Nick expand on the coverage in this week's Newsletter Edition.
https://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/5-things-marketers-should-draw-from
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Are you a leader at a consumer lender or publisher!? If so, we have an ev...
Recently, Carlos sat on the LendAPI Podcast with Tim Li to discuss the Summit he's organizing on September 23rd in San Francisco.
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The Affiliate Marketing Summit For Lenders & Publishers
Sponsored by Experian, Engine by Gen, Prism Data, Tare.io, and EXL
San Francisco - September 23rd & 24th
The Exploratorium
150-person, curated room
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 launch credit cards!
Today, Carlos & Nick expand on the coverage in this week's Newsletter Edition. https://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/samsungs-new-galaxy-card-and-its *****
Are you a leader at a consumer le...
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 filings and found something strange: for the past nine months, Oportun had a bank partner that wouldn’t hold a single one of its new loans. Pa...
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.
Ross, an advisory partner at Arica Consulting with 20+ years running search across Capital One, New York Life, FrontPoint, and Greenlight, has evaluated search agencies from every ang...
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 for CPA in affiliate channels based on executive mandate 2. Why marketing at a lending company is one of the hardest jobs out there 3. A time he saw a huge spike in lead volume that was toxic for t...
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 the previous four years combined.
Carlos and Nick break down why everyone is running for the regulatory door: cheaper funding through insured deposits, control without a sponsor bank in the...
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: https://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/happen-bank-is-running-chime-in-reverse
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The Affiliate Marketing Summit For Lenders San Francisco - September 23rd & 24th
The Exploratorium
150-...
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 Wheelhouse." Check out the video version here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXcLSTMLAK4
Nick and Carlos discuss an Editorial piece recently published in The Free Toaster Newsletter https://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/how-lenders-win-when-ai-calls-the
The premise of the conversation -- an LLM-based personal finance tool is going to be the most effective/useful way for consumers to shop for cards and lending products. Given that future, how should CMOs at lending companies be thinking about their long-term strategy? **...
Most lenders underestimate how long it takes to get onto a major affiliate platform. The honest answer is 6 to 12 months. Sometimes 18. If one of these channels is on your 2027 roadmap, you need to start now.
In this solo episode, Carlos breaks down the five phases that explain the timeline:
Pagaya filed a lawsuit against Klarna for (allegedly) stealing is underwriting. Carlos & Nick discuss the implications for fintech marketers that share their underwriting policies with affiliate marketing platforms. Today's episode expands on coverage from this week's Newsletter.
https://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/pagaya-sues-klarna-for-allegedly
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The Affiliate Marke...
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