Minneapolis, MN
Buy-now-pay-later had record Cyber Monday, but that was just gravy for Minneapolis-based Sezzle
Here is what Youakim said, edited for length and clarity, about the company’s approach to growth and the holiday shopping season.
It was a good holiday season. Fourth quarter is always our biggest quarter, in terms of volume.
[But] this is a dynamic that people don’t understand about our business: If a customer fails to make a payment to us, we don’t allow them to make another purchase, and that’s completely opposite of a credit card, in my mind.
There’s a totally different approach to the holiday season between Sezzle, buy-now-pay-later and credit cards. We want to stop people from overspending. We want, of course, to help you in your holiday season, but we’re also actively trying to stop you from overspending. We might pull back limits in some cases. If a customer overspends too much and then fails to pay us, there’s always a percentage chance that some of those customers don’t want to pay us back at all ever. And we lose a customer.
What is Sezzle doing to safeguard against the financial risk of short-term lending?
Some of it’s a little bit inherent in the product. Because the product itself, even though it’s short term and smaller dollar, it’s high frequency, and if the consumer fails to make a payment, they can’t make another purchase. So we tend to be top of their repayment stack because they don’t want to lose the utility of the product. We do a little bit of pullback [of credit limits] in the holidays, which plays into that, as well.
Those new products — Premium, Anywhere, On Demand — those are all fast-rising products that are built to capture more demand. We already know Premium and Anywhere are there. On Demand, we’re learning about — is it the next killer product for us? And the more of these products where you kind of hit the nail on the head for customer demand, the more likely you gain market share.
Minneapolis, MN
Minneapolis man arrested in Manchester after allegedly trying to meet minor for sex
MANCHESTER, Iowa — A Minnesota man has been arrested in Manchester after police say he attempted to meet someone he believed was a minor for sexual activity.
The Manchester Police Department said Robert Fenn Eselby III, 23, of Minneapolis was arrested Feb. 27 following an undercover investigation.
According to police, Eselby contacted an undercover officer posing as a juvenile through several social media platforms. Authorities said he was informed multiple times that the person he was communicating with was underage.
Investigators say Eselby sent explicit photos and videos and later arranged to travel to Manchester to meet the supposed minor for sexual activity.
Police said Eselby was taken into custody immediately after arriving in Manchester and was transported to the Delaware County Jail.
Authorities also said Eselby allegedly attempted to ask an arresting officer out on a date during the booking process.
Eselby faces one count of grooming, a Class D felony, and one count of disseminating obscene material to a minor, a serious misdemeanor.
Court records show he remains presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
Minneapolis, MN
What is a data center?
What exactly is a data center and why are so many being proposed across Minnesota? Professor Manjeet Rege, chair of Software Engineering and Data Science and director of the Center for Applied Artificial Intelligence at the University of St. Thomas, joins us to explain how these massive facilities store and process the world’s data and what the economic, environmental, and infrastructure questions are as Minnesota considers hosting more of them.
Minneapolis, MN
Minneapolis Ranked Among U.S. Cities With The Most People In Financial Distress
MINNEAPOLIS — Minneapolis is ranked among the American cities with the most people in financial distress nationwide, according to a recent analysis by WalletHub.
The personal finance website, which defines financial distress as having a credit account in forbearance or with deferred payments, looked at the country’s 100 largest cities without data limitations across nine metrics, including average credit score, change in bankruptcy filings year-over-year, and share of people with accounts in distress.
Minneapolis came in 44th on the list, between Stockton, California, at 43rd and Fresno, California, at 45th, according to the ranking.
Nationwide, the cities with the most people in financial distress were Chicago at No. 1, Houston at No. 2 and Las Vegas at No. 3, the ranking said.
“Getting out of the downward spiral of financial distress is no easy feat,” according to WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo.
“You may get temporary relief from your lenders by not having to make payments, but all the while interest will keep building up, making the debt even harder to pay off. People who find themselves in financial distress should budget carefully, cut non-essential expenses, and pursue strategies like debt consolidation or debt management to get their situation under control.”
Read more from WalletHub.
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