Jimmy Chen
Founder & CEO, Propel. On 1 show, 2 appearances, plus 1 compilation re-air not counted. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderexecutiveoperator@jimmychen ↗LinkedIn ↗joinpropel.com ↗
Jimmy Chen founded Propel to develop financial software—including Fresh EBT, later rebranded as Providers—that helps low-income households manage government benefits such as SNAP. Before launching Propel, he worked as a product manager at Facebook and LinkedIn.
1shows
2appearances
19statements
4resolved
2supported
0contradicted
50%fully supported
Everything Jimmy Chen said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Chen: Mass-market tech serves higher incomes due to founder demographics
“Spent a lot of time thinking about how founders solve the problems that they personally understand, and that a lot of the mass market apps and websites used by millions of people throughout this country are built to solve the needs of middle to higher income f…”
Chen: EBT balance checks are low-income Americans' top government touchpoint
“The experience of checking your EBT balance is probably the most common interaction that low-income households have with the entire government, and so making that a dignified and modern experience is worth a lot.”
Jimmy Chen: 70% of food stamp recipients return within 2 years
“That if you graduate from the food stamp program, 70% of people will go back on the program in the next two years.”
Chen: Charity alone cannot solve the financial needs of low-income Americans
“Charity alone is not going to be the solution to solving the financial needs of low-income Americans. I think charity certainly has a role to play that role, but I think for-profit companies can play a really unique role in this space of helping low-income Ame…”
Chen: Silicon Valley founders mostly solve problems for young urban men
“I think people start companies that solve the problems they understand, and I think that's why so many of the startups that come out of Places like Silicon Valley are addressing the issues of twenty-something males who live in cities because those are the type…”
Chen defines public interest tech as helping government without public contracts
“Public interest technology I define as a non-government entity that helps government to solve problems in the public interest, but without signing contracts or making money through the public sector.”
Chen: Propel reaches one-fourth of all U.S. SNAP recipients
“There are about twenty million households in the United States who get SNAP benefits, so we're currently used each month by about a quarter of all Americans who get SNAP.”
Chen: Propel helped 500,000 SNAP recipients find jobs
“So over the last few years, we've helped about 500,000 people who are using SNAP benefits to get jobs, and we publish all sorts of jobs, whether it's on-demand, seasonal, part-time, or full-time, and we are paid by employers as a marketing channel to help them…”
Chen: Propel is the only bank treating government benefits as primary income
“We're the only bank in the country that treats, ah, payments from the state or federal government, things like the unemployment program or the disability program or a tax credit as a first-class citizen as a primary way that people might put money into their a…”
Chen: Food stamp recipients typically exhaust benefits by week two or three
“There are lots of challenges where lots of families run out of benefits around week two or week three of each month and then spend the next two to three weeks of the month using food pantries, trying to borrow money from friends and family.”
Chen: Propel's Fresh EBT reaches 1M MAUs with 60% word-of-mouth growth
“So, we have a million monthly active users across the country now who use Fresh EVT at least once a month. These are all families that are on food stamps. About 60% of them found the app through some friend or family member telling them that this is something …”
Propel monetizes its free EBT app via grocery store advertising
“Our business is selling advertising to grocery retailers and grocery brands who want to attract the business of our shoppers at their stores, often by providing coupons and discounts directly to our users.”
Chen: SNAP will distribute $100B in EBT benefits in 2022
“The SNAP program is going to distribute about a hundred billion dollars, In food stamp benefits to low income families in 2022, and those benefits are distributed on the EBT card.”
Jimmy Chen: 90 million Americans earn under $40,000 per year
“That there are ninety million Americans who make under 40,000 dollars per year.”
Chen: Propel is working with the CFPB on EBT card data rights
“And we're currently working with the CFPB to give EBT cards the same data rights that are given to Americans who use checking accounts and other types of financial products, and we'd love, ah, support on that.”
Jimmy Chen: 44 million Americans rely on SNAP food stamp benefits
“It's used by about forty-four million Americans currently, so about one in seven families in the United States is currently relying on these benefits to purchase food.”
Chen: Propel aims to be TurboTax for food stamps
“We think about ourselves a little bit like how TurboTax works for the tax process, and that here's a private sector company that's able to take the UI of a particular program and make it significantly better such that people save time and money, and I think th…”
Jimmy Chen: $70B is spent annually through food stamps at grocery stores
“There's about seventy billion dollars spent each year through the food stamp program at grocery stores.”
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Jimmy's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 a16zLEDGER | Founder & CEO, Propel | 2 +1 | 19 | 50% 2/4 | full record on the a16z Podcast → |