Eva Wong is one of our 30 Inspirational Women in Canadian FinTech and Finance!
Eva (@eva_toronto) is the co-founder and COO of Borrowell , a fintech company that offers free credit scores and reports and then makes recommendations to help you improve your financial well being. Before Borrowell, Eva had never worked in financial services or technology. In fact, she’d never worked at a startup before: she was a management consultant. Now she is running a company that has raised $16.7 million in equity financing while helping 500,000 Canadians with their credit. Here, she shares her best financial advice, speaks about her impressive career, and honours the women who inspired her along the way.
What are you most proud of accomplishing in your career?
EW: I’m most proud of what the team at Borrowell has built together–going from a PowerPoint presentation to providing close to half a million Canadians with their credit score, for free. One of the things that shows me we’re having an impact is that the banks are following our lead and providing their customers with free credit information as well, so they’re helping us fulfill our mission to help Canadians make great decisions about credit. Knowing where you stand is the first step and free credit scores becoming more ubiquitous pushes us to make our product even better for our members. We’re now offering free credit scores and reports, updated on a monthly basis, along with tips and recommendations to help our members achieve their financial goals.
Who are the female role models that inspired you?
EW: Does everybody say Sheryl Sandberg? I do think she has been a great role model. She’s obviously very accomplished, but I admire that there so many people doing great things who at one point in their careers worked for her, and cite her influence as key to their success. The fact that she not only is accomplishing great things but also enabling others to do so is what inspires me.
What is the best financial advice that you’ve ever received?
EW: Live below your means. Don’t scale up your lifestyle proportionately as you make more money. It’ll give you way more options to pursue your dreams if you don’t have an expensive lifestyle. It’ll also allow you to be more generous in giving to others who need more than you do. And you’ll be able to save more so you’ll have more options when it comes to your future.
Thanks for sharing your story, Eva! To learn about more finfluencers, check out our 30 Inspirational Women in Canadian FinTech and Finance.