Andrew Housser | |
Birth Date: | 9 August 1973 |
Birth Place: | Vancouver, Canada |
Occupation: | Businessman |
Known: | Achieve Company Freedom Financial Network Freedom Debt Relief Bills.com |
Andrew Housser is an entrepreneur who co-founded Achieve(formerly Freedom Financial Network),[1] and who co-founded Bills.com.
Housser attended Brentwood College School in Mill Bay, Canada. Housser received his MBA from Stanford Business School, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar,[2] and received a BA from Dartmouth College, where he graduated summa cum laude, and was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society.[3] Housser is on the Board of Advisors of the Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship at Dartmouth College, serves on the board of Brentwood College School, and previously served on the Phillips Brooks School board for six years.
Prior to founding Achieve, Housser was an investor in a variety of services, manufacturing, and distribution companies at Littlejohn & Company, a private equity firm based in Greenwich, Connecticut. Prior to Littlejohn & Company, he worked for Smith Barney in New York City in the company's investment banking division.[4]
Housser and his business partner, Brad Stroh, founded Achieve in 2002.[5] Housser serves on the American Fair Credit Council's (AFCC) board of directors, a position he has held since 2006, when it operated under the name The Association of Settlement Companies.[6] In 2010, he was awarded the association's President's Award for outstanding voluntary service to the organization and contributions that "benefits the consumer".[7]
In 2005, Stroh and Housser purchased the Bills.com domain and relaunched it as a website that provides consumers with information and interactive tools dealing with personal finance topics including debt relief assistance, mortgage loans, and insurance.[8] In 2008, Entrepreneur magazine named Bills.com No. 3 in the Hot 100 Fastest Growing Companies in America.[9]
In December 2013, the company announced that Vulcan Capital, an investment group owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, would invest $125 million of venture capital in Achieve Company, an online lending platform to make unsecured loans to consumers. Housser is CEO of Achieve Company.[10]
In 2015, Stone Point Capital, a private equity firm based in Greenwich, CT purchased a minority stake in the company.[11]
In 2016, he worked with Stone Point Capital to found the Freedom Consumer Credit Fund LLC (FCCF) which funds the Achieve Lending business. Achieve Lending offers personal loan products to consumers to consolidate their debts, lower interest rates and convert revolving debt into fixed-amortizing installment loans and provides long-term risk-adjusted returns for investors in consumer lending.[12]
In 2019, the company announced the launch of its HELOC, founded to enable people to tap into their home value to consolidate debt, and start building a solid foundation for the future.
In 2022, Achieve announced that it had surpassed more than $15 billion in debt settlement on behalf of over one million customers.[13]
Housser lives with his family in Northern California. He is married to Lara Bridges Housser and is the father of three children.