Redefining Success.

For too long, our world has been consumed by defining success as money, power, and fame. At the essence of moral revolution lies the requirement to redefine success away from how much money we have to one based on the lives we’ve positively touched. If each of us could be brave enough to give more to the world than we took from it, everything would change.

By that definition, few are as successful as Abbey Wemimo, co-founder of Esusu, a fintech company built on the belief that the color of your skin and your financial identity should not determine where you end up in life. In the U.S., more than half the population has no credit history. The majority of those without credit scores are Black and immigrant Americans. Esusu started where people live — literally. By regularly tracking and reporting rental payments, the company enables people to build positive credit histories, thus creating pathways to their own ways of succeeding.

Like many successful entrepreneurs, Abbey started out to solve a problem based on personal experience. His mother Eunice raised him in the slums of Lagos, Nigeria. “One thing my mother fundamentally believed in,” Abbey said, “was the importance of education.” To that end, she worked round the clock and borrowed from an esusu or informal savings group. “My mother and a few friends pulled cash and took turns with that cash. So if she needed a thousand dollars, she was going to bring 10 of her friends. They’d put $100 in a pot, and take turns every month.”

This informal lending model — called merry-go rounds in East Africa, kye in Korean, and tontines in Cameroon — exists in many cultures. In most contexts, interest is low or zero and collateral is replaced with community solidarity or trust.  

Photo: Abbey holds a Nigerian sculpture representing his family's tribe. (Mengwen Cao, Magnum Foundation)

But distance dulls the moral imagination, and as societies become more complex, requirements for collateral and proof of credit histories grow — as do the presence of payday lenders who charge usurious rates. When Abbey and his mother moved from Lagos to Minneapolis so that he could attend university, her lack of a U.S. credit record left her unable to borrow except from payday lenders who charged her 400% interest, a practice that keeps millions of low-income people in a perpetual cycle of poverty.

Abbey never forgot that.

Abbey carries two other lessons from his mother. “Number one is the concept of collectivism. Life is not about you. It is about giving others who come after you a fighting chance and opening the door for them. Number two is the concept of falling forward. My mother has always encouraged me to reach for the moon, not the stars. Even when I was in high school with the wealthiest kids, she would say, ‘They don't have four eyes, they don't have two heads, they don't have four limbs, right? We have the same abilities.’”

While working at Goldman Sachs, Abbey met Samir Goel. The two young men fell into conversation. Both families had experience with informal savings groups. Both men wanted to build lives of purpose.

Together, they founded Esusu to pay their shared history and recent privilege forward. Both saw the need to think about housing as a fundamental human right. Both recognized systematic disparities in America: a white family owns ten times as much wealth as the average Black family. Seventy-six percent of that wealth is home ownership.

To help bridge the asset gap, Abbey and Samir started with the assumption that housing is fundamental to success based in dignity: “Esusu partners with large landlords or property management companies. We help the companies capture rental data of their residents and we report it to all three credit rating agencies. Number two, by leveraging predictive analytics, Esusu can predict if residents can pay their rent next month.” By tracking and reporting rental payments, Esusu helps residents gain a positive credit record. In this is collective dignity.

Photo: Harlem, New York (Mengwen Cao, Magnum Foundation)

The third leg of Esusu’s operations were catalyzed by the COVID-19 crisis. With 66% of its customers at risk of eviction, Abbey and Samir approached Acumen America, urging support in finding a solution to keep people in their homes. With a $150,000 grant, Esusu launched an early rental relief program that grew to $7 million from other organizations who were willing to lend at zero interest. More than 90% of tenants made good on the emergency loans and a new, more inclusive business model was born.

The rent relief program is critical to the business model’s success. According to Abbey, “Over 36% of Americans are renters. The majority of them are low to medium income folks, predominantly Black people. Landlords are happy because we're helping them stay profitable. Residents’ credit records make them more financially resilient.” The model works for everyone, including society.

Abbey is an American success story. “This country, I fundamentally believe,” he said, “is the greatest nation we've seen. But unfortunately, we’re building a mansion on sinking sand. What I want success to look like is what I call justice capitalism.”

Abbey continued, “Imagine a world where we treat our poor, disfavored, disadvantaged, with a more just lens. I think that's a narrative that everyone can get on board with. That's a narrative Republicans, Democrats, independent, gay, lesbian. whatever creed you belong to or associate with, we can all get along with.”

Photo: The Esusu team in Los Angeles, California (Mengwen Cao, Magnum Foundation)

As to how Abbey sees his own success? “Until everyone and the society we reside in is a little bit more equal, I'll never feel successful.” 

That wise Nigerian mother’s American son’s moral imagination extends to our collective success. “In whatever you do, ask yourself, the people you have around you, are they diverse enough? Are they different from you? Because, until we have a diversified group of people trying to solve issues, we're wasting our time.”

“Number two, is purchasing. Where are we buying stuff? As a corporation or venture capital fund, what is the formation of the capital we're deploying? Who are our top suppliers? Are they diverse people, of all creeds?”

“The last is philanthropy. We need to be focused on philanthropy and give people a fighting chance because the construct of capitalism cannot solve everything. And that's the reason why this idea of justice capitalism is important. My message is people, purchasing, and philanthropy. If we always ask that, I think we can create a more just society. We can all be justice capitalists.”

There’s no question. When I think of success, it looks like Abbey Wemimo.  

Photo: Abbey Wemimo, co-founder of Esusu, in Los Angeles (Mengwen Cao, Magnum Foundation)

This is part five in Jacqueline Novogratz's monthly series on Moral Leadership, featuring a new generation of leaders for a new economy. The photos in this piece were created by Mengwen Cao, a grantee of the Magnum Foundation, as part of a partnership to invite readers into the stories that are shaping our shared future.

About Acumen 

Acumen is changing the way the world tackles poverty by investing in companies, leaders and ideas. We invest patient capital in businesses whose products and services are enabling the poor to transform their lives. 

About Magnum Foundation

The Magnum Foundation is a nonprofit organization that expands creativity and diversity in documentary photography, activating new ideas through the innovative use of images. Through grant making and fellowships, the Magnum Foundation supports a global network of social justice and human rights-focused photographers, and experiments with new models for storytelling.