'This Is How I'm Helping People Get Closer To Achieving The American Dream' Says Bilt CEO Ankur Jain

Forbes

Ankur Jain, Founder & CEO of Bilt Rewards, joins "Forbes Talks" at the Forbes 30 Under 30 Summit in Cincinnati, Ohio, to discuss his business, keeping the American dream alive, the issue of inflation, and the future of home ownership in the U.S.  Read the full story on Forbes:   Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Hi everybody, I'm Brittany Lewis. We are here at the Under 30 Summit in Cincinnati, Ohio,

00:09and I am here with Built Rewards founder and CEO, Ankur Jain. Ankur, thanks for joining

00:14me. Thanks for having me. For the uninitiated, tell us what Built Rewards is. Okay, if you

00:18pay rent and you are not getting anything back, you should sign up for Built. We are

00:24the first loyalty program that gives you points and miles on your rent payments and benefits

00:28in your neighborhood. Over a decade ago, in an interview, you said that traditional

00:33pathways... You're looking at a decade ago. I was. Hey, and I found something. I found

00:37a tidbit in there. This is where to get you. This is where I got you. Gotcha. No, just

00:40kidding. It's not a gotcha. It's inside. You said something insightful. You said traditional

00:44pathways for college students are no longer. Do you feel the same way for renters? Look,

00:49I think the part of the challenge that we're all dealing with as a country right now is

00:53that what should be the American dream of opportunity for everybody is just becoming

00:57harder, right? Everything's possible, but it's becoming harder. And with so many things

01:02to worry about, the key philosophy that we're trying to solve for is, can you just do the

01:08things you're already doing and make it work for the customer? If you're paying your rent,

01:13it should build your credit, right? If you're paying your rent, you should have a path to

01:17homeownership. These are like these types of things that we took for granted in our

01:20grandparents' generation that are harder and harder for us. Homeownership was the American

01:25dream back in the day. Two kids, a house, a picket fence, and now you're building rewards

01:31here for rent. Is this making the pathway to homeownership easier for people? I mean,

01:36our goal is to make it so that everyone has an opportunity, but whether or not it's the

01:39right thing as the American dream for consumers is now different. And so for a lot of people,

01:44renting is better, right? You have flexibility. You have somebody to fix your leaks in your

01:48building when there's issues. You don't have to deal with all the issues that come with

01:51homeownership. But for many others, homeownership is a huge thing. And so with our rewards program,

01:57you earn points and miles on rent. You could use that to buy a trip to go see your friends

02:02for spring break, to go see your family over the holidays, or save them up and help users

02:06to qualify for a home mortgage. And I think that key is the opportunity for more Americans

02:12to get more for what they're spending on. What do you think is missing then from the

02:15national conversation when it comes to the rental industry, when it comes to the stressors,

02:19especially financial ones facing renters?

02:21I mean, this is my biggest pet peeve. I'm so sick of politicians trying to spin inflation

02:26as, oh, but it's slowing. It's getting better. It's like people forget slowing inflation

02:32just means it's getting more expensive, less quickly. The drinks that I'm buying are still

02:37like, you know, double the price that they were four years ago. And you have to acknowledge

02:42that on both sides to even have a conversation on how to give economic freedom back.

02:47And what's next in this journey, this quest to get people to have that economic freedom?

02:53Well, there's a lot.

02:55But specifically for you and Bill.

02:57Look, I think we set this out in 2017. I wrote this paper on housing costs, health care costs,

03:04student debt, right? These are some of the biggest pain points facing our generation.

03:08And so we're starting off by trying to make housing a little bit more rewarding. We can't

03:12fix everything, but we can at least take your rental pricing and your payments every month

03:16and make it work for you. Recently, we launched our first health care program where at neighborhood

03:21pharmacies we can automatically help consumers save money with their FSA or HSA programs

03:27without having to change their behavior. So that means billions of dollars that are lost

03:31every year on things like sunscreen or, you know, your prescriptions can now you can save

03:37up to 40 percent automatically just by being a BILT member.

03:41Encore Jane, thank you for joining me.

03:42Thank you for having me.

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