Every unique and talented Avantee is a co-creator of the Avant culture we love. We hope the @Avant series helps you get to know who we are, how we do what we do, and what it looks like to build your career at Avant.
Charles Whittaker
Chief Business Officer on the Leadership Team
Joined Avant in 2013
What’s it like to work @Avant? We asked Charles for his take on our culture, and here’s what he said:
1. How would you describe Avant’s culture?
I joined Avant in the early days, and what sold me on it was that it’s a meritocracy—work on cool stuff, and if you crush it, we’ll give you more cool stuff to do. Even as we’ve gotten bigger and more complex over the years, we really try to stay true to that. We care about what you want to do with your career and we’re going to help you find opportunities to make that growth happen.
Part of how we do that is, this is not a super rigid place. Paths are pretty flexible. I’ve walked by multiple people today whose careers at Avant have taken them in directions you wouldn’t expect, all across different parts of the org. That says something about the culture here—you can come in, roll up your sleeves, work hard, and get rewarded. If you speak up about stuff you want to do, we’re going to give you a chance to do it, without a bunch of red tape.
It’s not about working extra hours or showing off for your boss. It’s about having a genuine sense of curiosity, being comfortable asking questions, building relationships with subject matter experts. That’s who succeeds here.
2. Why are you happy/successful here?
This one’s easy for me. It’s the trust I have in my peers across all levels of the business. When I trust the people that I’m in a meeting room with, then I know that any conflict we have is because we all want the right solution for the business. Without that trust, conflict quickly turns into politics, and for me, that’s what leads to burnout. Having that trust in the people around me lets me be vulnerable and admit when I don’t know something.
I’ve also always had the opportunity to have a lot on my plate here, in a good way. I can go from launching a new product to then immediately digging into a bug and writing SQL queries to try and figure out why something’s not working. All that context-changing and variety, all those different problems to solve, keep me from getting bored.
3. If you were to describe who you are and not mention your work at all, what would you say?
I’m a human and dog dad, a husband, a big brother, and a son. Those are all very important roles to me. I have a six-year-old daughter and a four-year-old son who are future Avantees in training. We have two dogs, and actually just got our new puppy, “Birdie.” I don’t get many birdies on the golf course but now I always have one at home.
Big picture, I really value community and friendships and bringing people together. I have always loved bringing different friend groups together. When I was younger, I was always coordinating big Coachella and music festival gatherings, and these days it’s trying to get annual trips together with all my friends from college who live across the country. I’m a people person, and goofy—I have to remember to be serious sometimes. And competitive. Very competitive.
5. What’s something Avant is really good at? What’s something you’d like to see us get better at?
We are very good at being scrappy and adaptable, and remaining calm through the storm. In a business like ours, there are a lot of different risk factors both in and out of our control, so you have to be able to strike a balance where you’re making long-term plans. You need a north star, but you’re also going to take some pretty crazy detours along the way (which is often where we learn and grow the most!) And that doesn’t mean you’re not making progress and succeeding. It just means there’s a different way to get there. So what Avant is good at is resilience, adaptability.
For what I’d like to get better at, it’s marketing our brand and telling our story to the general American public. We haven’t done a ton of that in recent years. I’m somebody that reads basically every single review that comes in (it’s part of why I’m always getting yelled at for being on my phone)—reviews are the voice of the customer at its purest. And there are so many stories about how Avant is fundamentally solving problems for people who can’t get access to the credit terms they need or the tools they need. When you read the stories of the situations that we’ve been able to help people get out of, it’s really meaningful. There’s so much opportunity to share the story around our mission, around moving financial lives forward.
5. What’s a superpower that you get to apply at your job?
Probably building trust quickly. A lot of my role comes down to getting the right people in the right positions and helping them unblock things, and none of that works if people don’t trust me, or I don’t trust them.
I try to be a man of my word and build partnerships where both sides win, because I genuinely care about the people I work with. Getting to do that as part of my job? Pretty sweet gig.
6. When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?
As a really little kid, my mom said I would dress up in a suit and walk around with a briefcase and keys—I literally wanted to be a business man. Hysterical. What kid wants to be that?
