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David Girouard

Executive Chairman and Special Advisor, Upstart Holdings

Search every verified David Girouard interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Dave Girouard, co-founder of Upstart, stepped down as CEO on April 29, 2026, and became executive chair of the board. He described the transition as handing the CEO role to a 35-year-old successor, Paul, whom he co-founded the company with 14 years ago. Girouard stated that if Paul stays as long as he did, Upstart could have a 40-year founder-led company, which he called "the unicorn of unicorns." He said he remains 100% focused on Upstart and does not expect to take a full-time job elsewhere. In the interview, Girouard discussed Upstart's recent performance, noting record revenue and profitability in 2025, with Q4 2025 transaction volume of just under $3.2 billion and total revenue of $296 million. He attributed growth to acceleration of AI models, which he said eliminate risky borrowers and approve more people. He also addressed the company's decision to apply for a federal bank charter with the OCC, stating that AI in credit and lending has reached a state of maturity that should come under regulatory domain. On dropping quarterly guidance, Girouard said the company decided that predicting the next three months sometimes forced suboptimal decisions, though he affirmed Upstart would continue quarterly earnings reports regardless of SEC requirements. He described private credit as "a very good thing for America" and said sophisticated investors making smart investments are necessary if banks cannot do all lending.

Recent appearances

Notable quotes

“I think even if the SEC said fine, you know, you don't have to do quarterly earnings if you don't want to. I I I am as far I mean we haven't thought too deeply about it but my initial reaction is we would absolutely continue to do it. I just don't see value in not sharing how the business is doing. I mean as strange as it sounds I really thought maybe we should just report every month. Uh but you know and there are I”

“We made a few changes um all at the same time at the beginning of the year. One we just referenced which was providing three-year guidance which was really to give a sense of of what we could do and of course we did annual guidance as we always do as you said 1.4 4 billion is what we guided um for 2026. But we really decided that you know trying to predict the next three months sometimes was forcing suboptimal decisi”

“We've really started in a model where we are marketplace in structure. We we predominantly third parties fund most of the loans whether that be depository institutions or whether that be private credit etc. Um and then we market directly to consumers. We did announce uh just a month or so ago that we are applying for a a federal bank charter with the OC in the in the US and and really just decided for a lot of reason”

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