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PawnGuru
DOUBLE UP ON HAPPINESS
THIS HOLIDAY SEASON!
Local entrepreneur leads tech startup
that could update pawn shop industry.
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1
emember buying your
airplane ticket without
online travel agencies such
as Expedia, Priceline or
Travelocity? Just as these travel agencies
simplified the process of air travel,
PawnGuru, a technology startup based
in Southfield, hopes to revolutionize the
pawn shop industry.
"We're helping poor Americans by
creating the 'Priceline' of pawn shop
loans by enabling multiple cash offers
from multiple pawn shops in their
area," said David Stiebel, co-founder of
PawnGuru.
People who need a quick, small cash
loan often use pawn loans offered by
licensed pawn shops to consumers
using an item of value as collateral.
PawnGuru's service is free and saves
time and money for consumers and
pawn shops.
After you submit your item
information, PawnGuru works with
local pawn shops that compete for your
item. You are only contacted if local
pawn shops submit offers. Then you can
choose the one you want and go to that
shop to finalize the deal.
For example, one individual submitted
a Samsung 60-inch flat-screen television
that was less than a year old. He
received 11 offers ranging from $100-
$650.
"Currently 200 pawn shops have
submitted offers through our platform,"
Stiebel said. "We have delivered more
than $2.5 million of cash offers from
pawn shops to consumers to date."
Thomas Blaine, owner of Garden City
Exchange, said, "We have had a lot of
requests come in. David has been very
helpful, and I am very excited to see
PawnGuru continue to grow."
Early Experience
Stiebel graduated from Frankel Jewish
Academy and Massachusetts Institute of
Technology with a degree in math and
computer science.
After MIT, he got a job offer at Bain
and Company, a top consulting firm. He
was hired to work in the Chicago office,
but had to delay his start date.
"I came home after graduation to
take care of my mother, Devorah, who
was battling cancer," Stiebel said.
"Unfortunately, she later passed away
in the fall of 2009. A few months later, I
went to work for Bain in Chicago."
The biggest business takeaway from
Bain was "learning how to breakdown
big problems into small attackable
chunks," he said.
36 December 25 • 2014
JN
Stiebel then suffered another personal
loss. "I worked at Bain for a year and
half, and then my father, Alex, passed
away suddenly in spring 2011."
Still in mourning, he left his job a few
months later and went to Israel to study
at Shapell's/Darche Noam yeshivah in
Jerusalem until Passover 2012.
When Stiebel returned, Rabbi
Yochanan "Jonathan" Polter contacted
him and persuaded him to help run a
loan servicing venture. Polter, previously
rabbi at the Birmingham-Bloomfield
Chai Center, knew Stiebel and his family.
"My parents were both Israeli, not so
religious, but strong traditional Jews,"
Stiebel said. His family started attending
Poulter's shul in the mid-late '90s.
"I've known David for a long time; he
was always super bright and creative,"
Polter said. "When I was looking for a
partner in my earlier venture, I needed
someone with the skillset in the area I
was lacking; he was a good match."
Navigating regulatory requirements
became complex and financially
impractical, so the business wound
down, but Stiebel had discovered
a demographic offering room for
innovation.
"We learned a ton about financial
services for low-income Americans,"
Stiebel said. "We realized there was a
lot of opportunity, and we didn't want
to give that up. So we brainstormed and
came up with PawnGuru."
For others looking to start a new
business, Stiebel advises testing your
idea step-by-step and reading The Lean
Startup by Eric Ries.
"You need to boil down your vision
to the most granular thing that can be
tested tomorrow to validate any sort of
assumption," Stiebel said.
Stiebel, his wife and son live in Oak
Park, where they are members of Ahavas
Olam Torah Center and Young Israel in
Oak Park. ❑
PawnGuru is mainly active in
Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia
and parts of Detroit. Visit
online at PawnGuru.com .