Our story
Credit Genius started in 2012 with two folding tables in a community center basement. It's grown into a national financial ecosystem, but the basement-table instinct — sit down, look at the real numbers together, no judgment — is still how every class runs.
How we started
Credit Genius was founded in 2012 by a credit counselor who kept watching clients get blindsided by scores they didn't understand, and a high school math teacher who thought personal finance belonged in the curriculum years before anyone actually got taught it. They started with one free class in a community center basement in Austin. Forty people signed up for twelve seats. As Credit Genius grew, a sliding-scale tuition model replaced that first free class — it's what lets us keep growing without ever turning someone away over what they can pay.
What we believe
- Cost should never be the reason someone doesn't understand their credit — which is why every class runs on a sliding scale.
- A class only works if people feel safe enough to ask the question they're embarrassed to ask.
- We teach the system as it actually works, not how it's supposed to work.
- A score is a snapshot, not a verdict.
Who teaches our classes
Every instructor completes a 40-hour certification covering our curriculum, classroom facilitation, and how to talk about debt and credit without shame. Most are certified financial coaches, credit counselors, or former bank and credit union staff who now teach with us.
Where we are today
Fourteen years in, we run six programs, a coaching practice, a free app, Compare, and a consulting business through 38 community partners across North America and the United Kingdom, with more than 14,200 class graduates and counting. The numbers behind that growth are public on our impact and annual report pages.