We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Christian Zimmerman a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Christian thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

Qoins was a name I came up with after the first original name “Consolidebt”. After doing a few pitch practices I knew I had to come up with a better name. When thinking about what I could call the business I wanted to incorporate the idea of coins or money being saved in a penny jar or piggy bank. So after playing around with multiple fonts, I. found Avenir to be a winner. With this font, the Q in Qoins looked as if the stem of the Q was actually a slot in a penny jar and the O part of the letter was a coin. Its simplicity was what ultimately drove us to the name and we ultimately redesigned the capital “Q” with a shorter stem for a more modern look.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Christian, a LatinX founder, is the Co-Founder & CEO of Qoins, a debt-payment solution that uses automation and education to quickly help consumers pay off debt and save money faster. Having worked at other early-stage startups such as Hirewire and Shiftgig, Christian grew a passion for solving real-world problems. He is a graduate of Georgia State University’s J. Mack Robinson College of Business and was recently named Forbes 30 under 30 for social impact.

my personal ethos and our mission at Qoins are based on creating a positive impact in people’s lives. The way we do this is by helping consumers achieve their financial goals. So what we are most proud are the people we are able to serve and how much impact we’ve been able to make on their financial goals. To date, we’ve helped pay off and save over $35 million worth of debt. So finding out when we were able to help someone pay off their debts, buy their first home, or even save for a specific goal, is truly amazing.

Any advice for managing a team?

With Qoins being the first true company I’ve started, managing a team was a bit of a learning curve for me. I had to really lean on my co-founder Nate for that. But over time I put a lot of time into learning how to manage, build relationships, and create genuine connections with my teammates. The biggest thing for me has always been making sure everyone knows that I am always there for them both personally and professionally. The advice I always give to those starting to manage teams is:
1) Transparency- Giving clarity and being transparent with your team is crucial for boosting morale, driving support for your mission and ultimately getting through the tough times (because they will come)

2) Learner Mentality – Just because you’re the “boss” does not mean you’re the smartest in the room. Your team is there to bring ideas, and give feedback and thoughts on how to make the business better. That is why you hired them in the first place.

3) Trust – this is crucial for any team you manage because there is only so much you can do in a day. Putting certain people in charge and empowering everyone into making their own decisions based on the foundation you built will get you and the business much farther.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I think everything about my journey has been built around resilience. Since I was born, I’ve had to deal with a heart condition called Truncus Arteriosis where I underwent 2 open heart surgeries by the time I was 16. I will eventually have a 3rd one in the future. But because I grew up dealing with this, I always felt I’ve had the capacity to deal with the hardest/toughest situations. To me, nothing in this world really trumps your health. If you’re not healthy then money, notoriety, or really anything else matters. My mindset of knowing there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel is what keeps me going.

Right after leaving my job to work on Qoins I found out I had a heart infection and had to be hospitalized. At that time, I thought the business would go under before it ever really started. But my co-founder and I pushed through it and have now been working on Qoins for 6 years!

Contact Info:

• Website: qoins.com
• Instagram: @christianzim
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christianzim/