Courtesy of Nick Suarez Photo
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with former model Katrin Kaurov. At 28, she is now CEO and cofounder of the social finance app Frich. It has been edited for length and clarity.
My cofounder and I received a lot of pushback when we started Frich. She was 22, and I was 24. Everyone thought we couldn't create it because neither of us had a background in finance or had worked in a bank for 20 years. I was a former model.
But we built Frich because most people in their 20s have no clue what to do with their money, and there is such a big lack of transparency. Everything you see on Instagram — like lavish trips and dinners with friends — seems like everyone else has their lives together financially, and you're the only one whose card is getting declined.
We realized that Gen Z craves truth and wants to know what other people around them are doing with their money. That's why I built Frich, a community of 400,000 Gen Zers. Users can anonymously see what people like them are doing with money. Once they see how they compare to others, we give users access to see what tools they are using to get ahead.
It helps that I really understand our audience because I lived this: I was anxious about money as a teen model. Sometimes, coming from a non-traditional background really plays in your favor.
When I was 14, I started working mostly full-time as a model. I was being constantly shipped around and having to be financially independent at 14.
Modeling is a lot like being an athlete. You make your best money when you're really young, and no one teaches you what to do with that money at that age. You get paid in different currencies, and usually, in cash. You never know what to expect next.
I remember one of my first really big paychecks when I was 15, and I had no clue what to do with that money. I got it in cash after a two-month contract. I kept it in my drawer until I realized I could invest it and do better things with it. Learning things like that took a while, and I wish there was someone guiding me along the way.
That eventually led me to start Frich because I realized it's not just models who go through the same process. Students and recent grads go through the same experience — probably 10 years later than models.
As a model, there's so much pressure, and you have to know how to sell. Every day when you go to a casting, you've got to look your best, and you've got to find a way to stand out from the other 150 models who are there. Everyone's trying really hard, but only one person gets the job.
Sometimes, an agency will ask you to change your personality, depending on the client — whether you've got to be the "cool girl" or the "fun girl." You're almost acting a role, which is very similar to what I do now with certain investors. When I'm talking to a very serious banking investor, I'm different than when I'm talking to someone who was the founder of Bumble. So, learning how to sell myself as a model was huge for me.
Also, in the later years of my career, social media became really popular. Clients would book models if they saw you're working a lot on Instagram. So you have to keep up the image, and it's very similar to being a founder now; if I don't post about it, then people start to wonder what's going on.
When you brand yourself, it's all about making yourself look exciting. When we first started Frich, we realized that money needs to be exciting and cool.
When I moved to New York, I already knew I wanted to do something else. One day, I pulled up a Forbes article about the most successful entrepreneurs in New York, and I DMed all of them on Instagram, asking if they wanted to meet me for a coffee. One of them said yes. I built close relationships with other female founders, who then became my mentors, and they introduced me to investors down the line.
We then watched every Y Combinator video on YouTube and learned everything there is to learn about building a startup.
Thinking back, I think ignorance was bliss. We didn't realize how hard it was going to be. We had no money. I quit my job, and my cofounder had just graduated.
We went all in, which, looking back, was objectively insane. But it all worked out.
