Jason Wilk is co-founder and chief executive of Dave, the Los Angeles, California, banking app that lends members up to $500 between paychecks with no interest or credit check. A serial founder who was a "chronic overdrafter" in college, he started Dave as his fourth company and took it public on Nasdaq in January 2022.
Startups Since College
He began building companies as a student at Loyola Marymount University, graduating in 2007. His first venture was 1DaySports.com, a golf equipment site. He later founded AllScreen, a video syndication network backed by Y Combinator, which raised $330,000 in seed money, grew revenue to $20 million and sold to Zealot Networks.
A Bear Against Overdraft Fees
The idea for Dave came from his own bank statements. "I would always be overdrafting my account. I had hundreds and hundreds of dollars overdraft use on my account," he said at launch in 2017. As an active Reddit user he saw someone complain about bank fees every week. The team's research found two causes: people did not know what bills were coming, and they ran short before payday. Many then asked a friend or relative for a loan, which is why the app got a human name and a bear for a mascot.
The first version predicted a user's lowest balance over the next seven days, warned of bills that could push an account into the red, and offered a 0% advance of up to $250. Mark Cuban and Diplo were among its seed investors. Wilk called it an "honor system product" and described it as a weather forecast for money. Loyola Marymount says he built it to serve younger, less affluent customers often neglected by large banks.
Taking Dave Public
Dave merged with a SPAC, VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings III, and began trading on Nasdaq on January 6, 2022, with a $210M private placement led by Tiger Global. In the quarter to June 2026 revenue rose 30% to $170.8M, and ExtraCash originations reached $2.3B. Dave and Wilk are defendants in a civil case the Department of Justice filed in December 2024 after an FTC investigation into how ExtraCash was marketed. The company is contesting it.
He started Dave because overdraft fees kept emptying his own account. Nearly a decade later he runs a public company built on the small advances that once came from friends and family, with the advance limit now double the $250 he called a safe start.
