How does a college kid, born and raised in Philly, end up in China for their first job after graduating? It is a question I recently asked Joe Kauffman, the CEO of Intuit Credit Karma.
After graduating from school in 1999, Kauffman landed a project specialist position at The Coca-Cola Company, where he barged from store to store, helping the merchandising teams put up in-store displays for Coca-Cola. Now at the helm of personal finance company Intuit Credit Karma, Kauffman credits his rise to taking on jobs that nobody else wanted and then exceeding expectations in them.
“Back when I started at Coca-Cola in the 90s, it was like the Wild West: everything was going through multiple leadership changes, and I was just the person who got out there and did things,” Kauffman shared.
His passion for China began at Williams College in Massachusetts, where he pursued a Chinese major while away at China in Beijing and Harbin. It was during his five years at Coca-Cola that he took on various roles, including acting as the communications bridge between the bottling industry in China and consultants from the global distribution centres. He later went on to hold the post of Deputy Chief Executive Officer, overseeing units that accounted for 20% of the brand’s net profit. These roles provided him with important customer experience exposure and insights to enhance the products he sold.
He came back to the United States to attend the Harvard Business School where he fulfilled his dream of becoming a CEO before going back to China after his graduation. The current journey, however, set out to explore the next decade at fast-growing tech companies. This, however, was not true for Kauffman, who well knew that being a non-Chinese would end up limiting his progress.
“There was simply a ceiling there based upon the fact I didn’t grow up in China or go through its education system, so I couldn’t build the credibility,” explained Kauffman. “One of the major reasons I moved back to the U.S. was to get to that next step, which was to one day be a CEO.”
Kauffman joined Intuit Credit Karma in 2015 as CFO, helped raise Series D and E funding, and played a crucial role in Intuit’s acquisition of Credit Karma in 2020. There, he once again raised his hand for roles few wanted. When the firm opted not to hire a COO, Kauffman volunteered to oversee business operations, facilities, HR, and legal functions in addition to his CFO duties.
When Kauffman expressed interest in stepping into a CEO role, Kenneth Lin-Kauffman’s founder and CEO gave him an opportunity to lead a recently acquired mortgage company. Looking back on that experience, Kauffman said, “I became exposed to product engineering and product design that I had not worked on before.” The experience changed Kauffman’s perspective. “Running a zero-to-one business and seeing it develop from nothing to being over $100 million in revenue gave me a ton of confidence,” Kauffman continued.
In 2021, he stepped into the role of president, running most of the business while Lin focused on new efforts like launching Credit Karma Money. Kauffman was formally named CEO of Intuit Credit Karma in August.
