In this episode of Inside Startup Investing, Chris Lustrino sits down with Dr. Zwade Marshall, founder and CEO of Doc2Doc Lending, to explore how a physician-turned-founder built a fintech company by solving a deeply personal problem — the financial barriers doctors face early in their careers. Zwade shares how Doc2Doc raised $21M almost exclusively from fellow doctors, built a flexible underwriting model to beat SoFi’s default rates, and scaled to over $100M in originations while staying lean and mission-driven. For any founder tackling industry-specific pain points or looking to raise capital from within a community, this conversation is a masterclass in focused execution and founder-market fit.
Highlights include...
Founder-market fit: Why Zwade understood this medical niche better than traditional lenders (4:18)
Outperforming SoFi: 2.23% default rates with a 600 FICO borrower base (12:05)
Revenue model breakdown: interest spread, servicing, referral, and origination fees (14:08)
Structuring capital efficiently: lending with $150M in debt capacity, not equity (15:33)
Strategic expansion to other healthcare professionals with high LTV (22:57)