001 — Our Story
Linden started as a complaint, not a business plan. Three overdraft fees in one month, a hold-music apology, and a decision to just build the account we kept wishing existed.
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Founded
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Members
$0B
Deposits protected
A note, from the founder
"I opened four accounts trying to dodge one overdraft fee. That was the whole idea, honestly — build the bank I kept wishing existed, and stop apologizing for the one I had."
Alex Rivera
Founder & CEO, Linden
002 — Where it started
In 2018, Alex Rivera was running a small design studio and doing what most business owners do: juggling three accounts across two banks, none of which spoke to each other, all of which found new fees to invent. A missed transfer triggered an overdraft charge, then a second one for the "insufficient funds" notice about the first.
The call to sort it out took forty minutes, most of it hold music. The apology, when it finally came, changed nothing — the fees stayed. That afternoon became the first page of a notebook that eventually became Linden: a running list of everything a bank does that it has no good reason to do.
Eighteen months later, with two former bank examiners and a partner bank willing to build something stricter than regulation required, Linden opened its first hundred accounts by invitation only — mostly friends of friends, all of them warned it might break. It didn't. The waitlist that followed grew for two years before we let it grow fast.
003 — What we believe
If a policy needs a footnote to defend it, we rewrite the policy — not the footnote. Every statement is written to be read, not decoded.
Since day oneWe ran on a waitlist for two years before opening up, because a bank that breaks under its own growth breaks its members first.
Since day oneCall us and a person picks up — not a queue, not a bot pretending to be one. That was true at account one hundred, and it's true at account 260,000.
Since day oneEvery fee is explained before you pay it, in plain language, or there is no fee. We test our own statements on people who've never opened a bank account.
Since day oneAn open complaint doesn't wait for morning. Every account, every balance, every flagged charge is handled the way we'd want our own handled.
Since day one004 — Milestones
One hundred accounts, mostly friends of friends, all warned it might break. It didn't.
Two years of quiet growth ends; the waitlist crosses 40,000 names in its first month.
No rotating categories, no portal to sign into — reward multipliers that just work in the background.
Built for the exact frustration that started it all — treasury, payroll, and invoicing without three separate logins.
Still answering the phone ourselves. Still no monthly fee. Still the same five rules from the first notebook.
005 — Leadership
Four of us signed the founding paperwork. All four still read every complaint personally.
Alex Rivera
Founder & CEO
Ran a design studio before this. Still answers escalated complaints personally, most weeks.
Nadia Boström
Chief Risk Officer
Fourteen years as a bank examiner before joining. Writes the rules she used to enforce.
Theo Osei
Head of Product
Believes every screen should survive being read aloud to a stranger. Usually right.
Jules Mercer
Head of Support
Built the "a person, always" promise into the org chart before it was a slogan.
006 — Join the ledger
Whether that's opening an account or opening a laptop on our team — we're hiring across risk, product, and support.