Role at Upstart
Former President of Google Enterprise who built Google's enterprise cloud division from inception to $1B+ before founding Upstart in 2012.
Upstart
Financial Technology & Artificial Intelligence LendingFounded 2012- HQ today: San Mateo, California, USA
Reviewed by Swet Parvadiya
Company data updated: November 2026
Founders
Who Founded Upstart?
Dave Girouard, Anna M. Counselman, Paul Gu · Founded 2012 · HQ today: San Mateo, California, USA
Who founded Upstart?
Upstart was founded by Dave Girouard, Anna M. Counselman, Paul Gu in 2012. It is now led by Dave Girouard.
- Founders
- Dave Girouard, Anna M. Counselman, Paul Gu
- Founded
- 2012
- Headquarters
- San Mateo, California, USA
- Number of founders
- 3
- Current CEO
- Dave Girouard
- When was Upstart founded?
- Upstart was founded in 2012.
- Who started Upstart?
- Upstart was founded by Dave Girouard, Anna M. Counselman and Paul Gu.
- How old is Upstart?
- Upstart is 14 years old as of 2026.
Founding Story
Girouard partnered with Thiel Fellow Paul Gu, who designed the initial mathematical models at age 20. Originally conceived as an income-share agreement platform where investors backed young graduates in exchange for a percentage of future earnings, Upstart pivoted in 2014 to cloud-based consumer loan underwriting, partnering directly with FDIC-insured banks.
What each Upstart founder did
| Founder | Role at founding | Contribution |
|---|---|---|
| Dave Girouard | Co-Founder & CEO | — |
| Anna M. Counselman | Co-Founder | — |
| Paul Gu | Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer | — |
Role at Upstart
Former Google executive who led online sales and customer operations, directing Upstart's customer experience and organizational scaling.
Role at Upstart
Thiel Fellow and computer scientist who designed Upstart's foundational machine learning algorithms and quantitative credit architectures.
Upstart: CEO & Leadership History
Full timeline →Dave Girouard
Executive Leadership
Sanjay Datta
Finance & Strategy
Keep researching Upstart
Who Founded Upstart? FAQ
Who founded Upstart?
Upstart was founded in 2012 by an entrepreneurial team committed to innovating Financial Technology & Artificial Intelligence Lending.
What was the inspiration behind founding Upstart?
The founders were inspired by the inefficiencies, high costs, and fragmented nature of legacy solutions, creating a modern, unified alternative.
Where was Upstart originally created?
Upstart was originally established in San Mateo, United States.
Are the original founders still involved?
The founding team established the cultural and technical DNA that continues to guide Upstart's current executive strategy and product roadmap.
What early technical breakthroughs did the founders achieve?
They designed lightweight, scalable software architectures that bypassed the performance bottlenecks of legacy mainframe and client-server systems.
How did the founders fund the initial development?
Through initial personal savings, angel investments, and early customer design partnership revenues.
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