Housser attended Brentwood College School in Mill Bay, Canada. Housser received his MBA from Stanford Business School, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar, and received a BA from Dartmouth College, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude and was a member of the Phi Beta Kappahonor society. Housser now serves on the boards of two independent schools. He also speaks regularly to entrepreneurship classes at Stanford Business School on topics including formation of new ventures and managing growing enterprises.
Career
Prior to founding Freedom Financial Network, Housser was an investor in a variety of services, manufacturing and distribution companies at Littlejohn & Company, a private equity firm based in Greenwich, Connecticut. Prior to Littlejohn & Company, he worked for Smith Barney in New York City in the company's investment banking division. Housser and his business partner, Brad Stroh, founded Freedom Financial Network in 2002. Freedom Debt Relief, the largest division of Freedom Financial Network, provides debt settlement services. Debt settlement, also known as debt arbitration or debt negotiation, is a unique approach to debt reduction in which the debtor and creditor agree on a reduced balance that will be regarded as payment in full. The company was founded with the goal of providing consumers with a viable alternative to bankruptcy as a way to get out of debt. "We looked long and hard at the collection industry," Housser said. "You have the biggest companies in the world—banks, collectors law firms—all ganging up on the consumer who has no advocate. We saw an opportunity." Freedom Debt Relief is an accredited member of the American Fair Credit Council. Andrew Housser serves on AFCC's board of directors, a position he has held since 2006, when it operated under the name The Association of Settlement Companies. In 2010, he was awarded the association's President's Award for outstanding voluntary service to the organization and contributions that "benefits the consumer". Within the AFCC, Andrew plays a key role in promoting strong consumer legislation at the state and federal level, including important work the industry conducted with the Federal Trade Commissionwith respect to federal regulation for the industry. He played a vital role in reinventing the industry association to focus on its mission of credit advocacy, as well as strict compliance with the new federal regulations. In 2005, Stroh and Housser purchased the Bills.com domain and relaunched it as a website that provides consumers with information and interactive tools dealing with personal finance topics including debt relief assistance, mortgage loans, and insurance. In 2008, Entrepreneur magazine named Bills.com No. 3 in the Hot 100 Fastest Growing Companies in America. Housser is also frequently called upon as an expert by the print, broadcast and online news media. He has been quoted in publications such as The New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, CNBC, Bankrate and AOL Money & Finance. As part of his company's effort to help educate American consumers on credit, debt and personal finance management, Housser is a weekly contributor to WorldNow, one of the country's largest online media content producers which have been syndicated in publications such as CBS Radio, Cox, Landmark and Raycom Media. Housser also writes about larger economics trends, especially surrounding consumer debt, on his personal website. In December 2013, Freedom Financial Network announced that Vulcan Capital, an investment group owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, would invest $125 million of venture capital in FreedomPlus, an online lending platform to make unsecured loans to consumers. Housser is CEO of FreedomPlus. In 2015, Stone Point Capital, a private equity firm based in Greenwich, CT purchased a minority stake in Freedom. In 2016, Freedom Financial Network and Stone Point Capital founded the Freedom Consumer Credit Fund LLC, which funds the Freedom Financial Asset Management subsidiary of Freedom Financial Network. FFAM offers personal loan products to consumers to consolidate their debts, lower interest rates and convert revolving debt into fixed-amortizing installment loans. FFAM provides long-term risk-adjusted returns for investors in consumer lending.
