Anthony Noto has had a star-studded corporate career.
He has been the chief operating officer of Twitter, the co-head of telecommunications, media and technology investment banking at Goldman Sachs and the executive vice president and chief financial officer of the National Football League. And currently, he is the chief executive officer at the online personal finance company SoFi, short for Social Finance.
San Francisco-based SoFi is a fintech company that launched in 2011 and has raised $1.9 billion at a current valuation of $4.4 billion, according to private market database PitchBook.
When it first started, SoFi was focused on refinancing student loans for millennials. Since then, the company, which currently has more than 1,300 employees, has started offering personal and mortgage loans, mortgage refinances, wealth management services and debit payments and money transfers. It has funded more than $30 billion in loans so far. The company declines to share revenues and profit.
ICYMI: Our CEO @anthonynoto spoke with @CNBC about our current and future products for members.
Though SoFi does not have any branches, the online bank does have an "in real life" presence, however, in the form of live events for its more than 500,000 members across the country, cooking classes to yoga.
Tonight in LA we're hosting members at #SilentDisco #Yoga on Manhattan Beach!
Noto, 50, shared his three best pieces of professional advice for young people with CNBC Make It.
"I think it's really important to understand how you can impact the company, and three things that I have emphasized to my teams and I have found to be valuable in a corporate setting" are as follows, says Noto.
1. Fix problems, don't pass the buck
"Organizations have things that fall between the cracks and people that run after problems instead of saying 'It's not my problem' generally have an impact on the company," Noto tells CNBC Make It.
2. 'Be a truth seeker' so you can make the best decisions possible
"It's hard enough to make good decisions without having all the information, so keep an open mind, gather all the data and all the perspectives ... be a truth seeker so that you can make the best decisions," Noto says.
3. Focus on making your whole team better
"Make your footprint bigger than your foot. There are great athletic examples of people like [NBA star] Steph Curry that can make the other players on the court better than they otherwise would be. That same opportunity exists at a company: How can you be selfless to elevate the play of your entire team so that your footprint is bigger than your foot?" Noto says.
Noto, who received his MBA from The Wharton School and his undergraduate degree from West Point military academy, took the helm at SoFi in February not long after its co-founder and former CEO Mike Cagney and other executives were accused of sexism and harassment.
In a note to staff in September announcing he would step down, Cagney said, "the combination of HR-related litigation and negative press have become a distraction from the company's core mission." A spokesperson from SoFi declined to comment on Cagney's departure. A SoFi spokesperson pointed CNBC Make to a December blog post emphasizing the company's commitment to improving the company culture.
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