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If you're wondering whether Anthony Noto believes in the impossible, just look at the photo he kept on his desk for much of his career, which now hangs at his home.
It's of the 1980 U.S. Olympic men's hockey team, famed for toppling the formidable Soviets and taking home the gold medal against all odds. As sportscaster Al Michaels called the final moments: "Do you believe in miracles? Yes!"
Now, of course, the U.S. has just won Olympic gold again in hockey (both men's and women's teams). In Noto's career, that's exactly the kind of path he's looking to forge: What formerly seemed impossible is now highly possible.
As CEO of online bank SoFi, his challenge is to disrupt an industry with powerful, entrenched players. "I'm not sure we're even on their radar screens," he admits of giants like JPMorganChase or Citi or Bank of America. "They have bigger issues than worrying about us."
SoFi's trajectory has trended upwards; it's now up to 13.7 million members, with $3.6 billion in revenues for 2025, up 38% year-over-year. Those growth figures no doubt have the big banks looking over their shoulders.
And it's happened without traditional channels like a branch network, which means that every step has been a foray into the unknown. To pull off that kind of constant innovation, he's had to draw lessons from his journey through finance and tech over the years.
Consider that Noto was a top-ranked Wall Street analyst at Goldman Sachs, covering groundbreaking firms like Amazon, eBay and Priceline. Chief Financial Officer at the National Football League, navigating the financial crisis. Chief Operating Officer and CFO at social media platform Twitter (now X).
A lot of that history involved covering and creating things that "didn't exist before," an innovation background that he's used at SoFi. Since it's not a traditional brick-and-mortar financial operation, SoFi could reimagine how an institution interacts with its customers—nudging them in better directions for saving, spending, borrowing and investing.
"SoFi doesn't exist without technology, since it's 100% digital," he says. "It's all behind a screen, so how do you make that as easy as possible, reliable, and better than anyone expects?"
The aim, which he sometimes refers to as a BHAG – as in, Big Hairy Audacious Goal – is to be a top-10 financial institution in America. To do that it has expanded far beyond its original purview of student loans, and now houses everything from savings and checking accounts, to personal and home loans, to an investing app.
He's not afraid of risk, either. Asked about SoFi's growing presence in the crypto arena, an asset class that has been roiled recently, Noto seems undaunted. Foremost among the firm's new capabilities are "the ability to buy and sell and hold 30 different tokens; SoFi Pay to send money using Bitcoin as payment; and a tokenized stablecoin that allows businesses to settle transactions 24/7. So we're more than just dipping our toes into crypto—we're all in."
"It still feels like Day One," Noto says. "The last eight years have been completely unpredictable. Whatever you think is going to happen? I can 100% guarantee that it's not going to happen."
