Press kit

Michael Rangel is the founder of Novo, the banking platform built for small and independent businesses. He writes and speaks on the independent economy: why it is the real economy, and why ownership is the only defensible position in the age of AI.

Michael Rangel is the founder of Novo, the banking platform built for small and independent businesses, serving more than 250,000 accounts across all 50 states. He started Novo in 2016 because the financial system treated small business as an edge case. Ten years later the gap is wider: these businesses are more capable than ever, and the institutions serving them have barely moved. When his daughter was born, he stepped back from day-to-day leadership and took nearly two years away, watching AI begin compressing the white-collar work a generation was told was safe. His argument now: in the age of AI, ownership is the only defensible position. He sits on Novo’s board and writes and speaks on the independent economy.

Michael Rangel is the founder of Novo, the banking platform built for small and independent businesses. He started the company in 2016 on a conviction that has only hardened since: small business is not a niche of the American economy, it is the majority of it, and the systems built to serve it have not caught up. Under his leadership Novo raised more than $170 million from tier-one venture firms and grew to serve more than 250,000 small business accounts across all 50 states. Ten years on, he argues the gap has widened rather than closed: small businesses are more capable than they have ever been, with AI putting the leverage of a fifty-person company in the hands of one, while the institutions serving them, from banking to credit to policy, have barely moved. When his daughter was born, Michael stepped back from day-to-day leadership and took nearly two years away from the company, a period he describes as the most clarifying of his career. Two things sharpened his thinking. Fatherhood changed what he wanted to build, how he wanted to build, and who he was building it for. Meanwhile, AI began compressing exactly the white-collar work a generation was told was the safe path. His argument now: the independent economy is the real economy, and, in the age of AI, ownership is the only defensible position. A steady job was security in an economy that changed slowly. In one that reprices skills every year, security is the ability to respond, and only owners have it. Michael sits on Novo’s board and writes and speaks on the independent economy.