David Trost is the vice president of product and analytics at Orion First Financial. He is responsible for leading the insights team, with the main goal of helping Orion First achieve its mission of providing deeper insights to its clients. Recently, the team took its first product from prototype to market-ready in less than one year.

Orion First’s clients are exclusively small business lenders, so a lot of what Trost does involves building products that help lenders better understand their portfolios and how their businesses operate.

“It is extremely rewarding to build solutions that help expand access to capital or reduce cost of funds for Main Street businesses,” Trost says.

Prior to starting at Orion First, Trost worked for a fintech company and an independent finance company, with roles in sales, operations, pricing and syndications.

Throughout his career, Trost has tried to surround himself with people who think differently than him or come from a different background than his own.

“I believe that effective leaders can cultivate environments where people feel comfortable sharing unique ideas and taking risks to solve big problems,” Trost says. “I attribute a lot of my success to leaders who taught me not to be afraid of failure and that failing is a normal part of becoming your best self.”

Trost is a Certified Lease & Finance Professional and a member of the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association. Always passionate about learning new things, he is currently pursuing his a Master’s of Science Degree in analytics while working full-time.