About Nook

Nook was founded to tackle a problem every credit union faces – truly engaging members at a deeply personal level. To grow, credit unions have expanded their fields of membership and the products and services they offer. As a result, credit unions have raced to become all things to all people, offering a wide variety of products and services to diverse demographics, leading to lower engagement and member loyalty – and ultimately decreased profitability. Recognizing these challenges, Nook presents a unique solution to redefine how credit unions connect with their members by reintroducing and modernizing the focused, targeted model that originally set them apart.

Nook’s solution to the engagement challenge takes credit unions back to their roots to empower them to leverage niche strategies. Credit unions originated the niche model, which was their core differentiator that allowed them to build trust and relationships with their members. With Nook’s Niche Experience Platform, credit unions no longer need a new brand, website, or technology stack to deliver Niche Experiences to their members. By partnering with Nook, credit unions benefit from their own niche strategies without sacrificing their existing brand.

Austin Wentzlaff is the Co-Founder & CEO of Nook and brings 10+ years of credit union industry, CUSO, and Fintech startup leadership experience.

Prior to starting Nook, Austin was the Founder and CEO of Fintech Accelerator, a consulting firm focused on bringing new technologies to the credit union industry, whose client list included CUSOs, RenoFi and Illuma, among other successful startups. Prior to founding Fintech Accelerator, he was the Chief Revenue Officer overseeing sales and marketing efforts at OnApproach, a CUSO acquired by Trellance in 2019. He has spent the entirety of his career in the credit union industry, where he has worked exclusively for Fintech startups from the earliest stages of growth through exit. Austin has extensive experience working with Fintech startups as an early employee (joining OnApproach, Illuma, and RenoFi all with less than 10 employees) and a key contributor, instrumental in their early success.

Austin is an alumnus of Gustavus Adolphus College, where he received a degree in Financial Economics.

Mark Portz brings 10+ years of marketing experience with a demonstrated history of working in the financial services, software, and food/beverage industries. Mark has proven skills and results in inbound/content marketing, strategic planning, and event marketing. He recently worked as CMO for OnApproach, driving the inbound marketing strategy and establishing the company as the premier information and analytics solutions provider to credit unions.

He earned Bachelor's Degrees focused on Entrepreneurial Management and Public/Nonprofit Management from the University of Minnesota - Carlson School of Management.

In her role as CSO, Tiffany Niederwerfer works to advance Nook’s mission to bring relationship banking back. She also serves as an extension to credit union executive teams, offering expertise in strategy, brand and content planning, resource assessment, and marcom technology utilization.

Tiffany holds a Bachelors in Journalism and Chief Marketing Officer certification, both from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. She brings over 20 years of experience developing and executing growth-driven strategies, primarily in the financial services industry. Before joining Nook, she was Vice President of Marketing for America’s Credit Unions and has held leadership roles at Filene Research Institute and TruStage.

Paul Ablack is the Co-Founder, Chief Evangalist, and Board Chair of Nook and is also the Founder, CEO, and Chief Investment Officer of Anasazi Holdings, LLC.

Prior to Nook and Anasazi, Paul was the Founder and CEO of OnApproach which developed and patented middleware that enabled credit unions to integrate banking data from disparate systems and then normalize that data to a common standard necessary for analytics, aggregation, and machine learning. OnApproach quickly emerged as the market leader for data integration middleware to the point where the company was acquired in February 2019 by Trellance, Inc., based in Tampa, Florida.

Paul has a passion for business transformation and a track record of success. His experience spans multiple industries, including finance, energy, manufacturing, sensors, software, and for the last ten years, retail banking. He earned a business administration degree with honors from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, where he graduated in 1988.

About Nook

Nook Executive Team

Nook Strategic Advisors

Luke Winskowski

Kirk Drake

Julie Esser

Kirk Kordeleski

Jack Smith

Chris Otey

Kyle Stutzman

Rhys Parry

Anne Legg

Our Investors

Quick Links

Get In Touch