Q&A with Jordan Hudis of Sorbet: Expanding the underwriting aperture with Prism Data

Sorbet is a financial technology company that helps working Americans unlock the cash value of their earned but unused Paid Time Off (PTO). Rather than waiting until they leave their employer to receive a PTO payout, qualified users can access that value today through a Sorbet PTO Advance. They make small, interest-only payments through their paychecks and repay the principal when they leave their job or after 24 months—whichever comes first. Designed as a responsible and affordable alternative to high-cost payday loans or credit cards, Sorbet transforms an overlooked employee benefit into a real financial resource. By combining clean UX, seamless payroll connectivity, and modern underwriting, Sorbet is helping employees turn time off into financial flexibility—with no employer involvement required.

Jordan Hudis, Chief Capital Markets Officer, is tasked with approving as many qualified customers for Sorbet’s products as possible, without taking on undesirable risk. To do that, he partnered up with Prism Data to fairly and confidently underwrite a wide array of potential customers.

We caught up with Jordan recently to talk about his experience.

What problem does Prism Data help you solve?

Jordan: Sorbet is built to serve a wide spectrum of employees—including those who may not have traditional credit history but demonstrate real financial stability through cash flow. Prism Data helps us underwrite these users fairly, confidently, and at scale. Prism’s CashScore provides a standardized, predictive way to evaluate income consistency, spending patterns, and account behavior using real-time bank transaction data. This allows us to identify creditworthy borrowers who are underserved by legacy models and approve them responsibly, without compromising risk standards.

How did you hear about Prism Data?

Jordan: We discovered Prism Data while building our own cash flow underwriting stack. As a new category of financial product, Sorbet couldn’t rely on credit scores alone—so we evaluated a range of alternative underwriting tools. Prism’s strong reputation in the fintech ecosystem, its origins from the Petal Card team, and its partnerships with major data platforms like Plaid made it stand out as a credible and proven solution for the type of decisioning we needed to support.

Why did you decide to work with Prism as opposed to other options?

Jordan: Initially, we explored building our own models using Plaid Assets, but quickly realized the complexity and time required to translate raw transactional data into credit decisions. Prism solved this by offering a plug-and-play solution with CashScore—an API-driven, consumer- permissioned risk model that was already validated on millions of records. It gave us both the depth of insight and the infrastructure readiness to launch quickly and scale confidently. For a fast-growing lender like Sorbet, this combination of accuracy, speed, and proven results made Prism the clear choice.

What’s been the impact of working with Prism Data?

Jordan: Prism’s CashScore has driven meaningful improvements across Sorbet’s lending operations. We've been able to responsibly expand our approval rates and line assignments by confidently underwriting creditworthy users who would have been overlooked using credit scores alone. CashScore has also helped us segment risk within our collections funnel more effectively—improving recoveries and keeping ACH return rates well below NACHA thresholds. Ultimately, Prism has enabled us to grow our portfolio while preserving strong portfolio performance, making our product more inclusive without compromising on credit quality.

What’s been your experience working with the Prism Data team?

Jordan: Exceptional. The Prism team has been a true partner throughout—from onboarding through optimization. Integration was fast and required minimal lift from our team. Their customer success and product teams have been proactive, responsive, and strategic. Beyond support, they’ve helped us interpret data, adjust thresholds, and get the most value out of their product. The CashScore API has been stable, fast, and easy to integrate into our decisioning flow—something we count on in a live underwriting environment.

What do you think other companies should know about Prism Data when evaluating cash flow underwriting?

Jordan: Prism’s CashScore isn’t just a data enrichment tool—it’s a fully operational risk model built to power real-time decisioning at scale.

Why Prism’s cash flow underwriting solutions are better than alternatives