First Help Financial Streamlines Travel and Gains Real-Time Visibility with Navan

Region

NORAM: North America

Headquarters

Needham, Massachusetts

Industry

Finance

Products Used

• Navan Travel Payments
• Navan Business Travel

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First Help Financial, a mission-driven automotive lender headquartered in Needham, Massachusetts, supports underserved and immigrant communities by expanding access to credit. With a predominantly remote workforce of over 450 employees across the U.S. and abroad, the organization depends on efficient, reliable travel to bring teams together, support leadership initiatives, and maintain operational alignment.

For Kennedy Hooper, senior associate of people operations, ensuring a seamless employee experience — across HR, vendor management, and travel — has always been a priority. “I’m kind of the go-to for all departments on about 90% of things,” said Hooper. Managing travel without the right tools, she explained, would have made that workload unmanageable.

Before Navan

“Prior to Navan, First Help Financial coordinated travel manually across multiple platforms,” said Hooper — a practice that created friction for every team involved. Employees weren’t booking consistently on the same platform, HR had no centralized oversight, and the finance team lacked visibility into spend.

“The process made it difficult to track our bookings,” said Hooper. “Policy compliance is a big thing for HR, and managing travel manually placed a heavy administrative burden on employees, HR, and finance.”

The lack of a unified system was especially problematic for a company where every department travels to Boston one to two times a year — resulting in an estimated 500 trips annually.

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"With Navan, we loved all the data we could access, the insights it provided, and all of the other unique platform features.”

Kennedy Hooper

Senior Associate of People Operations

Why Navan

As First Help Financial evaluated solutions, the leadership team made some requirements clear: the new platform needed to be streamlined, easy to use, and capable of delivering full visibility into spend and traveler activity. Navan stood out as the all-in-one platform that could support every traveler, every manager, and every administrator.

“Leadership really strives to get better visibility into everything,” said Hooper. “With Navan, we loved all the data we could access, the insights it provided, and all of the other unique platform features.”

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"Navan’s customer success team is exceptional — probably the best support team I have for any of the vendors I manage.”

Kennedy Hooper

Senior Associate of People Operations

Results with Navan

For Hooper, the impact of Navan was immediate and dramatic. She had been spending two hours each day managing travel, while HR spent 10–12 hours per week overseeing travel logistics.

With Navan, the time commitment is down to 40 minutes per week. “That proves how easy Navan is to use, how easy it is to navigate, and how much it can do without manual intervention.”

Navan’s benefits extended across the organization. Hooper frequently shares Navan’s reporting and analytics in presentations to various departments. “I can present the data in real time,” she said, “and everyone finds the information very helpful. Navan’s analytics tools are incredible.”

Employees — across all levels — have echoed the same positive sentiment, contributing to First Help’s NPS of +85. And it’s not just down to the data, it’s also thanks to Navan’s  powerful support. Hooper recalled one instance when 90 managers traveling to Boston during a snowstorm experienced flight disruptions, and Navan helped avert a potential disaster. 

“Navan’s support was quick. It was easy for them to change flights,” she said. “And the platform is so user-friendly. Even our executive team books their own travel because it’s so easy.”

Hooper also highlighted the quality of customer support as a major differentiator. “Navan’s customer success team is exceptional — probably the best support team I have for any of the vendors I manage.”

Future with Navan

As First Help Financial continues to scale, Hooper is confident Navan will remain a key partner in helping the organization manage its growing travel needs efficiently. In fact, what she values most about Navan is the solution’s pace of innovation and its ability to listen and respond to customer feedback.

Hooper sees Navan not just as a tool, but as a strategic partner that helps her reclaim time, ensure compliance, and support employees across the company. “Navan gives me the flexibility to focus on key areas and strategic tasks,” she said, “because I don’t have to spend time chasing down employees about their flight information. It’s a very well thought-out platform.”