Capital One began as a credit card idea that bank after bank turned down.
Richard Fairbank and Nigel Morris wanted to price every card to its holder by data. One chief executive threatened to throw Fairbank out of a window. Only Signet, a small Virginia bank, said yes, and in 1994 it spun off the card unit that became Capital One. Fairbank still runs it, for a salary of zero.
Capital One on Brandseum