Seedu is a peer-to-peer platform permitting investors to microfund various students of their choice in return for a percentage of their future earnings potential. We anticipate creating a network of investors whom are aligned with these students in order to provide both tuition assistance and mentorship effectively seeding these students' futures.<p>Seedu does not provide loans in the traditional sense, but rather attracts investors (friends, family, alumni, prospective employers, retail/institutional investors, etc.) to buy up students’ debt in return for equity in their career earnings for a given period of time. Typically speculative startups opt for equity funding rather than debt funding due to lack of initial funds and the freedom to experiment in their respective space – Seedu acts upon the same premise with students early on in their careers.<p>Seedu’s contract provides the student with:<p>Competitively priced alternative/supplement to student loans<p>Incentivized mentorship from equityholders – If you do well, they do well.<p>Career flexibility – Currently can’t risk leaving your job due to high monthly student loan payments.<p>Unemployment insurance – If you have difficulty finding employment, there is no traditional student loan payment to worry about.<p>Customized payment structure – Ability to modify the contract based upon financial expectation/need.<p>Active involvement bonuses – You will be able to reduce the net amount paid through good grades, internship acquisition, and anything else that actively boosts your future earnings potential.<p>Transparency – Student loans are bureaucratic and confusing. We will be focusing on simplicity and data visualization to help understand where your money is going.<p>We hope, with your help, we can solve the student debt crisis together.
Upstart abandoned ISA idea and pivoted to traditional loan products. Has something changed, since Upstart pivoted, to make ISA attractive? What are you doing differently that your ISA offering, compared to Upstart, may succeed? You both are targeting same segment. Upstart has already tried student segment with ISA and that also recently so you will have hard time convincing people that situation is significantly different in 2 years.<p>What are the reasons for relative success of Fantex ISA compared to Upstart ISA? There is something uniquely different between Fantex and Upstart target market for ISA. You need to find target markets that have similar characteristics as Fantex ISA to figure out attractive target markets for your ISA.<p>You might want to contact Dave and Paul at Upstart to investigate their reasons to exit ISA. Also, try reaching out to Mark Cuban. IIRC, he was involved with Upstart too.
Love this! Hope it works out, and if there is anything i can help with i'll be happy to do so. Also, if you aren't already doing it, do think about this not only for the US but as a global project.. Its needed worldwide. I would suggest promoting this as social enterprise. I am sure you'll find lots of support.
I think it is a cool idea...however this does not solve the student debt crisis. This looks to me like swapping one type of debt for the other. Unless I am misunderstanding your offering. I would reconsider the last statement..."We hope, with your help, we can solve the student debt crisis together."
I like this idea. If properly executed, it'll give people a whole new type of liquidity. I see the App Academy's model (free bootcamp, but takes recruitment fee from companies who hire their graduates) as a very early prototype for this kind of model.
How do you initially plan to structure your loans/agreements (interest rate, term, etc) - and what adjustments will you consider making from those numbers to acquire users?