LendEDU

LendEDU
Founded 2014
Founders Nate Matherson & Matt Lenhard
Headquarters Hoboken, New Jersey, U.S.A.
Website lendedu.com

LendEDU (pronounced Lend-E-D-U) is an online marketplace for a variety of financial products, including student loans, personal loans, and credit cards. It has been compared to Lendingtree.com, but for student lending.[1] In 2018, LendEDU encountered controversy when it was revealed to be the undisclosed owner of "Student Loan Report", and its CEO was accused of "deceiving news organizations with a fake source".[2]

History

Nate Matherson and Matt Lenhard, University of Delaware students, attended the Iowa Startup Accelerator in summer 2014 with the idea for an online tutor-booking platform they called ShopTutors. The original idea was dismissed, and LendEDU, an online marketplace for student loans and student loan financing, became their focus; as someone with nearly $50,000 in student loan debt, Matherson was looking to refinance his student loans and realized the potential business idea that would eventually become LendEDU.[1][3][4] Through the program, LendEDU earned $50,000 in funding from Built by Iowa.[5] Additionally, LendEDU received a $5,000 grant from the University of Delaware’s VentureOn program which focuses on the development of small businesses.[6]

The University of Delaware spoke about LendEDU in the 167th Commencement for the 2016 graduating class.[7]

Through 2015, the company expanded using resources from the Horn Program Venture Development Center. They were chosen to participate in Y Combinator in December 2015.[4][8] At that point, it had raised a total of $120,000 in funding.[9] At the start of the program, LendEDU received $120,000 for seven percent of the company.[4]

As part of Y Combinator's Winter 2016 class, LendEDU saw a 50 percent net monthly revenue growth. In April 2016, LendEDU was on track to reach $50,000 in monthly revenue and achieve profitability.[10]

After Y Combinator, LendEDU moved to New York City area, specifically Hoboken, New Jersey.

Platform

The LendEDU platform operates with the same basic functionality for the different financial products it features on the website. What was originally a platform that only gave users the option refinance student loans, the platform now compares rates, terms, and qualification requirements for student loan refinancing, private student loans, personal loans, and credit cards.

The LendEDU platform matches those needing a specific financial product with a lender or financial company mainly through consumer credit information.

For example, a borrower looking to refinance their student loans would enter their current type of student loan, the highest degree they have obtained, and the loan amount.[11]

Charitable Works

Starting in 2016, LendEDU started working with One Tree Planted in an effort "to help with global reforestation and to make our Earth a better place." One Tree Planted and LendEDU have already planted thousands of trees in western North America since the beginning of the initiative.[12]

Matt Hill, Founder of One Tree Planted, had the following to say regarding the partnership: "We are excited to plant trees on LendEDU's behalf. LendEDU's commitment will help fund micro-reforestation projects that would not otherwise be able to get off the ground."[13]

In addition to the micro-reforestation initiative, LendEDU has created its own scholarship program. The LendEDU Scholarship offers two $1,000 scholarships each Fall and Spring to two students at the high school or college level.[14][15]

The LendEDU Scholarship winners are selected based on a submitted essay that is necessary during the application process. Applicants must be current high school seniors or full-time college students, must be U.S. citizens, and must be earning a minimum GPA of 2.5 in high school or college.

In the News

LendEDU’s data and research is featured in the news quite often and in a wide variety of publications. The company has become known for their personal finance studies that have been featured in publications like The Wall Street Journal[16], The Washington Post[17], CNBC[18], Bloomberg[19], and Forbes[20].

Specifically, LendEDU’s surveys receive media attention. For example, a LendEDU survey that asked Amazon users if they would use a hypothetical Amazon checking account as their primary bank account was featured on the front page of The Wall Street Journal. The survey was published days before The Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon was in talks with big banks to build a checking-account product.[21]

Drew Cloud Controversy

Around 2016, a Web site called "The Student Loan Report" started conducting surveys and issuing reports. A 2018 report, quoted by outlets including Fox News, CNBC, and Inside Higher Ed, stated one in five had invested student loan money in digital currency. According to a subsequent investigation by the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Web site's ostensible founder, "Drew Cloud", despite having "corresponded at length with many journalists" to provide stories, turned out to be fictitious. The Chronicle accused LendEDU of "deceiving news organizations with a fake source" by using the pen name "Drew Cloud." The Chronicle also criticized that, despite LendEDU's ownership of the Student Loan Report, no association between the two had been disclosed.[22][23][24] The Atlantic criticized that "The opaque process of managing student debt can be confusing, and LendEDU's strategy seized upon that confusion to encourage people to consider courses of action, including refinancing, that would make the company money."[25]

The Boston Globe reported that "Pollfish, the company that performed the survey for Matherson, said it arrived at its results independently, and that the findings were accurate."[26]

According to NPR, the Student Loan Report website received over 8,000 visitors in April 2018.[27]

References

  1. 1 2 Speiser, Matthew (16 December 2014). "Don't call it a pivot: UD undergrads ax SHopTutors, launch Lendedu". Technical.ly Delaware. Retrieved 23 May 2016.
  2. ↑ "Drew Cloud Is a Well-Known Expert on Student Loans. One Problem: He's Not Real". The Chronicle of Higher Education. 24 April 2018. Retrieved 28 April 2018.
  3. ↑ Shieber, Jonathan (9 February 2016). "LendEDU Is Making Student Loan Refinancing Easier". TechCrunch. Retrieved 23 May 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 Lindsay Podraza (February 25, 2016). "UD startup guys are hard at work at California's prestigious Y Combinator". Technical.ly Delaware. Retrieved March 12, 2017.
  5. ↑ Sarah Binder (May 12, 2015). "After returning to Delaware, LendEDU focused on attracting users". The Gazette. Retrieved March 12, 2017.
  6. ↑ Michael Muckian (November 7, 2014). "Student Loan Startup Seeks Out CU Alliances". Credit Union Times. Retrieved March 12, 2017.
  7. ↑ "167th Commencement | UDaily". www.udel.edu. Retrieved 2018-05-17.
  8. ↑ Constine, Josh (22 March 2016). "All 60 startups that launched at Y Combinator Winter 2016 Demo Day 1". TechCrunch. Retrieved 23 May 2016.
  9. ↑ Ryan Pendell (February 17, 2016). "How LendEDU made it into Y Combinator on their second try". Silicon Prairie News. Retrieved March 12, 2017.
  10. ↑ "All 60 startups that launched at Y Combinator Winter 2016 Demo Day 1 – TechCrunch". techcrunch.com. Retrieved 2018-05-17.
  11. ↑ Savage, Terry. "Student loan refinancing is picking up steam". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 2018-05-17.
  12. ↑ "LendEDU Announces Partnership With One Tree Planted". PRWeb. Retrieved 2018-05-17.
  13. ↑ "LendEDU Announces Partnership With One Tree Planted". PRWeb. Retrieved 2018-05-17.
  14. ↑ "About - LendEDU". LendEDU. Retrieved 2018-05-17.
  15. ↑ "LendEDU Scholarship Fall 2018 – Deadline October 19th, 2018 - LendEDU". LendEDU. Retrieved 2018-05-17.
  16. ↑ Munk, Cheryl Winokur (2018-03-05). "Test Your Smarts on…Student Debt". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2018-05-17.
  17. ↑ Singletary, Michelle (2017-03-03). "Perspective | The alarming consequences of co-signing your child's student loans". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2018-05-17.
  18. ↑ Dickler, Jessica (2017-07-18). "Loans get even more expensive, tightening the chokehold on students". CNBC. Retrieved 2018-05-17.
  19. ↑ "American Students Know Almost Nothing About Their College Loans". Bloomberg.com. 2016-02-02. Retrieved 2018-05-17.
  20. ↑ Farrington, Robert. "What The Emergence Of Online Student Loan Platforms Means For Students". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-05-17.
  21. ↑ Glazer, Emily; Hoffman, Liz; Stevens, Laura (2018-03-05). "Next Up for Amazon: Checking Accounts". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2018-05-17.
  22. ↑ "Drew Cloud Is a Well-Known Expert on Student Loans. One Problem: He's Not Real". The Chronicle of Higher Education. 24 April 2018. Retrieved 28 April 2018.
  23. ↑ "No, Students Probably Aren't Blowing Their Student Loans on Bitcoin". The Chronicle of Higher Education. 12 April 2018. Retrieved 28 April 2018.
  24. ↑ Siegel, Rachel (2018). "Widely quoted student loans expert exposed as fictitious creation of a for-profit company". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 28 April 2018.
  25. ↑ Harris, Adam (2018). "The Undoing of an Online Student-Loan 'Expert'". The Atlantic. Retrieved 28 April 2018.
  26. ↑ "College students are using student loans to invest in bitcoin. Yes, really - The Boston Globe". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved 2018-05-17.
  27. ↑ "'Student Loan Report' Admits Its Founder And Editor Is Fake". NPR.org. 2018. Retrieved 28 April 2018.
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