Stride Funding Podcast: Recent Episodes
Tess Michaels
Income Share Agreements offer students an innovative alternative to traditional student loans. With an Income Share Agreement, you pay a small, fixed percentage of your future earned income over a 5 year term following graduation. We look at where you’re going, not where you’ve been, so rates are based on your expected earnings based on your program of study. Payments tied to income give students confidence that payments remain affordable, no matter their earnings. There is no accruing interest, no principal amount, and no hidden fees - all you pay is that small percentage of income over the 5 year term following graduation. ISAs are also considerably more flexible than traditional student loans, as borrowers never pay a dime if they make less than $40k/year. Because we only succeed when you do, we’re incentivized to help make your dreams a reality, which is why we provide career support and other membership benefits to each student we fund. It’s time to rethink how you pay for school!
Today, we’re joined with David Kafafian on the second episode of the Stride Funding Podcast. David runs Business Development & Operations at Stride Funding. As an early entrant to the ISA space, he initially worked with universities exploring institutional ISA offerings back in 2015. He has worked in finance and consulting at JPMorgan and IBM, respectively, and is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Lafayette College.
We launch the first episode by talking with Tess Michaels and LJ LaPorta about the early beginnings of Stride, Income Share Agreements, and how Stride is helping students during C19. Tess gives her perspective as the founder of Stride, and LJ gives his insights as one of the first Stride customers.