Petplan Petplan co-CEOs Chris and Natasha Ashton, with their English Toy Spaniel, MontyBefore CommonBond went on to disrupt the student-loan market, the firm’s founder was dealing with his own loans at the Wharton School.
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The latest startups from the Wharton program that brought you Warby Parker
“I had to pay my way through B school 100 percent with student loans,” recalled David Klein, cofounder of the online student-loan lender, who attended Wharton in 2011-12. “When it was time to take out my loans, I realized that the rates were too high, the customer service was poor, and the process was confusing. I knew there had to be a better way.”
Founded in 2011, the firm has funded close to $1 billion in student loans and helped thousands of members with lower interest payments. The lender, which competes with San Francisco-based SoFi, recently launched an employer platform called CommonBond for Business, which enables employers to contribute to employees’ student loan payments every month.
“One of my biggest learnings from my [Penn] Wharton Entrepreneurship experience was to just ‘go with it,’ ” Klein said. “You won’t know if it works until you do.”
The New York-based start-up is one of the latest high-flying ventures to take flight from Wharton, long known for finance and accounting. The school’s Venture Initiation Program, established in 2001, now helps more than 50 student-founded companies annually across sectors from biotech to restaurants.
These included Warby Parker, the global eyewear fashion giant; BioBots,…