Meet CommonBond – MLT’s Newest Corporate Partner
By: MLT
MLT is excited to welcome new partner CommonBond – an organization whose business model is disrupting the student loan world. Here is what CommonBond co-founder David Klein had to say.
Tell us about CommonBond – what exactly do you do?
We are a student lending platform that provides lower cost student loans to students at 20 MBA programs across the country. We also refinance existing student loans for alumni of over 2,000 undergrad & grad programs. On average, we save our borrowers over $10,000 by offering a lower interest rate than alternative choices. Beyond the savings we deliver a simple online application process and friendly, responsive customer care.
How did CommonBond start?
I founded CommonBond as a 1st year student at Wharton Business School, with my two co-founders, Mike Taormina and Jessup Shean. I had funded my MBA entirely through student loans and had just gone through a pretty confusing & cumbersome application process with poor customer service. I knew we could deliver a better product and experience. So we piloted the idea at Wharton in 2012 and went national with CommonBond in 2013.
Wow! That’s impressive – talk about putting your MBA to work for you – while in business school. So tell us more about the impact you are making.
We’ve since originated hundreds of millions of dollars in loans, raised our Series B equity round, and hired 45 amazingly talented leaders in our NYC office. We are also proud to be the only financial services company with a 1-for-1 model to drive social impact.
What do you mean by 1-for-1?
For every degree we fully fund on our platform, we fund the education of a student in need for a year through our partnership with Pencils of Promise. Pencils of Promise provides access to education for children in rural regions of Africa, South America & Southeast Asia.
That’s phenomenal. What about your growth plans?
We’re hiring. We need smart, talented, motivated people to help us take CommonBond to the next level. We are delighted to be partnering with MLT and look forward to sharing our career opportunities with MLT’s community.
To learn more, visit commonbond.co/MLT