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Podcast Episode #3: Mailbox Money
Reimagining the broken system of student loans.
Rate of Return Podcast: Episode #3
Today we’ll be filming the next episode of the Rate of Return Podcast with Harrison Hochman and Daniel Kahn — the Co-Founders of Sparrow.
As a reminder, these ‘Mailbox Money’ posts are offers for you to ask questions directly to guests on the podcast. I’ll be choosing 3-4 responses for each guest to answer!
I strive to become a bridge between you all and the leaders building our finance future. I want to be a trusted liaison between these incredible founders / CEOs and the customers who may end up using their products.
Please share any and all questions you might have for the founders of Sparrow by replying to this email or leaving a comment below.
Sparrow Overview:
Sparrow’s mission is to accelerate the transition to sustainable finance. Sparrow allows users to compare and borrow personalized credit offers through a single application — bringing simplicity, choice, and transparency to an otherwise inefficient and opaque lending process.
Long story short, they’re like Credit Karma in the sense of financial offers and “best fit” scenarios — but for your student loans. If you’re borrowing, refinancing, or just learning — Sparrow scours the interweb to find you the best terms possible.
Once you tell them the loan, the amount, your credit score, and your estimated income upon graduation — they immediately match you with dozens of lenders or refinancing options.
I like to think of Sparrow as the ‘Google Flights + Common App’ of student loans. Google Flights takes your search criteria and finds the best solutions for you. Common App helps people apply to college by having a single application that can work for hundreds of different school admission processes.
Currently, you must submit a new application for each student loan, and you don’t even know if it’s the best one for your financial situation. Sparrow fixes this and improves the lives of those going through the student loan process.
Background on Harrison and Daniel:
Harrison Hochman is a visionary founder. He took what he learned from his Bachelor’s and Masters at Stanford (Science and Engineering) to build Sparrow full-time upon graduation. While at Stanford, he served as an operations analyst for the Minnesota Vikings Football team, an analyst for various VCs, and finally as an analyst for Evercore’s investment banking division before starting Sparrow.
Daniel Kahn completes the two-headed monster of Sparrow, acting as the company’s COO. He graduated from Duke with a degree in Public Policy Analysis and has extensive experience interning twice in Tel Aviv, Israel (where he met Harrison). The combination of Daniel’s well-rounded experiences and Harrison’s highly-technical background has allowed Sparrow to move very quickly over the last couple of years.
Here’s a couple of write-ups from Dorm Room Fund and the Stanford Daily
The two have raised millions and made countless name-brand partnerships to execute on the vision of Sparrow.
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