Comments on: College Debt Waivers: A Possible VC Innovation

By: Debt Free IQ: TJ

Debt Free IQ: TJ — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 17:54:25 +0000

Ed’s idea on debt is a great one and very innovative but for most students the only financial mistake is the accumulation of such debt. Without debt, students can become wealthy and expand on their dreams at any pace. It’s a simple matter to make a clear choice to do without for future gains.

By: James Root

James Root — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 18:36:45 +0000

Man, I would have loved to have had that opportunity coming right out of school. I know personally, my student loan payment was around $600 a month - and that was with commuting to campus so I didn’t even have housing costs within my loans.

By: Steve "The Debt Reduction Man" B

Steve "The Debt Reduction Man" B — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 18:01:07 +0000

A college grad will be lucky if all they have is student loans to pay off. With the way the credit card companies attack these kids fresh out of high school, with no education in credit and debt. A lot of these students get credit card offers with a limit over 5k right off the bat. They do this for two reasons, one they know alot of kids are still supported financially by their parents who will pay off their debt. And two, if a student has no parental support they know they will have this person paying off their debt for years after they graduate. This isnt even to mention student loans. I personally feel every high school senior should be offered a class in their school to educate them on credit and debt. This would help alot of young people not fall victim to the never ending credit treadmill.

By: Eric Olson

Eric Olson — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 20:44:28 +0000

Awesome idea Matt! If you want to brainstorm on this with me shoot me a note. I think the idea has potential.

By: Matt Jaunich

Matt Jaunich — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 20:31:01 +0000

Eric, I’ve actually given this some thought - and envision a sort of artist colony-incubator for entrepreneurial talent. It would be sort of like a venture incubator, and would provide office space, graphic and website design, legal advice, accounting expertise, engineering talent, a structured mentor program, and even housing for selected entrepreneurs and their teams. A panel of vc’s and business execs would elect entrepreneur candidates for a two year term to reap the benefits of the incubator support, and if the business doesn’t take off by year 2, entrepreneurs graduate.

By: Gary Ditsch

Gary Ditsch — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 15:44:12 +0000

Eric - this sounds like a very promising idea. At least from a person that is a post collegiate debt holder. I am not in the tech industry, but am a wannabe entrepreneur in the fitness and coaching area. My senior year in college (2000) I saw a huge lack of sites available for people to get specific and personal advice for fitness and health behaviors. Most sites were generic advice giving content models.

I tried my hardest to convience a few peers to seek out and solve this problem, but in the end it didn’t work out because of the risk involved. Primarily because we all had student loans that would be coming due.

I took a “regular” position (swim coach / exercise specialist) and soon found myself not satisfied but paying the bills. As it turns out, those sites are a dime a dozen now, but there is still a lot of room for improvement in my opinion.

Fearing the thought of always being a swim coach (I wasn’t great at it), I compounded the issue by attending graduate school. I thought it was the answer.

To summarize, I feel that my field is dense with issues like you mention. My peers and I have found that if you can’t find a way to go into business for yourself, you don’t make it either. So this catch 22 drives many into jobs that they don’t enjoy and didn’t get educated to do. In fact, I would estimate that around half of all my graduate school classmates do not work in our field for fear of striking it out on their own and not being able to pay the bills.

Thanks for the topic.