PAY IT FORWARD: The Student Finance & Income Share Agreement (ISA) Blog
How Students, Educators, Employers *and* Investors Win Together with ISAs
The Income Share Agreement (ISA) as an Investment Hedge – Why is it Safer?
The ideal investment for a financial investor is one that moves with the market in a good economy and against it (or not change much with it) in a bad one. Finding such an investment is hard. The best that investors can typically do is to invest a portion of their...
Student Debt Can Hurt Job Prospects. Income Share Agreements Can Help.
An important effect of student debt that has not received a lot of attention is that it reduces the amount of time available to finding a job and leads to compromises during job searches. Students have to make debt payments after graduation and must find employment as...
Which is More Like Indentured Servitude: Income Share Agreement or Student Loan?
We have heard the concern that income share agreements (ISAs) can be like indentured servitude. At face value, this seems plausible, given the notion of “income sharing” embedded in the name of this financing option. I would like to dispel this criticism of ISAs in...
Will Income Share Agreements (ISAs) Only Work by Cherry-Picking “STEM” Programs? The Reality is Quite Different.
Update (3/2019): I had a great conversation with Will Quist at the 2019 Life Capital conference and acknowledge his well taken point. That is, in the discussion that follows, we are assuming that ISAs have a cap. The question of what kind of cap structure is optimal...
ISA Investment 101: Key Risks in ISA Investing
ISA investing strategy, like any other investment option, has risks. Having invested in early stage companies as angel investors, the co-founders of MentorWorks take risk and risk mitigation very seriously. Our ISA investment risk assessment strategy is similar to...
ISA Investment 101: Due Diligence
In our time as angel investors, we have conducted due diligence through a relatively extensive process, with multiple checklists, reference checks, expert conversations, and document checks. Christopher Mirabile, Managing Director at Launchpad Venture Group describes...
ISA Investment 101: Active Investment and the MentorWorks Approach
The predominant ISA opportunities currently available are passive financial investments. An important aspect of this is that the school shares in the risk of outcomes by participating in the investment. This is certainly a viable argument, and one that we believe....
ISA Investment 101: What Are Income Share Agreements?
What are income share agreements (ISAs), and how are they different from student loans? In simple terms, an income share agreement is an obligation, but not a loan, where the investor receives a fraction of income from a student during the payment term. The investment...
ISA Investment 101: The Basics of Investing in ISAs – The When, How, and Why
Q: How did ISAs come about? What is their history? Although income share agreements have become more popular in recent years, the idea dates back to the 1950s. Milton Friedman originally proposed the concept of income share agreements in his essay “The Role of...
ISA Investment 101: Resource for ISA Investors
Since Purdue University established its income share agreement (ISA) program in 2016, ISAs are becoming more prominent in higher education. The opening up of this market creates a new asset class opportunity for investors. It also provides a space for impact motivated...
ISA Investment 101: Where Do I find ISA Deals to Invest In?
The ISA market, much like angel investment or VC market, does not have a systematic platform to invest through. The one notable exception is Angellist, which started out as a listing platform for early stage startup equity deals. Many schools are using their own...
ISA Investment 101: How Does Active ISA Investment Compare to Angel/VC Investment?
There are some parallels between active ISA investing and angel investing. The fund and support approach that MentorWorks promotes is consistent with the angel or VC investing framework. That is, you fund a well-run startup and then you provide expert advice and...