Lending against talent, with Joel Frisch (Prodigy Finance)
How to Lend Money to Strangers
Brendan le Grange
4.9 • 43 Ratings
🗓️ 16 December 2021
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Back of the envelope, according to Poets and Quants, a Harvard MBA will set you back $130,000 per year once you've added in all the extra costs, maybe knocked down to $100,000 if you get yourself a scholarship.
That's already a lot of money if you're an up-and-coming American executive, but it is it even more if you're living and working in the developing world.
One hundred thousand dollars is R1.6 million back in South Africa, which is pretty much what I got earlier this year for selling my two-bed/ two-bath house in the financial district. In India, it's 6 times what a Google search tells me is the average annual salary of a data scientist.
The rewards are worth it, but that level of outlay is simply unattainable for the vast majority of people. This is, of course, where a student loan would normally fit in, but how many Indian lenders are going to give that much money to someone they know is leaving the country? Probably none. How many South African lenders?
Well, actually, at least one, sort of, Prodigy Finance is headquartered in London but with two out of three founders being countrymen of mine, I feel like I can round that one up.
In this episode of HTLMTS I speak to Joel Frisch, Prodigy's Head of Global Acquisition, about investing in talent and lending to international students for world-leading post grad studies.
Because the hardest thing about getting into Harvard should be getting into Harvard, not getting approved for a loan.
You can learn more about Prodigy Finance at https://prodigyfinance.com/
You can learn more about myself, Brendan le Grange, on my LinkedIn page
If you have any feedback, questions, or if you would like to participate in the show, please feel free to reach out to me at brendan@howtolendmoneytostrangers.show
A full written transcript with timestamps can be found on HowtoLendMoneytoStrangers.Show
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Oh, hello, you caught me practicing on my new slide whistle. |
| 0:04.8 | You see, spec savers have asked me to tell you about something very exciting. |
| 0:08.6 | And as it's radio, I thought, well, it's always best to use sound, isn't it? |
| 0:12.5 | So here it goes. |
| 0:14.1 | While prices everywhere are going. |
| 0:16.7 | At spec savers, they're coming. |
| 0:18.4 | Thank you. |
| 0:20.2 | With glasses now from just £15, you're better off with spec savers. |
| 0:24.3 | I could have just said that, I suppose. |
| 0:26.3 | We've standard single vision lenses asking store for details. |
| 0:32.6 | When you talk to our customers because we are very intentional in the programs and the |
| 0:38.3 | schools that we support in ensuring that we understand the outcomes of these programs |
| 0:43.2 | and how the students are going to do. |
| 0:44.9 | So we can first ensure the ability to pay. |
| 0:47.4 | And then lastly, because this is not your typical transactional bank relationship, but |
| 0:53.0 | one that is really rooted in opportunity, there's this inherent desire from the student |
| 0:59.0 | to repay the loan because they know that the access that it gave them and they don't |
| 1:02.6 | really want to mess it up for the next guy. |
| 1:10.4 | My first proper job, so excluding the strange ones I took on for beer money in my student |
| 1:15.6 | days, some of which were strange, like really strange, like accidentally helping to advertise |
| 1:21.2 | an escort agency's Valentine's Day special strange. |
| 1:25.3 | But no, excluding those. |
... |
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