Making The Leap From Corporate To Start-Up: A Founder's Point Of View
About the class
With a career that’s straddled both the entrepreneurial and the corporate worlds, David Kelin's unique perspective can help professionals make the leap from the corporate to start-up world with greater confidence.
CommonBond is a student lending platform that connects student and graduate borrowers with individual and institutional investors, offering low cost loans, providing best-in-class service, and powering social good through the company’s Social Promise. Leveraging his broad experience at premier U.S. companies (American Express and McKinsey & Company) and his personal experience with the student loan process during graduate school, Klein started CommonBond in 2011 with co-founders, Michael Taormina and Jessup Shean. Within 24 hours of launching the business, CommonBond had $2.5MM of loan applications from a single school – the company’s pilot school, Wharton – and over the next 12 months, CommonBond grew their platform capital to over $100 MM.
About the Presenter
Prior to launching CommonBond in 2011, David worked in consumer finance at American Express, as Director of Strategic Planning and Business Development, where he led a team that managed a $250M annual portfolio. He also worked at McKinsey & Company, where he advised clients in the financial services industry. David graduated from Brandeis University with a BA in Politics, Economics, and International Business. He is an alumnus of Wharton Business School and has served on the Board of the Bronx Charter School for the Arts in New York.