We started in 2012 with this product that came to be called income share agreements, a name that has lived on beyond that business of ours. It was the founding idea of the company, says Girouard. We got off to what felt like a pretty quick start. We were making progress, we were proving our hypothesis, and we were in The New York Times, so we were feeling optimistic in the very early days. And we always felt that it was going to start scaling next month or the month after.

Upstart offers fixed-rate personal loans that can be used to cover various expenses. Read more