If you’re a fan of ABC’s Shark Tank, you might have seen Chicago-based startup ChangEd appear on this past Sunday’s episode. ChangEd is an app that rounds up every purchase you make with your credit card to the next dollar and puts that spare change directly towards your student loan payments. We’re proud to also call them one of our startup partners; they hosted a Sage Corps intern in Summer 2017!
After going down the line of “sharks” on the show, co-founders Nick Skrzyniarz and Dan Stelmach accepted a $250,000 offer from Mark Cuban in exchange for a 25% stake in the company. What a score! In an interview with Heavy, the co-founders had this to say about their experience on the show:
“This was the most exciting, most stressful, most insane thing that could have happened for ChangEd. We worked super hard to build our product and knew we had something great. We prepped as much as we could for our pitch, but at the end of the day we know our company best and winging it was sort of our thing. At the end of the day, if you don’t have fun doing it, it’s not worth it.”
Words of wisdom! What are they going to do with all that funding? You can look out for an Android app release and a feature that allows relatives to contribute their spare change, too. We’re excited to see what the future brings.
Don’t miss this great reaction video of ChangEd’s family and friends at a viewing party for the episode:
