SC

Strategy Canon

Earnest: sourced choices

41 product and go-to-market choices, oldest first. Back to the case study

  1. 2014-05-22Product · Underwriting inputs Earnest launched with a data-driven evaluation of applicants' financial profiles, including current and future earning potential, in place of reliance on credit scores alone. EA1
  2. 2014-05-22Go_To_Market · Target customer Earnest aimed its launch at recent college graduates and young professionals. EA1
  3. 2014-09-16Product · Entry product The first product was an unsecured personal loan with one-, two- and three-year terms, an average size of about $10,000 and a $30,000 maximum. EA3
  4. 2014-09-16Product · Individual rate setting Earnest began quoting individualized interest rates, typically 4.25% to 5.25% for qualified borrowers; Louis Beryl said rates should reflect what people deserve to pay rather than what they would be willing to pay. EA3
  5. 2014-09-16Go_To_Market · Geographic footprint Personal loans were available in 18 states and Washington, D.C., rather than nationally. EA3
  6. 2015-01-21Product · Linked account data Applicants linked bank and credit-card accounts so Earnest could download transaction histories, and LinkedIn supplied employment and education details; the company described reviewing 80,000 to 100,000 data points per applicant. EA4
  7. 2015-01-27Product · Student-loan refinancing launch Earnest added refinancing of federal and private, undergraduate and graduate student loans, with five- to 20-year terms. EA6
  8. 2015-01-27Product · Repayment flexibility Refinancing borrowers could set an exact monthly payment or loan length, switch between fixed and variable rates without fees, skip one payment a year and split payments twice monthly. EA5
  9. 2015-01-27Product · Servicing Earnest serviced its own loans instead of handing borrowers to a third-party servicer. EA6
  10. 2015-01-27Product · Rate check A prospective borrower could check a rate in under two minutes through a soft credit inquiry. EA6
  11. 2015-01-27Go_To_Market · Bootcamp partnerships Earnest partnered with coding bootcamps including General Assembly, Tradecraft, Coding Dojo and Galvanize. EA7
  12. 2015-01-27Go_To_Market · Fee positioning Earnest marketed refinancing as 'radically flexible' with no origination, prepayment or hidden fees. EA5
  13. 2015-11-17Product · Precision pricing use Earnest reported that more than 95% of customers used its precision-pricing feature to customize terms and payment schedules. EA8
  14. 2015-11-17Product · Loan range Personal and refinance loans ranged from $2,000 to $500,000 with terms from one to 20 years. EA11
  15. 2015-11-17Product · Mobile app plan Earnest announced a mobile app for loan management, due before the end of 2015. EA8
  16. 2015-11-17Go_To_Market · Referral incentive Earnest planned $200 referral bonuses alongside its mobile app. EA8
  17. 2015-11-17Go_To_Market · Capital raise Earnest raised $75 million of Series B equity led by Battery Ventures and arranged $200 million of lending capital from New York Life. EA9
  18. 2015-11-17Go_To_Market · Hiring for growth Earnest said it would hire 200 people across marketing, sales, engineering and design. EA9
  19. 2015-11-17Go_To_Market · Broad-bank ambition Beryl positioned Earnest as a future 'destination for all financially responsible people' and a 'modern bank for the next generation'. EA11
  20. 2016Go_To_Market · Securitization cadence Earnest completed four securitizations in 2016 totaling about $700 million and one in 2017. EA22
  21. 2016-02-11Go_To_Market · Inaugural securitization Earnest's first securitization, $112 million of refinance loans, carried a single-A rating on its senior notes from DBRS; Earnest added a $150 million Goldman Sachs warehouse line, bringing warehouse capacity to $350 million. EA45
  22. 2016-03-11Product · Mobile app timing In March 2016 Earnest still had no mobile app; Beryl said one would launch that year, after the company had announced one for late 2015. EA65
  23. 2016-05-16Go_To_Market · Second securitization Earnest's second deal, upsized to $225 million, again received single-A senior ratings, from DBRS and Kroll. EA46
  24. 2016-11-02Go_To_Market · Rating improvement and warehouse capacity Earnest's fourth 2016 deal, $174.7 million, received AA(low) from DBRS and A from S&P on its senior notes; the company reported more than $700 million securitized and $550 million of warehouse capacity. EA49
  25. 2017-01Go_To_Market · Embedded tax-filing channel TurboTax began showing about 5 million filers with student loans a personalized Earnest refinancing estimate after they consented to share data. EA12
  26. 2017-05Go_To_Market · Dual-track process Earnest hired Barclays to run a dual-track process, seeking $50 million of new equity while looking for a buyer, according to The Information. EA64
  27. 2017-05-24Go_To_Market · Last independent securitization Earnest priced a $175 million securitization with an AA(high) DBRS senior rating, its fifth since February 2016, bringing its securitized total to more than $877 million. EA50
  28. 2017-10-04Go_To_Market · Sale of the company Earnest agreed to sell itself to Navient for $155 million in cash, keeping its brand and founders. EA13
  29. 2017-10-04Go_To_Market · Borrower base served Navient disclosed that 77% of Earnest borrowers held advanced degrees, with average income above $139,000, average FICO 776 and average age 32. EA13
  30. 2018Go_To_Market · Refinance originations 2018 Navient originated $2.8 billion of refinance loans in 2018, the first full year after acquiring Earnest. EA57
  31. 2018-02-08Go_To_Market · Parent-sponsored funding Navient sponsored its first securitization of Earnest refinance loans, $529.4 million, larger than any single Earnest deal before the sale. EA22
  32. 2018-02-22Go_To_Market · Rating under the new sponsor S&P expected to rate the senior notes of Navient's first Earnest-loan securitization AAA, against the A it gave the senior notes of Earnest's May 2017 deal, with roughly similar collateral. EA22
  33. 2019Go_To_Market · Refinance originations 2019 Navient originated nearly $5 billion of refinance loans for 72,000 people in 2019. EA59
  34. 2019-04-16Product · In-school private loans Under Navient, Earnest launched in-school private student loans with a nine-month grace period, an annual skip-a-payment option, no fees and a $25 fixed in-school payment option, after what CEO Susan Ehrlich described as 300 hours of user research. EA25
  35. 2020Product · Personal-loan exit Earnest stopped accepting new personal-loan applications in 2020 while continuing to service existing loans. EA35
  36. 2022-01Go_To_Market · Acquisition cost claim Navient CEO Jack Remondi said its refinance business acquired customers at about half the industry average cost. EA27
  37. 2024-01-30Go_To_Market · Parent restructuring Navient decided to outsource loan servicing and review its business-processing division to cut about $400 million of annual expenses. EA28
  38. 2025-07-10Product · Underwriting variables Under a settlement with the Massachusetts Attorney General, Earnest agreed to stop using a school-level Cohort Default Rate variable and an automatic denial rule tied to immigration status, and to adopt model-governance and fair-lending testing. EA32
  39. 2025-11-19Product · Product line under Phase 2 Navient planned a personal-loan pilot under Earnest for 2026, with full launch in 2027-2028, and moved in-school private loans to a non-Earnest Navient entity. EA29
  40. 2025-11-19Go_To_Market · Phase 2 funding and growth plan Navient made Earnest its growth business, funding originations through securitizations and a loan-sales platform and planning to offer wealth products to refinance customers. EA29
  41. 2026-09-23Product · Current refinance offer Earnest's refinance offer included tailored monthly payments, bi-weekly payments, skip-a-payment, Precision Pricing and in-house customer service. EA36