The student loan situation in the US is a colossal mess. And that's a fact you can cite! Over 43.2 million borrowers have amassed a total debt of $1.727 trillion after 2023, which became the first year ever to show an annual decline in that number. Of that figure, $131 billion is owed to private institutions, which students turn to when the federal loan system fails them or they meet their federal loan limit. Even though the federal loan system is failing and there's an increasing number of predatory private lenders, the price of higher education continues to climb and has increased 747.8% since 1963 (adjusting for inflation). Enter Arjun Kannan, currently building ResiDesk, who previously tackled this behemoth head-on with a surprisingly straightforward approach: leveraging technology to reimagine education financing. From his time at BlackRock to his critical leadership role at Climb Credit and now ResiDesk, Kannan's journey offers a glimpse into how data-driven solutions can address seemingly intractable societal issues. Here's how one technologist's work is reverberating across industries, starting with a $1.7 trillion problem.
At this point, higher education has a lot in common with premium products on the free market: high in demand, difficult to provide, and increasing in price year over year. It's up to the market to self-correct, and he has been doing his part through Climb Credit, a private lender where he worked as the company's first engineer and later as CTO. Kannan has a vested interest in providing students the funds they need to unlock educations that can turn into real careers, which is why he took on the difficult task of creating a private lender that changes how the industry runs.
Becoming an Industry-Changing Leader: Who Is Arjun Kannan?
Arjun Kannan has a long history of providing technological solutions to real-world problems. "My journey into technology started while I was studying physics at Cornell," he says. "I found that I enjoyed creating software tools to help my colleagues more than working in the lab. This realization led me to pursue a career where I could use technology to solve real problems."
Kannan began this career at BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, where he led engineering teams to build the company's first retail system. This wasn't just any system—it managed an unprecedented $13 trillion in assets. But what made it truly revolutionary was its ability to democratize financial analysis. For the first time, it consolidated and analyzed data across thousands of holdings for every financial advisor, effectively giving the common man the same powerful tools as the big guys.
The impact was staggering. Since the launch of this system, BlackRock's stock price shot up by 110%, and its market capitalization grew by a whopping $65 billion. Talk about making a mark!
Climb Credit: An Underwriting System with Real-World Outcomes
Kannan's next stop was Climb Credit, where he built his financial education legacy and shaped a new way to help students. As CTO, he developed an underwriting system that was the first of its kind to understand and predict educational outcomes truly.
This innovative system uses a proprietary algorithm that integrates predictive data from educational programs and career fields, combines it with specific data points from major lenders like Goldman Sachs and Blackstone, and tops it off with a feedback loop from graduating students who share their salaries and outcomes. The result? A system that could prove vocational schools led to better outcomes, allowing Climb to provide more affordable financing.
But Kannan didn't stop there. He made sure this system spoke two languages fluently: one of hope for a better world and one of profit over risk. This approach was crucial in securing capital funding for Climb Credit. With the student loan situation as dire as it is, investors are justifiably reluctant to get in on the game, but with data showing how specific career paths have a sure return on investment, it became much easier to see the benefits for both students and investors.
Real Impacts on Real Students: More Career Opportunities and Better Lives
The numbers speak for themselves. Kannan's underwriting system has helped over 300,000 students find gainful employment. It's made financing 61% cheaper than credit cards for students attending vocational schools. To put that in perspective, a $10,000 bootcamp that would cost a student $50,000 over a lifetime with a credit card costs only $16,000 with Climb. That's not just savings—that's life-changing affordability.
But it's not just about the money. Climb Credit has been able to help students secure better job opportunities with higher salaries and better long-term career outcomes. An impressive 80% of Climb Credit's graduates are entering fields experiencing active skill gaps, including computer sciences, healthcare, education, and trucking. Even more telling, 73% of Climb Credit borrowers have said that they "wouldn't have attended their program without Climb financing."
The impact? A staggering $110 million in net new salary earnings by Climb grads who responded to a survey. We're talking about thousands of people going from minimum wage to $80,000–$100,000 annual salaries. Student success stories span diverse fields, from trucking and heavy equipment operations to software design.
Today's Technology Can Solve Yesterday's Problems and Tomorrow's
Kannan's innovations have set new precedents and inspired further solutions. Climb Credit has become the biggest private student lender for vocational schools, with industry-leading payback rates exceeding 90%. While competitors like Skills Fund and Sallie Mae have tried to replicate this model, they've exited unsuccessfully, unable to match the unique approach Kannan pioneered.
What Is Kannan Reimagining Now?
Now at ResiDesk, Kannan is applying his innovative approach to property management. "We developed an AI-driven platform that transformed how property managers interact with tenants," says Kannan. "Using natural language processing to improve communication and efficiency, this project significantly boosted tenant satisfaction and streamlined management processes, enhancing the living experience for over one million residents." The ResiDesk platform is currently being used in over 140,000 units.
Kannan has recently been the judge of several hackathons and datathons and also mentored entrepreneurs through the On Deck Fellowship. It's a lot of work, but Kannan is focused on helping who he can help, improving what can be optimized, and creating solutions using technology.
"Technology isn't just leading the way," says Kannan. "It's changing the game." If the power of data can change how education is paid for, how tenants and building managers communicate, and how finances are managed, it's exciting to imagine what future problems may be solved by the technological groundwork being laid today.
It's people like Kannan who will be the first to foresee these problems, predict the solutions that society will need, and then innovate the solutions. For the Climb Credit grads who have turned their loans into transformative careers, Kannan's work has changed their lives and their futures. And that's a game-changer worth celebrating.
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