Great. AI/ML is definitely relevant in today's world. Udacity also has a course in participation with Lyft - "Intro to Self Driving Cars". I bet a lot of people will also find that useful.
I totally agree that IF the loan terms are same, then lowest APR would be the winner.
Unfortunately, most people are not financially savvy and unable to make logical financial choices even if they are well educated with good enough incomes. Most of the financial education content emphasizes comparison based on APR (which is correct) but they miss out the impact of loan term and origination fee especially if someone prepays the loan.
That's what the article is trying to explain, if the loan terms are different, then don't just make decisions based on APR thinking you'll prepay and save more money with the lower APR loan.
Perhaps, the article could've done a better job at explaining the concept.
Based on my understanding, YC doesn't invest in just one company in an industry. They invest in markets and founders. Because they are investing at an early stage, they choose to invest in multiple ones.
Startups are tricky and it's really difficult to pick a winner early in a company's lifecycle.
It's an unfortunate situation and city must do something about it. I think of small businesses that may be losing a lot of customers because of this. This is also related to SF's homeless problem. On three separate occasions, I saw homeless people holding smooth running of restaurants hostage to get food or money from the them. In one case, the person walked in and started eating from a customer's plate. The cashier had to intervene and handle the situation (those customers end up leaving and the restaurant didn't charge them).
1. I should've been more explicit in saying that they only look at credit related behavior. The article shows contributions of various things to their FICO score.
2. there are several things that can't be used to underwrite in the U.S. - http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0347-your-equal-credit-...
other variables such as education are fine if they are not a very close proxy of the prohibited variables
The intermediary company will be responsible for correctly assessing someone's risk. All the money earned from co-signing could be used to pay off very few that default (just like an insurance.) This model allows more people to access services.
I should've mentioned - the intermediary company will take the liability for any defaults. So, consider the case where you are getting paid a certain amount for one credit-check (this credit check is removed from your history after one year) and you are not taking the liability of default.