How GradBridge is building distribution through school partnerships to reach students at the point of decline | Jen O'Donald

Episode notes

Every year, more than half of private student loan applicants get declined. Not because they're unserious about their education - but because they narrowly miss a credit cutoff. For upperclassmen and grad students already deep into a degree, that rejection often means dropping out. ⁠Jen O'Donald⁠ spent 13 years at Sallie Mae, most recently running product, watching this gap go unsolved. So she built ⁠GradBridge⁠ to solve it - creating an entirely new category in student lending: the second look. In this episode, Jen breaks down what it actually takes to go from zero to live in heavily regulated fintech, how she managed a multi-stakeholder launch across a sponsor bank, servicing platform, and compliance stack, and why federal student loan policy shifts are reshaping the entire private lending market in real time.

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