[kristenlee]

This program can be very dangerous if you're a woman and your "investor" is a male. I can see all types of exploitation going on. As a lawyer I also know that this type of program may be illegal since it is akin to indentured servitude or slavery. I would be curious to know what the males in here would think if their girlfriend or sister had a dirty old man pouring over her tax returns and demanding she make payments. There's a reason we have banks as intermediaries to make loans, hopefully no women are dumb enough to use this.

EDIT: Another issue is that such an investment would be considered an unsecured loan and could be discharged in bankruptcy. I would take the "investment" and then declare bankruptcy and have the debt wiped out. Student loans have bankruptcy immunity which is why 18 year olds can take out thousands in loans. No intelligent investor would give an 20 year old a $30,000 in unsecured loans. You cannot write "bankruptcy immunity" into a contract either because it can only be granted by from Congress.

[ValG]

This is a very interesting and negative way to look at it. Male-Female (and vice-versa!)exploitation is illegal no matter the situation and automatically going to such mindset ("dirty old man") says more about you than the program; everyone of their investors is accredited and, as such, must have a net worth over $1mil, they're not randoms picked off the street. If you look at their current backers, they work for MIT, Google, or other such prestigious companies. I would be willing to bet they have a vetting process complete with background for their backers as well as their upstarts. But as I mentioned before, I have a call with them scheduled for this Thursday, so I'll let you know the details.

[capsule_toy]

I agree that it's low risk, but I don't think you can discount it completely. We have had public cases of high net worth individuals and people from prestigious companies doing immoral things (eg Kleiner Perkins, HP).

[ValG]

Point well made, but that risk is present in almost all circumstances where you are working for someone else (whether it's a traditional job and your boss makes suggestive comments/moves, or a client who insinuates they will give you more favorable terms if you do certain things, or a vc who will fund your idea/company if etc...). I would argue that the risk for a high net work individual is much higher b/c they have more to loose, so they would be less likely to do these things. Or maybe they're just better at getting away with it...

[frisco]

It's probably not dischargeable in bankruptcy; liens on property one hasn't yet acquired (i.e., income) can't be discharged because they don't exist at the time of the bankruptcy.