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I worked at @joinpursuit briefly in 2015. They’re a vehicle for investors to own 12% pre-tax of Black and Brown NYers’ future earnings for 3yrs with a nonprofit coding bootcamp as a front. I quit when the CEO angrily refused to staff the course properly while hiring marketers. https://twitter.com/lingerie_addict/status/1341852905284972556
You can read more about Pursuit’s fraudulent and deceptive practices in this former student’s blog post and thread. I attended their pilot program in 2013 for $900. It was beneficial for me. In 2016 I think they pivoted to manipulating students into predatory unregulated loans. https://twitter.com/fskenmare/status/1174284788729024517
The thing that struck me most was how the CEO @JukayHsu (hi) insisted we couldn’t hire teachers to staff the program adequately because “We are a volunteer-driven organization!!” That only applied when it was about helping students succeed. He creates a toxic environment of fear.
Here’s the full podcast episode from @KimCrayton1’s @causeascenePod that goes into the deception and abuse this organization is still getting away with, supported by many local politicians and companies using their awesome and inspiring students for diversty theater. https://twitter.com/kimcrayton1/status/1179360389785640963
They constantly change the terms of the agreements without informing students and they falsely advertise it on their website. Currently I can’t find any mention on their website of what it actually costs students to attend the program. https://www.pursuit.org/bond-overview
They used to have no repayment cap with their ISA (income sharing agreeement). Last numbers I saw they changed it from infinity to $70K. So a student that attended a nonprofit coding bootcamp would owe private investors up to $70,000 for a shitty under-resourced abusive program. https://twitter.com/elibdev/status/1298263169433886722
Pursuit lies about how they use their nonprofit as a shell company for the ISA run by private investors at Inherent Group. But it’s documented on their tax returns. I can’t imagine how their operation could be legal @NewYorkStateAG. https://twitter.com/elibdev/status/1211732359441272832
There’s also a for-profit corporation owned by Pursuit’s cofounders that they seem to have paid themselves $87,900 through by renting office space to their own nonprofit in 2016. Giving me WeWork déjà vu. Nonprofit tax returns are public though, and they often speak volumes.
