the ceo dave girouard joins us this morning. good morning. how this work? > >good morning. upstart is a site that helps people raise capital---typically people early in their career---which they repay as a small and fixed fraction of their income. and that capital comes from investors who are actually investing in a person rather than in a business or in an idea. > >if their idea does not work, do they still have to pay the money? > >well, it's not an investment in the idea. the first idea might fail but the repayment is actually defined as a fixed fraction of income irrespective of where it comes from. so if the idea is great and successful and they build a great business, that's good for backers. if they actually fail the idea and move on to something else that's even better that's good for their backers too. the fundamental notion of investing in the person more than in the business. > >how much money have you been able to raise to date and how do you find these large contributors? > >wel, it's a marketplace. we're kind of the guy in the middle. but so far about 2 and a