Founder of Shark Tank-backed startup Scholly sues his acquirer Sallie Mae
Chris Gray, founder of Shark Tank-backed scholarship startup Scholly, is suing Sallie Mae for wrongful termination and alleges the company is selling user data—including information on minors—through a subsidiary after promising to protect it. Gray claims Sallie Mae broke promises to keep Scholly's data private and fired him when he raised concerns. He argues the company created a less-regulated subsidiary, Sallie.com, to bypass financial privacy rules and monetize student data. Sallie Mae denies the claims, calling them baseless and stating it will defend itself vigorously.
- ▪Chris Gray sold Scholly to Sallie Mae in 2023 and became a vice president, expecting to expand the platform while protecting user data.
- ▪Gray alleges Sallie Mae laid off Scholly’s founding team and fired him after he raised concerns about data privacy practices.
- ▪He claims Sallie Mae circumvented financial regulations by using a subsidiary, SLM Education Services, to sell Scholly user data to third parties.
- ▪Sallie.com’s privacy policy confirms it sells personal data including name, race, gender, education records, and geolocation to advertisers and educational institutions.
- ▪Sallie Mae denies all allegations, calling them 'without merit,' and has not specified which claims it disputes.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
When Chris Gray sold his Shark Tank-backed scholarship search startup Scholly to Sallie Mae in 2023, he thought he had it all. Now he’s suing the student loan giant for wrongful termination and alleging that it’s selling the data his app collected, which includes personal info on minors, without properly informing users. Gray co-founded the company a decade prior with the hope of helping students more easily find college scholarships that were going untapped. Within two years, he nabbed sharks Daymond John and Lori Greiner as investors after an appearance on the show.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at TechCrunch.
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