Would You Bet $10K on Your Marriage Lasting? New Startup Hopes So
Good thing Bennifer 2.0 broke up before SwanLuv got involved. Photo: Getty
The vast majority of marriages begin with the hope that they’ll last happily ever after, ’til death do you part. But how much would you be willing to bet that yours does? How about… $10,000?
A six-month-old startup is hoping you’ll do just that. According to GeekWire, the tweely named, Seattle-based ‘SwanLuv’ is a business that’s willing to dish out loans of up to $10K for newly married couples. If you stay married forever, the money is yours to keep. But if things end in divorce, you’ve got to pay it all back—plus some serious interest.
SwanLuv is currently accepting its first round of applications from interested parties. But for obvious reasons (like marriages dissolving over time), it could take years for SwanLuv to turn a profit.
Crazy as it sounds, though, SwanLuv could be on to something—assuming that enough couples are willing to take the risk in return for a potential profit. After all, the current divorce rate may not be at the rumored 50%, but it’s still up there.
As CEO Scott Avy tells GeekWire, “It comes back to statistics. We’ll have the right odds so we’ll be OK. But they won’t be so crazy that no one wants to do it.” He describes SwanLuv as a sort of “casino for marriages,” giving couples the opportunity to “gamble on themselves.”
There will also be clauses in the contracts in the instance that, for example, the marriage ends because of abuse.
And, as for whether Avy, himself, would take the chance? You betcha. “I’m betting on my relationship I’ve established with my soulmate,” he says. “It’s going to be a no-brainer for the ones it makes sense for.”
I asked three female coworkers—one of whom is currently engaged—whether they’d be interested in getting a loan through SwanLuv. The common answer? A resounding OH HALE NO.
The question is, would you?
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