Sci-Tech

Inside Amira Yahyaoui’s Claims about Mos, a Student Aid Start-Up

Published

4 months ago

March 25, 2024

As a Tunisian human rights activist in the 2000s, Amira Yahyaoui staged protests and blogged about government corruption. In interviews, she described being beaten by police. When she was 18, she said, she was kidnapped from the street, dropped off at the Algerian border and placed in exile for several years.

Ms. Yahyaoui’s compelling background helped her stand out among entrepreneurs when she moved in 2018 to San Francisco, where she founded a student aid start-up called Mos. The app hit the top of Apple’s App Store and Ms. Yahyaoui raised $56 million from high-profile investors, including Sequoia Capital, John Doerr and Steph Curry, according to PitchBook, which tracks start-ups. Mos was valued at $400 million.

In podcasts, TV interviews and other media, Ms. Yahyaoui, 39, frequently discussed Mos’s success.

Among other things, she said the start-up had helped 400,000 students get financial aid. But internal company data viewed by The New York Times showed that as of early last year, only about 30,000 customers had paid for Mos’s student aid services. The rest of the 400,000 users included anyone who had signed up for a free account and may have gotten an email about applying for student aid, two people familiar with the situation said.

After Mos expanded into online banking in September 2021, Ms. Yahyaoui told publications such as TechCrunch that the company had more than 100,000 bank accounts. But those accounts had very small amounts of money in them, according to the internal data. Less than 10 percent of Mos’s roughly 153,000 bank users had put their own money into their accounts, the data showed.

Some employees tried to speak up about Ms. Yahyaoui’s claims, said Emi Tabb, who worked at Mos in operations and had roles such as head of financial aid before resigning in late 2022. But Ms. Yahyaoui dismissed and sometimes disparaged employees who tried pushing back against her public comments, five people who witnessed the incidents said.

“She created a culture of fear,” Mx. Tabb said.

Mos is among a class of tech start-ups that rose during the fast money era of the late 2010s and early in the pandemic, when young companies landed millions of dollars in funding with little more than promises. Now as the money has dried up and many tech start-ups grapple with a downturn, investors are pickier, customers are warier of bold claims and employees are more suspicious of founder pronouncements.

Last year, Mos laid off approximately half its staff of around 50 and shut down its banking service. The company reverted to its original business of helping students find financial aid and began emphasizing its use of artificial intelligence.

Ms. Yahyaoui referred questions to a Mos spokeswoman, who declined to comment. When Ms. Yahyaoui was asked last year about Mos’s number of users, she posted on social media that female founders were often presumed guilty while male founders were presumed innocent.

“Maybe today we should start applying presumption of innocence to also female founders,” she wrote.

This account of Mos was based on interviews with eight current and former employees, as well as internal communications, presentations and analytics. The internal documents go up to 2023.

Ms. Yahyaoui grew up in Tunisia and then lived in exile in France. After moving to San Francisco, she raised money for Mos from investors including Expa, the investment firm started by Garrett Camp, a founder of Uber. Mos provided a service to help students find sources of financial aid, charging $149 for each school year.

Deena Shakir, an investor at Lux Capital, which backed Mos in 2020, said she and the firm’s partners “deeply respect” Ms. Yahyaoui.

“We take pride in supporting companies and founders like Amira whose commitment to enabling access for students gives us hope for the future of higher education,” Ms. Shakir said.

Mos had a slow start, three people with knowledge of the company said. Some students who signed up learned about aid they already knew about, like a Cal Grant for California residents, they said.

An investor presentation viewed by The Times showed that Mos had monthly revenue of $340,000 in December 2019. The start-up allowed users to pay $1 upfront and the remaining $148 when they got their financial aid.

Mos ultimately did not collect most of that money. Seventy percent of users defaulted on their payments after the pandemic hit in 2020, Jess Lee, an investor at Sequoia who sits on Mos’s board, later said in an article about the company published on Sequoia’s website.

As of late 2022, roughly 6,500 of Mos’s paying customers, or 22 percent, got refunds for its financial aid service, according to internal data. The company had told customers that if they didn’t get five times the cost of Mos’s services in financial aid, they could get a refund.

Mos said it could help students access $160 billion in scholarships, but that amount included loans, three people familiar with the situation said. The company’s pitch was to help students avoid debt.

Ms. Yahyaoui also said students who used Mos “saved” an average of $16,000. That was the amount that the start-up determined they qualified for and not what the students received in aid, three people with knowledge of the company said.

Mos’s website includes a moving ticker of happy customers (“Jasmine got $12,237 for Cal Poly,” for example). Ms. Yahyaoui asked employees to use stock photos and to make up names, three people with knowledge of the company said.

By 2021, financial technology was hot with investors. Ms. Yahyaoui pushed Mos to become a bank, making its financial aid product free. That September, the start-up announced its move into banking with a promotion that gave people $5 to sign up and another $5 for every referral.

Sign-ups poured in. Mos turned off the $5 promotion on its first day. Two months later, it turned it back on for three days and signed up more than 100,000 accounts, spending around $1 million in the promotion and sending Mos to the top of the App Store.

The sign-ups piqued investor interest, including from the investment firm Tiger Global. Sequoia’s Ms. Lee wanted to see how many of the accounts that signed up during the promotion remained active before investing more, two people familiar with the situation said. Sequoia encouraged Ms. Yahyaoui to hire an outside firm to assess whether the accounts belonged to real people, the people said.

Some employees also had concerns that many accounts did not belong to real people, three people familiar with the situation said. As sign-ups continued, Mos analyzed the accounts for potentially fraudulent behavior in an internal working document. In November, Ms. Yahyaoui restricted Ms. Lee’s access to that document, two of the people said.

Soon after, in February 2022, Tiger Global announced it led a $40 million funding for Mos. Sequoia joined the deal. It is not clear what impact access to the document would have had on Sequoia’s decision to invest more in Mos. Two people familiar with the situation said Ms. Lee retained access to a broader data source regarding the accounts.

In a statement, Ms. Lee said, “The most successful founders are the ones who have grit and are willing to test new hypotheses and adapt. Amira is the embodiment of these qualities.”

Tiger Global declined to comment.

Alongside the funding announcement, Sequoia published an article on its website detailing Ms. Yahyaoui’s dramatic past and entrepreneurial vision. It said fewer than 1 percent of Mos’s bank accounts had been closed, “an unheard-of statistic for a money-based sign-up promotion.”

Few people used the bank accounts, according to internal data viewed by The Times. Of roughly 153,000 open accounts, 95 percent had less than $5 in them and a third had a balance of zero through 2022, the data showed. Just 9.5 percent of account holders deposited money into their accounts during that time.

Mos told its board that 74 percent of bank account holders were students, according to a presentation viewed by The Times. But only around 20 percent were 22 or younger, according to internal data, with about 45 percent over the age of 30. Mos’s revenue from transaction fees, which made up the vast majority of the company’s total income after it became a bank, was less than $70,000 for the first nine months of 2022, two people familiar with the finances said.

Ms. Yahyaoui sometimes berated her top managers and threatened to fire them if their performance didn’t improve, according to five people who witnessed such events.

Using expletives, she wrote in a January 2022 message to employees that the company’s mission was meaningless “because of how bad we are at getting” stuff done.

“I need people I can count on to beat my dreams not to lower them,” she wrote.

Ms. Yahyaoui’s treatment of employees — including workers hired in Tunisia and Algeria — ran counter to her image as an activist, Mx. Tabb said.

At an employee gathering in September 2022, a Mos employee asked Sequoia’s Ms. Lee about her biggest concern for the start-up, three people who attended said. Ms. Lee initially said she was surprised by how good morale was given the circumstances, then added that it wasn’t clear what Mos’s product would be.

The start-up was at more of a “seed stage,” or very early in its development, Ms. Lee said.

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Sci-Tech

ISPs are fighting to raise the price of low-income broadband

Published

7 hours ago

July 26, 2024

Danny Gallagher

A new government program is trying to encourage Internet service providers (ISPs) to offer lower rates for lower income customers by distributing federal funds through states. The only problem is the ISPs don’t want to offer the proposed rates.

obtained a letter sent to US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo signed by more than 30 broadband industry trade groups like ACA Connects and the Fiber Broadband Association as well as several state based organizations. The letter raises “both a sense of alarm and urgency” about their ability to participate in the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. The newly formed BEAD program provides over $42 billion in federal funds to “expand high-speed internet access by funding planning, infrastructure, deployment and adoption programs” in states across the country, according to the (NTIA).

The money first goes to the NTIA and then it’s distributed to states after they obtain approval from the NTIA by presenting a low-cost broadband Internet option. The ISP industries’ letter claims a fixed rate of $30 per month for high speed Internet access is “completely unmoored from the economic realities of deploying and operating networks in the highest-cost, hardest-to-reach areas.”

The letter urges the NTIA to revise the low-cost service option rate proposed or approved so far. have completed all of the BEAD program’s phases.

Americans pay an average of $89 a month for Internet access. New Jersey has the highest average bill at $126 per month, according to a survey conducted by . A 2021 study from the found that 57 percent of households with an annual salary of $30,000 or less have a broadband connection.

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Sci-Tech

Best Internet Providers in Columbia, South Carolina

Published

9 hours ago

July 26, 2024

Stephen J. Bronner

What’s the best internet provider in Columbia?

This famously hot Soda City — endearingly nicknamed “Cola” — is South Carolina’s capital. Pondering these two unrelated facts brings up two questions for those of us who’d rather stay safely indoors to beat the heat, watching Netflix with a fizzy beverage in hand: Do the internet speeds in Columbia pop? Are there options to consider for the best internet service provider in the city?

Good news for residents of the former home of the world’s largest fire hydrant: Median download speeds in Columbia exceed 200 megabits per second, according to Ookla data. To answer the second question, fiber internet from AT&T is available in Soda City and that makes AT&T Fiber our choice for the best internet service provider in Columbia.

While we recommend AT&T Fiber, its expected speeds are on par with Spectrum’s, its largest competitor within Columbia, according to Ookla. Other than these two major ISPs, some Soda City citizens can connect with Verizon and T-Mobile’s 5G home internet. If you’re looking for the speediest plan in the city, AT&T Fiber’s multigig plans top out at 5,000Mbps. On the other hand, there are a few affordable options in the area, but the cheapest internet belongs to Spectrum’s $40-per-month plan for 300Mbps.

Best internet in Soda City

Columbia internet providers compared

Provider	Internet technology	Monthly price range	Speed range	Monthly equipment costs	Data cap	Contract	CNET review score
AT&T Read full review	Fiber	$55-$245	300-5,000Mbps	None	None	None	7.4
CarolinaConnect Cooperative, Inc.	Fiber	$50-$90	350-1,000Mbps	None	None	None	N/A
Hughesnet Read full review	Satellite	$50-$95	50-100Mbps	$15 or $300 to $450 one-time purchase	100-200GB	2 years	6
Spectrum Read full review	Cable	$50-$90	300-1,000Mbps	Modem free; $7 for router (optional)	None	None	7.2
T-Mobile Home Internet Read full review	Fixed wireless	$60-$70 ($40-$50 for eligible Go5G Plus and Magenta Max mobile customers)	72-245Mbps	None	None	None	7.4
Verizon 5G Home Internet Read full review	Fixed Wireless	$50-$70 ($35-$45 for eligible mobile customers)	100-300Mbps	None	None	None	7.2
Viasat Read full review	Satellite	$120	25-150Mbps	$15 or $250 one-time purchase	Unlimited (850GB soft cap)	None	6.1

Show more (3 items)

Source: CNET analysis of provider data

Other available internet providers in Columbia

Most of the city will have access to AT&T’s fiber internet (or EarthLink’s piggybacked option) or cable internet through Spectrum. In contrast, some neighborhoods have access to T-Mobile or Verizon’s 5G options, as well as regional carriers ispMint and EIN. Here are the other options in the city not listed above.

EarthLink: EarthLink uses other networks to connect its customers to the internet. The company provides a good variety of speeds, starting at 100Mbps and going up to a whopping 5,000Mbps, with prices ranging from $60 to $190.
EIN: This Kansas-based ISP serves some of Columbia and its surrounding areas. DSL internet plans start at $88 monthly for 6Mbps in download speeds. However, the tiers range from 300Mbps to blazing speeds of 5,000Mbps.
ispMint: A veteran-owned provider serving mostly rural customers, its $199 plan (which requires purchasing a $299 device or an extra $30 per month to lease) averages between 15 to 50Mbps.
Hughesnet: Columbia residents likely won’t need satellite internet (SpaceX’s Starlink is also available almost everywhere in the city). Hughesnet offers speeds of 50Mbps with prices starting at $50 with a two-year contract and equipment fees. Columbia residents have access to its Fusion plans, a satellite and wireless home internet combo.
T-Mobile Home Internet: The wireless carrier’s 5G home internet can be a compelling option in terms of price if it’s available to you, especially if you have certain mobile plans with the company. Speeds range from 72 to 245Mbps for $60 per month. It becomes a much more compelling option for customers of the company’s Go5G Plus or Magenta Max phone plans, which drops the price to $40 monthly. T-Mobile customers with Go5G, Magenta or Essentials plans get a smaller discounted price of $40 per month.
Viasat: Viasat has a singular plan that features speeds of up to 150Mbps for $120 per month. While unlimited data is available, you can expect a monthly soft cap of 850GB.

Evening view of the South Carolina State House in Columbia, South Carolina. The Wade Hampton statue sits behind the South Carolina Statehouse. — Denis Tangney, Jr./Getty Images

Cheap internet options in Columbia

You can expect to spend around $51 per month to connect to the internet in Columbia. If you want more speed, there are many options. That’s good news for people who want to beat the city’s famous heat by staying indoors.

How many members of your household use the internet?

The cheapest internet belongs to Spectrum’s $40-per-month plan for download speeds of 300Mbps. However, for those looking for cheap internet options in Columbia, there aren’t many. Most plans start around $50 per month. However, eligible mobile customers with Verizon and T-Mobile can receive discounted rates.

What’s the cheapest internet plan in Columbia?

Provider	Starting price	Max download speed	Monthly equipment fee	Contract
Spectrum Read full review	$40	300Mbps	Modem free; $7 for router (optional)	None
Verizon 5G Home Internet Read full review	$50 ($35 with eligible phone plan)	100Mbps	None	None
AT&T Fiber 300 Read full review	$55	300Mbps	None	None
T-Mobile Home Internet Read full review	$60 ($40 with eligible phone plan)	245Mbps	None	None

Show more (0 item)

Source: CNET analysis of provider data

How to find internet deals and promotions in Columbia

The best internet deals and top promotions in Columbia depend on what discounts are available during a given time. Most deals are short-lived, but we look frequently for the latest offers.

Columbia internet providers, such as Spectrum and Verizon, may offer lower introductory pricing or streaming add-ons for a limited time. Others, however, including AT&T and T-Mobile run the same standard pricing year-round.

For a more extensive list of promos, check out our guide on the best internet deals.

How fast is Columbia broadband?

According to the latest Ookla speed test data, Columbia residents have access to a comfortable fixed median download speed of 230Mbps. Gig-plus options are available from AT&T, Spectrum and local ISP CarolinaConnect Cooperative. AT&T Fiber has the fastest hookup, featuring 5,000Mbps in download and upload speeds.

Fastest internet plans in Columbia

Provider	Max download speed	Max upload speed	Starting price	Data cap	Contract
AT&T Fiber 5000 Read full review	5,000Mbps	5,000Mbps	$245	None	None
AT&T Fiber 2000 Read full review	2,000Mbps	2,000Mbps	$145	None	None
AT&T Fiber 1000 Read full review	1,000Mbps	1,000Mbps	$80	None	None
CarolinaConnect 1000	1,000Mbps	1,000Mbps	$90	None	None
Spectrum Internet Gig Read full review	1,000Mbps	35Mbps	$60	None	None

Show more (1 item)

Source: CNET analysis of provider data

What’s a good internet speed?

Most internet connection plans can now handle basic productivity and communication tasks. If you’re looking for an internet plan that can accommodate videoconferencing, streaming video or gaming, you’ll have a better experience with a more robust connection. Here’s an overview of the recommended minimum download speeds for various applications, according to the FCC. Note that these are only guidelines — and that internet speed, service and performance vary by connection type, provider and address.

For more information, refer to our guide on how much internet speed you really need.

0 to 5Mbps allows you to tackle the basics — browsing the internet, sending and receiving email, streaming low-quality video.
5 to 40Mbps gives you higher-quality video streaming and videoconferencing.
40 to 100Mbps should give one user sufficient bandwidth to satisfy the demands of modern telecommuting, video streaming and online gaming.
100 to 500Mbps allows one to two users to simultaneously engage in high-bandwidth activities like videoconferencing, streaming and online gaming.
500 to 1,000Mbps allows three or more users to engage in high-bandwidth activities at the same time.

How CNET chose the best internet providers in Columbia

Internet service providers are numerous and regional. Unlike the latest smartphone, laptop, router or kitchen tool, it’s impractical to personally test every ISP in a given city. So what’s our approach? We start by researching the pricing, availability and speed information drawing on our own historical ISP data, the provider sites and mapping information from the Federal Communications Commission at FCC.gov.

But it doesn’t end there. We go to the FCC’s website to check our data and ensure we’re considering every ISP that provides service in an area. We also input local addresses on provider websites to find specific options for residents. To evaluate how happy customers are with an ISP’s service, we look at sources including the American Customer Satisfaction Index and J.D. Power. ISP plans and prices are subject to frequent changes; all information provided is accurate as of the time of publication.

Once we have this localized information, we ask three main questions:

Does the provider offer access to reasonably fast internet speeds?
Do customers get decent value for what they’re paying?
Are customers happy with their service?

While the answers to those questions are often layered and complex, the providers that come closest to “yes” on all three are the ones we recommend.

To explore our process in more depth, visit our How We Test ISPs page.

What’s the final word on internet providers in Columbia?

Most Columbia residents will be well served by Spectrum’s cable connection which is widely available in the city. Some Cola residents have access to 5G home internet from T-Mobile or Verizon — each makes for a good option for existing customers of their wireless services due to the deep monthly discounts they offer. AT&T Fiber’s coverage is limited in the city, but if your address is serviceable, I would put it at the top of your list.

Internet providers in Columbia FAQs

Which is the best internet service provider in Columbia, SC?

With its high marks on customer satisfaction surveys and variety of options in terms of price and speed — CNET calls it a “terrific value” — AT&T’s fiber internet will be the best choice for most Columbia residents.

Is fiber internet available in Columbia, SC?

Indeed it is. Cola residents can get fiber internet from AT&T with speeds up to 5,000Mbps. Some residents may also have access to CarolinaConnect‘s fiber-optic network, featuring speeds up to a gig.

Should I choose AT&T or Spectrum?

Most Columbia residents will have access to internet options from Spectrum, whereas, fiber coverage from AT&T is limited. For a full breakdown of the differences between AT&T and Spectrum, check out our guide that pits them against each other. But the TL;DR is that since Cola can get on AT&T’s fiber plans, those are the better options.

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Sci-Tech

Chris Evans Breaks Down Surprise Marvel Return

Published

12 hours ago

July 26, 2024

Gordon Jackson

Marvel may always want you to keep spoilers from flying whenever one of their new movies drops, but they can’t stop themselves–or their own stars–from doing it by talking to the press.

If you’ve already seen Deadpool and Wolverine, you’ll know by now Chris Evans makes a cameo: not as the geriatric Captain America of Endgame, but as Johnny “The Human Torch” Storm from the 2005 Fantastic Four movie. Surprise!

While the actor is rumored to have renewed his contract with Disney to return in future MCUs projects as Captain America, he apparently still could’ve legally wriggled out of a Johnny Storm cameo. However, as Entertainment Weekly describes, his friendship with Ryan Reynolds made agreeing to do so an easy decision. “I was so excited. Ryan’s a buddy. He just shot me a text saying, ‘Listen, might be a long shot, but would you have any interest in reprising something from 20 years ago?’ I said, ‘Oh my God! Of course,’” Evans said, after making a surprise appearance alongside several other cameo stars from the movie at Marvel’s Deadpool & Wolverine Celebration of Life panel at San Diego Comic-Con. “Honestly, Ryan might be the only guy that I would’ve done it for because he’s just got the Midas touch. His self-awareness makes him almost invincible. He makes the joke before the audience gets a chance to make the joke, so if you’re going to revisit a character and you have to find a way to make it work, Ryan’s humor makes just about everything work, so you feel an automatic sense of safety.”

As for the scene in question, Deadpool and Wolverine meet Johnny in “The Void,” a location where discarded incarnations of various Marvel characters are put on ice before being deleted from existence, permanently. At first, Deadpool believes he’s come across the legendary Captain America, only to discover its the fabled Human Torch, instead. The cameo was “real quick” and “pretty easy,” according to Evans. “I just had to fly in real quick, do a couple days of filming, and fly out. For me, it was pretty easy. Primarily because where we find Johnny, he’s meant to be a little more rundown, so the costume didn’t have to be pristine. Those first two movies, that’s when Marvel was really still trying to find their footing. So everything had to be very precise and had a lot of meetings, a lot of opinions. This was a little more like, ‘Yeah, we know it. We’ve seen it.’”

Still, it was nice to see the Marvel star, now better known for playing a marquee Avenger, back in action as his earlier character. Just in time, before the character regenerates into Joseph Quinn in the Marvel’s upcoming reboot! Did you enjoy Evans’ cameo, or were you (like myself) more excited by the return of Kelly Hu’s Lady Deathstrike and her blink-and-you’ll-miss it battle with Wesley Snipe’s Blade? Now that‘s cinema.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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