---
title: "Upstart's founders bought $7.65 million of its falling stock, and sold nothing"
description: "The stock touched a 52-week low of $22.54 on October 14 and is down about 45% this year. Over six months the two co-founders only bought while the president, CFO and chief legal officer only sold, and a third of the float is short into November 3 earnings."
publisher: "The Inference"
section: "Markets"
published: 2026-10-15T22:35:40.368Z
modified: 2026-10-15T22:35:40.368Z
canonical: https://theinference.org/article/upstart-s-founders-bought-7-65-million-of-its-falling-stock-and-sold-nothing
language: en
keywords: "Upstart, Insider Trading, Short Interest, Consumer Lending, Earnings"
---

# Upstart's founders bought $7.65 million of its falling stock, and sold nothing

> The stock touched a 52-week low of $22.54 on October 14 and is down about 45% this year. Over six months the two co-founders only bought while the president, CFO and chief legal officer only sold, and a third of the float is short into November 3 earnings.

[Dave Girouard](https://theinference.org/markets/people/dave-girouard) and [Paul Gu](https://theinference.org/markets/people/paul-gu) built [Upstart](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/upstart) to underwrite consumer loans with machine-learning models rather than credit scores alone, and its Nasdaq-listed shares have made it a proxy for AI-in-finance sentiment. The past six months of [Form 4 filings, the SEC's record of insider trades](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001647639), show the two founders buying their own dip: chairman Girouard took 170,240 shares for an estimated $5.0 million and chief executive Gu 100,000 for $2.65 million. Between them, zero sales [1]. Upstart itself spent another $100.06 million on buybacks in the first half [2].

## The officers below them only sold

The rest of the roster went the other way: 22 open-market sales against 4 purchases in six months. President [Sanjay Datta](https://theinference.org/markets/people/sanjay-datta) sold 161,780 shares for an estimated $4.53 million across eight sales, and chief financial officer [Andrea Blankmeyer](https://theinference.org/markets/people/andrea-blankmeyer) and chief legal officer [Scott Darling](https://theinference.org/markets/people/scott-darling) sold as well [1]. Insider sales can be taxes or diversification, and single purchases prove little [2]. The split by rank is still the fact on file.

*Chart: **Founders bought $7.65 million; the president, CFO and chief legal officer sold $5.49 million** Bar chart of Upstart insider trades over six months: founders Girouard and Gu show positive purchase bars, while Datta, Blankmeyer and Darling show negative sale bars.*

*Estimated value of open-market Form 4 trades over the six months to early October 2026, per Quiver Quantitative; positive bars are purchases, negative bars are sales. [1]*

## The loan machine kept funding

[Preliminary third-quarter originations, disclosed on October 5](https://www.tikr.com/blog/upstart-stock-sits-about-7-above-its-52-week-low-as-q3-originations-top-4-1-billion-time-to-sell-or-load-up?.tsrc=rss), were $4,117.8 million, up from roughly $2.9 billion a year earlier and 2.6% below the second quarter's $4,227.2 million [2]. Revenue has risen five straight quarters, to $364.7 million in the second quarter of 2026 [3]. The credit market stays open: on September 28 [the rating agency KBRA assigned preliminary ratings to $400 million of notes](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/kbra-assigns-preliminary-ratings-upstart-223600595.html) in Upstart's 52nd securitization, against a $500 million loan pool, with 65.3% credit enhancement on the senior classes [4].

*Chart: **Revenue has risen five straight quarters, to $364.7 million** Column chart of Upstart quarterly revenue from Q3 2024 to Q2 2026, rising from $162.1 million to $364.7 million.*

*Upstart quarterly revenue in US$ millions, from its SEC filings, retrieved 15 October 2026. [7]*

## A third of the float disagrees

[Short interest hit 33.13% of the float by September 15](https://www.quiverquant.com/news/Upstart+Holdings+Stock+Short+Interest+Rises+to+33.13%25), [27.6 million shares](https://theinference.org/article/upstart-shorts-own-33-of-the-stock-bond-buyers-demanded-a-thicker-cushion-on-its-400-million-loan-deal), up 6.56% in two weeks [1]. Second-quarter filings show Norway's Norges Bank cutting its stake 91.8% and the trading firm [Jane Street](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/jane-street) 96.5%, while [Bank of America](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/bank-of-america) added 198.9% [1]. The macro leans with the shorts: [the Federal Reserve raised rates a quarter point on September 16](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/9/16/what-to-know-about-us-federal-reserves-first-interest-rate-hike-in-3-years), to 3.75–4.00%, its first increase in more than three years [5], and Upstart's own macro index sat 49% above its normal-economy level on October 5 [2].

## November 3 decides

Upstart reaffirmed about $294 million of 2026 adjusted EBITDA on August 4; the first half produced $117.37 million, and two repeats of Q2's $76.91 million would leave the year about $22.8 million short. The Street bridges it with Q3 revenue of $365.1 million, flat with Q2, then growth in Q4 [2]. Gu's September 10 purchase went in at a weighted average of $25.55; the stock [touched a 52-week low of $22.54 on October 14](https://ca.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/upstart-holdings-stock-hits-52week-low-at-2254-usd-93CH-4881002), down from $43.73 at the end of 2025 [2][6]. November 3 decides whether the founders were early or wrong.

## Takeaway

Upstart's founders bought $7.65 million of their own falling stock over six months while the officers below them sold, and with a third of the float short into the November 3 earnings, the print decides whether the founders were early or wrong.

## Sources

1. [Quiver Quantitative, "Upstart Holdings Stock Short Interest Rises to 33.13%", 7 October 2026](https://www.quiverquant.com/news/Upstart+Holdings+Stock+Short+Interest+Rises+to+33.13%25)
2. [TIKR, "Upstart Stock Sits About 7% Above Its 52-Week Low as Q3 Originations Top $4.1 Billion. Time to Sell or Load Up?", 11 October 2026](https://www.tikr.com/blog/upstart-stock-sits-about-7-above-its-52-week-low-as-q3-originations-top-4-1-billion-time-to-sell-or-load-up?.tsrc=rss)
3. [Upstart quarterly figures from its SEC filings, retrieved 15 October 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001647639)
4. [KBRA via Business Wire and Yahoo Finance, "KBRA Assigns Preliminary Ratings to Upstart Securitization Trust 2026-4", 28 September 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/kbra-assigns-preliminary-ratings-upstart-223600595.html)
5. [Al Jazeera, "What to know about US Federal Reserve's first interest rate hike in 3 years", 16 September 2026](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/9/16/what-to-know-about-us-federal-reserves-first-interest-rate-hike-in-3-years)
6. [Investing.com (Reuters), "Upstart Holdings stock hits 52-week low at 22.54 USD", 14 October 2026](https://ca.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/upstart-holdings-stock-hits-52week-low-at-2254-usd-93CH-4881002)
7. [Upstart, quarterly figures from its SEC filings, retrieved 15 October 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001647639)


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Upstart's founders bought $7.65 million of its falling stock, and sold nothing — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/upstart-s-founders-bought-7-65-million-of-its-falling-stock-and-sold-nothing