Lend Academy Podcast

The so-called Big Four accounting firms provide a myriad of services to large banks but they are all starting to get involved now in marketplace lending. Probably the first mover here, at least in this country, has been KPMG. Fiona Grandi, a partner at KPMG, is my guest for episode 53 of the podcast. She […] The post Podcast 53: Fiona Grandi of KPMG appeared first on Lend Academy.

 David Haber, the CEO and co-founder of Bond Street wants to help small business owners, not just to get a loan, but to understand their businesses better. He believes that as marketplace lending gets more competitive it is the companies who provide more than just a loan that will thrive. Even though they are still relatively […] The post Podcast 52: David Haber of Bond Street appeared first on Lend Academy.

Sasha Orloff, the CEO and co-founder of LendUp, is our next guest on the Lend Academy podcast. LendUp is different to every other company that has appeared on the podcast in that they are firmly entrenched in the subprime area. They are completely focused on serving those customers that traditional financial institutions will not or […] The post Podcast 51: Sasha Orloff of LendUp appeared first on Lend Academy.

James Gutierrez is one of the more interesting people I have come across in this industry. He has already started one alternative lender, Progreso Financiero (now Oportun) focused on the Latino market and now he is looking to expand lending across a much broader cross section of this country. James, my guest on Episode 50 of […] The post Podcast 50: James Gutierrez of Insikt appeared first on Lend Academy.

David Klein, the CEO and Co-founder of CommonBond is on a mission. He wants to not only shake up student lending, that has been renowned for its poor customer experience, he wants to create a company that gives back to the community as part of a larger social mission. The story of CommonBond is a […] The post Podcast 49: David Klein of CommonBond appeared first on Lend Academy.

The world’s leading industry self-regulatory body is, in my opinion, the Peer to Peer Finance Association (P2PFA) in the UK. From their establishment in 2011 the P2PFA have been very influential in implementing sensible regulation that supports the growth of the industry and they were also instrumental in getting a new kind of retirement account established in […] The post Podcast 48: Christine Farnish of the UK P2P Finance Association appeared first on Lend Academy.

Jed Simon is the CEO and Founder of FastPay, a company that has built quite a reputation in the invoice finance sector of marketplace lending. Jed has quietly built a leading company that will cross a billion dollars of total loans originated before the end of the year. I wanted to get Jed on the Lend Academy […] The post Podcast 47: Jed Simon of FastPay appeared first on Lend Academy.

 We have not discussed impact investing at all on the podcast until now. Our guest in episode 46 is Jacob Haar, the Co-founder and Managing Partner at Community Investment Management (CIM), who has been on mission to bring awareness of impact investing to the marketplace lending industry. His company is focused on providing responsible and transparent financing to […] The post Podcast 46: Jacob Haar on Impact Investing appeared first on Lend Academy.

We haven’t discussed receivables financing much here on Lend Academy. But that is about to change as the space is starting to see a lot of action. Krista Morgan is the CEO and Co-founder of P2Binvestor (P2Bi for short), a marketplace lender that is focused on receivables financing. P2Bi launched around 15 months ago but as […] The post Podcast 45: Krista Morgan of P2Binvestor appeared first on Lend Academy.

LendingHome have been in business for less than 18 months but in that short time they have come to be the market leader for online real estate lendng. With some big name backers they have scaled very quickly and have now issued several hundred million dollars in loans. In the latest episode of the Lend Academy […] The post Podcast 44: James Herbert of LendingHome appeared first on Lend Academy.

Loan servicing is a critical part of this industry for both platforms and investors. We want borrowers to pay their loan on time, but as I learned in this interview, that is just one piece of what a good loan servicer does. In the latest episode of the Lend Academy Podcast I interviewed David Johnson, the CEO of […] The post Podcast 43: David Johnson of First Associates appeared first on Lend Academy.

There are many innovative companies in this space but I think Kabbage stands out above the pack. They are doing things in lending that have never been tried before, or even thought about, and they are doing it successfully. They are truly a 21st century lender that could not have existed even 10 years ago. Kathryn […] The post Podcast 42: Kathryn Petralia of Kabbage appeared first on Lend Academy.

Karen Mills is someone who has a unique perspective on small business. She was a venture capitalist for 25 years before moving to Washington in late 2008 when she was appointed by President Obama to head the Small Business Administration, right in the thick of the financial crisis. For five years, until late 2013, she spent […] The post Podcast 41: Karen Mills Former Head of the SBA appeared first on Lend Academy.

LendingTree is a company that is familiar to most of us. But it has only been recently that they have become an important part of the marketplace lending ecosystem. With a huge and growing appetite for borrowers LendingTree is one of the few companies that can provide just what the platforms want: borrowers at scale. […] The post Podcast 40: Doug Lebda of LendingTree appeared first on Lend Academy.

Al Goldstein is the CEO and co-founder of Avant. He has quietly led the establishment and growth of what is now one of the leading players in this industry. Their singular focus on what they call middle class borrowers has served them well and provides them with true differentiation from other platforms in this industry. […] The post Podcast 39: Al Goldstein of Avant appeared first on Lend Academy.

When it comes to small business lending Funding Circle is the largest online marketplace, at least when it comes to traditional term loans. They are the largest small business lending platform in the UK and the first multi-national online lending platform, operating in both the UK and the US. Our guest for episode 38 is […] The post Podcast 38: Sam Hodges of Funding Circle appeared first on Lend Academy.

There is a lot of speculation in this industry about the role of banks – how they view this industry and where they will fit in the future. In the latest edition of the Lend Academy Podcast my guest is someone who has a unique perspective on these questions. Frank Rotman is a partner at […] The post Podcast 37: Frank Rotman of QED Investors appeared first on Lend Academy.

Right after LendIt I took a two week vacation in Sydney, Australia (my home town). During this vacation I met with a few of the players in the Australian market including the first P2P lender down under, SocietyOne. I first wrote about them on Lend Academy two years ago and have been wanting to get […] The post Podcast 36: Matt Symons of SocietyOne appeared first on Lend Academy.

LendIt USA 2015 officially kicks off tomorrow afternoon. We have over 2,300 people signed up now (we are officially sold out) so I thought it would be useful for everyone coming to sit down with my good friend and LendIt co-founder, Jason Jones, to discuss the conference and how to get the most out of it. […] The post Podcast 35: Jason Jones on LendIt USA 2015 appeared first on Lend Academy.

I first chatted with Michael Solomon back in 2011 when he was winding down his previous p2p lending business called Loanio. He was out of the industry for a couple of years but he never gave up on his desire to run a successful business in this industry and his second business, Circleback Lending, is […] The post Podcast 34: Michael Solomon of CircleBack Lending appeared first on Lend Academy.