Lend Academy Podcast

One of the great things about the near prime space in online lending is that there are fewer competitors operating there. The reason is simply that it is harder to make work. There are challenges with data, pricing loans and customer acquisition costs just to name a few. The next guest on the Lend Academy […] The post Podcast 153: Tom Burnside of LendingPoint appeared first on Lend Academy.

There is global movement in fintech to disrupt real estate lending or, as they call it in the UK, property lending. Taking out a mortgage loan has been a dreadfully inefficient process and entrepreneurs have attacked different parts of the ecosystem. The short term bridge loan space has been the first niche of choice for […] The post Podcast 152: Christian Faes of LendInvest appeared first on Lend Academy.

Over the last couple of years we have seen something of a converge between payments and credit businesses. We have PayPal, Square, iZettle and others, all primarily focused on payments, entering the credit space. But perhaps the best example of this convergence is a company called PayU, a fintech business based in Europe. While PayU […] The post Podcast 151: Matthias Setzer of PayU appeared first on Lend Academy.

What do you do when most of your potential customers base has no financial data whatsoever? When it comes to expanding access to credit for low income earners, who are often unbanked, new approaches are needed. New groundbreaking work is being done by a few enterprising entrepreneurs who are using psychometric testing as a way […] The post Podcast 150: Frederic Nze of Oakam appeared first on Lend Academy.

I think we can all agree that the future of banking is going to look very different to how it is today. But what exactly needs to change and why? While many of us have some theories our next guest on the Lend Academy Podcast has provided a detailed picture of how he thinks this […] The post Podcast 149: Frank Rotman of QED Investors appeared first on Lend Academy.

Large banks don’t have it easy when it comes to innovation. We have all heard about the challenges of legacy tech infrastructure at banks that often goes back decades. Citi has taken on this challenge directly with the launch of a fintech division within the bank called Citi Fintech. Our next guest on the Lend […] The post Podcast 148: Yolande Piazza of Citi Fintech appeared first on Lend Academy.

Most of us in the developed world don’t think much about making phone calls. We have monthly contracts, often with unlimited minutes, so we just make calls whenever we want. But billions of people around the way use their phones very differently. They have prepaid plans that they top up, often multiple times a week, […] The post Podcast 147: Steve Polsky of Juvo appeared first on Lend Academy.

While there is still a shortage of capital for many small business owners there are far more options today than there was five or ten years ago. Not only are there more options but these options are more convenient with simple loan applications and quick decisions. One of the newer entrants in this space, providing […] The post Podcast 146: Gina Taylor Cotter of American Express appeared first on Lend Academy.

The sixth annual LendIt USA conference will be happening in San Francisco on April 9-11, 2018. Called LendIt Fintech USA 2018 it will be the largest fintech conference ever held in the Bay Area. We are expecting over 5,000 attendees from more than 2,000 companies, over 500 speakers on nine different stages and our largest […] The post Podcast 145: LendIt Fintech USA 2018 Preview Show appeared first on Lend Academy.

When it comes time to buy a car people are now accustomed to doing research online and to a lesser extent on an app. But when we are conducting the actual transaction in most cases today it is still a completely offline process. Our next guest on the Lend Academy Podcast is trying to change […] The post Podcast 144: Rod Buscher of Blinker appeared first on Lend Academy.

Even though bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are well down from their December highs there is still many people sitting on huge gains. If they want some liquidity on these crypto assets their only option up until this point has been to sell. Now, a new breed of lending platform is emerging to help them gain […] The post Podcast 143: Blake Cohen of SALT Lending appeared first on Lend Academy.

With all the activity in fintech over the past decade one thing we haven’t seen a lot of yet is the emergence of digital banks, at least in this country. Given the daunting regulatory challenges it is not something that many entrepreneurs focus on. Our next guest on the Lend Academy Podcast is someone who […] The post Podcast 142: Colin Walsh of Varo appeared first on Lend Academy.

When I first started in this business I had never even heard of the term CDFI so I had no idea what they did. Over the years I have come to appreciate the important work they do in providing capital to businesses that are often overlooked by traditional or even online lenders. My next guest […] The post Episode 141: Gina Harman of Accion appeared first on Lend Academy.

It has been almost eight months since Ron Suber announced he was stepping down as President of Prosper. In that time he has kept very busy, still tirelessly traveling the world and spreading the word on how fintech can help society. I thought it would be good to catch up with Ron now that he […] The post Podcast 140: Ron Suber, the Godfather of Fintech appeared first on Lend Academy.

Creating a new credit card company is not something many, or really any, fintech executives have chosen to do until recently. While creating an online lending platform is challenging, creating a consumer facing credit card company from scratch is even more difficult. The latest guest on the Lend Academy Podcast relishes this challenge. Marla Blow […] The post Episode 139: Marla Blow of FS Card appeared first on Lend Academy.

Anyone who has applied for a home mortgage (unless it is from one of the new fintech lenders) knows how painful the process still is today. It is somewhat crazy in our instant, on demand world that it can take 60 days to close on a mortgage today. Our latest guest on the Lend Academy […] The post Podcast 138: Vishal Garg of Better Mortgage appeared first on Lend Academy.

The space between the sub prime market and the prime market is one that is still relatively open. Sure, there are a few companies that are focused on this mid or near prime space but it is less competitive than the prime market. While Enova is primarily a sub prime lender they have a division […] The post Podcast 137: Matt Hollender of NetCredit appeared first on Lend Academy.

There are a small number of institutional investors that have been investing in marketplace lending for more than five years. They have seen the ups and downs of the industry, some have closed down while others have thrived. Our next guest on the Lend Academy Podcast is Don Davis, the CEO of Prime Meridian Capital […] The post Podcast 136: Don Davis of Prime Meridian appeared first on Lend Academy.

When people think of debt collection they think of aggressive and often relentless phone calls and mailed notices. They don’t think of sophisticated machine learning techniques using millions of data points to figure out the best collection approach. Our next guest on the Lend Academy Podcast is out to change that. Ohad Samet is the […] The post Podcast 135: Ohad Samet of TrueAccord appeared first on Lend Academy.

There are thousands of small community banks around this country who strive to serve the needs of their local community. But I don’t there are any quite like Darien Rowayton Bank (DRB), soon to be Laurel Road Bank. They are a three branch community bank based in Connecticut that has become one of the leaders […] The post Podcast 134: Gary Lieberman of Laurel Road appeared first on Lend Academy.