Lisa McCarthy Interviews Crowdfunding Leader Blake Coler-Dark of Lending Club
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(SE) Amber Dawn Clark
There has been a lot of talk about Lending Club, a budding crowd sourcing and crowd funding online application. According to Blake Coler-Dark, it's the next generation of banking and loaning. The current model, which consists of large banks deciding who qualifies for a loan is broken and has been for quite some time now. All one has to do is look back at the 2008 American housing crisis to understand where Blake is coming from.
Back in 2008, banks took a huge financial hit and the government was forced to bail many of them out due to their poor loan portfolio. The reason they had such a poor portfolio was because of the loose credit of the years prior. By home loans out to anyone who would wanted one, regardless of their creditworthiness, banks simultaneously destroyed the lives of many people, as well as their own reputations.
Lending Club was founded in order to connect lenders to loaners on a personal level. You have the opportunity to make a small, micro-loan to many different potential borrowers. Lending Club gives you the ability to filter through borrowers using a variety of metrics, which allows you to make smart investment decisions and weed out all of the bad prospects.
Because loans made through Lending Club are very small ($25 is the minimum amount), it is extremely easy to get started in your loaning career. You can watch as your loan is paid off bit by bit every single month, which is an encouraging feature that Lending Club offers. If you happen to loan to a deadbeat borrower, Lending Club has a system in place to ensure that they do everything possible to collect your money for you.
In the past few years we have seen a huge explosion in a combination of digital and social companies. The most successful brands out there today are the ones that combine Internet technology with the human need to connect. Lending Club does this in a spectacular way, allowing lenders to earn a significant return on their money while borrowers are actually able to obtain loans that they may not have received going through "conventional channels."
Blake Coler-Dark's talk was highly illuminating because he spelled out what the future of crowdfunding small personal loans will be. There is also the potential that the Lending Club model could be used to fund larger loans like home, medical, and investment projects. That would truly be a revolutionary change in the finance industry and would inevitably lead to the destruction of many current businesses. At the same time, many newer and more efficient businesses would pop up and thrive on a huge level. This is great news for both small time lenders and potential borrowers, as it eliminates all of the unnecessary overhead and provides a much more streamlined business model.
Back in 2008, banks took a huge financial hit and the government was forced to bail many of them out due to their poor loan portfolio. The reason they had such a poor portfolio was because of the loose credit of the years prior. By home loans out to anyone who would wanted one, regardless of their creditworthiness, banks simultaneously destroyed the lives of many people, as well as their own reputations.
Lending Club was founded in order to connect lenders to loaners on a personal level. You have the opportunity to make a small, micro-loan to many different potential borrowers. Lending Club gives you the ability to filter through borrowers using a variety of metrics, which allows you to make smart investment decisions and weed out all of the bad prospects.
Because loans made through Lending Club are very small ($25 is the minimum amount), it is extremely easy to get started in your loaning career. You can watch as your loan is paid off bit by bit every single month, which is an encouraging feature that Lending Club offers. If you happen to loan to a deadbeat borrower, Lending Club has a system in place to ensure that they do everything possible to collect your money for you.
In the past few years we have seen a huge explosion in a combination of digital and social companies. The most successful brands out there today are the ones that combine Internet technology with the human need to connect. Lending Club does this in a spectacular way, allowing lenders to earn a significant return on their money while borrowers are actually able to obtain loans that they may not have received going through "conventional channels."
Blake Coler-Dark's talk was highly illuminating because he spelled out what the future of crowdfunding small personal loans will be. There is also the potential that the Lending Club model could be used to fund larger loans like home, medical, and investment projects. That would truly be a revolutionary change in the finance industry and would inevitably lead to the destruction of many current businesses. At the same time, many newer and more efficient businesses would pop up and thrive on a huge level. This is great news for both small time lenders and potential borrowers, as it eliminates all of the unnecessary overhead and provides a much more streamlined business model.
