My Nonprofit Reviews
lnimetz
Review for Prosper Marketplace Inc., San Francisco, CA, USA
Prosper is an extremely disruptive social enterprise changing the face of personal finance and personal credit by slowly threatening the traditional unsecured loan business dominated monopolistically by large banks and credit card companies. By disintermediating the banks and credit card companies, akin to how Napster, eBay and even Google/Yahoo! disintermediated their respective industries, Prosper is able to offer better interest rates to borrowers. In addition, they are effectively creating a new asset class for individuals' investment portfolios. In other words, you can now invest in 'people bonds' and diversify your overall portfolio even more. From working within the company, I know how professional the team is and can say that this is the future of personal finance! Many of the team-members are former eBayers that rode the rise of that company and now are convinced that this is a bigger opportunity! Nonetheless, the founders are experienced and practical in that they understand that this will take a long time since the model's success is dependent on people like you and me feeling comfortable putting a big chunk of our savings into 'people bonds' instead of savings accounts. The bet is that if you can get higher returns from secure 'people bonds' than savings, money market or CDs, then why not? Trust takes a while to build. Otherwise, the company cares a lot about the American consumer and they want to bring down credit rates for the average american. This might sound obscure but from a social impact perspective, credit touches most americans in a profound way (as we have seen in the sub-prime crisis epidsode) and drive growth, jobs, consumption and prosperity. It's all about empowering the individual and sticking it to the banks!
More Feedback
I've personally experienced the results of this organization in...
my two months there and have high expectations for the social enterprise.
If I had to make changes to this organization, I would...
position prosper to expand it's marketpace identify to also become the Facebook for personal finance hobbyists.
What I've enjoyed the most about my experience with this nonprofit is...
the coupling of the professionalism in its work and the vision/ideals in its mission. The disruptive nature of the 'idea' is going to drive major changes in american society, empowering the individual and fomenting transparency and a return to community values.
The kinds of staff and volunteers that I met were...
All world-class. They are mostly Silicon Valley technology types with a huge heart and brain.
If this organization had 10 million bucks, it could...
it does have 10 million bucks and is using those funds very carefully to change investor practices and make credit cheaper for the average American.
Ways to make it better...
I had more interaction with Prosper lenders and borrowers.
In my opinion, the biggest challenges facing this organization are...
educating the market about people to people lending and changing people's investing habits. Also a challenge is creating trust that this investment vehicle is attractive, safe and reliable.
When was your last experience with this nonprofit?
2007
