Episode Spotlight

One of the most frequently asked questions we get from entrepreneurs is how to land that initial small business financing they need to bootstrap their new business.  Bank lending is unlikely, and credit cards are expensive.  The demand for answers to this question inspired us to research the startup financing resources available to you.  One of the new alternatives to traditional bootstrap funding for your business is Prosper.com, America's first people-to-people lending marketplace.

We’ve invited Chris Larsen, co-founder and CEO of Prosper, to introduce his revolutionary company, and the infinite capital funding resources available to the StartupNation Community.  For over a decade Chris has focused on using the internet to make consumer lending more efficient, fair, honest, open, and trustworthy; such pioneering has paved a new path for people to get the capital they’re seeking for their startup business.

Here’s how it works:

• Prosper works like eBay: peers list and bid on loans using Prosper's online auction platform.
• Lenders set the minimum interest rate they are willing to earn and bid in increments of $50 to $25,000 on loan listings they select.
• Borrowers set the maximum rate they are willing to pay a lender and create loan listings for up to $25,000. Then the auction begins as people who lend bid down the interest rate. Once the auction ends, Prosper takes the bids with the lowest rates and combines them into one simple loan.
• Prosper generates revenue by collecting a one-time 1% fee on funded loans from borrowers, and assessing a 0.5% annual loan servicing fee to lenders. Prosper handles all on-going loan administration tasks, including loan repayment and collections on behalf of the matched borrower and lenders.

Listen in as StartupNation learns about the pros and cons of Prosper, our latest find in our unending quest to find resources for entrepreneurs to turn their business dreams into reality.  

More details about Prosper

We have also created a Group for the StartupNation Community at Prosper – start borrowing and lending now!

Selected Q & A transcripts from this radio show

Q&A - Tax issues for an LLC

Q&A - Partnering to commercialize an idea

Q&A - Leveraging a brand endorsement

About Chris Larsen, CEO and Co-Founder of Prosper

Prior to Prosper, Chris co-founded and served as Chairman and CEO of E-LOAN.  Under Chris’ leadership, E-LOAN closed over $27 billion in consumer loans, and was consistently ranked as one of the nation’s most trusted consumer brands.  E-LOAN earned consumers’ trust by taking radically pro-consumer actions such as being the first company to provide consumers with access to their credit scores, and playing a critical role in the passage of the strongest consumer financial privacy protection law in the nation.  Chris led E-LOAN through a successful IPO in 1999, and oversaw the company’s acquisition by Popular, Inc. in 2005.

Chris holds an M.B.A. degree from Stanford University and a B.S. degree from San Francisco State University, where he was named the 2004 Alumnus of the Year.