Prosper.com (http://www.prosper.com/public/welcome/default.aspx)
I read about this venture in the NY Times today on my train ride home. On my incredibly aggravating train ride home. I was like Joel out there tonight, cursing the lazy motherfarger MTA union workers who didn't trouble themselves to clear any more snow off the platform by 6:00 p.m. tonight than they had at 7:00a.m. this morning. I was on the 5 express Nereid Ave. line, which they invariably suspend once we reach E.180th. They did so. And they forced us all out of the train onto a platform that had like 30" of snow cleared between the train and the platform. People can't cram into that little space, so they're forced to wade into literally three foot high snowbanks just to let everyone off the train and wait for the next one.
Could this work?
Nope. Don't see it going too far. I'd probably have to actually read about it instead of just looking at the pictures, but hey, I am a lazy farger. Pretty much the same as the American Buying Public. :deion
NYTimes requires registration, so I don't link to it. At times like this, that hurts me. It would make it easier to spur discussion. But farg 'em. Registration sucks. They don't want traffic, fine.
Dio, there's five bugmenot.com password for the New York Times.
Seems like it could be the wave of the future. the wave of the future.
the wave of the future.
link (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/13/technology/13ecom.html)
QuoteTHE Internet has become a great place to track down friends — or friends of friends — for advice or for a date. Now you can ask them for money, too. Prosper.com, a start-up company based in San Francisco, started operations last week, offering a mixed brew of eBay, Friendster and the local bank.
Prosper's users lend money to and borrow money from other people on the site at what the company says are better interest rates than those available through traditional financial institutions and without some of the risk that comes from typical person-to-person loans.
"We looked at eBay and said, 'Why can't we do this for money?' " said Chris Larsen, Prosper's chief executive.
Mr. Larsen, who founded and led E-Loan, an online lender that was bought last year for $300 million by Popular Inc., says Prosper could save borrowers and lenders money because it was a leaner operation than traditional financial institutions. He noted that consumers make, at most, about 4 percent on their savings accounts, which banks then lend to credit card customers at 14 percent or more.
"That's just a huge spread," Mr. Larsen said. "We think if you allow people to participate directly, it's a more efficient marketplace. People can make a better return on their deposits, which then become the source of credit to others."
On Prosper.com, prospective borrowers register with the site and allow the company to review their credit history. Then borrowers post a loan request of up to $25,000, along with an upper limit for the amount of interest they are willing to pay. Loans are not secured by collateral and are paid off over three years at a fixed rate, with no prepayment penalty.
Lenders essentially deposit their money with Prosper — which holds it in an interest-bearing account with Wells Fargo— and either review the loan requests individually or fill out a form permitting Prosper to allocate money to borrowers who meet certain criteria.
more at link
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Wouldn't be for me...but many things aren't. Who knows.
That said, it's not much of a risk for this guy to start it up and see if it sticks...provided he got a nice chunk of that $300 mill that eLoans sold for. Worst case scenario, he gets his name in the paper and a nice tax writeoff.