Comments on: Thoughts on Web 2.0 and the financial services model

By: connie

connie — Fri, 09 May 2008 17:22:34 +0000

There are a ka-trillion of us out here waiting for you guys!!! Word of mouth is the most powerful advertising tool there is!! Just waiting for your doors to open……

By: Colin

Colin — Wed, 07 May 2008 23:53:33 +0000

@Dave … we are ready …..

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 07 May 2008 23:38:09 +0000

Hi Colin,

Thank-you for your speedy response. I am knowledgeable in marketing myself and what I was wondering is do you have Press releases and Online advertising campaigns ready at the press of the buttom after you sort through the regulation issues and are ready to launch? I would really like to see this succeed..and I’m sure you guys have the plans in place already

By: Colin

Colin — Wed, 07 May 2008 02:15:01 +0000

@Dave … re difficulties, we are well aware of many of those that we will have

With regard to developing volume of borrowers, we now this will largely be a marketing and awareness programme, and we have many ideas in the pipeline to address. We cannot get that ball rolling until we have the service available, and that is the current state that we are in. We have patience and believe in the model and its attractiveness to borrowers.

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 07 May 2008 02:02:51 +0000

Colin,

I think what Andrew means is that before you launch, or Just before you’ll need a hardcore advertising campaign via print, radio and online to get the volume of interest you need to get this off the ground in a big way right off the bat. I think you’ll have more difficulties encouraging people to use communitylend than you’ll have getting people to lend (invest). I myself am interested in the lending aspect as a way to diversify investments. Finding borrowers, and a lot of them, is what will make your company roll. Can you discuss in brief what your plans are for marketing and advertising your company/product?

By: Colin

Colin — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 14:26:27 +0000

Andrew …. The social lending story is relatively new in the world, although there are close to 30 companies involved now, in 15 + countries. The awareness level is growing, and when we complete our regulatory process, here in Canada, and go to market, we hope are are successful in getting the service out there for the right people.

Thanks for stopping by, and keeping the dialog going.

PS … re the markets, I defer to your knowledge. This was the take in the Financial Times “Wall Street stocks cantered towards the weekend break, climbing for a fourth straight session on Friday after Citigroup posted first-quarter results that were worse than some expected but better than many feared”

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 07:45:16 +0000

Not sure your interpretation of why the market jumped for joy is entirely correct. Writedowns were less than expected, and that incited some buying of the stock.

I just happened on this site by accident and have not heard any promotion (marketing) of it. What are you guys doing to create a marketplace on day one, such that when you open you will actually have some decent volume?

I suppose with the limited capitalization you raised in your placement you’re not considering buying up some of the opening loans to stimulate demand then attempting to package and sell them off (although that could work if you had some money behind you). Probably not a great venture to undertake in the current marketplace. Does seem like that would be a fantastic thing to do in the future though. Would be fantastic to purchase up bundles of self-originated loans and then use them to back short-term paper, yeah? Would have been at least, if we still had an ABCP market in Canada…