imagine a world where a tank of gas
costs a hundred and fifty dollars your
lunch at McDonald’s costs 35 a world
where everything costs 400 percent more
but you’re so earning what you earned
today would you be able to cover a
twelve thousand dollar bill for an
emergency furnace repair a two thousand
dollar flight to Boston to attend your
brother’s funeral 78% of Americans are
living paycheck to paycheck and the
third of us don’t even have a dollar in
savings maybe this is you maybe you
remember a time when it was you or a
family member now imagine you have
nothing to sell nor do you have a friend
or family member to borrow from what do
you do what do you do if your answer
depended on feeding your children this
week or repairing the car that takes you
to the job that you so desperately need
to hold it all together twelve main
Americans a year don’t have to imagine
these scenarios for them they’re not
hypothetical it is real life often a
small emergency one that costs a few
hundred dollars opens the only door that
seems the swing so freely for them
predatory limping payday loans you know
it sounds nice a small loan that gets
you to your next paycheck but it is not
alone it’s a cycle and once you’re in
it’s really impossible to get out it’s a
web of interest rates and a hundreds and
hideth bees that resemble legal robbery
not alone and it’s also convenient to
sign up you stand in line you provide
your basics photo ID to paycheck stubs
proof of bank account and avoid a check
the clerk then passes you eight
documents of legal pages saying sign
here here and here with no explanation
but you do then the clerk passes you
cash up to 80% of your paycheck and
you’re on your way but this is just the
beginning because you better be ready to
give up your next paycheck you pay back
the 80% with interest and fees with the
20% does you have left over for the 78%
of us living paycheck to paycheck this
is just the beginning of the crushing
cycle of debt that predatory lending
creates and who borrowers are what
surprised you
72% of borrowers make $40,000 a year
that’s your kids teachers members of
armed services parents and single
parents want multiple jobs even
promising young professionals with
stable jobs but hiding from financial
aid there are laborers who built our
homes our cities our businesses but they
had to deal with seasonal volatility so
to the single moms the teachers the
seasonal tradesmen the bank the
underbanked my question is how do you
make a small dollar loan a stepping
stone and not assembling welcomed
traditional banks aren’t the answer
small loans pale in comparison to the
large sums it takes to make low interest
rates work plus they rely on credit
scores to take out a loan something that
most making under $40,000 simply do not
have the answer is not in institutions
the answer is us it’s you it’s me it’s
those in need it’s all of us in a
community the answer is financial
collaboration people working directly
with one another no crushing fees no
hidden cycles just fair straightforward
short-term loans we started
experimenting with an idea of an
exchange for loans under $1,000 a place
where money was more a peer-to-peer
relationship
rather than a financial transaction a
place where you could go fun and
emergency home repair you can get caught
up on your own bills or you can make
that co-payment well what does the
marketplace look like of that sort of
thing how do we connect lenders and
borrowers for a meaningful community how
do we make it transparent and simple
well we call it social loans or solo for
short over the past year solo has grown
from an idea to an app from a cause to a
community and most importantly from a
theory to reality it’s simple for
lenders you can lend on your own terms
you can choose how much you want to lend
the frequency you want to lend and even
who you lend to as a borrower you can
get a small loan on your own terms
without the cycle of debt afterwards
you select the amount that you need you
share a short description of why you
need it you even can select a date that
is favorable for you to pay back your
loan you also have the option to get the
lender a tip as an appreciation or even
give solo a donation you accept your
terms that you’ve created we’re a
digital promissory note is created and
your loan is posted to the marketplace
as a lender you can log in and you can
fund a loan based on your social needs
or the solo score you accept the terms
of the loan and funds are transferred
it’s that simple
today solo has 50,000 users we funded a
million dollars in loans which has
supported 3500 users get caught up on
their electricity bill alone
but this work is just the beginning
we’re just getting started
the more lenders and borrowers use it
the more we learn the more we learn the
more our imaginations grow and we can
create more than just loans we can
create trust in the banking world Trust
is spelled yes I see Oh
FICO one of the hidden and justices of
the banking system is that you have to
have assets usually a lot of them to
establish trust or as they call it
credit the more assets you have the more
banks trust you to pay back what you owe
but those making under $40,000 simply
have less less money fewer possessions
and therefore little trust but where our
work what’s that to change that through
our work we can create trust indicators
that are credible regardless of how much
collateral you have simply by borrowing
and paying back your loans you can
develop a score on our platform do you
pay back your loans on time your score
goes up can you pay back your loan a few
days earlier
bonus points do you show appreciation to
your lender add it to your score and
over time with more and more
transactions we can create a track
record for small loans that is
equivalent to a track record of larger
loans and lines of credit banking is
builds on numbers but our score
it’s a powerful number it’ll be able to
help borrowers get larger loans and
better lines of interest it’ll build
trust it’ll create credit worthiness for
those who’ve never had the chance before
it’ll help break the cycle that has
historically kept someone in perpetual
debt maybe I’m not being blunt enough
about this
but professional debt is not just per
Nicias it’s heartbreaking earlier this
year a friend of mine was standing in
line at her bank behind an older woman a
grandmother a grandmother who was asking
to tell her to take out fifty dollars
from her account to pay back a payday
loan she explained through tears my
grandson took out of alone just the buy
books for school at 18 he did not
realize that $100 could turn into $500 a
day she asked for advice is there
anything I can do anything just to stop
the increasing interest the bank tellers
answer was a flat-out no there’s nothing
that she can do but to go back and pay
off the payday loan in order for it to
stop the spiraling fees and interest
this story and millions others like it
is the reason why we are creating a
meaningful community of compassionate
lending lending that is placed back into
the hands of the community lending that
is not a cycle but a stepping stone from
a stumbling block our goal is to teach
what hasn’t been taught it’s to build
money confidence it’s to remove the
negative connotation of asking for money
and placing the emphasis on support
support that will help the third of us
either start or even have an emergency
cash fund
let’s form trust let’s crush this thing
why don’t you join us [Applause]
costs a hundred and fifty dollars your
lunch at McDonald’s costs 35 a world
where everything costs 400 percent more
but you’re so earning what you earned
today would you be able to cover a
twelve thousand dollar bill for an
emergency furnace repair a two thousand
dollar flight to Boston to attend your
brother’s funeral 78% of Americans are
living paycheck to paycheck and the
third of us don’t even have a dollar in
savings maybe this is you maybe you
remember a time when it was you or a
family member now imagine you have
nothing to sell nor do you have a friend
or family member to borrow from what do
you do what do you do if your answer
depended on feeding your children this
week or repairing the car that takes you
to the job that you so desperately need
to hold it all together twelve main
Americans a year don’t have to imagine
these scenarios for them they’re not
hypothetical it is real life often a
small emergency one that costs a few
hundred dollars opens the only door that
seems the swing so freely for them
predatory limping payday loans you know
it sounds nice a small loan that gets
you to your next paycheck but it is not
alone it’s a cycle and once you’re in
it’s really impossible to get out it’s a
web of interest rates and a hundreds and
hideth bees that resemble legal robbery
not alone and it’s also convenient to
sign up you stand in line you provide
your basics photo ID to paycheck stubs
proof of bank account and avoid a check
the clerk then passes you eight
documents of legal pages saying sign
here here and here with no explanation
but you do then the clerk passes you
cash up to 80% of your paycheck and
you’re on your way but this is just the
beginning because you better be ready to
give up your next paycheck you pay back
the 80% with interest and fees with the
20% does you have left over for the 78%
of us living paycheck to paycheck this
is just the beginning of the crushing
cycle of debt that predatory lending
creates and who borrowers are what
surprised you
72% of borrowers make $40,000 a year
that’s your kids teachers members of
armed services parents and single
parents want multiple jobs even
promising young professionals with
stable jobs but hiding from financial
aid there are laborers who built our
homes our cities our businesses but they
had to deal with seasonal volatility so
to the single moms the teachers the
seasonal tradesmen the bank the
underbanked my question is how do you
make a small dollar loan a stepping
stone and not assembling welcomed
traditional banks aren’t the answer
small loans pale in comparison to the
large sums it takes to make low interest
rates work plus they rely on credit
scores to take out a loan something that
most making under $40,000 simply do not
have the answer is not in institutions
the answer is us it’s you it’s me it’s
those in need it’s all of us in a
community the answer is financial
collaboration people working directly
with one another no crushing fees no
hidden cycles just fair straightforward
short-term loans we started
experimenting with an idea of an
exchange for loans under $1,000 a place
where money was more a peer-to-peer
relationship
rather than a financial transaction a
place where you could go fun and
emergency home repair you can get caught
up on your own bills or you can make
that co-payment well what does the
marketplace look like of that sort of
thing how do we connect lenders and
borrowers for a meaningful community how
do we make it transparent and simple
well we call it social loans or solo for
short over the past year solo has grown
from an idea to an app from a cause to a
community and most importantly from a
theory to reality it’s simple for
lenders you can lend on your own terms
you can choose how much you want to lend
the frequency you want to lend and even
who you lend to as a borrower you can
get a small loan on your own terms
without the cycle of debt afterwards
you select the amount that you need you
share a short description of why you
need it you even can select a date that
is favorable for you to pay back your
loan you also have the option to get the
lender a tip as an appreciation or even
give solo a donation you accept your
terms that you’ve created we’re a
digital promissory note is created and
your loan is posted to the marketplace
as a lender you can log in and you can
fund a loan based on your social needs
or the solo score you accept the terms
of the loan and funds are transferred
it’s that simple
today solo has 50,000 users we funded a
million dollars in loans which has
supported 3500 users get caught up on
their electricity bill alone
but this work is just the beginning
we’re just getting started
the more lenders and borrowers use it
the more we learn the more we learn the
more our imaginations grow and we can
create more than just loans we can
create trust in the banking world Trust
is spelled yes I see Oh
FICO one of the hidden and justices of
the banking system is that you have to
have assets usually a lot of them to
establish trust or as they call it
credit the more assets you have the more
banks trust you to pay back what you owe
but those making under $40,000 simply
have less less money fewer possessions
and therefore little trust but where our
work what’s that to change that through
our work we can create trust indicators
that are credible regardless of how much
collateral you have simply by borrowing
and paying back your loans you can
develop a score on our platform do you
pay back your loans on time your score
goes up can you pay back your loan a few
days earlier
bonus points do you show appreciation to
your lender add it to your score and
over time with more and more
transactions we can create a track
record for small loans that is
equivalent to a track record of larger
loans and lines of credit banking is
builds on numbers but our score
it’s a powerful number it’ll be able to
help borrowers get larger loans and
better lines of interest it’ll build
trust it’ll create credit worthiness for
those who’ve never had the chance before
it’ll help break the cycle that has
historically kept someone in perpetual
debt maybe I’m not being blunt enough
about this
but professional debt is not just per
Nicias it’s heartbreaking earlier this
year a friend of mine was standing in
line at her bank behind an older woman a
grandmother a grandmother who was asking
to tell her to take out fifty dollars
from her account to pay back a payday
loan she explained through tears my
grandson took out of alone just the buy
books for school at 18 he did not
realize that $100 could turn into $500 a
day she asked for advice is there
anything I can do anything just to stop
the increasing interest the bank tellers
answer was a flat-out no there’s nothing
that she can do but to go back and pay
off the payday loan in order for it to
stop the spiraling fees and interest
this story and millions others like it
is the reason why we are creating a
meaningful community of compassionate
lending lending that is placed back into
the hands of the community lending that
is not a cycle but a stepping stone from
a stumbling block our goal is to teach
what hasn’t been taught it’s to build
money confidence it’s to remove the
negative connotation of asking for money
and placing the emphasis on support
support that will help the third of us
either start or even have an emergency
cash fund
let’s form trust let’s crush this thing
why don’t you join us [Applause]
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