The heart of LendingMemo is for everyday people

It’s hard to believe we’re here in 2015. What a great year the last one was. I continue to count it a real privilege to work on this p2p lending website, and remain grateful for the emails and comments sent my way encouraging the work we do.

I say ‘we’ because there are actually a number of people responsible for this site. Despite only my name being the one that’s public, a small team of talented web developers and designers have worked very hard to make this site what it is today. While somewhat modest in size, I feel a lot of pride for how visually appealing and technologically advanced this site is for the personal investing genre. For example, LendingMemo uses the Retina.js script to auto-detect dense displays like Apple Retina screens, serving them an HD version of the site. Cool, right?

I believe a hundred little touches like Retina.js combine together to communicate how much we care about our work and purpose, which is to introduce peer to peer lending to everyday people throughout the country. It is my conviction that Lending Club and Prosper represent one of the greatest investments available to average Americans in our nation’s history. I know the phrase ‘consistent lucrative returns’ can sometimes sound like gimmicky salespeak, but in this case it’s true.

Lending money to creditworthy borrowers is an investment unparalleled in its ability to give investors a great return without the volatility or confusion of the US stock market. Combine that fact with how the Lending Club IPO has the potential to open up the remaining 20 states currently closed to online lending, and we have the beginnings of a serious corner being turned in American investing as a whole.

The advent of technology has resulted in some fairly ugly things. Perhaps weightiest, a culture this soaked in screens contains more social isolation. This results in thinner community and friendship as a whole, and by extension our society experiences less of the stuff that gives us lasting satisfaction and happiness.

That said, what technology does incredibly well is lower barriers of entry, and this fact is what is responsible for this investment’s success. Not only has the web allowed peer to peer lending to be the first time in history where people can lend money to each other on a large scale, but it also remains fairly simple to practice if an individual possesses the curiosity to learn the ropes. They just need help getting started.

This is the part that LendingMemo is offering to play. While online lending as a whole is succeeding through funding from big-dollar institutions (IE: OnDeck’s great IPO last month), there remains the need for a dedicated space where everyday investors (unaccredited retail) can discover this investment for themselves, on their own terms and in their own language.

Thus far, LendingMemo is succeeding in its goal to be that space. Our recent survey showed us that 61% of you have less than $25,000 invested in peer to peer lending, and 64% of you are here to learn how to invest.

Personally speaking, this data was encouraging for me to read. I was a bit curious to see if the survey would reveal LendingMemo’s readership to be largely comprised of high net-worth investors (which would have been fine, just not the goal). The opposite turned out to be true. The thousands of people who have read this site over the past couple of years turn out to be nearly the same everyday folks that we were hoping to serve from the beginning.

The coming year holds big things for peer to peer lending. Within it, LendingMemo has some exciting plans to broaden its services. For example, an updated video library (and new interface) should complete in the next few months, as well as a new YouTube channel. And, of course, new articles each week that explore interesting facets of this investment.

Thank you to everybody who has been along for the ride.