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Author Topic: What should you ask at ProsperDays'08 ?  (Read 2534 times)

Fred93

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What should you ask at ProsperDays'08 ?
« on: February 24, 2008, 07:23:27 pm »

Here's my answer:  Don't ask questions.  Instead, engage Prosper in conversation.

If you just ask questions, it makes it too easy for them.  Its a setup for canned responses.  There's hot air in that can.  You don't want the canned response.  We've already seen those in their blog, their newsletters, etc.  You want to engage them.  Teach them about the lender point-of-view.

Prosper's management is only now beginning to understand that the business they have chosen makes them a loan company.  This business isn't about just running a server and matching up some transactions, like Ebay.  Its about dealing with people.  Rooting out the fraudsters and professional deadbeats.  Servicing loans professionally, including an effective collections program.  These are the things that will build their business.

You all know my position on Prosper's collections efforts.  Prosper is in collections kindergarten.  They're finally improving, and may soon graduate from kindergarten and move to the first grade.  The improvements they've recently brought us include (according to prosper management) fixing the autodialer so that it doesn't call at the same time every day, and adding a "letter" asking nonpaying borrowers to please pay.  I'm sure both those were good changes, but I rank them "still in kindergarten".  Our pupil needs to get to the 7th grade.  That's quite a way down the hall.

Don't let them sing the praises of their new program to take legal action against long-nonpaying borrowers.  First, that's a tiny test program.   Most of your late loans are still slipping into default with no legal action whatsoever to help you.  Second, they haven't filed any suits yet.  We're still in the talk phase, and trying to get started.  Tell them to get on with it, and tell us about the successful suits, garnishments, whatever.

Prosper needs to reexamine its relationship with the lender community.  No business ever succeeded by fighting with its customers.  Prosper started with speeches about the value of community, and recently has tried as hard as it can to kill the community it created.  One can only attribute this to momentary confusion.  So engage our friends in conversation about this confusion, and see if you can help them.

Prosper needs to establish guidelines for employees that make them understand they should always be honest and straightforward, and a management which will not allow any other behavior.  I'm sure most prosper employees already understand this, but some do not.  For example, the individual who told us that profiles were being erased because of a new policy against any links to web sites outside prosper.com was telling us an untruth.  Fact is, prosper allows links, and there are still hundreds of them on the prosper.com web site, including a link to the author of a book which explains how to be a professional deadbeat ... how to borrow money and not pay ... how to defeat debt collectors.  (I find this offensive.  If prosper management would like to know the location of this link, they have but to ask me to reveal it.)

I look forward to hearing the results of your discussions.



nonattender

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Re: What should you ask at ProsperDays'08 ?
« Reply #1 on: February 24, 2008, 11:50:46 pm »

"Who's buying our defaulted loans for pennies on the dollar?"
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Nothing that I ever say is "professional advice" - principally, because I suffer from an infinitely inescapable prinicipal/agent problem, in that I am, in principle, always acting as my own agent.

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mhs505

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Re: What should you ask at ProsperDays'08 ?
« Reply #2 on: February 25, 2008, 01:18:56 am »



Prosper needs to reexamine its relationship with the lender community.  No business ever succeeded by fighting with its customers.  Prosper started with speeches about the value of community, and recently has tried as hard as it can to kill the community it created.  One can only attribute this to momentary confusion.  So engage our friends in conversation about this confusion, and see if you can help them.


IslandMele came late to the M&G tonight.  In tow with her was Catherine Muriel, CMO.   As soon as I realized that, I was making my way there to discuss this very issue.   I wanted to show her the room and say .. this is what you no longer have.   Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance.      My goal tomorrow is to try to have that conversation now that I know what she looks like. 
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patio11

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Re: What should you ask at ProsperDays'08 ?
« Reply #3 on: February 25, 2008, 03:58:17 am »

IslandMele's group made less money for Prosper than the cost of her plane ticket to San Fransisco.  (Last time I ran the numbers it was $700 worth of profit.  And she had one of the best three good groups on Prosper.)  Good groups just fundamentally failed to scale to the needs of Prosper, and I think that problem was going to be systemic as long as Prosper kept after the group angle.  They were right to abandon it.
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traveler505

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"Trav, you can always take up another hobby..." -- BigGulp

Now blogging at http://blog.traveler505.com, home of the MNH Reports and other commentary on Prosper.com and P2P lending in general.

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