Letter From the Editor – July/August 2016

Challenges facing some of the most well-known consumer lenders in the technology era has caused the mainstream media’s love affair with “marketplace lending” to erode. For example, the Wall Street Journal published a story on July 7th with the cheeky title New Growth Plan for Online Lenders: Layoffs. “In the world of online lending, the hot, new thing is the pink slip,” wrote WSJ’s Peter Rudegair. But if you make it past the headlines, you’ll notice that most of the gloom is constrained to the consumer side. The commercial side on the other hand, is still booming.

I saw this firsthand at a ribbon cutting I attended to celebrate the opening of a new office in Jersey City. And I saw it firsthand when a commercial finance ISO put up help-wanted ads after signing a long-term lease in lower Manhattan. And when I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I read the press releases or conversed with the execs that had just closed major deals. While confidence has retreated from its euphoric highs, a feeling we were actually able to attribute a score to, optimism certainly persists.

In this issue, we shed a spotlight on some of that optimism, while continuing to do what we do best, keeping you apprised of what’s happening out there. Whether it’s ways to keep salespeople motivated or exploring the boundaries of a product at home and abroad, I hope you walk away from this magazine and all of our future ones, a little delighted, determined and altfinancedaily…

Sean Murray is the President and Chief Editor of deBanked and the founder of the Broker Fair Conference. Connect with me on LinkedIn or follow me on twitter. You can view all future AltFinanceDaily events here.