StreetShares CoFounders Mark L. Rockefeller and Mickey Konson had the opportunity to present at FinovateEurope 2015 in early February. Their presentation was to an audience of financial and banking executives, venture capitalists and financial technology (FinTech) entrepreneurs in London. In this video, Mark and Mickey demo the StreetShares marketplace, and explain the idea behind our model of using social affinities to lend to small businesses: bringing the "peer" back into peer-to-peer lending.

Originally published on February 25, 2015 on PR Newswire

We'd like to give a big shout out to the  National Veteran Owned Business Association (NaVOBA) for featuring StreetShares and our CEO Mark L. Rockefeller on the cover of this month's Vetrepreneur Magazine. StreetShares is proud to partner with NaVOBA, whose mission is creating opportunities for our nation's veterans who launched their own businesses after leaving the military.

“Starting Spartan was all about giving people an opportunity they otherwise wouldn’t have. There are lots of good people out there, but few opportunities. I had already retired from the military, so this wasn’t about needing more money, but rather I had something to offer and enjoyed creating new things. Helping people comes from the heart—in helping someone you can change a life.”

Lorenzo Downing, President of Spartan Business and Technology, founded his business with the core mission of serving people. Spartan provides solutions to government agencies and institutions to improve their businesses through the use of new technology and management best practices. Spartan is a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business located in National Harbor, Maryland, just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.

LONDON, Feb. 10, 2015—StreetShares announced today at FinovateEurope 2015 the debut of the StreetShares Auto-invest feature which will enable retail investors to easily program their small business loan investments to make automatic bids according to their loan requirements and risk preferences.

1. Social lenders look beyond a credit score

The rigors of military service can take a toll on a credit score. As a result, veterans face unique challenges when looking for a business loan with lenders who only consider the numbers. But on an alternative social-lending marketplace, individual investors bid to back a portion of a loan to a business. Because individual investors set their own interest rate, they are able to consider any factor they wish. Other factors – such as the borrower’s “pitch,” group affiliation, business model, location, online presence, and customer reviews – are all important to social-lenders. This “whole picture” evaluation is beneficial to veteran-owned businesses.

With many peer-to-peer (now called marketplace lending) platforms available, how does one know where to invest? Consider the following:

The difference between a successful small business and a passing fad depends upon your willingness to evolve and explore innovative ways for your business to meet a market need.

In the small business community, we call this concept pivoting.

A pivot [noun] is a person or thing upon which progress depends. To pivot [verb] means to turn and change direction while depending on the central point. As a veteran, this concept is not so different from changing your mission in the military: while the central goal is the same, the tactics you use may change in order to achieve the goal.

According to the Content Marketing Institute, 85% of all companies in the U.S. use some form of content marketing as part of their overall marketing strategy. So what exactly is content marketing and why should it matter to you as a veteran small business owner?