2023年3月13日

點擊“注冊”，即表示您同意接收來自Insider以及其他合作夥伴的營銷郵件，並接受我們的服務條款和隱私政策。2015年，羅德尼·威廉姆斯(Rodney Williams)和特拉維斯·霍洛威(Travis Holoway)在拜訪了家人和朋友後意識到，生活拮據的人們無處求助於應急資金。為了解決這個問題，企業家們決定推出SoLo Funds，這是一個允許消費者互相借貸的金融科技市場。當時，威廉姆斯是藍牙替代產品LISNR的首席執行官和聯合創始人，霍洛威是西北互助銀行(Northwestern Mutual)的培訓和發展主管。負責戰略合作關係的賈雷爾·卡特(Jarrel Carter)和負責設計的泰勒·康諾菲(Taylor Conophy)加入了團隊。他們會在下午6點在威廉姆斯的辦公室見麵，一起吃晚飯，然後集思廣益，直到晚上11點。他們找到了一個應用程序，人們可以從美國的另一個人那裏借50到1000美元。“這筆交易不是在人民和SoLo基金之間進行的。這是來自愛達荷州的邁克和來自德克薩斯州的湯米之間的較量。”借款人有最多35天的時間來償還無息貸款，可以選擇支付兩項費用——向SoLo Funds支付行政捐款，並向貸款人支付小費——或者他們可以選擇不支付任何費用，免費借錢。 SoLo Funds only makes a profit when the administration donation is added to the transaction. Because the borrowed funds are intended to help cover emergency bills, the whole experience needs to be fast. "A user can make a request on our platform and get funding in less than 15 minutes," Williams said. "We don't approve or deny. Anyone with a bank account can sign up and make a request." Each borrower is given a SoLo Score, which is based on their banking history. SoLo Funds officially launched in 2017, and Holoway quit his job that March to work on it full time, while Williams remained at LISNR. They signed up for accelerators in Ohio and Kansas so they could boost their plans and make connections. In Ohio, Seth Metcalfe, the former deputy treasurer of Ohio who became one of the company's advisors, mentored them, and the Techstars Kansas City accelerator helped them hone their pitch deck. Mentors at the accelerators told them their slides should tackle problems, solutions, market opportunity, and traction, and feature their team. "We used that template to show how people could relate to the problem and see how our solution was different," Williams said. "My favorite slide is the graphic led 'Borrower Request' slide. It showcases how simple the SoLo Funds design is, how borrowers have control, and how they set their own terms." Through word of mouth, SoLo Funds started to catch the attention of the fintech community in California, so with potential new staff in mind, they set up a home base in Los Angeles. The team launched their pre-seed round in 2017 and raised $1.2 million. Williams stepped down from running LISNR in September 2018 and became more involved in SoLo Funds. Holoway and Williams didn't take wages for months and covered the payroll for others with their own finances. "It was very hard to continue to operate through that, but we got through," Williams said. In 2019, the entrepreneur and investor Richelieu Dennis asked his team to scour the US to find worthy brands he could invest in. After meeting the SoLo Funds team, he invested $1.6 million. The raise meant they had to revise the pitch deck they used for their pre-seed round, because the influx of funds gave them the chance to add new features to the app, such as lender protection, which is an insurance against non-payment. They also boosted staff numbers. Williams had fundraising experience from his former company, but he said that raising funds for a finance startup proved to be a lot harder, particularly when that company wanted to give people the option of borrowing money for free. Instead of targeting any VC who may be interested, the SoLo Funds team decided to focus on investors like Dennis who wanted to help solve social issues. "This step was instrumental in us landing Impact America as an investor," Williams said. By February 2021 they closed a $10 million Series A raise from investors like ACME Capital and Impact America. SoLo Funds now has more than 100 employees and is a registered B Corp. It's won numerous awards, including the Visa Everywhere Initiative award twice. Here's the original pitch deck that the team used to raise a $1.2 million pre-seed round, which led to raising $10 million in January 2021. Courtesy of SoLo Funds