This is a blog dedicated to building in public, where founders can see what goes on behind the scenes at a venture-backed startup. Weekly internal team emails (on a delay) are juxtaposed against interviews and articles published in real-time.
The start of a trend
December 4, 2023
Another month and another one for the record books. We're coming in for November at $[ ]M in AUM, a $[ ]M increase from October. This makes for the best month ever for AUM growth, pushing last month into second place. Even more importantly, this is $[ ]M above the forecast we had just made and shared with the board, translating to a revenue beat of $[ ]K above forecast as well.
Carefully curated
November 27, 2023
After the board meeting at the end of October where we got buy-in around the general direction of the forecast for 2024, the next step was to fine tune all the details. Between updates on vendor negotiations, finalized contracts, and a better assessment of deal volume growth based on the latest numbers from the past few weeks, we presented the final locked-in plan for revenue and expenses for 2024 to the board this past week.
5 Questions with Percent's Nelson Chu
Why patience, precision, and reputation are the real competitive edge in private credit
By Ilona Limonta-Volkova
1. What’s the problem you saw that others underestimated, and how did it first show up in your life or work?
New markets and new opportunities
November 20, 2023
It has been a productive week in Japan as I’ve been on a roadshow with [ ] to find ways to enter the Japanese market. It’s a fairly unique market in and of itself, dominated by a select group of mega banks and anchored by several other investment banks, all of whom offer comprehensive banking services from deposits and wealth management to investment banking and capital markets.
The ruthless in ruthless prioritization
November 13, 2023
We’ve spent the past few weeks scrutinizing each line item of our expenses to try and squeeze every last possible cost saving. Over this time, we’ve reached out to every service provider and vendor to renegotiate pricing as we head into 2024. These are never easy or fun conversations to have but they are absolutely necessary as we continue to make our push towards profitability. The years of good will we’ve built up with these providers has paid off as we managed to shave tens of thousands of dollars off current and future expenses that keep our business going.
Step by step
November 6, 2023
We've been tracking it all throughout the month but to finally have the books close on a record month of over $[ ]K in revenue for the marketplace is a step in the right direction. Prior to this, we could never reliably predict out even just one month ahead for revenue and AUM because we didn't have clarity around how much captive capital we had to deploy nor could we figure out how much deal flow we could confidently close as a result.
If you’re still planning retirement the old way, read this
Inside the infrastructure powering the next 401(k) revolution
"Quiet work compounds — even when no one is watching."
That is what I kept reminding myself during Sunday’s sprint triathlon. In spite of a snafu with my tracker, I was genuinely proud of the outcome: 7th in my age group, well beyond what I had expected considering my only goal was to finish in the top half.
How fintech is redefining retirement planning for the private markets era
By Ilona Limonta-Volkova, Forbes Contributor.
Most Americans are preparing for retirement with yesterday’s tools. The rules of retirement planning are changing, but few have noticed. Financial innovation often promises greater access and equality, yet adoption rarely keeps pace with aspiration.
A recent Harris Poll found that nearly 40% of Americans have never heard of private-credit funds, a class of alternative investments that Wall Street is racing to bring to 401(k)s.
Timing the market
October 30, 2023
We launched our first ever institutional research report on Thursday, giving us additional credibility as we continue the push for institutional qualified purchaser investors. I recommend all of you give it a read through as the insights extracted from these interviews with a broad range of institutional investors (family offices, asset managers, and investment advisors) shed some light on where their interests lie.
A sign of things to come
October 23, 2023
As we close in on the last few days of the month, we can now safely take a look back at just how much we've accomplished in this first month where we had all the pieces in place post-broker dealer and post-credit facility. And what a month it's been. We're looking at over $[ ]M in net new AUM, the largest increase ever in the history of the firm.
Relentless focus and ruthless prioritization
October 16, 2023
As we've begun to make preparations for 2024 planning, it's abundantly clear how far we've come compared to last year in terms of being able to accurately project out the growth of our business. At this time last year, we had just an inkling of an idea of how underwriters would use us and what they'd want to see when it comes to features and functionality.
A three-pronged approach
October 10, 2023
With the credit facility ready to deploy and the accredited investor acquisition on sound footing, the final piece of the puzzle has been the institutional qualified purchasers who can anchor our growth. These are the family offices and investment advisors who can bring much more stable capital onto the platform, slotting right in between accredited investors and the credit facility when it comes to quantum/size of capital deployed and stickiness of capital.
Automate or be left behind: Inside the fintech revolution transforming traditional private credit
October 3, 2025
by Kriste An from businesstoday
In the ever-evolving world of finance, few industries remain as traditional as private credit. Yet, one executive is looking to change that by applying innovative technology to streamline processes that have long been manual and inefficient. Nelson Chu is the Founder and CEO of Percent, a private credit marketplace that is transforming how investments are sourced, structured, and managed.
Striking the right balance
October 2, 2023
Since the very beginning, we have tried to operate our marketplace like a stepladder - we found investors in order to get borrowers, then we found more borrowers so that we could find investors, and on and on it went. In good times, we can count on this stepladder to continue to grow our AUM. In more challenging times, whether during COVID or now as the economy is on the ropes, one side tends to outweigh the other.
It's time to sell some software
September 25, 2023
Multi-market is coming to life. Starting this week, we're going to be able to fully launch a brand new market for the very first time, free from any of the past history, the past deals, and the past track record that we have built up ourselves over these past few years. We are nearing the point where our two distinct business lines are becoming ever more clear.