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 luxury of choice
August 8, 2022
It's been a whirlwind of a week as we had one meeting after another for the Series B. Topping it all off, we managed to squeeze in a board meeting in between it all to give them the full update on the state of our business.
To say they came away excited is an understatement. Hearing about what we were able to do with [ ] as the first third party underwritten deal and seeing the margins we are able to produce only serves to validate the future of our business.
Private credit talent war resembles family feud
Private credit has rapidly expanded beyond its Wall Street niche, drawing in everyone from seasoned titans to wide-eyed Main Street investors. However, the sector’s meteoric rise hasn’t gone unnoticed by the establishment. Jamie Dimon, JP Morgan Chase’s CEO and Wall Street’s perennial voice of caution, recently sounded the alarm on private credit’s potential default risks, making headlines in the process.
Rest and recharge
August 1, 2022
It's a big week for Series B discussions as we have [ ] different groups actively looking into our materials and setting up meetings. We'll have a lot more clarity in the next few weeks for sure as we move this process forward.
Turning the corner
July 25, 2022
As of last Friday, we officially reached an inflection point in the company. For the first time ever, we closed a third party underwritten transaction, one where we left the infrastructure that we've built do the talking. We couldn't have scripted a better story for how this first deal came to life and everything worked exactly as planned.
The rise of private credit in a post 2008 world
Nelson Chu joins us today to discuss the rise of private credit! He's here to share how private credit emerged as a significant player post-2008 financial crisis when banks scaled back their lending. Despite his initial lack of experience in credit, Nelson was drawn to private credit for its potential to offer shorter durations, lower minimum investments, and attractive yields compared to traditional bank loans.
Always be closing
July 18, 2022
It's a big week this week and one of the first where we're splitting up the team to make a showing at two conferences at the same time. Underpinning it all though is our need to secure and expand our investor base, whether they're small, medium, or large. This is mission critical at this stage as we're not short of borrower interest, we're not lacking in underwriter interest, and we're more than capable of technologically supporting both sides in getting their deals to market.
Back to normalcy
July 11, 2022
There's been a reversion back to the mean when it comes to valuations as SaaS company valuations are back to 2019 levels. Fortunately, there's some back of the napkin math from VCs during that time that is coming back into the forefront. This is what that means when it comes to key metrics we're being measured against.
Starting Q3 off right
July 5, 2022
This has been one of the biggest things holding us back from achieving our objectives, especially on the revenue front. It's been a long time coming and over a year since we were able to book this kind of revenue but finally after weeks of going out to market with one of our most difficult institutional transactions, we are set for a first close of [ ] today, with the option to sell the remaining [ ] in the coming weeks ahead, which we'll gladly take especially as the team sets out for a few of the key industry conferences in July.
A well-oiled machine
June 27, 2022
A company at its best is a well-oiled machine where each component part succeeds to contribute to the overall functionality and success. At companies like ours, the high level components are below:
The power of purpose: Thriving as an entrepreneur
Nelson Chu is the founder and CEO of Percent, a global leader in financial infrastructure solutions. Founded in 2018, the company leverages proprietary technologies, integrations, and data to bring first-of-its-kind transparency and efficiency to lenders and credit transactions. Prior to Percent, he founded a strategy consulting firm specializing in helping companies build products and raise capital for growth, creating over $1B in equity value. He began his career at several of the top financial services firms, including Bank of America and BlackRock. He is an active angel investor, with notable investments including Anthropic, BlockFi, Care/Of (Acq: Bayer AG), Clover Health (NAS: CLOV), dv01, Eden Health, Plentina, Tala, and Uala.
Private credit boom or bubble?
Anchored by high yields, shorter-term investments, and being newly open to all accredited investors, the rise of private credit is still climbing. Doubling in size as an asset class over the past 5 years, private credit assets are expected to hit $2.3 trillion by 2027. Booms like this almost always pose questions: Is this sustainable growth?
The evolution of a founder: Filling in the gaps
We often compare founding a company to raising a child. There's pride, a refusal to admit we don’t know everything from the start and a whole lot of growth—not just for the company but for us as founders.
The founder journey is fraught with challenges, primarily because a founder’s role evolves out of necessity as the company matures. From bootstrapping an idea to a successful exit, founders constantly adapt their focus and apply their skills—both technical and emotional—to meet the company’s needs at each phase.
More visibility than ever before
June 21, 2022
One of the biggest releases these past few weeks has been the new syndication process that our Capital Markets team is now actively using and our third party underwriters will be starting to use very soon. The past few deals have been incredibly fascinating to watch as some have gone exactly according to plan and others have forced us to rethink how we market and attract investment into these opportunities.
Oh how far we've come
June 13, 2022
What an incredible run of progress on our platform these past few weeks. We knew June was going to be big and it's shaping up to be a banner month with all the feature releases that have been pushed out. We've been touting our new syndication process, we've been talking about being able to offer default protection, we've been clamoring for a full transaction history, and in the span of three weeks we've been able to push all of it out.
Unlocking opportunities: Private credit investing explained
Listen to this informative Legacy Leaders episode with Nelson Chu about private credit investing. Here is what to expect on this week’s show:
● Nelson explains Private Credit Investing offers uncorrelated returns and higher yields compared to traditional savings accounts. Private credit portfolios are usually pools of loans, providing diversification and risk mitigation for investors.
● Nelson emphasizes diversification is crucial in private credit investments through blended notes and diversified baskets of loans. By spreading investments across multiple lenders and loans, investors can access higher yields while minimizing the impact of defaults on individual loans, making diversification a key strategy in private credit investments.
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