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Post by d_saver on Jan 2, 2017 12:11:27 GMT
Reading through the posts here, one of the things that seems to hold people back a bit (understandably from my point of view) is platform confidence. We are giving over control of hard earned funds to people we barely know. Whilst the responses on the forum and the background of the staff seems good (IMO), I wondered if the BondMason team, or part of it at least are ever at finance shows, give presentations, have an open day, etc. for investors? This may give those people on the ledge the confidence to invest further in the platform?
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Post by stevefindlay on Jan 2, 2017 13:36:32 GMT
Reading through the posts here, one of the things that seems to hold people back a bit (understandably from my point of view) is platform confidence. We are giving over control of hard earned funds to people we barely know. Whilst the responses on the forum and the background of the staff seems good (IMO), I wondered if the BondMason team, or part of it at least are ever at finance shows, give presentations, have an open day, etc. for investors? This may give those people on the ledge the confidence to invest further in the platform? It's a shame you weren't able to attend the P2P Forum festive drinks that we sponsored. Graham and I were both in attendance. We do go to some of the conferences - we sponsored part of Lendit Europe late in 2016,and may go to a couple of events in 2017. We're always available on phone and email though - we do pride ourselves on being contactable (real humans behind the website). We may run an investor meetup in 2017. However, last time we suggested this, there was insufficient interest to warrant it.
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Post by stevefindlay on Jan 2, 2017 15:36:50 GMT
I agree about a lack of confidence regarding the platform but, from my perspective, what holds me back isn't the team. Meeting them face to face isn't really going to tell me anything since anyone can market themselves well. What I find difficult is that they are still so opaque from an operational perspective, so that I cannot perform any sort of operational due diligence. I still have no precise idea what Bondmason is (it's not a P2P platform nor is it regulated as an asset manager, so is it an adviser etc?). I have no idea about their economic stability i.e costs vs. revenues (for example they avoided answering my question regarding their AuA so I can't even vaguely understand their revenue which is a worry now they have 19 directors/staff). It's a shame because the essential idea of outsourcing active loan selection ("fire and forget") is something I really want. Doing DD on most loans simply isn't worth my time. Moreover, their ability to tap non-retail lending platforms is exactly where the value can lie.
End result is that I did a test allocation for just £10k and then added another £2k a bit later but I've sort of given up since they don't provide any transparency.
Thank you for giving us a try. Regarding your questions: (1) Economic stability: we've discussed this elsewhere on the forum. In short - we did a funding round in 2016 (June & Oct), raising seven figures and giving us 24 months of cash runway assuming nil revenue. So we are in a good position on this front. (2) How are we classified: sadly not an easy answer. We've been working the FCA for over 2 years now to agree an appropriate classification. This is still a work in progress from their end, although we have a firm view. Most importantly though, from our clients perspective, we enable them to access returns from the P2P Lending market easily and efficiently. (3) Operational due diligence and transparency: what would you like to know? Many thanks, Steve
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Post by d_saver on Jan 2, 2017 17:31:01 GMT
Reading through the posts here, one of the things that seems to hold people back a bit (understandably from my point of view) is platform confidence. We are giving over control of hard earned funds to people we barely know. Whilst the responses on the forum and the background of the staff seems good (IMO), I wondered if the BondMason team, or part of it at least are ever at finance shows, give presentations, have an open day, etc. for investors? This may give those people on the ledge the confidence to invest further in the platform? It's a shame you weren't able to attend the P2P Forum festive drinks that we sponsored. Graham and I were both in attendance. We do go to some of the conferences - we sponsored part of Lendit Europe late in 2016,and may go to a couple of events in 2017. We're always available on phone and email though - we do pride ourselves on being contactable (real humans behind the website). We may run an investor meetup in 2017. However, last time we suggested this, there was insufficient interest to warrant it. I guess I missed an opportunity there. If the events this year pan out, please post here in advance so that interested people might attend, if that is something you are open too. Looking at the platform growths in 2016, maybe the number of people who might attend would go up considerably in 2017, perhaps.
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Post by khampson on Jan 2, 2017 19:54:47 GMT
I did read in this forum that BondMason expects to become profitable in 2017, is this still the case and are you currently on track to do this?
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Post by stevefindlay on Jan 2, 2017 20:15:31 GMT
I did read in this forum that BondMason expects to become profitable in 2017, is this still the case and are you currently on track to do this? Yes and yes. We are projecting to become profitable during 2017, although the full year accounts ending March 2018 may or may not show a loss, depending on which month we hit break even. This is currently forecast toward the end of the year.
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