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On Friday the 7. and Saturday the 8. of June I attended the P2P conference in Riga. It was truly a very enjoyable event, and besides all the knowledge from the presentations on the two stages, there was plenty of opportunity to network with fellow investors, alternative investment bloggers and platforms. Many of the top P2P platforms from the Baltics had stands and representatives available for grilling about any question to their platform and how they do business. I highly recommend attending any future conferences as you can easily accumulate a lot of knowledge over a short timespan. It is also really comforting to meet the people from the different platforms in person.
The P2P conference Youtube channel holds two videos with all presentations held at the main stage. More than 6 hours of interesting information that you can get completely for free! However, as I wanted to view some of the presentations again after the conference, I found that it was a bit of a hassle to find exactly where the different presentations started and ended. So to help anyone out who did not attend the conference or just want to review them again, I went through all the video material and enriched the content. I made links to the exact point in the videos where the presentations start and added some information on the specific content and who delivered it. We are all busy, so this post will save you some time if you only have time to view some of the presentations. Just click on the picture on the Youtube video under each description below and it will take you directly to the start of each presentation. I put down the exact duration of the presentations as well so you know exactly how much time you will be spending viewing the videos. So, let’s get started. Enjoy your free online P2P conference!
First presentation: Introduction Speech - Why we are here
Duration:
21 minutes and 45 seconds.
Speakers:
Lars Wrobbel, Investor & Author.
Kolja Barghoorn, Investor & Author.
Content:
Lars Wrobbel who runs a blog and podcast about passive income investing with P2P, kicked of the conference with Kolja Barghoorn who is also an investor and author.
They talked about how they came to arrange the P2P conference and some information about how and why they got started with P2P investing. They also asked some of the participating investors, bloggers and platforms to tell something about themselves.
Free audio book about P2P investing!
Lars Wrobbel and Kolja Barghoorn actually wrote a book together about P2P investing. It is available for free on Audible if you have not used Audible before, as the first book is free.
Unfortunately it is currently only available in German. But if you speak German, this is a great ressource. Lars’ voice is comfortable to listen to and he speaks clearly and slow. Fortunately I understand German like most Danes as I had it for four years in school.
It contains almost 5 hours of valuable information for the novice investors who want to know more about P2P investing. If you are confused about the jungle of providers and do not know which platform to start with, or maybe a seasoned equity investor looking for a way to diversify your overall portfolio, it is really worth using some time on.
First panel discussion: Banks, Bigtechs and bad debts - P2P industry under pressure.
Topics discussed in the panel.
1. Are fintechs underestimating the traditional banks ability to innovate?
2. How do you plan to cooperate with the traditional banks?
3. What scoring models do you use to assess risk?
4. Can you give an example of situation that would cause you to exclude an existing loan originator from your platform?
5. Companies like Apple, Google and Facebook are looking towards the booming fintech industry. Will these companies be your future competitors?
6. What due diligence process do you use when you onboard a new loan originator?
7. What is your concrete buyback policy?
Second presentation: Milestone - Biggest P2P platform in Europe. Future plans
Duration:
42 minutes and 26 seconds.
Speaker:
Martins Sulte,
CEO and co-founder at Mintos.
Content:
Martins talks about the P2P an fintech space in general and then he digs deeper into the P2P space in the Baltics. After that, he talks about Mintos and what kind of products is coming from them in the near future. He revealed the new Invest and Access product that I wrote an article about a few days ago. He also talked about the Mintos mobile app that will be launched later this year. In the end there was a Q&A session where Martins answered questions from the conference participants.
Second panel discussion: Loan originators - Survival of the fittest
Duration:
41 minutes and 15 seconds.
Speakers:
Boan Sianipar, VP of business development.
Alise Cevere, Spain Country Manager at IDFinance.
Maxim Chernuschenko, CEO at Cashwagon.
Juris Grisins, CEO at Capitalia.
Adam Kuszyk, CEO at Capital Service S.A.
Kristaps Bergmanis, CFO and Member of the Board at ExpressCredit
Matiss Ansviesulis, CEO at Creamfinance.
Rolands Mesters, CEO at Nordigen.
Topics discussed in the panel.
1. What are your future expansion plans?
2. Regarding transparency and financial information. What kind of information do you share with investors?
3. If borrowers are defaulting, how do you prevent the same from happening in the future? Do you have a database?
4. How big a percentage of your loans are being hedged to marketplaces like Mintos?
5. Regarding Southeast Asian lenders. Can you be more selective and get lower default rates because of the funding gap?
6. Do you evaluate different marketing channels like affiliate, SEO, etc. against scoring?
Third presentation: Real estate - P2P lending's new rockstar?
Duration:
7 minutes and 55 seconds.
Speaker:
Igor Puntuss, CEO at Bulkestate.
Content:
Igor tells his story and about how Bulkestate got started. From real estate guys to fintech platform, but not a classical fintech platform. The idea is quality and not quantity. Bulkestate became the first real estate crowdlending platform out of Latvia. Igor also explains why the real estate development market in the Baltics are booming due to delays with traditional banks.
Fourth presentation: Era of shared marketplace economy - The collective beats the individual
Duration:
24 minutes and 21 seconds.
Speakers:
Marcis Gogis,
Head of Product at Mintos.
Marek Pärtel,
CEO at EstateGuru.
Heiko Hildebrandt,
CEO at Target Circle.
Topics discussed in the panel.
1. What role do you think blockchain technology will play in you current and further business?
2. How important is AI or Machine Learning for your business and future plans?
3. We are all interested in growth and profitability, but sometimes we need to sacrifice scale, profits and margins. Is that something you are faced with in your line of work?
4. Where will your future growth come from? New partners and markets?
5. What do you think about dependencies and risks in the future? What happens if the supply dries up?
6. Is there anything happening on the regulatory side for trading of alternative investments publicly on e.g. the secondary market?
The conference space
Besides the two stages with panel discussions and presentations, there was a VIP room where Bulkestate presented their projects. They shared it with Mintos who had a stand where they did demos of their new mobile app both for Android and iOS. It will be released later this year. There was also a second larger room filled with small stands for all the platforms participating. I did not get some photos from that room. I was too busy chatting.
I had long pants on at the conference and it was so hot I was almost melting. I am still not use to not having to wear long pants and a shirt at a conference anymore, as I am not representing a company. Now I just represent myself and in my company you can wear shorts and t-shirt at a conference. I guess I fell back into corporate mode.
Playa del Riga baby!
The next day of the conference I jumped into my flower print shorts and a hawaiian shirt to match. The whole conference was moved to the beach for networking, chillout, beers, tasty food and watersports. It was such a good idea! It was an amazing day and here I felt like I could relax more and really get to talk. Not just to platforms but also the other investors. There was a lot of long time crowdlending investors present and I had some very interesting conversations. The conference had so many different investors, all with different views of the platforms, risks and investments in general. I highly recommend that you attend next year. You will get so much information in a very short time and it will really get your mind thinking in whole new directions.
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I will be meeting with Grupeer tomorrow at their office in Riga. If you have any questions or concerns, please share them with me and I will bring them to the meeting. Critical questions are very welcome. I would like to roast them a bit. So any input you may have would be truly appreciated.
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