This is something I have been thinking about for over a year. I talk with so many interesting people in this industry that I thought it was time I shared some of these conversations with Lend Academy readers. And I love listening to podcasts on my afternoon walks or while driving in the car.
What is a Podcast?
For the uninitiated a podcast is like a radio show but you don’t need an expensive recording studio to produce it. I recorded this podcast with a $100 microphone (the Blue Nessie) and some inexpensive software (Call Recorder for Skype). My whole setup cost less than $150.
Podcasts are typically a series, not just a one-off recording and that is certainly my intention with the Lend Academy Podcast. This will be a biweekly series, at least initially, where I will be bringing you interviews with interesting people in the p2p lending industry.
Session Number 1
In the first Lend Academy podcast I interview Michael Phillips, the founder of NickelSteamroller.com. If you are a serious p2p investor you will probably have spent some time on his site before – if you haven’t you should go there right now and do some research. It is the premier p2p lending statistics site for Lending Club investors and he has been slowly adding support for Prosper. But Nickel Steamroller has not had any major updates in a long time. Having said that, as Michael confirmed in this interview there are some big changes in the works. In this session you will learn:
- Michael Phillip’s background
- Why he decided to start Nickel Steamroller
- What he has been working on
- An interesting partnership he has recently formed
- Where Nickel Steamroller is going in 2014 and beyond
You can listen to this podcast directly on this page by clicking Play on the player at the bottom of this post or you can download it and listen on your favorite MP3 player. It will also be available in iTunes shortly.
[Update: The Lend Academy podcast is now available on iTunes as well as Stitcher. Stitcher has both iOS and Android apps for downloading and listening to the podcast on your phone.]
Who Should I Have Next on the Podcast?
While I have my own list of potential guests I think readers/listeners will find interesting I want to get your suggestions. Please give me feedback in the comments below or you can send me a message by using the Contact page (please put “Podcast Guest” in the subject line) to let me know who you would like to hear on the Podcast. You can nominate yourself if you like. And let me know what you think.
Peter Renton is the chairman and co-founder of LendIt Fintech, the world’s first and largest digital media and events company focused on fintech. Peter has been writing about fintech since 2010 and he is the author and creator of the Fintech One-on-One Podcast, the first and longest-running fintech interview series. Peter has been interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, The New York Times, CNBC, CNN, Fortune, NPR, Fox Business News, the Financial Times, and dozens of other publications.