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December 11, 2014
Charles Moldow
The first time I heard of Lending Club was when I read an article about it back in 2008. I remember thinking – this is going to be huge.
I got in touch with one of its board members and soon after, invited the founder to my office for lunch. I enjoyed that first meeting with Renaud Laplanche, and it reinforced my hunch that he was on to something that had the potential to change the way money is lent.
I’m a Wharton grad and grew up admiring the accomplishments of former grads, now titans of the financial world. Suggesting that one could create an industry that makes banks obsolete and simultaneously creates a win/win for borrowers and lenders alike would have alums like Donald Trump screaming, “You’re hired.”It’s as immutable as “buy low/sell high.”
The stock market was in the toilet and I figured I couldn’t do worse than the folks at Bear Stearns so I wired my money, invested in Lending Club loans and waited for the results.With my handy dandy HP12C fired up, I plugged in my early returns and, sure enough, returns were as advertised. John and Joan Q. Public had taken my money, built an addition to their house and paid me back on time. They saved money and my net worth went up (rather than down which was very en vogue at the time).
With tangible results in-hand, I decided to learn more about the company and particularly about the founder, Renaud Laplanche. What I discovered really surprised me
Renaud grew up in France, which is not usually top of mind as a hot bed for tech innovation. Add in his training as a lawyer and I definitely had a conundrum to ponder.I figured that there were exactly zero French lawyers who had ever successfully built a Silicon Valley tech Internet company. Well, it turns out that I was wrong. In 1999, Renaud had co-founded TripleHop Technologies, an enterprise software company, and eventually sold it to Oracle. Now my interest was piqued.
It was during our second lunch that the pieces of the puzzle came together.While shooting the breeze (pun intended), Renaud casually mentioned that his avocation is sailing. As someone who likes to casually cruise clear blue waters, I probed a bit further.It turns out that Renaud’s version of “sailing” is worlds away from my idyllic vacation.He described his accomplishments (French Laser sailing championships in 1990 and 1998 as well as European runner up) and I realized this was no ordinary run of the mill legally trained French entrepreneur. You don’t become a national sailing champion unless you’re driven, meticulous, smart and hyper-competitive. This is even more true in the class of boats Renaud sails, Laser Class — a one-person sailboat. Renaud brings all of these qualities to his entrepreneurial endeavors.
It was that casually dropped tidbit that sealed the deal. Foundation Capital led the series C round of funding and Lending Club raised $24.5 million. Lending Club, which started out as a Facebook application, has facilitated loans worth more than $6 billion since its inception.
Over the years, I’ve encouraged and applauded Renaud and his mighty team. We’ve disagreed, we’ve argued, and we’ve spent many long days and nights charting the best course possible for Lending Club.
It’s been an amazing journey so far and I couldn’t be happier for the entire Lending Club crew. Under Renaud’s steady hand at the tiller, I look forward to their continuing journey.