You Gotta Know What I'm Going to Say

Tuesday, April 17th, 2007
eBay Getting into Micro-Finance through Purchase of MicroPlace

eBay has purchased an organization called MicroPlace, an executive revealed during a “Town Hall” event on Thursday evening. MicroPlace was founded by Tracey Pettengill and set up to facilitate micro-finance.

eBay’s Chief Marketing Officer Gary Briggs was answering a participant’s question about what eBay is doing to help promote saving the planet. He said in part, “A third point to bring up is MicroPlace, which a group that we purchased that is making microfinance loans available to the developing world in particular, and we think - particularly as it relates to PayPal - that we think that’s a great thing to be able to do for the global community.”

MicroPlace plans to launch a web-based, eBay-like marketplace to connect “ordinary” people with micro-finance entities that need capital, according to the website. Founder Tracey Pettengill is co-founder of the Silicon Valley Microfinance Network and was previously CEO of 4charity, a technology company whose vision was “to make philanthropy accessible, convenient, and efficient for companies and their employees.”

Two micro-finance marketplace sites already exist, one calling the phenomenon “social lending.” UK’s Zopa, which is coming the to the US market, is funded by several VCs, including Benchmark, which funded eBay in its pre-IPO days. Prosper was started by e-Loan founder Chris Larsen and John Witchel and is also backed by Benchmark Capital - and eBay founder Pierre Omidyar through his Omidyar Network. \

As I have posted here before, i am a supporter of the true peer to peer microfinance style of Kiva.org but also supported the Google fund which launched a new for profit philanthropy. If eBay stays the course and offers loans worldwide at competitive rates, I say “Bravo !”

Wednesday, January 24th, 2007
I do some surveys online and have done some shopping services for comapnies that paid me through my PayPal account. I was debating what I should do with it when I discovered Kiva.org. Kiva lets you connect with and loan money to unique small businesses in the developing world. When you have selected a business, you can make a loan using your credit card (via PayPal). You can loan as little as $25 at a time. Checking out is easy and safe because of PayPal. Periodically, you will hear back from the business you sponsor. Partner representatives (often loan officers) write directly to the website to keep you informed on the progress of the business. If you choose, you can receive these via email.When your Kiva loan is repaid, you can choose to withdraw your funds or re-loan to a new business.

I took the plunge and loaned the balance of my PayPal account to a food market owner in Equador. Take a look at Kiva and let me know if you become a microfinancer.

Ouch and Wow

I have tried for the last two days to restore/repair my ipod shuffle. It won’t update or allow me to restore settings. It gets pretty rough treatment as I use it when I am riding my bike and I don’t use an arm holster so it gets tucked and giggled and pulled alot. There doesn’t appear to be any physical damage but I sure miss the casts while riding.

Pretty cool news that Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Prize. Here is a guy in Bangladesh that started his microfinance operation by lending some weavers a total of $27 for some stools and it has built into an empowering empire. Read story here .

At BB4CK we are in the midst of an awareness campaign called “Kids Help Kids - You Can Too” and we have been receiving original masterpieces from young kids in our city for distribution on the 25th. I am amazed both by the effort and quality of the original works and when you consider that when a child produces two works, they feed a child lunch for a week.

Seems like two important and seemingly small actions can make a big difference.