Prosper.com for business investment

**The Stealthy One** · 11-20-2009 09:15 PM

Has anyone here ever used Prosper.com to inject equity into your business? I am trying to complete an acquisition and looking for creative ways to add additional capital for increased marketing over the next 6 months.

Appreciate the help in advance!

**cg410** · 11-20-2009 09:49 PM

Yep. It's not bad, but the credit score requirements are almost as high as a bank, and it's on your personal credit rather than business. I think the limit is still $25K.

**bizdev** · 11-21-2009 08:39 AM

Aside from the good credit score, it takes quite some time to gather enough lenders to meet your total loan amount. Most lenders only lend $25 or $50 so it's very difficult to meet your goal amount if it's more than say $1000. If you need significant dollars, then Prosper may not be the way to go.

**cg410** · 11-21-2009 11:31 AM

I did almost $20K on Prosper. It's very possible to get big loans funded, as long as your credit score is close to 700.

**bizdev** · 11-21-2009 02:11 PM

Originally Posted by cg410

I did almost $20K on Prosper. It's very possible to get big loans funded, as long as your credit score is close to 700.

Wow, that's great. How long did it take to get enough lenders and how many lenders did it take to reach the $20K? Do you mind telling us the rate? I know the lower the credit rating the higher the percentage rate.

**cg410** · 11-21-2009 02:54 PM

This was back almost 3 years ago before they shut down temporarily while they battled it out (or really, got their ass kicked) by the SEC. Rate was 13.5%, which was lower than at least 1 of my credit cards, so it was worth it. All loans had to be funded within 10 days or less or they were cancelled, and mine was funded on day 9.

It was a bidding system, so people would bid a $ amt and an interest rate, based on how much of a risk they thought you were. They could base it on credit score or what you said you'd use it for, and some people even based it on how cute you were in your profile pic if you were a woman (or pretented to be I guess, lol) and posted a sob story, which was interesting. My post was to finance a real estate purchase.

**chuff1026** · 11-21-2009 06:11 PM

stealthy
how much are you looking for exactly?
i used prosper a while back
its was an ok experience
but right now there credit requirements are pretty high
some banks will give personal loans quicker than they were
you may wanna look into establishing business credit