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Lending Club Accepts Webby Award as Best Banking / Bill Paying Website (VIDEO)

Lending Club — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 12:48:32 +0000

... but wait, we're not a bank! I demand a new category to be created: Best Disruptive/Paradigm Shifting Web Concept. Yes?

On Monday night, Lending Club was awarded the top web honors in the Banking / Bill Paying category at the 15th Annual Webby Awards in New York City. Other nominees in this category were JPMorgan Chase, US Bank, Kashoo and Billeo.

The Webby Awards, hailed as the "Internet's highest honor" by The New York Times, are given annually to the best of the web in a variety of categories. Over 10,000 entries were received from 60 countries to gain recognition for websites, interactive advertising & media, online film and video, and mobile & apps. This is the second time Lending Club has been awarded a Webby, originally receiving the award in 2008. This year Lending Club joins big-name winners including Groupon, Mint, Zillow, Pandora, National Geographic, Angry Birds and Dropbox and celebrity sites from Conan O’Brien, Zach Galifianakis and Snoop Dogg.

The best moments of the ceremony award were when Antoine Dodson joined the Gregory Brothers to perform their viral hit live and when Peter Vesterbacka of Angry Birds accepted The Webby Award for Best Mobile Games - Handheld.

As customary, we were asked to deliver a 5-word acceptance speech when receiving the award. Check it out:

CONTEST: Tell us your alternative 5-word Webby acceptance speech for Lending Club and WIN!

Oh, and to celebrate our win, we will be giving away 5 stainless steel laser-engraved Zippo money clips to the most creative alternative 5-word speech. Think: "if I had to receive the webby award for Lending Club, what would my 5 words have been?". Drop us a comment on our Facebook page to participate. Winners to be announced on Friday June 17 around 4pm on our Facebook page.

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Banks: Innovate or Die! (SXSW Panel Preview VIDEO)

Lending Club — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 06:39:32 +0000

Many banks have gotten too big to fail (and gotten even bigger recently), but have they also become too big to...innovate? It's clear that big banks have lost their innovative edge. Frustrated customers are walking away from banks, but this seems to not have sparked creativity from their upper management. Luckily for consumers, there is a new wave of financial services innovators pushing the limits. Incorporating cutting edge technology, social media and -- believe it or not -- genuine customer service, this new group of financial players are giving traditional banks a run for their money. The Banks: Innovate or Die! panel will discuss why big banks are failing with today's Web 2.0 consumers, and will examine the new players in the space who are stealing customers away due to their innovation.

Panel Details:

When? Saturday March 12 at 11:00am
Where? Hilton F/G
Who? Brett King (Author, Bank 2.0), Bob Weinschenk (CEO SmartyPig), Joshua Reich (CEO BankSimple), Anna O'Brien (Former VP of Social Media at CITI) and Rob Garcia (VP Product, Lending Club)

Read more about what the panel will cover: Innovative Startups Taking over Banks

Want more? Check out these other financial innovation panels at SXSW Interactive.

@RobGarciaSJ

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Post tags: banking, banking 2.0, banksimple, citi, financial services, innovate, Lending Club, smartypig, startup, sxsw, sxsw interactive, Web 2.0

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Finance and Innovation: Not To Miss at SXSW Interactive

Lending Club — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 20:00:58 +0000

This is your guide to SXSW Interactive's financial innovation sessions.

SXSW has become the annual gathering of geeks, thought leaders, VCs, distruptors and counter-thinkers. Innovation in financial services has slowly made its way into this world famous conference with Mint.com, Kiva, Kickstarter, Lending Club, Credit Karma, Smarty Pig, Citi and others showing up last year to represent.

The timid but solid representation of financial innovation made a clear point last year: the transformative force of financial entrepreneuship is taking shape. I predict this year will be a celebration of milestones in the disruption of the centuries old banking and financial services industry, but we'll also see an honest assessment by thought leaders of what the future holds. No, banks will not go away, and yes financial innovation is here to stay: mix these two facts and let's see what results.

If you are in this space, or are intrigued by the changes in the banking industry, here are the panels and presentations you should not miss:

App, Shmapp, Tell Me What Works Across Platforms!
Friday March 11 at 3:30pm in Hilton H
with Aaron Forth (Mint.com / Intuit)

Aaron will challenge those thinking of creating your company mobile app, to think outside of the "just port it to mobile" box. Companies should analyze customer usage patterns to develop the best possible mobile application and mold the app to harness the advantages of each platform.

The Future of Innovation in Banking
Saturday March 12 at 9:30am in Grand Ballroom
with Antonio Benjamin (CITI)

In his short time at CITI, Antonio has managed to instill hope in the banking industry's technology and innovative future. In an era of rapid internet developments and innovations, banks have no choice but to stop being laggards to stay competitive. Antonio will discuss the current landscape and share his vision for where the banking and payments industry is going.

Dawn of the Data: Future of Consumer Lending
Saturday March 12 at 9:30am in Hilton F/G
with Douglas Merrill (ZestCash), Paul Leonard (Center for Responsible Lending), Ryan Gilbert (BillFloat), Dana Mauriello (ProFounder)

Technology and mathematics are transforming consumer lending. Historically, it has been nearly impossible for people with bad credit to get loans. With crowdfunding platforms, the tables are turned. Now the "crowd" has the power to determine whether a person gets or not a loan... is credit history failing to capture the essence of a person's creditworthiness.

Banks: Innovate or Die!
Saturday March 12 at 11:00am in Hilton F/G
with Brett King (Bank 2.0), Bob Weinschenk (SmartyPig), Joshua Reich (BankSimple), Anna O'Brien (CITI) and Rob Garcia (Lending Club)

This panel will take a close look at why banks seem to have lost their innovative edge. Have they gotten to big to... innovate?
Panelist will debate why big banks are failing with today's Web 2.0 consumers, and will examine the new players in the space who are stealing customers away from banks.

Crowdsourcing: Innovation and/or Exploitation?
Sunday March 13 at 5:00pm
with Fred Benenson (Kickstarter), Jonathan Zittrain (Harvard Law School), Lada Adamic (University of Michigan) and Lukas Biewald (CrowdFlower)

If your heard of or used crowdsourcing platforms like Amazon's mechanical turk or CrowdFlower, or crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter, Kiva, IndieGoGo or Lending Club, you don't want to miss this session. These sites use "the crowd" to source and fund projects and ideas. Are they leveraging the power of the crowd, or taking advantage of it?

David vs. Goliath: Internet Startups Battle Money Giants
Tuesday March 15 at 11:00am in Hilton
with Felix Salmon (Reuters), Michael JAcobs (OnDeck Capital), Sean Harper (FeeFighters), Shamir Karkal (Simple Finance TEchnology) and Suchitra Padmanabhan (CBW Bank)

This panel will explore how Internet and technology startups are transforming the financial services industry in a radical and permanent way. I trust Felix will ask the tough questions and add a bit of his trade mark genious and humor.

There you have it. These sessions you shall not miss. Any others finance fanatics should check out?

@RobGarciaSJ

© lendingclub for Lending Club Blog, 2011. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: austin, banking, big banks, finance, financial, innovation, interactive, startup, sxsw

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