Prosper transparency

Another apparent theme at the Prosper Days conference was "transparency" - the term that has come to mean a willingness to share the guts of an operation openly. Prosper's most obvious claim to transparency is the availability of its programming and data. By making this resource available to third parties, Prosper expands its own visibility. Several developers have taken advantage and are offering different ways of viewing and using the data.


Software engineer Eric Petroelje

Eric was tapped as panel leader or member more than once at Prosper Days. His expertise in software development allowed him to take advantage of the Prosper API (application programming interface) to indulge his other passion: investing in stock and real estate as well as Prosper lending. Eric created ericscc.com (Eric's Credit Community), a source of market information and lending statistics for lenders, and fantasy prosper, a market simulation tool for lenders. Tools like Eric's give investors additional information on how Prosper is doing in general as well as information on individual lenders and borrowers (not by real name but by Prosper member name). I was able to look up the difference between the number of bids I make and the number I win, for example. I just noticed that Eric has posted a list of the 25 borrowers with the greatest number of endorsements. It might be a good idea for me to use this list for bidding.


Carnegie Mellon Professor Doctor Robert Hampshire

Dr. Hampshire offered a glimpse of the academic uses of Prosper data. He is leading a team, including a doctoral candidate we met the first day, in developing statistics on Prosper lenders. He offered some glimpses at the results so far, in the form of charts.


This chart shows the "tipping point" when a loan is expected to "go all the way". When bids on loans are tracked through time, those that reach 40% of funding tend to go all the way to 100%. In other words, when lenders see that a loan is 40% funded they are likely to bid on that loan and bring it all the way up.


Chief technology Officer and Co-Founder John Witchel and Chief Financial Officer Kirk Inglis

At most or all of the sessions, Prosper executives hung out at the rear of the room. They spoke up if someone on a panel gave out the wrong information and they readily answered questions. Prosper members are not a lightweight group - I don't think most of us would do this sort of thing if we didn't have the guts to take a chance on an idea - and often members would ask pointed questions that revealed more about the company than the presentations did. I was pleased to see how easily and openly Prosper executives fielded the questions. I think the reason they did not have to hesitate or obfuscate is that they rely on member experiences, questions, and recommendations to improve the way Prosper works.

I have attended many conferences for many different reasons over the years. The transparency of this company really stood out in my mind.