Marc Antoine Caya: Hi, my name is Marc, and I am the CEO and co
founder of gopeer. Today I'm meeting with Smarter Loans.
Vlad Sherbatov: Today we're joined by Marc Caya. He is the
president and CEO of gopeer, gopeer is a Toronto based
startup. They allow people to both borrow money and invest
money. Mark, welcome to the program.
Marc Antoine Caya: Thank you Vlad, really happy to be here
today.
Vlad Sherbatov: What is gopeer? And how does it work, exactly?
Marc Antoine Caya: So gopeer is a Canadian financial wellness
company. We're Toronto based. And we have two offerings on
one, we're a peer to peer lending company. So we connect
lenders with borrowers, to borrowers, we offer unsecured
term loans, three to five years up to $25,000 at affordable
interest rate, and we have a wide range of credit
applications as well. And on the investor side, we're offering
the opportunity for everyday Canadians like you and I to
invest in consumer loans. So essentially, to invest to make
money like a bank, pretty much. So that offers high yield short
duration investments.
Vlad Sherbatov: Marc, I want to ask you about sort of your
journey, okay. And your journey to becoming the co founder and
CEO of gopeer, and also just your journey of becoming an
entrepreneur, and what that's been like and tell us why did
you decide to start gopeer?
Marc Antoine Caya: Yes, absolutely. So I've always
wanted to be an entrepreneur since I was a kid, it has always
been my dream. But the idea for gopeer really started a few
years ago, maybe two, three years ago. So previously to
gopeer, I was working in investment banking at one of the
large Canadian banks. And I remember I was underwriting a
deal for for one of our corporate clients, essentially,
we were issuing a convertible debenture, so a piece of
corporate debt that can that can be converted into equity if
certain prices are met. And I thought for my own personal
investment portfolio, I thought this was a very interesting
investment. So I looked into other similar investments. And I
realized that as an individual, we cannot invest in almost any
fixed income securities in Canada, because fixed income and
debt does not trade on an exchange. As a individual
investor, like you and I we're really limited in terms of
investment opportunities to mostly stocks or mutual funds,
GICs. So I thought that was a massive problem, that only big
institutions and banks had access to this sort of
investment. And I wanted to change that. And this is how the
idea for gopeer was formed.
Vlad Sherbatov: So what is your typical day, like, as the leader
of this company?
Marc Antoine Caya: So usually, I mean, there's no typical days, I
think that's your typical answer. But I usually get up
early in the morning, do a little bit of workout. And then
I'll start, we receive a lot of customer support emails or
questions overnight or early in the morning. So I'll start
answering those right away. But I'll have breakfast go to work.
And depending on what comes up, there's always new surprises,
which is what's amazing about this job, why I like working in
the startup, we're working so many hats. And there's constant
balance between the day to day needs and strategic planning out
of the way, so.
Vlad Sherbatov: Do you have any advice for other entrepreneurs
or maybe aspiring entrepreneurs?
Marc Antoine Caya: Do it. Do it, that's that's all I have to say.
Do it. Perhaps keep your job at the beginning while you work on
the idea on the project, but certainly do it. I think
everyone everyone can do it. And it's it's just a matter of
determination and hard work. It's incredible how much were,
fear stops us to do. And once we overcome that fear, you can do whatever.
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