The Five Minute Interview with Liam Brooke, Co-founder, Lendy

By Tony Sanchez 3rd July 2017

Lendy specialise in providing bridging & development finance to property professionals, with funding provided by their established peer to peer crowd funded investment platform.

The Lendy platform allows their investors to pool together their funds in order to finance development projects and property purchases.

Lendy ensure this process is fast, simple and secure, and delivers a gross annual return of up to 12%, before tax, with all proposals fully assessed by their experienced credit committee before being made available for investment.

We speak to co-founder, Liam Brooke:

What is the best thing about being in the bridging and development finance business?

The industry we work in is growing rapidly so it’s incredibly exciting, and as a result it’s very fast paced.

What’s great about Lendy is that whilst we need to have quick turnaround times, we also pride ourselves on the due diligence we carry out on every decision we make.

We’re constantly looking at ways we can develop and improve our services for our users.

It also gives us great satisfaction knowing that we are helping developers get their projects started and enabling the regeneration of areas throughout the UK.

So much more needs to be done, but we are glad to be making a positive impact.

What keeps you focused?

Fundamentally: solving issues – which is exactly what Lendy does. We help developers who may have been unable to get a loan from a bank find funding and this is largely because we look at each potential loan individually and find the solution that works.

We are always looking to grow the team and expand knowledge throughout Lendy. As we work towards full FCA authorisation, we are continually assessing how we can improve our offering, and following on from that, help to improve the P2P sector as a whole.

What qualities do you look for in your employees or colleagues?

The main things I look for are perseverance, and an ability to look through a problem and keep a positive outlook.

I think it is also important to have a personal strategic outlook that keeps them steady and focused on the end result of what they’re doing.

I expect incredible effort from my people and I see it as my responsibility to provide them with the tools and environment to achieve their maximum.

Are you an optimist or a pessimist?

I’m a realist, and very aware of what we need to do to ensure we maintain our momentum. I like to focus on a goal, pursue it, and win, but I always try to mitigate the potential downside of every scenario.

What did you want to be as a child?

An infantry officer.

What will be the greatest challenge facing the bridging finance industry in the coming months?

The competition from banks increasingly utilising technology to improve efficiency and being able to offer cheap retail deposit cash. It’s so important that the P2P industry continues to lead the market when it comes to technology.

The P2P sector is increasingly becoming more mainstream as it develops – it’s exciting to be involved and influencing an industry at the cutting edge.

Our goal at Lendy is full FCA authorisation, so when we take a decision, we have their regulations in mind.

Who or what makes you laugh?

I really like ‘fails.’ Seeing daft people do daft things. I can turn my brain off for 30 mins. TNL on YouTube is my favourite with those crazy Russian drivers!