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Let’s find out more about Crowdstacker.com from Co-founder Karteek Patel

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Happy New Year everyone!

We have our first interview of the year with co-founder of Crowd Stacker, Karteek Patel.
Karteek have over 12 years’ experience in the finance industry. His main focus has been on trading, asset management, and product development.

Karteek’s specialities include: launching new funds, new product structuring, project management, due diligence, strategy and implementation.

Karteek has built and sold a futures and option company which backed over 20 traders; grew a UCITS hedge fund platform from $2-$100m; and was the fund manager on a global resources fund.

Now he is the Co-Founder of Crowd Stacker which is a peer to business loan crowdfunding platform.

 

Thank you for joining us Karteek and Happy New Year to you.

Let’s start with you telling us a bit about Crowdstacker

 

Crowdstacker is a debt-based peer-to-business platform that connects investors seeking a more secure income with companies looking for finance.

Unlike our competitors, we are focused on helping companies looking to raise between £1m to £20m. These companies tend to be high growth or more established companies and have been frozen out of traditional finance routes, but can really accelerate with access to the right funding.

So what inspired you start Crowdstacker?

The concept of Crowdstacker came from our pilot project where we successfully raised over £7m of debt for a company by directly engaging with retail investors and using crowdfunding techniques. This was a one off project and relatively expensive for the company. So, the next step was for us to look at how we reduce costs and the natural conclusion was to create a platform where companies can benefit from a standardised structure.

 

Fantastic! What stage is Crowdstacker at now and where do you hope Crowdstacker to be in five years’ time?

Crowdstacker has been in development for almost a year now and we are on track to launch shortly with our first product.

Our eventual goal is to challenge the traditional way companies are financed and the way people invest in debt in the UK. There are many steps and costs from both sides that can be eliminated by connecting companies and investors directly, leading to a win-win with companies getting cheaper finance and investors better returns.

 

Sounds really good.

So, from all your experience, can you share with us an advice that you feel is the most important for aspiring entrepreneurs in this group?

When you are growing a new business it is easy to jump in and ‘just do it’. My advice is to frequently take a step back and reflect. Looking at the bigger picture allows you to better prioritise. As in many cases just working hard is not good enough, you have to also work smart.

 

Good advise.

Lastly can you tell us about the team behind Crowdstacker

Our core team have real experience in both finance and marketing and together we bridge the gap. Mark and I have both started life as Bond traders and we went on to gain relevant experience in financial product development and developing and operating a financial platform. Our Head of Marketing, Lauren, is the ex-Design and Print manager of First Capital Connect. Lastly, we are supported by experts in their relevant field such as David Murray-Hundley and Glen Waters.

 

Thank you for your time and participation.


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