Brian Bristol, Founder & CEO of Pigeon Loans
The primary drive behind our impact focus is simple, we truly want to make it okay in this world to depend on your communities and closest relationships for help financially. It is an unfortunate reality that in society today, we shun and shame people who ask for help when they are down on their luck financially.
Twitter: @Lil_BEasyTwe1ve
This interview is part #EVOLve Series with one of our @posi2ive community members. Interviewees have been active in our weekly *VC Impact* community roundtables on Twitter Spaces [each Friday 3:30pm PT] and community. In each self-paced and self-authored interview, we ask impact Founders / Investors what they are doing to change the world, and why they’re motivated to focus on their area of impact. Hope you all enjoy!
The Interview
Top Sustainable Development Goals (SDG):
4: Quality Education
8: Decent Work / Economic Growth
10: Reduced Inequalities
Impact verticals your venture focuses on:
- Financial Access / Democratization
- Responsible Lending
- Social Impact
- Web3
Please share what you’re building, your professional background, and what inspired this venture.
Currently, I’m the Founder and CEO of Pigeon Loans. Backed by Y Combinator, Pigeon Loans is a new innovative platform that enables individuals, mainly friends, family, or loved ones, to loan money with one another from anywhere in the world in the smartest way possible.
This venture was inspired by the early financial pains of the COVID-19 pandemic; needing to loan money out to my family myself, I discovered a gapping hole in a near $200 billion dollar industry, and created a solution that solves the problems we all face when trying to make a loan with someone you know and trust.
What’s the impact focus of your venture? And how do you plan to measure impact?
At Pigeon Loans we are all about impact. The middle class in America is unfortunately shrinking. And the chasm between the haves and the have nots is growing at an exponential rate. For our venture, we not only plan to touch lives in the form of supporting and educating people when it comes to making loans with one another, we also plan to be the bridge that the world will need in this ever separating financial world we are barreling towards. We measure that impact by keeping tabs on the number of people we help impact the lives of others. By giving those in this world that are more fortunate financially the tools they need to feel more comfortable, supported, and better prepared to lend to their loved ones, we can assist in helping people start businesses, paying off rent, or even covering emergencies all because of the power of relationships.
What’s driving your impact focus?
The primary drive behind our impact focus is simple, we truly want to make it okay in this world to depend on your communities and closest relationships for help financially. It is an unfortunate reality that in society today, we shun and shame people who ask for help when they are down on their luck financially.
No one in this world is perfect, and we all need each other to make it through the ups and downs in life, so for Pigeon Loans our entire mission is to help the world by eliminating the stigmas associated with just simply loaning money between relationships and communities. If we can provide the community, knowledge, technology, and resources to help people help each other, then we can change the world for the better.
What are some obstacles standing in the way of the impact you have planned?
A lot of the obstacles standing in our way to achieve are mission and goals are psychological or categorical. Not having ways to move money within your relationship or across communities, the inability to know and understand how loan agreements work from a legal perspective, dealing with the awkwardness and added pressure of mixing money with your relationships are all obstacles we as Pigeon Loans have to solve for the people that use our platform and will use our platform in the future.
We’re already making great strides to providing solutions for all of those problems listed and more. So as long as we continue to cater to the needs of the people looking to us for solutions to their problems, we’ll continue to be on the right track as we grow into the future.
How do you stay motivated?
Motivation comes intrinsically for me and everyone who works within the Pigeon Loans community because we are all working towards an extremely large altruistic goal. If at any point, a part of the engine that runs Pigeon Loans decides to no longer embark on this crusade we are on, not only does that impact our company, but it also directly impacts the lives of those that depend on us to support their needs as they dedicate weeks, months, and even years to making loans within their cherished relationships. So because of this burden we all share, our team is comprised of a group of people who love getting up every morning to make Pigeon Loans the best, it can be so that we can ultimately make the world a little bit better for everyone.
Tell us about your market, customers, and team.
The interpersonal loan market is massive. In the United States alone almost $200 Billion Dollars is moved every year as loans between friends, family, and loved ones. In the world at large, this number is even more significant; almost $1 Trillion Dollars is moved every year around the globe as loans between friends, family, and loved ones. Our customers are everyday people. Borrowers looking to start businesses, or buy a new home but need a little bit of financial help. Or lenders that have been fortunate enough to make a little bit of extra cash in their lives and are benevolent enough to want to help and support their loved ones through trying times. The team powering Pigeon Loans is world class. From form exited founders, to young diverse tech moguls, we’ve put together a team where each one of us has struggled at one time or another with monetary commitments pertaining to their relationship, but are passionate about solving this problem by any means necessary.
How do you keep yourself healthy — e.g., mentally, physically, emotionally?
Staying healthy is important to me. Physically, mentally, and emotionally I need to take breaks every once and awhile from Pigeon Loans to center myself and have enough fortitude to keep pushing forward every day. Physically, I keep myself in the gym; dedicating a couple hours every day to keeping my body active is important to me. Mentally, I decompress by enjoying some of my childhood pastimes like going to the movie theater or drinking 7/11 Slurpees. And emotionally, I’ve been blessed with a naturally strong sense of self, being able to take punches and move forward quite easily as long as I have the support of those closest to me keeping me whole and humble.
What are you currently educating yourself on?
I’m always learning the ins-and-outs of the world of interpersonal loans. How money moves within communities, why people shame others for asking for help, where people go to seek financial assistance — all of these are questions that I am constantly educating myself on. Aside from that, also serving as the CTO of Pigeon Loans, I’m often learning how to build things technically for our customers. Being a software engineer by trade, I try to always pick up new technologies, new concepts, new avenues of design and architecture that will ultimately allow Pigeon Loans to be a better product for the people it serves.
What books, podcasts, or newsletters should our community read — to better understand your area of impact?
Certainly listen to our podcast titled The Chirp. Every two weeks, we present stories from everyday people opening up about their struggles and sometimes even triumphs as it pertains to finances within their relationships. Hearing that you are not alone in asking for help financially, or in being screwed over by a life long friend is a sentiment that is not being shared currently in the world. So understanding the stories and the lives of people just like yourself is extremely powerful in understanding the space Pigeon Loans exists in and why our technology is so important.
What do you do outside of work, that you like to brag about?
Outside of work, I’m usually in the gym, eating food, traveling, or going out partying. I love to just enjoy. I have nothing to brag about, I’m not a bragger, but I do find myself in some pretty amazing life experiences quite often. There is so much of this world to see and so much to do in it, I’m often trying to explore it all.
How can the @posi2ive community support your efforts? (*Not public solicitation, nor securities offerings)
The best way the @posi2ive community can help me and Pigeon Loans right now is by taking the time to support our Y Combinator announcement. For Pigeon Loans this will be our coming out party. The piece of news that puts us on the map and tells the world that we are serious about solving the problem we are trying to fix and that we are going to be a force to reckon with for years to come.
Copyright 2022, all rights reserved. If you’re a Founder / Investor focused on VC Impact, we’d love to invite you to share your story here (#EVOLve) with the posi2ive community. If you’re an LP or GP in venture, we’d also love to have you apply to our private VC Impact Capital Community.
